By the very nature of the word, capitalism embodies conflict. To capitalize is to gain advantage over. We patronize ourselves in western culture thinking we have arrived at a level of sophistication, the rest of the world is envious of.  When we have learned to become nothing more than sophisticated barbarians. Yes, we have mastered technology, and we think we are the masters of our destiny. But capitalism usurps, and corrupts our success as human beings, and our system is in constant decay.  We are naive to imagine the world looks up to us, when they are merely jealous of us. When they really just want to gain access to our system so they can capitalize over us. We are merely models for a glamorous drug.

Capitalism embodies separatism and conflict, preying on our innocence, with a system of polite perpetual piracy. As westerners, we seek to teach our ideas of democracy to the world like we’ve solved the problems to at least 12,000 years of social violence and strife. When what has really happened is we have succumbed to a more sophisticated and subtle form of violence and strife.

Capitalism is not Democracy. Make no mistake about that. Democracy as an idea, became a smoke screen used to smuggle capitalism into our midst unnoticed, now we’re realizing its too late. Suddenly capitalism is smashing our democracy with the mighty hammer called “Economic Survival”. As a world culture, we are being trapped in a economic hegemony that will be under the control of a few. We have arrived at the crossroads, and we are now being swept past. All the while wanting to believe our “Democracy” will save us. When every day our democracy, us, is being reduced to a pile of useless paper. We can’t go on believing that just because someone has a different perspective, that his or her intent is always hostile. We must learn to rebuild our community by reopening a dialogue with our neighbors. Capitolism divides us and encourages us to see other as separate, ourselves alone.  We have a natural aversion to capitalism, most of us would prefer not to have conflict with anyone. We don’t hold malice towards people. We can be a little insensitive sometimes, and we pay the price for that. But it takes too much energy to hate someone enough to do them spiritual harm. Every act we take in malice against another human being either physically or in our thoughts, is spiritual harm. We know this, we must choose to act like this in respect to our fellow human beings. Capitalism creates conflict among us, by creating competition. We are coached into consuming and competing with each other for consumption. Not all of us. But enough of us that today we marvel at the level of calamity occurring all around us, and to us. Life has become a tricky game, you’ve got to pay attention, make sure a larger predator isn’t stalking you. This is the conflict of capitalism.

It’s pretty easy to look at our culture today and see that it is a product of capitalism. It is easy to look at us these days and see that we are a product of capitalism. In just the past five years we have seen the rise of NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, and now the FTA. All of these organizations were created by Industry to further the interests of Industry in relation to the Sovereign governments of the world. A sovereign government is a body put in a position of power to control the interests of a group of individuals. At least in most democratic countries our sovereign government represents us and presumably our express wishes as an organized group of individuals. It used to be that industry was subordinated to the wishes of the people who lived where the industry operated. Now industry is seeking to subordinate our governments and us so that industry will have the final say in policy that may effect its profitability. Which means, that none of our laws, the laws that apply to you and me, will be applicable to industry. Industry will own our means of survival, and we will be powerless to stop it from doing anything it wants to do. In fact if we get out of hand, industry will use the very militaries we created to protect us, to oppress us. 

So, my critic would say I’m just exaggerating and I’m paranoid. It is a rather sadly funny thing that in a seemingly mature culture, the truth gets reduced to cynicism. We should make no mistake in understanding that we are being invaded from within, and that the encroachment of Industrial organizations upon the sovereignty of our democratic governments should be considered an act of war. Call me paranoid if you will. In reality, the end result of capitalism will be conflict anyway. It’s the most profitable business.

Lets look at the depths of industrial infrastructure. Now there’s a good word, infrastructure. Lets start with raw resources. We have been led to believe we cannot survive economically without consumerism. Prior to the 1900’s, the world lived without consumerism. Most economies were agrarian in nature, although small industry was starting to take hold. In essence, with the first factory came the need for consumerism. The whole basis of mass production, was mass consumption. Thus, the mass needed to be steered towards more consumption. Looking back at the motivations of colonialism, you will see the early stages of capitalism. The main purpose of colonialism for industry was to secure raw materials either cheaply, or literally for free. You only need to read the colonial history of Africa. Slavery, violence, oppresion, occupation, and the long term result, social anarchy. All for profit and power. It is called imperialism. Though some would call it progress. A hundred years later we can look around and see where that mentality has taken us. We're doing the same thing just in a different form.

Lets continue to look at infrastructure, keeping that little lesson in mind. Lets start with power. Oil. Why are we still using gasoline-powered automobiles? Because the Rockefellers want us to. They control the oil industry. The oil industry controls us. They don’t want us using solar, they don’t mind us using electricity, so long as we charge our batteries with fossil fuel generated power. As witnessed most recently in California, private individuals control the very fabric of our culture and economy. They control the fuel prices. They are not concerned with their impact on the economy of California. Although, if we were to take away their rights to sell power here, they would sight their personal economy as being compromised by our actions. Yet, they literally hold our lives hostage. This is not cynicism this is truth. We cannot stand by and let our publicly elected officials not address the fact that we are being robbed. The power companies say the market is really tight right now, and they are paying too much for the power they then turn around and sell us. We must begin to realize that they are the markets. It’s a trickle down industrial dictatorship, with the big oil companies sitting at the top. It’s not about the market; it’s about personal profit. Remember the Persian Gulf War. The more appropriate term would be “Gunboat Diplomacy”. Which says to Saddam Hussein, “you will sell us cheap oil, or we will cut you out of the market”.  The price of Crude oil is currently at an all time low. Saddam Hussein can only sell his oil to a company from Texas, that company turns around and sells it to us. We are controlled, and the people who control us control us completely. Our political arena is nothing more than that. Our politicians are bought, or if their not purchasable, then they are frustrated or involved in a scandal forcing them out of office. Remember that big money also owns the mainstream media. Mainstream media is used to lie to us. It tells us, “Oh no, the gas prices are going up again, but we'll find out why”. Can you guess why?

Trade in a truly free market, would make the skillsman the most powerful aspect of that market. If the economy was shifted from disposable goods to sustainable goods, we could realistically think of using the planet properly, and responsibly. We shouldn’t consume for profit; we should create for necessity. The capitalistic nature will manipulate culture to feed itself. Look at how many industries are growing that profit on our calamity.  It is frightfully draconian to have a medical industry, rather than a medical service. You can’t walk out of the house without spending money on something you need. Even our needs have been programmed by capitalism. There are whole product lines we must patronize to survive. Survival is a variable subject to external influence. How much is rent, how much is food, do I have to have a phone, do I have to have a car? Do I need an apartment nearby where I can stay while I work? The result of being repeatedly exposed to the teeth of survival has a wearying effect on the human soul. We have cell phones, and computerized disco laser light. And yet most of us live with the threat of not being able to survive month to month. Homelessness or here’s a good one for you, financial hardship. Depending upon how sadistic we are, we generate untold amounts of financial hardship for our selves. Our culture preys on us as we prey on each other. The shear mass of our growth as a population drives us into a future we are rapidly loosing control of.

Trade and skills are the fabric of a culture. The ability to fashion instruments, and make our lives simpler. But our lives are not simpler. The necessity of personal profit will motivate an individual to promote his/her product. Has promoted waste. Industry should be subordinated to necessity. We should fashion instruments that last, or that conserve resources. Our Science and Technology does much to enhance life, but it does more to destroy life. Medicine is used as a product. You can buy good medicine or bad. The number of times the average American will visit the hospital in his/her life is directly proportional to the proximity of life threatening circumstances. That’s a projectable figure, and potential profit is easily mapped from there. In truth, the manipulation of our world by capitalism gets easier the more of us there are. The logistics of power and goods is completely controlled by the large multinational corporations. Our food comes from the grocery store. If the groceries coming from outside the city stop, where will you get food? Imagine the one million people in your neighborhood running out of food about the same time. What would we do? Our power comes from wires on poles. Since the creation of electricity, the delivery system has not evolved. This is because power from the outside is profitable, free abundant power generated on the inside is not. Or it won’t evolve until it can be profitable. The movement of our entire civilization depends on the stability of extensive power grids that are already in decay. If the little wires on poles stop sending electricity, our civilization comes to a stop, and we stand around looking stupid. Duh, what do we do now? We are too intelligent to stay in this trap.

Everyday our elaborate dream continues individuals make profit on our struggle, and encourage it. We play the fool. Our strings are jerked by rising gas prices, rising rent prices, rising food prices, perpetually rising prices. Wages statistically don’t keep pace, while the rate of profit skyrockets. Individually, we must come to the realization, the pie is cut into deliberate pieces, and some of us will never get a piece, without conflict. At which point we will control the pie and we will be deliberate. The only way to resolve this is to make every human being equal economically. Capitalism opposes this because it takes away individual gain. But what doth it benefit a man to own the whole world and be hated and alone? What doth it benefit our human race, to devour itself in greed and conflict? Our current culture lacks purpose. Purpose is that all-inspiring vision a culture works towards as a culture. We must lift up the purpose of equality and end suffering in our world. This is the challenge of our ego. We can use it for good, or we can use it for evil. We will reap the course of our actions.  We know this, that truth speaks to us every day. We hear about violence in the news, we hear about our world becoming sick with pollution, and we feel powerless or indifferent. Our choices have never been more important than they are now. We must choose correctly. We must choose to subordinate industry to our communities. We must make industry pay to clean up its mess, from the profits it made making the mess. We must find new ways to produce the things we need, which are not lazy and destructive to our environment. We must begin to act like a mature culture, and take care of our planet like we want to live on it for awhile. The concept of capitalism dictates that there are the few wealthy and the many starving. Are we really so vain as to think we could actually be one of those few wealthy, if we’re already starving? That format does not produce a healthy culture. It must not control our future. Choose wisely.
 
 

A Specific List of Evils:

Ownership of the Breast Cancer Gene found in women: a company called Myriad has ownership of this gene found in all women with breast cancer. Although many scientists are working to develop a cure. It alone will own the right to heal women of breast cancer.

The Tobacco Industry: these people sell a product that addicts its user, and kills roughly 6000 people a day.

Monsanto's Terminator Seed Product: Bioagriculture engineers at Monsanto have produced a seed that doesn't produce seed at the end of its growing season. Life on this planet exists because when God created the seed, God made it reproduce so that life would seed itself from season to season. Terminator seed was not produced to better man, it was produced so that certain individuals could completely own our future food supplies. Not to mention that Terminator seed can cross-polinate, affecting every other plant species on the planet, potentially threatening life as we know it.
 
 
 
 
 

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