Trying to find a job? Good luck defeating the algorithm designed to make it impossible for you to even get an interview. Looking for a home? Hopefully the private equity group remains uninterested in that classic, community-knit neighborhood that has existed for decades. Anxious about the environment or food? Be sure that people will tell you to look on the “bright side” of things and refuse to accept that things might be different for different people. Jiddu Krishnamurti is repeated misquoted from his actual statement: “Of course, the unhealthy must be made healthy, that goes without saying; but why should the individual adjust himself to an unhealthy society? If he is healthy, he will not be a part of it. Without first questioning the health of society, what is the good of helping misfits to conform to society?” This statement is just as true today as it was when written in the 1950s.
Instead of a world that continues with equal opportunity for the majority, we live in a world of hoarding, especially among those who have plenty. Those who have are so anxious and unsteady because of the unscrupulous methods they have use to deprive everyone else of a baseline existence that allows all human needs to be met. Rather than challenge those with a great deal, those who have slightly more than the majority blame everyone else for their own suffering, further denying the inequality that exists. Both mindsets are unhealthy, but they stem from the profound need to justify plenty in an era of deprivation. Meanwhile, most traditional media outlets are commanding people to internalize their lack as failure, instead of acknowledging that hoarding is a very real circumstance.
Spirally into depression over the deep uncertainty and watching a vibrant life diminish and dwindle is inevitable. I say these things not to discourage, but to validate and encourage people not to blame themselves for constant failure. It is impossible to override the effects of those who demanded responsibility over many, and then realized that “control was hard.” None of us knew that people would overextend their greed to the point of planetary and societal destruction, but I think it becomes more valuable to focus on what we can control at this point. Short of violence, there is very little that the majority can do to redistribute wealth because voting is not designed to bring equality. However, we can do our best to be each other’s support systems through these trying times.
Chasing A Dying Empire 