In ‘Companies, I addressed the faults of both Corporate and Government– leaving this trifecta of fault incomplete. I write with a lump of coal burning in my heat, as my blade gravitates towards completion– the fault of people, one that incriminates me nonetheless.
We have lost our ability to gaze beyond our surroundings. For we have become too engrossed into our own lives– leaving us blindsided to this gradual erosion, one that has cultivated this apathy. We may be concerned about others, but we only begin to act when we become affected by the same plight.
The people are the foundation of power, but what good is that power if it is squandered? After all, we’ve arbitrarily divided ourselves into groups and have begun squabbling– diluting this power even further. It seems that we are remiss, forgetting that the suppression of one is the oppression of all– for it is only a matter of time before this crushing force is directed towards us.
You may delude yourself, believing that you are protected from this oppression. That protection is naught but a delay, for you too are human in the end– your mitigating factors are only barriers to be broken down by entropy.
I have condemned our apathetic nature twice, so let this piece make it thrice now. Our history was burnt onto the records by the spirit of the people, yet this spirit has fallen into disarray– a destitute kindling remains.
We live in a world where indifference has become normalized, a world that has elevated decency into a virtue– a spectacle for the rest of us who remain in the audience. Are we so morally bankrupt– that this decency is not a baseline for our interactions? How shameful.
Now I do not ask for hope, for hope alone could not pull us out of these dire times. I ask for us to regain our unyielding nature– the very nature that we held from our Founding up to the 1900s. For our predecessors never yielded once, recognizing that compromise is no different than defeat. We are gamblers in a sense, continuously playing our hands without shame for centuries now– victory or defeat was of no concern.
After all, our Founding Fathers had no qualms about fighting to their deaths. The Union never faltered during the Civil War. The suffragists persisted in their efforts. The protesters pulled themselves together after waves of dispersion. We’ve played our hands for decades at a time, the culmination of our efforts manifesting in the Civil Rights era.
When have we begun to be so preoccupied with victory? To demand perfection is a fool’s dream– we must simply ensure that we remain undefeated. We may lose but heaven be damned if we were to surrender– for no true-hearted gambler would ever consider folding.
The people have lost their resilience in favour of this false sense of comfort, a comfort that doesn’t belong to them– after all, they’ve long since folded by being complacent. What else do we have to lose after this comfort is taken from us? How can we lose when there is nothing to lose to begin with?
Let us not forget our tendency of self-loathing, in-fighting being a staple of our kind. Our society has become a compartmentalized one, a society of groups rather than people– for we’ve long shredded our individual identities for a sense of belonging.
By labelling ourselves in terms of groups, we have reduced a person’s humanity with generalizations. It is one matter to determine a person’s human nature as an individual. It is another matter to determine a person’s human nature on the basis of groups– an indiscriminate condemnation.
We are unique in the sense that we are most cruel towards each other– a trait exacerbated by these labels, as it makes for easy justification to strip a person of their humanity. It’s far easier to hate a person with these labels, when the only difference between us is a label.
I recognize these conflicts of ours as distractions, attempts to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. And it is this foolishness that angers me. While we squabble over identity and optics, we have deserted the battlefield that dictates our survival– economics.
In our pursuit of dignity and equality for all, we have neglected Economic Justice– for the people froth at the thought of Social Justice. What good is equality when we all remain destitute and poor? What good is dignity when our corpses shall receive it?
I find it particularly maddening that we’ve squandered our outrage and energy for a Justice that leaves us in the same condition as before. When the people should be outraged over our deplorable conditions, they are too busy debating over the rights of our fellow men, over issues that are fundamentally a result of this neglect.
So what if we achieve social justice? This alone would do nothing to fix our twisted relationship with this Government, if anything– it’d make us even more dependent on them, with our leash being this Justice that they wave in front of us.
While the common man fights for these scraps to feel as if they’ve won something, those who sit in their high chairs watch this play out– lacing these scraps to ensure that we remain in this pit they constructed.
For the gap between the upper class and middle class continues to increase, yet the middle class cannibalizes itself as a response– one that detracts from the precedent that dragged these craven men from their high chairs.
For why else do we see a system that secures these seats– allowing for a two-tiered system that favours the rich and discriminates against the rest. While we blinded ourselves, our union brothers were quietly being dismantled– our industrial culture being erased in the dark with the rest of the power we held as middle class.
Tell me, what has become of our current selves? So much of what we owned has now become rented. We live in homes that are ours in all but name– an affront to our efforts to eke out our lives.
We work in conditions no different than the sweatshops we condemn for a paltry salary– a salary taxed to ensure that we never see a dime of it. After all, our taxes pay for their mistakes– the market may crash in their hands, but we pay on their behalf.
The American Dream shall remain a dream if we do not free ourselves from this cycle of Ouroberos, for there will come a day when we can no longer survive on this poisoned meat. The people have forgotten that these two forms of equality are couplets rather than separate existences– there is no social justice without economic justice and vice versa.
If the people fought for this economic justice with a fraction of the anger they fight for social justice, perhaps our lives would’ve been for the better. Yet I am forced to bear witness to this mess parroted by both parties, for the system protects itself– allowing the people’s anger to remain misguided.
After all, you shall find many of our elite to parrot these social talking points– their empty gestures only serving as fuel to further perpetuate this fight. You shall also find them hard-pressed to even pretend in regards to economic equality. Yet we choose to ignore this hypocrisy and have instead treated them like paragons.
Why should we acknowledge the voices of those complicit in this denial of justice? For even animals know better than to trust their predators. This system is one that must be suffocated by the will of the people, lest it adapts and continues to maintain itself. Let us not be remiss of this, for this is not the first time that this system has adapted– nor shall it be the last.
Those who hold knowledge of this yet refuse to act on it remain complicit– what good is knowledge if a person seals their eyes in wax? To allow this system to persist is a stain on the integrity of the nation. For our founding fathers were common men, not the bureaucrats and businessmen that sit in their seats today– dividing us with their premade labels.
Would the men of the 1700s accept this? Would the men of the 1800s accept this? Would the men of the 1900s accept this? Then why should the men of the 2000s accept this? Defeat is a concept that shall join us in our graves like those before us.
I only ask this, for us to reject defeat. If we do not lose, that alone is enough– for there is little difference between that and victory.
With the dissolution of this coal, let my tone return to its serene self– as I have more to write that divulges from this charred piece of mine.
Author’s note:
The tone that I wrote here is reminiscent of ‘Repeating’, an unpublished work that burns brighter than this one. This piece was one that I actually got stuck on for a bit but eventually the gambler metaphor worked and unclogged my writing.
Normally, I publish every five days but I’m on holiday so I can afford to spend more time writing. The Economic & Social Justice part first struck me when I was doing a mock presidential campaign.
In regards to people, it seems that I’ve been remiss. I have failed to recognize the disparity between a person’s physical nature and digital nature– a nature that has undermined my efforts to ensure that my writing is not a product of an echo chamber.
That is why I’ve begun to seek counsel from others. But I’ve misjudged by not accounting for the differences between these two phases, so unfortunately this remains as an echo chamber of sorts.
While time is a valuable commodity, some of us have a tendency to squander it– a trait that I’ve begun to detest even more. What good is an answer if the question was asked days ago?
A person’s fickle tendencies are magnified, necessitating a distinction between the two profiles. It is easier to assume about a person’s digital profile, as a person’s intrinsic nature is hidden– nuance being a dead concept.
Patience is a forced trait of mine, a trait that others test with their unsaid actions– a vexation that similarly remains unsaid. I find that it is better to separate a person like this, as I have every intention of keeping my bias contained.
At the same time, I find these observations as a novel experience. It gives me more data on a person for me to make sense of.
With this record, I can say that I have made an effort that ultimately failed– an effort that left an empty taste in my mouth.
As always, congratulations for reaching the end of this piece