Suspend The Cataclysm

We need to suspend this cataclysm NOW. Not the pandemic itself of course; viral infections don't react too well to suspensions. And the pandemic isn't the cataclysm, capitalism is, and it's in the open for all of us to see.

This revealing of capitalism's cataclysmic nature happens every time when there's an emergency situation, big or small. It happens every time when we're in the "bust" section of the baked in boom-bust-cycle. As far as I'm concerned, it happens every minute of every day; market mechanisms in conjuncture with the capitalist mode of production results in a highly volatile mixture of of constant competition, war and sheer inefficiency, that blows up in our faces every time the truth of our existence catches up to the delusional promise of the American Dream. In 1940, 60 percent of the American people could rightfully say they had it better than their parents. By 1980 that percentage had shrunk to only 40 percent; now it's near zero percent, which is one of the main reasons why a self-proclaimed socialist, Bernie Sanders, has won EVERY election among people aged 45 years and younger. These young people know what an unnatural man-made disaster capitalism is; they are living it right now, and they have no hope for a batter future. When they try to make something of themselves, they get punished with a life-long student loan debt. When they ask my generation to do something about climate change, their request falls on deaf ears because capitalism has to go on. Heck, my generation and the preceding ones fear the prospect of a socialist president more than the prospect of four more years of "the most dangerous president of modern history."

But this isn't capitalism. That's what the free market fundamentalists say; "this is crony capitalism." I'm sorry to have to break it to you, but that IS capitalism; the powerful have NEVER given up their power. Also, markets have never been free or unregulated, and they never will be because the profit motive always creates ultimate winners and ultimate losers, and the winners will protect their power at all costs. "But they did give up power; we have democracy now." I'm sorry again, but Karl Marx had it right when he said that modern democracies are set up, from the very beginning, to benefit the rich and powerful, while providing the illusion of democracy. Democracy is the stage-play organized to give the people an illusion of power and choice. By now it should be clear that it doesn't matter what we choose or who we elect; nothing fundamental ever changes. Again, America is the best example as both major parties are actually two wings of the same bird of prey. The mere fact that in the beginning only white males could vote should reveal that democracy was set up to not change the existing balance of power. Marx was a huge supporter of REAL democracy and said that democracy was used by the ruling class to mask their power, but he also said we shouldn't reject democracy but expand it, as to transform the illusion of democracy that benefits the few, to the practice of democracy that benefits the many. The most important aspect of human social life, the production and distribution of the goods and services we need to survive and thrive, is where democracy most urgently needs to be expanded to. That is socialism in its essence: democratize the centers of production.

Whenever our self-made cataclysm clashes with a natural one, we need to suspend ours. That's what rational people do at least. When we're at war and all of the nation needs to rally around the war effort, we suspend capitalism. We know that there's be shortages and we know that the rich will buy all the expensive milk for their cats, leaving no milk for poor people's babies; we KNOW that markets don't work, so we suspend them and promptly adapt a planned economy, rationing the milk so that everyone who needs it gets it, placing cats well below babies on the list. When the corporations and banks are saved from the cataclysm by taxpayers' money, those taxpayers should own a part of those banks and corporations and should have a vote in how the bailout money is used. Last time around that didn't happen, so that bailout money was used for stock buybacks and other schemes that made the rich even richer while leaving the people out to dry. Prepare for that happening again; the airline businesses, which are some of the most guilty of buying back their own stocks to artificially raise the value of their stocks, are about to be saved again. And of course Trump also announced that probably the hotel industry will be bailed out as well, lining his own corrupt pockets again. And mark my words: powerful forces will do anything they can to prolong this emergency situation as long as possible, that's just how capitalism works. "Keep the problem going, so the money keeps flowing," is an essential part of disaster capitalism. Time to wake up and realize that capitalism itself is the disaster, it's the mental virus that needs to be extinguished by solidarity, cooperation, love and empathy.

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