post-democracy

December 8th, 2018

This year, some have called to abolish ICE (the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency), they correctly point out that couple decades ago, ICE didn't exist. Abolition is easy to fathom because so many adults in America can remember a world without ICE.

I want to talk about abolishing the economy.

In 1929 when the Great Depression began the ravage the world, the economy didn't exist. Less than a hundred years ago, if you were to ask the average person how “the economy” was doing, they wouldn't know what you meant, because there was no such thing.

“[The economy] was invented because there was clearly a perception that there was something really, really bad going on but they didn't really know what. You could see there were homeless people on the street, you could see there were the Okies heading from their Dust Bowl farms off to California by the tens of thousands, but there was no way of really grasping it.” – Zachary Karabell, The Leading Inidcators (2013)

During the collapse, millions found themselves unemployed and starving. Many asked what was happening. The capitalists in power needed a way to explain, so “the economy” was created.

These people—executives and diplomats—needed to justify why they should remain in power (and in many cases, be be given much more power). So they invented the perfect scapegoat. Here are a few reasons why the economy was the perfect tool.

• First: As with Bible in Europe until the 16th century, the economy can only be understood by highly-trained professionals who have been taught to understand the language. The rest of us

• Second: The economy an uncompassionate entity that doesn't particularly care about human wellbeing, but it's decisions are always morally-justified: those who end up at the top of the economy ALWAYS deserve to be there. This cannot be questioned.

• Third: We fail to appease the economy at our own peril. My great grandmother knew all too well what it meant to suffer the economy's wrath. So do the hundreds of thousands of Black Americans who had their entire families' generational wealth wiped out in the 2008 recession.

”'Who got the power?' this be my question. The mass of the few in this torn nation? The priest, the book, or the congregation?” – Rage Against The Machine, “Mic Check”

In the twenty-first century, most people accept it as a given. The economy is out there, shaping our lives. We feel it in our decision-making; our day-to-day interactions; and it limits and defines all of our hopes and dreams.

The fact is, the economy is a smokescreen. A scapegoat. Throughout history, those in power have always worked to enact policies that benefit a few while hurting many. This hasn't changed. Under so-called “democracy”, some portion of the masses must be consent to this abuse.

“[...]the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. “ – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

In the modern era, it's not your boss's fault when wages are cut. Rents increase, and poor people don't blame their landlord. Armies go to war to protect corporate profits and even liberals accept it as a “necessary evil”. Feeding the poor and housing the houseless are dismissed as utopian fantasies; not because there isn't enough food or housing(the opposite is true), but because fulfilling these peoples' basic needs would anger the economy. Like a vengeful god, the economy would strike back against this generosity.

“Ni dieu ni maître!” ('No gods, no masters') – Louis Auguste Blanqui

It's time to look at the man behind the curtain. We have been lied to.

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