The dystopia in which we live.
Our fascination with dystopian societies seems to stem from our innate ideal to see people overcome oppression of the worst of kind. We watch movies like ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘In-Time’ whilst thinking to ourselves, “I’m so glad our society isn’t as bad as this”.
However the reality is that our society is that bad; the 95 percent feeding the 5 percent, the work and wealth of those at the bottom feeding those at the top. Whether we admit it or not, our society is already there and these class divides are only continuing to grow.
I know this thought is not an original one, nor is it hard to draw the intellectual conclusions of these movies’ critiques of Capitalism. I believe that it is still important to draw attention to them. Why? Because we no longer ask questions why, and if we do, we tend to feel dis-empowered, useless and insignificant.
Gone are the days where people would band together collectively to fight for our own humanity. In the last couple of centuries we have seen slaves replaced by wage laborers, wage laborers fighting for the rights to be able to make something of themselves, for just pay and 8 hour work days. In the last 50 years we have sat idly by and let those things that were once fought hard for be lost. We have been buying this ideal of individualism and that if you work hard in life you can make it; that may have been true only a little while ago but times have drastically changed. Workers have indeed become nothing more than a commodity - easily replaced due to excessive labor markets - having only recently been even further undermined by globalization and greater world wide mobility. We have attended university in vast numbers to make our labor worth more and in our attempts to be more competitive and competent, have created a workforce of intellectually skilled laborers whereby no-one has any advantage over the other.
We have all this new technology and are the most ‘connected’ people in the world to have ever existed, but we have lost our interdependence, our larger sense of community. What can we as individuals possibly do to make a difference in a world whereby simply trying to survive and live, by participating in society, we perpetuate a system of oppression that only further pushes us into poverty and debt?
As individuals we can’t do anything, but neither should we feel helpless. There are people out there that think differently and do not buy into the current reality that we exist in.
The latest Star Wars movie refers to “a spark that will light the fire”. We are becoming more and more in desperate need of a spark to light the fire against these growing inequalities, but we live in a world where an empire exists without a rebellion, without a resistance to fight it. Each and every day we work as part of that empire, feeling useless in a world that celebrates individuality and success at the expense of others.
What can we do though? Honestly I don’t know, I know that talking about these issues and finding like minded people is an important step though.
Side Note: I am not necessarily trying to advertise some communist or socialist agenda, just wanting to point out some serious issues with our current economic systems. Also, this is the first time I’ve legitimately tried posting some of my thoughts online, constructive criticism would be brilliant.
