I haven’t trusted capitalism for any portion of my adult life. It is a system that is designed to emulate the cruelty and violence of nature while simultaneously exploiting it for resources. The weak and doomed are crushed beneath the concepts of eternal growth and “progress”. Through this process of vapid consumption we (in the privileged areas of the world) had seemingly reached a post-scarcity era. Yet nothing improved. Technological and scientific achievements were trapped within the framework of profitability- as if that is the only qualitative measure of an idea. Art is enslaved as a commodity; the very idea of creating true art is to struggle against the seemingly inhumane system in which we have created. All of human achievement is left in a holding pattern; if it enriches the lives of the privileged then it becomes viable - otherwise it is thrown to the side.
Most large experiments in socialism have also been miserable failures built on the mass suffering of people duped into thinking they were building a better world. A coworker of mine had grown up in Romania under communism and he was somewhat conflicted with his decision to leave. He explained that while his children had more opportunity in terms of education and career prospects, his own job felt constantly under threat in a capitalist society. He explained that back in Romania, he could complain and disagree with his bosses without fear of reprisal or being fired. But his future and the future of his family was limited; if he was unhappy with his situation, there was no real alternative for him to change careers or create his own opportunities.
Unfortunately workers - the foundational structure upon which nearly every civilization and society is built upon - are not valued in capitalism. Being of the working class is perceived as temporary; an inconvenience on the way up to middle and upper middle class. Hard work is rewarded simply by being allowed to climb the next rung of the economic ladder; leaving behind those who are incapable or seemingly unwilling to change their circumstances - or so the myth goes. But these opportunities are increasingly rare and often illusory; the grind to become upwardly mobile is eternal.
We’re constantly shown a lie; a fake world that's simpler to digest and manage. Reality is complicated and messy, quite terrifying to those who have been coddled. The hypernormalisation is an act of desperation. Coined at the end of the Soviet Union, the term refers to the psychological and emotional exhaustion in a society when confronted with the paradox of a failing system. With no alternative to the current power and economic structure, people are manipulated into thinking that everything is under control. After a time, the unreality becomes accepted as real. But cracks eventually show; routine maintenance is required. Things bubble up and then pressure is slowly released and then we are misdirected to something more manufactured to ease our minds from guilt of having lost our focus and anger. They are afraid. Those in power can't imagine an alternative to the status quo. It must be terrifying to them. But to be heard, the exploited and the vulnerable must shout louder and louder to be heard. By the time someone starts listening the anger starts to look like their worst fears have come true.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed more cracks than the system could manage. Everyone got a stark vision of how laughable the illusion we’ve been fed is. It is a fragile and weak system. It requires our cooperation and exploitation to function. When it couldn't exploit us, the system had to be changed to either become more humane or collapse. Now, how can they pivot back to hyper-normalcy. Once you put on the sunglasses, it's hard to put them down and pretend like you saw nothing.
On one hand watching America quickly combust is exhausting. Depressingly enough, it was not surprising. They are the shining example of desperately clinging on to their false reality. During the pandemic there is simply not enough to distract us from the ugly truths of white supremacy. America’s vast cultural output (largely built by and at the expense of people of colour) has earned the global solidarity movement that is marching in safer streets. But these marches outside America have another purpose. We are reminding our own leaders that they don't get to pat themselves on the back for simply not being a failed state. Unjust hierarchies are exposed and must be transformed, or they will be dismantled.
The problem is that the people we have elected (or that have been appointed for us) lack imagination. It’s not their fault, politics in the western democracies have lacked imagination since the “official” end of colonialism. If you are trained and educated in a stagnant ideology then how could you expect anything other than self-serving public servants? The system that we all live is a placeholder and needs to make way for the next stage in how we organize society.
The hammer of reality will smash down upon us and we may very well be crushed by it. We are forced to adapt to drastic circumstances and with a rapidly changing climate the adaptation must be swift to avoid as much suffering as possible. The pandemic is just another brief lesson in the fragility of our structures. They will be further put to the test in more terrifying ways to come. Revolutionary ideas are necessary and essential to the idea of change.
It won’t be easy to emancipate ourselves from these unjust hierarchies and broken systems, but there are so many ways to do it; small-scale manufacturing, increased participation and attention to local politics, localizing agriculture and power generation, or even just making a fucking pot of soup and sharing it with your neighbours.
Carrot Ginger Soup
1 - 2lb bag of carrots
1 - medium sized cooking onion (really any onion will do)
1 - can of coconut milk
1 - knob of fresh ginger (approx. 5 inches long)
Some water
Visual reference. Not pictured: some water.
Peel and roughly chop everything; no need for finesse here - it’s all getting pureed. Smaller pieces equals a shorter cooking time.
Throw everything in a large pot and fill with water until all the vegetables are covered by about 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil and let simmer until you can effortlessly pierce the largest carrot chunks with a fork. Bring the heat to its lowest setting and wait 20 minutes or so for things to cool a bit.
Now add your can of coconut milk and grab a potato masher or whatever equivalent you have and begin to mush everything in the pot together. This will make the blending process much easier on your equipment.
Get your immersion (stick/hand) blender and get to work pureeing everything in the pot; add more water if the mixture is too thick for your liking. If you fucked it up and your soup is too thin, well now you have thin soup and have learned a valuable lesson for next time.
Sure, if you have a countertop blender or food processor you could go through the awful process of transferring the hot contents of the pot into either appliance. But that’s stupid as hell; just get a stick blender. Don’t even get me started on that stupid $700 blender that cooks while it blends - just shut up about it already and use your pots and pans like a normal person.
Back to the soup; the soup is done. Salt to taste and put it in a bowl to relish in its liberating potential.
