TINA
Is there really no other way to assemble society anymore? No alternative…? At what point did “There Is No Alternative” (TINA) ring so true? What was the saturation point in the USSR that ushered in the reforms of Perestroyka and Glasnost? What was the tipping point? Can such a point be reached with this dog-eat-dog Capitalism? Have China, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba reached such a saturation point? Have they managed to overcome it? Or was it truly – to paraphrase a (strangely) popular tabloid – the West wot won it?
If there is such a tipping point for Socialism, surely there is one for Capitalism as well. A point, not when people take up arms against injustice, or march on the town halls across the world, but a point at which Capitalism itself – tired out from innovating beyond its means to sustain itself – fizzles and lies panting in a silicon ditch of its own making. A technological trench of discarded mobile phones and tablets that became obsolete seconds after their release.
It is not now. Not today. Not while people in Germany – many of whom are actually not homeless – scour train stations and delve into bins for a glass bottle they can recycle for eight cents a pop at a supermarket.
Not while nurses and teachers in Britain – tired after a fourteen-hour shift – have to detour via the local food bank for a hand out so the family can eat that night.
Not while in the United States a billionaire businessman can convince voters he is one of them, while pissing into a twenty-four carat, solid gold urinal aboard his own aeroplane, demanding his Fillet-o-Fish while people sift through back-alley bins for a meal.
Not while people are celebrating in the streets in Harare, happy that the military have taken over Zimbabwe, installed a new leader of the ruling party, but changed nothing of the party itself.
Not while people – fucking people - are being sold for as little as $400 each in Libya since Qaddafi was dethroned. By the way, the man responsible for the dethroning has been given a Nobel Peace Prize.
Not while the so-called Communist government of China unveils a new plan to build a modern day Silk Road, while millions of Chinese workers (if you can call them workers) endure the harshest of conditions just to eat.
Not while the European Union – having exhausted its cheap Eastern human capital – antagonises the Russian Bear with further Eastward expansion for more cheap labour to exploit like a modern empire built on slavery and racism.
Not while Russia – since we’ve mentioned them – continues to break records for the largest gap between the rich and the poor on the entire globe.
Not while Denmark, so so-called “Happiest Nation on Earth,” also tops the charts on antidepressant usage – this being a country of barely five million people.
Oh no friends, it is not today. Today, the machine continues to purr, the cogs continue to turn, the engine continues to whirr…
Maybe tomorrow.
Good night.
