Capitalisum Essay, Research Paper
We vote every time we purchase something. And some of the candidates are shittier and more deceptive than the slickest and sickest politicians (but just barely). The forces of capitalism control the world economy and therefore control the mostly powerless governments that we in a “democracy” elect. Who did you vote for today? It’s generally agreed that large corporations are responsible for much of the pain inflicted on the world today. That’s not some conspiracy theory that we just pulled out of our asses- like most of our other theories- that’s just the way it is. Let’s see… slave wages at McDonald’s. Environmental destruction courtesy of Shell. A litany of despicable crimes care of the fuckers in the tobacco industry. The brutality of the meat and dairy empires… do I need to go on? What keeps all this shit in business? Why do we keep buying into it? Every stinking day, everyhere we turn, these greedy fucks make sure we are constantly assaulted by images that tell us who we should be, what we should want, how we should look and, of course what we should buy to fit our spherical bodies and minds into the square receptacles that they have created for us. It’s an ideology and it becomes a way of life. It becomes a constant struggle to fulfill ourselves by accumulating and consuming material thing that we don’t need… or even really want. Our real needs and desires are neglected and repressed, replaced by a false, prepackaged, reactionary impulse: BUY OR DIE!!! It could be considered a political act to patronize businesses like Taco Bell, 7-11, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Shell, etc… when we give these multinational bag-hairs our money, we are saying “we support the evil practices of this evil corporation.” IS THAT WHAT WE MEAN TO SAY? NO! So what can we do? How can we put our political beliefs into practice? Well, we can stop supporting evil. It isn’t hard. In fact, it’s the easiest- and one of the most effective- forms of political activism! Whenever and wherever we can, we’ve got to avoid giving our money to these greedy, sour-parts-shaving corporations and explain to our friends and families why we don’t/ won’t support these kinds of businesses anymore. We’ve got to look around our communities and start supporting local, independently owned and operated food-stores, book-stores, record-stores, restaurants, music-stores, clothing-stores, theatres, hunting-and-fishing supply-stores (ha,ha… just making sure you’re still awake!), or any other kinda business you can think of. Just think of what it would be like if we all thought and cared about what we are voting for with our money. We could, dare I say it, change this crappy excuse for a world… or even just a small corner of this crappy excuse for a world: our communities! We could, we can, we must make a real difference!