Power is violence.
I just finished the book Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy.
I guess books about utopias are intended to make us question how things are by showing us how things could be. And it really made me question capitalism – at least the way it’s structured in our society.
It seems really fucked up and backward that the only way we progress as a society is that those with money decide what to do based on what can make them more money.
It’s the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. What a shitty way to run a society.
I’m sorry – I guess this book makes me cuss.
Capitalism tries to make us believe that we can only grow and progress as a society is through greed. This is especially salient in the health and medicine and medical fields. People who are against single payer healthcare make it sound like there won’t be any good doctors if we don’t give them a shitload of money. And we will never find new cures for diseases, if we don’t give companies who make drugs a shitload of money. Doesn’t that seem crazy?
So who decides what diseases get cured? Well, the people with money figure out how they can make more money off of curing diseases, and it’s those people that decide what diseases get cured based on how much money they can make on curing those diseases. That doesn’t seem ethical or right. And it’s not the way it has to be.
It’s funny – you really don’t realize how bad capitalism can be until you read a story about what life can be without it. (At least I didn’t.)
The people who have the money and the power use it to buy politicians and spread misinformation so that they can create their own rules to remain in power and to keep making money and prevent other people from having the money or power to make any changes.
And then they expect us to follow the rules (that they made) and at the same time don’t even follow them themselves. And the interesting thing is when you have the money and the power it’s easier to get away with breaking the rules.
What? That’s so crazy, I’m saying it again. The people in power create the rules, and everyone not in power hast to follow them. But the people in power don’t have to follow the rules.
The people who want to keep the status quo are constantly oppressing the people who want equality, but the people who want equality cannot fight back because they’re oppressed.
And because they don’t have to follow the rules, the people in power, who want to keep the status quo, are constantly committing violence against people who want equality, and getting away with it. Heaven forbid the people who want and need equality break the rules to get what they need! Then we invoke the rule of law and dole out severe punishment! It’s an awful, vicious cycle. And I have no idea how to break it.
How do you win a game when you have to follow the rules but the other team doesn’t?
All I know is we need to keep fighting for what’s right. For equality. To destroy the status quo that just helps a select few.