Those symptoms of troubles in our communities are easy to
spot, but the cause of those ills are frequently hidden within and behind political
and corporate propaganda and populist views that avoid facts and are founded on
little more than emotive puffery.
As suggested, take a deep breath for we have been duped, and
the world’s prevailing economic system favours only about 60 people, who
between them control more wealth than nearly half the world’s population.
While that 60 or so wallow in their wealth, there are
billions who live in either poverty, just scrape
by or are of the “precariat” class; that is they live precarious lives as they
are uncertain of their work, food and
housing.
The call by Murry electorate National Party candidate for
the forthcoming Federal Election, Damian Drum, for government money to address
the illicit drug ice, that he has described as “the most addictive drug ever”,
may well be seen as sensible and honourable, but it is little more than another
band-aid on a deeper social malaise.
(As an aside, Mr Drum
really needs to look more closely at the facts as the legal and socially
acceptable drug, alcohol is vastly more costly
to society, both through damage to individuals, emotional and physical, and in
costs to our health system, law enforcement and work absenteeism, and so rather
than worry about ice, Mr Drum should focus on taming our alcohol addiction).
So, be it alcohol or an
illicit drug, they are little more than symptoms of an economic system favoured
and encouraged by a handful, embraced by billions who believe there is no other
way, and yet it is a process that teeters on collapse, and survives only because
of public largesse.
What is going on here?
The world’s prevailing economic system, capitalism, thrived
in the 20th Century, particularly post-World-War-Two when energy was
abundant and cheap and innovation, in a siren-like way, led us through what was
to become known as the “great acceleration” when everything seemed possible and
the only limit was our imagination.
However, the capitalism that solidified during that era as
the pre-eminent economic system is broken and the technology that expanded and
enhanced our post-WWII experiences advances appears poised to implode.
Thinker and author, Jeremy Rifkin, recently said that we are
now living with the “internet of everything”, and this digital technological
advance is such that it has eroded the marginal cost of most goods, and as such
is like a dagger to the heart of capitalism.
And American author, former professor of the Harvard
Business School, political activist, prominent critic of corporate
globalization, David C. Korten said, “We need an economy that values life—not
money—and safeguards a living Earth.”
Yes, capitalism is slowly crumbling for it has reached the
end of its useful life and rather than lament its demise; a demise that will
signal the end of distasteful economic
inequality and inequity that has plagued at least half the world’s population;
we need to sort through and settle on a governance process that is about
sharing, collaboration, decency, equality in every sense, and, importantly,
will enable humanity to understand and stand shoulder-to-shoulder as it
addresses the unfolding difficulties of a human-disrupted
climate system.
