Not My Problem

These three words encapsulate the core of right wing ideologies. You poor? Not my problem. Can't find a job? Not my problem. Climate change? Not my problem. Every man for himself and God for us all.

Sure, they'll sugarcoat their fundamentally selfish ideology as well intended, as the only method of lifting up society's pariahs out of their self inflicted misery. When an ideology, any ideology, does away with the notion of shared achievements or shared responsibilities, all that's left is pure individualism, with only personal responsibilities and personal achievements. So if you are poor, that's your responsibility and certainly not my problem. This is easy to say and think if you're not poor, and even if you are poor but totally bought in to this ideology that's been ingrained in our collective psyche by decades of unrelenting capitalist propaganda. Or if you believe God is there for us all, and no one else. "Not my problem" is therefore the slogan of the privileged and the brainwashed.

Everything I do and everything I say has an effect on the world and all creatures in it. I don't say this because I suffer from delusions of grandeur, but because it's true, for me, for you, for all of us. If you're reading this, you're allowing my rant pour into your mind. And this rant only exists because I suspect that some of you out there will grant me that allowance. I's not an action but an interaction; if not, I could just as well write all this down in a diary. Which I don't have. And here's the kicker: if I have not made clear that we all influence one another, if not directly, then most certainly by proxy, that IS my problem. And I know for a fact that some of you will never be convinced of this simple fact, so I have a problem. But... If I have a problem, we all have a problem. And we do; just look around and see society crumbling as we speak.

Jeff Bezos thanked all Amazon employees and all Amazon customers for making him so much money that he could visit near-space for just 11 minutes. He let the cat out of the bag right there, but I'm afraid not nearly enough people recognized that he did. He spilled the truth there, the truth that it's impossible for one man to generate all that wealth. That much wealth can ONLY be generated by the millions of people who work for him and use or buy his products. He's so rich BECAUSE he treats his employees like shit and BECAUSE he doesn't have to pay back to the society that made him rich in the form of fair taxes. And he gets away with it because of the "not my problem" attitude that has become prevalent in our late stage capitalist world. Well, it IS our problem, not just mine, not just yours, but all of us.

Every bad act resonates throughout space and time, as does every good act; you don't have to be religious to believe in that simple truth. And no, I'm not saying that we have to personally bear all the world's problems on our individual shoulders. I'm saying the opposite, namely that there are no individual solutions to shared problems. What I'm saying is that we have to get back to understanding what we've understood throughout most of our history; that we achieve nothing on our own, that we all depend on each other and that we share responsibility for each other and the planet that gives us life. The closest thing we find to the hyped meritocracy is sports; in sports we can actually say that those who have some talent and work hard all day for many years can reach the pinnacle of sporting achievement. But even there any great champion will admit that they've had trainers, coaches and adversaries that lifted them above a level they could have reached on their own. "Not my problem" and the ideologies at the base of it are bogus and founded on the negation of one of life's most obvious truths. That's it, I'm out.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, keep safe, keep healthy!