Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Ebola, Capitalism and the Idea of Society

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Ebola, Capitalism and the Idea of Society

Click here to access article by Rob Urie from CounterPunch. (You will need to scroll down to the article.)

Urie reaches the following conclusion with his excellent exposition of private versus public interest:

Outside of the implausibility of Western ‘profits’ capitalism is the antithesis of the public interest and must be gotten rid of. Health care profiteers have taken the public interest and put it into their own pockets. And for-profit health care is a plague every day for the people who don’t get health care because they can’t afford it.

However, it almost appears that he doesn't understand our brave new world of advanced capitalism in which the people who rule over us haven't the slightest interest in the "public interest". After all, one of their leading officials, Margaret Thatcher, who in a rare moment of lucidity expressed the capitalist point of view very succinctly and honestly:

...there is no such thing as society [public interest]. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty [as capitalists] to look after ourselves....

Of course, in their drugged state of minds induced by the opiates of power and wealth, they forget that they are dependent on societies for their existence. Thus, they are essentially feeding, engorging themselves on societies like parasites; and like parasites that are out of control, they will ultimately destroy societies, themselves, and the planet (for human habitation)--unless, of course, we destroy the system that delivers their opiates. So, what are we waiting for???