Though, that might just be one of my pipedreams. After all, I was meant to be looking into retirement villages around about this time of year - I hope I don't have to wait until 2024. That would be terrible. Imagining having to wait until 45 to retire!

The shame of it!

I was thinking a little about this while I was working through lunch today though and how many people see it as "wage slavery". I get that, it is in many ways, but I don't think it is the worst kind of slavery out there. I reckon the worst is where a person is largely irrelevant, sitting at home on a pension doing nothing of value for the money. Some think that is beating the system, I see it as a waste of life potential - sitting there, like a pet fish, but not even pretty enough to be on display. Just existing.

Existence is futile.

It used to be resistance, but that has already been proven - so now the test is more existential in nature, where the battle is on to test the theory of how alone we can be in this world, how disconnected. "I think therefore I am" - but what happens when what I think is a fed narrative and everyone else is thinking the same thing?

Am I still?

The thought of it. I have said to some of my closer friends (and on HIVE too) that I don't seem to belong to the world at the moment. I kind of feel like it has lost a lot of meaning, as people tend no longer to care about intention or generalized outcomes, as long as they get their immediate needs met. Perhaps that has always been the case, but in the past we needed each other to get our needs met. Nowadays, people just seem content to sit in front of a screen and get "satisfied" digitally as consumers, not participants. It is all very voyeuristic and passive these days - yet so many feel that what they are doing is meaningful, even though they are doing nothing.

I am pretty social by nature and I reckon the last couple years have had a profound effect on my habits, forcing me to "go more into my shell" even though it is not where I am at my best. I reckon that if I didn't have writing as an outlet, I might very well have gone insane. I suspect many are in a similar predicament, which is something that I predicted back at the start of 2020 as the first lockdowns were being spoken of.

It isn't natural for people to be controlled in this way and it is going to have wide and long-ranging repercussions that will incur a litany of costs going forward. I am starting to hear mention of "post-pandemic stress disorder" which some people are predicting will lead to a sharp increase in heart conditions, especially among the 30-45 age ranges. This will be further emphasized by the high amount of people who have become more sedentary over the last two years and the impact globally would likely kill more than the virus has itself.

For example in Australia, there have been just over 2000 corona-related deaths (almost all had one or more chronic illnesses) so far, but in 2019 alone - almost 18,000 people died from coronary heart disease. No one cared back then, trillions weren't spent on combating the growing obesity epidemic, overweight people weren't locked into gyms with personal trainers and put on strict diets.

Funny isn't it? Sick. So many issues have been spiraling out of control for decades with nothing done despite the massive impacts on health and society, but there is no end to the amount the governments will spend on this flu.

Why?

That question has many possible answers, but I suspect the root to all of them boils down to greed and the desire for more profit. Healthy people do not generate as much income as unhealthy, they do not consume as much, especially when it comes to things like pharmaceuticals. Sick people are a money spinner, whether physically or mentally. They tend not to generate the most direct income or earn the most, but they do likely generate the most on average for the corporations.

The masses matter

The masses don't matter to the governments and corporations in regards to their well being, but as the driving force of the economy that generates income. The masses don't own much and the don't earn much - everything that comes in, goes out again - the poor are not wealth syncs, they are cows to be constantly milked and manipulated to maximize the gains while minimizing the cost of "profit acquisition".

So many people think that they have "beaten the system" because they are getting free money to live off without working, without recognizing it for what it is, a control mechanism. Once people are reliant and unable to generate a living wage for themselves, the handouts can be scaled back continuously and new bars set for qualification in order to get the next handout.

That is slavery.

Yes, I think part of the solution is going to come through decentralized economies, which is why I believe that the societal war of the future is going to be between the decentralized and centralized approaches. All of what is going on now that are causing these problems are driven from the centralized sides, the governments and corporations hellbent on more control at any cost. However, there is no real way to combat it unless there is a paradigm shift in those who are the most affected, the 99% of us, where we stop taking handouts and start generating our own wealth in an economy, saying, "we don't need you" to those who keep packing us a free lunch. If we can't earn our place in the world, we will be given a chair to sit in, and told not to move.

Slavery today isn't working for a wage - it is not working for a handout.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]