The life is not all about money and numbers. Money and wealth are not the ultimate goals. These are only the means to achieve ultimate goals like happiness, health, satisfaction, creativity and innovation, progress and growth, and raising family and kids. So, what we need to understand is that it’s not the means that have ultimate value and importance, it’s the goals that are above and beyond. If means are not achieving the goals, than, they are useless, and if goals can be achieved in a more efficient way by alternative means, then, current means must be ditched, as soon as possible.
Are we happy? The ever increasing pressure of debt, national and personal, is making it harder and harder to make ends meet. People have to work more and more, and harder and harder, just to fulfill the basic needs. For some this translates to more productivity. But, how much more productivity is good productivity? If rising levels of stress are killing you, and you cannot even spend some quality time with people you love the most, then, what is the point in earning money and growing wealth?
Are we satisfied? The crushing social pressure to get more and more, and insatiable and misguided desire to keep buying and shopping, under the influence of media, is making our lives increasingly miserable. We are trying to satisfy ourselves by having larger and bigger number of material possessions, while missing on the key aspects of life like love and happiness. Life feels like an unending, vicious, continuous and perpetual circle.
Have we ended poverty? Not at all. As a matter of fact, poverty in the world, and at home, is continuously rising. Loving and appreciating success is one thing, but, accepting poverty and hunger, as an unavoidable consequence for billions of human beings, including children, is simply unacceptable.
Is competition the only way or best way to generate wealth and happiness? Or it is just creating another privileged class, which is far more rich and powerful then all the other privileged classes in past? These are the burning questions of our time, along with others.
Can ideal individual freedom be ever achieved? Or is it just an illusion? Or even, is it necessary to have individual freedom? Is competition a good thing? Or is it a ruthless sentiments that is ruining the lives of billions in the world? Are we stuck in the perpetual and ever intensifying cycles of recessions and growth? Or there is way out? Are these cycles even real and must haves?
You may or may not like Marx. Most likely, you are raised by society, media and government for which Marx was the worst philosopher, ever. Just mentioning his name could be the biggest sin. Don’t even talk about reading his works like Das Capital. Those are all satanic creations. But, one thing about which Marks was dead right, is that there has always been the classes of have-ones and have-nots, and these classes have always been in a perpetual state of war and struggle against each other. History has been a continuous dialectic of thesis and anti-thesis, creating various new syntheses.
One thing that has always been common in every new synthesis, is that in each and every one of those, there emerged a new division between have-ones and have-nots, thesis and anti-thesis, resulting into another synthesis. A very small portion of every new synthesis, referred to as intelligentsia by Nietzsche, becomes the new ruling class in every new synthesis. Marx predicted that Capitalism is bound to have same fate. He predicted that ultimately there will be a massively rich and powerful capitalist class, and an enslaved labor class.
Under the influence of Marxist and Socialist movements, there were many revolutionary reforms in Capitalistic societies, regarding the status of labor class or non-capitalist classes. Work hours, overtime, sick leaves, vacation time, maternity leave, minimum wage, among some of those. Many of these were considered highly unproductive by the staunch supporters of pure, unadulterated Capitalism. Others considered these reforms as milestones in the improvement of society as a whole, and quality of life in working class.
Nevertheless, most western countries with a combination of Capitalism and Democracy made remarkable and unprecedented economic growth and advancement. But, on the other hand, some major goals in individual’s life kept eroding. In spite of having all the material possessions, increasing proportion of people kept reporting that they were less happy, not happy, and even depressed. Crimes kept rising, and mental disorders became far more prevalent. A huge middle class was initially created. It gradually started to disappear, and the difference between rich and poor kept widening. Added up by the advancements in technology, the unprecedented amount of wealth owned by rich, provided them deep and far reaching global influence. They were able to hijack Democracy, too.
Big media, which virtually had the decisive role in all electioneering process, was owned by ruling class. Over time, a legalized form of bribery was introduced and established. It was named as lobbying. Under the influence of big media and lobbies, elections became a huge game of money. It became impossible to win any elections, especially at federal level, without the support of media and lobbies. All this, along with Electoral College, resulted into duopoly of two major political parties, on the whole political system. These two major political parties are literally owned by big media and lobbies, which are in turn owned by rich and powerful. This ultimately reached the lowest point which we saw in 2008 recession. Biggest and ugliest banks and corporations which went bankrupt by their own reckless and corrupt lending practices, were rescued by trillions of dollars of tax payers and fiat money.
Many people view this situation in many different ways. Tons of interpretations exist, so are the proposed solutions. In my view, this is a classic struggle between control and freedom. Giving a group of human beings the right to rule over the others, called government, is the single common factor in all messes ever created in human history. We must nullify this baseless, imperial right, ASAP.
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