One of the
central dogmas of the secular capitalist religion is that capitalism
produces greater liberty. To a very limited extent this is true. It
grants the most powerful factions of society the liberty to freely
prey upon the powerless. For most people though, it is a dogma in
direct conflict with the grim realities of everyday life. For the
world's poor the rampant speculation in essential commodities such as
food results in the most tragic absence of liberty. It is, however,
not just in the periphery of capitalist globalization, where most of
the world's extreme poverty is to be found, that we find the promised
liberty to be a mere fiction. The commodification of all the
necessities for a good life, at least in strictly material terms, not
only confines most of us to an existence of indebtedness to the
owners of money, it also forces us to sell our time and labor to
others in the most vital part of the human lifespan. Indebtedness
keeps our noses to the grindstone. It forces us to bow to the demands
of our capitalist masters, for we cannot afford being freed from our
duties. The ubiquity of the indebted subject is hardly compatible
with any meaningful notion of liberty.
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar