Are you blind, man?

When people are blind, that’s one thing. Accidents and birth defects do happen, and currently science hasn’t found a way to reverse it (well, probably because they can make more money on therapy for it, but no matter). But when its blindness that you inflict on yourself, it’s sheer madness. What the hell am I talking about? Well, it’s the attitude of most people in today’s society.

For the past, say, 100 years, life has changed dramatically around every 10 or so, in some way or another. With either scientific advancement or political change, something has happened. Look back to 10 years ago, 1989. As a popular song would have it the world changed "in the blink of an eye". Counter-revolution swept Eastern Europe quite quickly. And of course, the world was happy about it. But go ten years in the future, and see what effect it has had. Maybe some of the people in these countries would have stopped the course of events dead in their tracks if they knew what was coming. Sure, it’s not possible to travel through time. But, with the indifference threatening to bring the world into an almost medieval sense of Dark Ages, where only a few people know of anything, and the rest go with the flow, it almost is. Not into the future, but into the past. What this causes is a somewhat closure of the mind, blocking it off from all things that don’t affect yourself in some way or fashion. People in the USA couldn’t give a flip about what happened to people in Russia and elsewhere. It didn’t change anything for them, so who cares right? For us socialists, of course we do not feel this way. Plans and promises must be made with the future in mind, taking care of what a plan’s implementation would do today and 10 years from now. But the corporate media and capitalist arrogance have extended the former way of thinking way beyond its bounds.

Still, what my topic is here may be a little unclear. It’s social malaise. Tune-in, drop out. Listen to whatever is on, and believe it without further investigation. "They wouldn’t tell you something if it wasn’t true, right?" Wrong. The only things you are told are what you are allowed to know. Everything else must be found on your own. But this is all part of the plan. To make the few rich, and the rest suffer. How? Simple. Get to the point where everyone is filled with such stress and uncertainty that human principles of self-preservation come in. "What’s mine is mine, don’t touch it" is the normal reaction to anything. Opinion just blows in the wind. People are lead to believe that things just happen on a whim, like loosing your job is just an accident, and that if they didn’t have too, they wouldn’t have fired you. But ah, the bourgeoisie NEVER act on a whim. Plans are not laid out to help anyone, or see the future of anything but profit.

Profit is now (as if it ever wasn’t) the main force of society. Personal relationships, as Marx said many years ago, are reduced to the point of "what can I gain from you?" or "who can I know through you?". People are a commodity. Stores even have "Human Resources" departments. No, that’s not resources for humans to use, its Humans are a resource to be used as that extra dot in the profit margin graph.

The worst part is that "Average Joe" accepts it. He’s so overstressed from having to work 2 jobs to keep his family alive. He makes jack squat at both jobs, so it’s a struggle to exist. No time for family life or investigation of the facts of the world are available. It’s get up, work my fingers to the bone, eat, go to bed, to it again. And receive little compensation and no respect or gratitude for it. Why, again you may ask? Because you’re told it’s the only way. That the rich are rich because they worked "hard", and you are poor because your LAZY. Ha! What a comment. Someone who plays golf all day and with a whiff of the hand fires 3,000 people is working harder than a plant worker? I don’t think so, Mr. Smarty pants.

What does all this mean? It shows that plenty of work is to be done. The average person today will understand their current situation if you can hold their attention for a few seconds, and without mentioning any names, statistics, or political ideals, get them on board of the basic tenets of socialism: true freedom, no exploitation, free services for all, and unity of all mankind together. It’s not that average people are somehow stupid, in fact, they are quite intelligent. It’s simply a lack of knowledge, and access to it. There will always be people who are inquisitive and have a mind for social matters, but it takes time to read and analyze that information. By forming links with basic struggles, such as union strikes, getting rid of HMO’s, the opposition of "moral reform" on clearly fascistic lines (religious conservatism, is what I mean) are just a beginning.

The future can, and will, be bright. The world truly has no problems that aren’t caused by someone trying to gain something for themselves at the expense of others. But try explaining that to someone. It’s nearly impossible. I recently was out shopping for a new coat, and found to no surprise that almost all of them were made in some former Soviet republic or somewhere in Eastern Europe or Asia. I asked someone in the same aisle "Do you realize that someone was slaving away for hours on end to make these coats for almost nothing in return?" They said, "I’m glad they are. I wouldn’t have a coat if they didn’t!" I then told them a little more, about how much money was being made off of their purchase, and that just imagine the state the world is in, because this is 1 store filled with clothes, and of course there are 10s of thousands just like them. Pointing things out like this on a day-to-day basis is a wonderful way of removing the fog placed on people’s brains by the media and the stresses of capitalist competition. It can really have an impact on people. That person above actually thought of the millions of people toiling away to make coats and expensive designer underwear. It set in on her. And it will to anyone who has a bone of compassion in his or her body.

But the blindness corporately, religiously, and governmentally supported indifference shrouds the human mind in is not easy to figure out and break through. It will take perseverance, and mass effort to get it done. However, with a firm grasp of socialist theory and thought, it won’t be hard to explain it. Getting past the clutter of propagandist education will seem as simple as blinking if it is done correctly. Hopefully, it won’t take a long time. At best, some horrible event will happen and people will seek new answers. And we should be there to give them to people.