I am no
altruist. And I would not take pride in being one either. Humans have a natural
state that makes us all savvy individuals as much as a mindless herd. An
ambiguity I lovingly embrace. But the
things I would like to see happen for humanity and the planet in general might
have an altruistic ring to them.
I wish
humans would become more aware of each other and actively work at a balanced
planet. Because even if you are a total bastard you have to realise that none
of us can eventually survive without it. And in the most obscured regions of your
consciousness and on your clearest of days, you must also recognise that every
decision you make, every day, has an impact on that balance. As inconsiderable
as that impact may be to you, its bearing is quite real and present.
Some and
maybe most people, on a global scale, are unquestionably in a position so
precarious that they can not afford to spend time, energy, money or whatever on
meditating these decisions. When you are a mother in Syria, carrying your bullet
riddled child to some flimsy makeshift hospital, you don’t really care about
the specific human rights infringements on some poor Chinese kid that may be sewing
overpriced sneakers at a below living standard wage; or for the wanton degree
of pollution some chemical conglomerate is most definitely spilling into our
biotope at the moment, threatening the extinction of a moth. Or maybe you care
a lot more than those that have the luxury to leisurely ponder these deliberations
because you can feel the bitter sting of injustice in your own life and in your
own right.
The point
is that we see billions of people, which are way too many for this planet to
start with, being oppressed by a fraction. The elite, as we have come to call
them. But this choice league only lives, survives and thrives by the grace of
the masses. By the inability and unwillingness of the vast multitudes of humans
to react and oppose. The elite is not ‘privileged’ or ‘selected’ at all. It has
viciously clawed its way to the top and this is and has always been at the
expense of all of us. There are some direct casualties, but most are suffering
indirectly, and to a vast variety of degrees.
When judged
on sheer karmic law, the west deserves every ounce of hatred it is being dealt.
We have been openly enforcing our colonial mind-set on the rest of the world
for ages. Loudly announcing to bring civilisation, democracy and even the only
true godliness to the alleged barbaric heathens of the east and the south. Explain
to me how such a benevolent design has included only the revolting tactics of
warring, raping, looting and pillaging. We have robbed the world blind. Or we
have allowed our elite to do so because we were dealt some meagre scraps to
fulfil our basic needs of food, shelter and security. Submitting ourselves to a
new kind of middle class slavery, we became suddenly incapacitated to care about
others or the balance we so sorely need. Snouts in the trough, guzzle, guzzle. Make
no mistake we are most certainly being farmed.
When I was
younger I used to think that this made us, in the west, the worst of all. But
as I look at my own life, I see that we are all debilitated. Scarcely alive and
disfigured in a mutilated democracy, where the people have no more say at all, where
politics have become the sickest travesty imaginable, because our elected
protectors and governors are the flaccid henchmen of the monsters.
For some,
the cuts have been sealed, many others, see the elite pissing on their
lacerations, keeping the wounds wet, open and festering. Either way, we are all
without arms or legs or voices and therefore we can no longer shake our fists, march in
protest, or cast a real vote. We are paralysed by caste and vigorously led to
accept that there is no transcending the barriers set by this paradigm. An
excellently executed elitist strategy, indeed.
How can we
take the power back? Our ambition should always be aimed straight at the top. To
destroy, and I mean provoke, oppose, assault, annihilate and eradicate the
elite. Giving them no reprieve, leaving no safe ground, allowing no escape. Go
beyond politics, for the heart of the world-wide power structures: the
conglomerates and alliances that supersede all national economics, politics and
interests. The global players.
Unattainable,
you say? I am convinced that the strategic distance the elite sustains and
widens to separate themselves from the masses, is both their greatest strength
and weakness. If we ever could choose to wilfully act and react, we wouldn’t
even need to leave our homes for revolution. No bloodshed. No marches. No
protests. As we are oppressed and enslaved by consumption, so can we be liberated by it.
But we will
need the will to see, to learn, to
understand where the linchpins of the machine are and how feasibly and actually
we could turn things around.
It is a
shame that in the will-department, we tend to fail miserably. Another human
ambiguity I lovingly embrace: the turbulent mass of ill-fabricated desires, counterpoised
by a devastating indolence. While insatiably consuming ourselves into
extinction, I know that most of us won’t lift a finger, awaiting some
ridiculous notion of a messiah to absolve us of any responsibility.
That, my friends, is the biggest sin of all.
That, my friends, is the biggest sin of all.