I often shout my mouth off about the insanity of this economic system that is grinding the planet and humanity to destruction, and struggle to come to terms of why it seems to garner support from so many of those being exploited and driven to extinction. There can be no rational justification for a system that, with no thought of human well-being, creates an unimaginable abundance of wealth as its main product, then siphons it into the pockets of a chosen few. While at the same time the multitude that produce that wealth, struggle to survive and millions fail in that struggle. There can be no way that we can look at this mad rush to extinction and state that there is a grain of sanity in its functioning.
In my case it is not just a belief, in my heart of hearts, I know, and I'm sure you also know, that there is a better way to manage our lives. With some thought, a little imagination and the breaking of a few rules, we can bring about the demise of this suicide pact with the greedy and insane, and create that better, fairer and more humane world for all.
WALK WITH THE POETS.
My head has had enough of you,
you doomsday sooth-sayers, and
rationalists, that trap us in the world that is.
Go weave your tales of “can't be done”
to the dead, and those of no imagination.
I want to walk with the utopian,
the dreamer and the poet,
laugh with the child and sing with the wind.
Run with the deer, not with “the market trend”
Enough of, “this is the way it has to be”,
a world of poverty, wars and inequality.
Now, I'll create the world I want to see,
A world of sharing, peace and liberty.
I want the children to plan tomorrow,
the adult help them get there,
trees and flowers our treasured possessions,
with birds and animals their keepers.
Who wants a world that chains us to mortgages,
binds us to a labouring day, just to eat bread?
Who wants to spend their life, feeding fat-cats
while their own children go hungry?
No, this is not the world that has to be,
in our foolishness and misplaced trust,
this is a world that has slithered over us,
poisoning our mind, putrefying our spirit.
Let's call on the poet, let's welcome the dreamer,
let's take council with the utopian,
They'll help us create a better world for all.
The following wise words from
Not Buying anything:
If you think that the world we live in today doesn't make any sense
at all, you would be right. That is because our system doesn't have to
make sense - it only has to make money. If this system were a
person it would be imprisoned, or committed to an asylum. Void of any
moral compass, you would cross the street to avoid having to rub
shoulders with such an destructive and unstable character, if it were
actually a character. If it were a person, ecocidal capitalism might be
manifested as something like The Mad Hatter, from Alice in Wonderland. "I am under no obligation to make sense to you."
- Mad Hatter
Or perhaps as the hookah smoking Cheshire Cat, since the system is
obviously under the influence of some very bad drugs. In fact, it is on
one of the most destructive drugs known to humanity – money. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad. You must be, or you wouldn’t have come here.”
- Cheshire Cat
They want us to believe there is no other way to conduct human affairs
other than through fouling our own nest, and allowing the many to die
from highly preventable causes, while the few gain obscene amounts of
wealth. None of that makes any logical sense what-so-ever. But still,
Margaret Thatcher famously told us, "There is no alternative", and many
agreed with her. Not sociologist John Bellamy Foster, who is thinking
rationally when he says,
“We have to go against the logic of the system even while living within it.”
I agree, but what exactly is the logic of a system that is already
looking for a new planet to exploit when this one is completely
destroyed? If there is no possible alternative, then let's ponder
impossible alternatives. Now is when we could use a healthy dose of
creativity and imagination. Our capacity to dream of a better world can
surely yield something better than the total insanity that has brought
us to edge of destruction.
Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll modeled the kind of thinking we need now. He said,
"Sometimes, I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
I consider the impossible all the time, before, during, and after
breakfast. I have to, because I need to inject a bit of sense in a world
where there doesn't seem to be any at all.
So I ask myself,
"How about an impossible world where social relationships are not
governed primarily by economics, however participatory, but by
solidarity? How about an impossible world where ecocide is not an
integral part of what we do?"
I envision a system where
billionaire outlaws are outlawed (not such a crazy idea after all).
"Sure we destroyed the Earth", the billionaires will say, "but we
destroyed it for profit."
We have to start thinking of impossible ideas, systems, and methods. Why not dream impossible dreams?
At one time any human would have told you that flying through the air
in thin metal tubes for great distances was impossible. Or visiting the
moon. Or polluting limitless oceans and the atmosphere, or cutting down
expansive, seemingly endless old growth forests. And yet, all of those
fall under the purview of the possible today. Who knows what
"impossible" things we will achieve tomorrow?
“When the whole
world is running towards a cliff, a person who is running in the
opposite direction appears to have lost their mind.” - C.S. Lewis
Visit ann arky's home at
radicalglasgow.me.uk
