Saturday, July 29, 2017

We Can Be So Much More Than This


Have you ever thought about the corrosive nature of capitalism on the human spirit?
Here we have a system of running society -- I'd call it an "economic system," but it's more than that -- it's a system that takes over not just the "economy," but everything else. It commodifies EVERYthing. It attaches a dollar amount to everything. It forces everything to become measured by, not the amount of "intrinsic good" contained therein, nor even by the amount of "human good" it does through enriching lives and alleviating suffering, but by the BOTTOM LINE -- the profit -- the return on investment for shareholders.
I would suggest to you, brothers and sisters, that when we look clearly at that system, based on acquisition, exploitation, and outright greed, we see a system that rewards and valorizes one narrow range of human activity (the acquisition of money, power, objects and property) while denigrating almost everything else in our world (human dignity, non-monetary worth, charity, altruism, responsibility to the planet, and responsibility to each other, to ourselves as human beings).
As evidence of what I'm saying, look at our heroes. Corporate heroes aren't admired for the totality of their lives. They are admired and valorized for what they have been able to acquire through exploiting the resources of the planet, and taking advantage of their fellow human beings.
The entire object of capitalism is to keep as much as possible for yourself. And then we call those guys heroes, and examples of "success." We put them on the covers of magazines, and admire them as "leaders," when all they've ever shown is the ability to exploit others for profit.
When we elevate these corporate "heroes" to the level of cultural touchtones, as symbols of "success" (actually excess), when we fool ourselves into believing that's what it's all about, we are losing much of what is most important, most beautiful, most precious about being human.
When we elevate the ability to acquire the most money into some sort of cultural fetish of power, we ignore knowledge, we ignore compassion, we ignore empathy, we ignore humanity itself. We end up with corporations poisoning the planet in the name of profits. And we end up with an administration like the one currently in the White House.
We are so much more than this. We can be so much more aware, so much more caring, so much more charitable, so much more compassionate, so much more HUMAN. We have to find a better measure of "success" than the ability to exploit others and the beautiful planet upon which we live.
#RESIST the corporatization of the human spirit! #RESIST the fetishization of wealth and the denigration of human worth!
Love, wisdom, compassion ~~ Blessed Be

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