Dropping the economic soap
When pressed by my peers to give a precise explanation of my political leanings, I usually find myself at a loss. I’m part libertarian, but I have a strong charitable streak and a modicum of faith in public education systems. Somewhere deeper down, though, I don’t think that the problems we face today are entirely the result of evil humans playing with a harmless, completely neutral system or a far-reaching government led by corrupt officials. At the root of it all, I believe that there might be something wrong with the way we function on a very basic level. While I’m not an out-and-out, overthrow-the-government-and-impose-the-proletariat Marxist, I’m certainly not the Randian defender of greed and capitalism that I once was.
In other words, I possess a strong dose of doubt with regards to our socioeconomic system. Thing is, I’m not so sure that some other system will solve all (or any) of our ills. Naturally, I’m not foolish enough to think that the examples of Linen’s Russia or Mao’s China were best examples of socialism or communism or whatever. Thing is, I’m stuck up on that postmodern cloud of ultra-skepticism that makes you doubt everything–in this case, this includes capitalism and its possible alternatives. For all I know, “fixing” capitalism might lead to something horrific and dysfunctional. It’s possible. But I think it might be worth trying out…you know, for a drive around the block or something.
So here’s what I explain to folks interested in my political stance: A few weeks ago, I was being a good cog in the capitalism machine, roaming the aisles of Target looking for soap. I stumbled upon Zest, a soap I hadn’t used in some time. Reminded of their catchy jingle from my childhood (”You’re not fully clean until you’re Zestfully clean!”), I decided to purchase a 3-pack. When I arrived home and unwrapped a new bar, I was intrigued by its new shape. For those of you that use body wash or something else, most soap has a uniform thickness across the entire bar. This is just fine, but when you get down to the last 1/8th of the bar, the ends gets ultra-thin and end up breaking off. You end up with two slivers of soap that get lost down the drain within two showers. You probably know what I’m talking about.
Zest is different. Their bar was thick on each end, but it narrowed slightly toward the middle. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but the end result is that you have a bar of soap that avoids the diminished end as the soap is worn down with use. While this design doesn’t solve the problem of old(ish) soap becoming nearly useless in its unwieldiness, it does remedy some of the problems you face with a traditional bar of soap.
And this is what I’m hoping for, when it comes to abolishing capitalism or at least fucking it with until it becomes damn near unrecognizable. Maybe, just maybe, there’s something about systems other than capitalism that we haven’t stumbled upon, but could make things better. Maybe we could just drop the current soap and pick up a trial-size bar of something else for a bit and give it a go?
That was super cute!
This is better than, “super cute.” Of course the problem is that if bipartisan support is not enough to get immigration legislation passed what genuine possibilities are there for real economic overhaul in the United States?
I saw two sorrowful incidents two days in a row here in Portland. On day one a gentleman was waiting for the bus and had no shoes on. He looked poor and most likely homeless his socks were the only thing keeping his feet protected and they were filled with holes, I could tell he was uncomfortable; he probably spent his panhandled money on the food in his two Safeway bags. It frustrated me.
On day two I saw an older gentleman near the relocated bus mall that seemed to be waking up at 5:45 a.m. from underneath a tree. He asked me if the bus was there. He was obviously disorientated and I tried to help him as best as I could.
The die hard Rand followers will shrug their shoulders at these two incidents, but I have recently come to the conclusion that most die hard Rand followers suffer from severe mental/personality disorders not to let Rousseau’s natural pity overhaul their “hands off” mentality. You and I have both been there and come back from the abyss. But the problem is not with the small faction of Randians in the world. It is with those who benefit the most - the ones who benefit from the economic system in place. Deep pockets can control a lot of media, which in turn, helps keep the population ignorant (by the way did you catch the Spurs-Cav’s game last night, or how about that season finale for American Idol?).
Even to experiment is tough and takes years of work to push through massive reforms in state legislatures much less change the status quo in the federal jurisdiction.
I don’t want to end on such a dour note but I’m just as concerned as you. There are ways to change the system - the first seems to be to go around the corporations - by keeping the censors off of the Internet is a step in the right direction. By allowing massive amounts of people to communicate instantly helps open the doors to grassroots organizations to get their word out. Will it happen fast enough and can it save us from our deadened lives ruined by the popular entertainment industry?
The Roman Empire kept its citizenry happy by building the Coliseum, today we have numerous things to keep us gleefully stupid. It sucks and sometimes it feels like I’m living in the Allegory of the Cave.
P.S. Your link to my website is wrong, I’m at Alternative Philosophy now.
P.S.S. I too do not think I am ready to go get my Marx portrait tattoo (or Che) just yet, but when you read Marx you start to see what he was getting at, and it was not Lenin or Mao’s ideas.
Come comment and enjoy the fine art of bibliophily with me at my new (and final) site.
~Christopher