Escaping the Carousel

Breaking the Spell of Capitalism

(Enjoy this essay as read by your writer!)

Carousel, 1941 Vilmos Aba-Novák PUBLIC DOMAIN WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Hello, Friend,

The myth of competition must be sustained in a capitalist society. Without it people might work together towards common goals, pool their resources, find their niches, take care of each other, and no longer be focused on the shiny gold ring on the carousel of the pursuit of success. Round and round we go reaching for that elusive moment when we will finally have enough money, stuff, and status. Enough is always just out of reach. The rules keep changing, the needs keep expanding, the costs keep rising, the distance keeps shifting. It’s an exercise in futility for most of us. Unless you own and run the carousel, you’re just another rider falling for the grift. Your pony might be prettier than someone else’s sad little pony, but you’re both stuck on the ride.

The people who own and run the carousel keep the riders endlessly distracted. They keep us divided. They keep us deluded. They keep us competing. Reaching, straining, fighting while going around in circles pining for a gold ring that isn’t even made of gold.

Our money isn’t real. If we all woke up tomorrow and agreed it had no meaning, it would be meaningless. The gold standard is long gone. Much like the veils of the rules and laws and social constructs that are currently being lifted, money is an illusion. It’s just paper and metal we’ve all agreed has value. The people with the most money aren’t more worthy than the people with the least. They’re just people with the most paper and metal. A good portion of them use that paper and metal to hold power over the rest of us. They deify the mindless pursuit of paper and metal to keep the rest of us stuck on the carousel.

Someone once told me that a credit score is an indication of your character. At the time, my credit score was dismal. I was not a person of poor character then and I’m not a better person now that I have a stellar credit score. Credit scores are bullshit. Anyone who has ever been poor can tell you the myriad ways the deck is stacked against those who have not. Before the laws were changed*, one overdraft could snowball into hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees, late fees, cancellations and reinstatement fees…a $2.00 error could escalate into thousands of dollars in debt before you had a chance to catch your breath. Poverty is like being stuck in a whirlpool trying to keep your head above water. It’s all encompassing. It’s soul crushing. A job loss, an accident, an emergency, a health crisis…most of us are one funky mole or natural disaster away from financial ruin.

The FDIC is getting DOGE’d, if you have any money at all I’d suggest taking some out of the bank and keeping a couple of months in reserve just in case. Consider putting the rest of your savings into a local Credit Union. If the feds take away the protections and the barbarians in the Oval Office crash the economy, your money could disappear. These barbarians seem intent on taking all of the paper and metal and the even more imaginary cryptocurrency and leaving the rest of us houseless with empty pockets, broken dreams, and sweatshop jobs. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that debtor’s prisons are part of their game plan. Nothing’s cheaper than free labor.

Rich people declare bankruptcy all of the time, yet no one seems to have a problem with that. Our president declared bankruptcy 6 times and has stiffed contractors for decades. Not because he couldn’t afford to pay them, just because he didn’t feel like it. That is an indication of character which he clearly lacks, even though he has amassed piles of paper and metal. He is obsessed with money. He is obsessed with status. He is so obsessed that he is using the office of the president like a mob boss. Everything is a grift. Everything is a shakedown. Stop looking for deeper meaning in his constant chaos, it’s all about lining his pockets and making powerful people kiss his ass ring. Because he is a cheater, he cannot imagine anyone not cheating. He is shameless. Grifters don’t have shame. They are miserable people who spend their lives trying to fill their emptiness by stealing from everyone around them.

The other day someone shared a story here about their financial struggles. They removed it later because they were ashamed of sharing it. Ashamed for struggling, because we shame poor people, sick people, disabled people, elderly people, struggling people and celebrate grifters, liars, and cheats. If everything is a competition, then those who cannot compete are devalued. The shame that is thrust upon people who cannot compete in the myth of competition for the illusion of money is shameful. It is disgusting. It infuriates me to think that people who are struggling feel shame. Shame on all of us for our complicity in believing in the myth of competition.

We are our brother’s keepers, and we are failing.

Today the House moved closer to passing a bill that gives the richest citizens trillions of dollars in tax breaks, while continuing to dismantle our social safety nets with 1.5-2 trillion dollars in cuts. The wealth redistribution is almost complete. This may be the final nail in the coffin of America’s once thriving Middle Class. It isn’t lost on me that our speaker wears his ‘religious beliefs’ like a cloak of honor. He should be ashamed of himself. Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, Speaker Johnson.

Shame on him, shame on them, shame on us.

Competition is a myth. Money is not real. Success is an illusion. Credit scores are bullshit. If we all woke up tomorrow and collectively accepted these facts, we could start working towards an equitable, hopeful, cooperative, compassionate society. Imagine a world where our character was defined by the way we treated the least among us, all living things, and the planet on which we live. There will never be enough money or stuff or success, but there are enough resources to sustain us if we shift our gaze towards a new way of being in the world. We don’t just need to take it back, we need to start over and build something totally new. (No, not communism, because that is also a flawed system.) We need to re-envision everything, see the value in each other and the infinite ways of being in the world and the endless potential inherent in our capacity for creativity, beauty, and joy. If we valued these real things over the illusions of money, stuff, and success, everything would shift for the better.

“We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams.”

Arthur O’Shaughnessy, Ode

*Biden changed the laws, the House just voted to change them back. More compassion from the Christian Nationalists.

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