The Mental Disease of Late-Stage Capitalism

Written by Joe Brewer

I’ve been talking with a lot of my friends recently — in private where they felt comfortable letting their guard down — about the dirty little secret no one is supposed to talk about.

The shame people feel when they can’t find a job…

…or pay their bills.

…or go to the dentist.

…or that they have to move back in with their parents.

…or they can’t afford to have children.

We are supposed to pretend, in this stupendously individualist culture, that it is our fault. The buck stops here. I am responsible for my failings in life.

Of course this is demonstrably not true. We are merely living through late-stage capitalism and our parents lacked the foresight to warn us about it. When a population explodes — as the human one did throughout the last century — eventually all manner of social institutions become over-crowded. From there, it’s simply a numbers game.

Want that awesome job? Stack your resume next to the hundreds of other people applying for it. Hoping to get into college? You’ll have to pay out the nose in student loans (if, that is, you were fortunate enough to get through admissions). Thinking of buying a house? You’re too busy paying rent in a skyrocketing market of housing prices.

But yeah, be sure to blame yourself. It’s obviously your fault.

Seriously though, we should have seen this coming. Build an economic system based on wealth hoarding and presumed scarcity and you’ll get what was intended. The system is performing exactly as it was designed to. That is why wages have stagnated in the West for 30 years. It is why 62 people are able to have the same amount of wealth as 3.7 billion. It is why politicians are bought by the highest bidders and legislation systematically serves the already-rich at the expense of society.

A great irony of this deeply corrupt system of wealth hoarding is that the “weapon of choice” is how we feel about ourselves as we interact with our friends. The elites don’t have to silence us. We do that ourselves by refusing to talk about what is happening to us. Fake it until you make it. That’s the advice we are given by the already successful who have pigeon-holed themselves into the tiny number of real opportunities society had to offer. Hold yourself accountable for the crushing political system that was designed to divide us against ourselves.
The mental disease of late-stage capitalism is shame, the devastating feeling that we failed ourselves in the Land of Opportunity.

This great lie that we whisper to ourselves is how they control us. Our fear that other impoverished people (which is most of us now) will look down on us for being impoverished too. This is how we give them the power to keep humiliating us.

I say no more of this emotional racket. If I am going to be responsible for my fate in life, let it be because I chose to stand up and fight — that I helped dismantle the global architecture of wealth extraction that created this systemic corruption of our economic and political systems.

Now more than ever, we need spiritual healing. As this capitalist system destroys itself, we can step aside and find healing by living honestly and without fear. They don’t get to tell us how to live. We can share our pain with family and friends. We can post it on social media. Shout it from the rooftops if we feel like it. The pain we feel is capitalism dying. It hurts us because we are still in it.

But those billionaires who rigged the game don’t get to tell me what I should or shouldn’t say to my friends. If I am struggling financially it is because the financial system is morally corrupt. This truth is a mantric elixir — repeat it to yourself every time the habits of your mind whisper that it is your fault.

You are not to blame for the wealth hoarding of others. That is one burden you don’t have to carry any longer. Be healed. Find your strength. Speak your truth. And let the cascades of change unfurl across society.

We cannot begin the work of building new economic systems until we take off the mental shackles of the old ones. So let your shame fall away. Remember your pride in learning and growing as a person, loving life and other people, being with friends, and pursuing your dreams. Then hold tight to these feelings as you set clear intentions about how the future must be different from the past.

We can do better. We must do better. It might be true that capitalism as we know it is going the way of history. I say good riddance. Whatever good it might have done is in the past now. Moving forward will be a grieving process — and each of us needs to pay close attention to the feelings inside of ourselves. We are the capitalist system right now. But not for long.

The pain we feel is like that tugging of skin for the serpent as it sheds an outer layer. Deep inside ourselves we are human beings, which is about so much more than the money we have in the bank or the things we buy at the store. As we shed ourselves of the immoral economic ideology of insatiable greed (that has made the elites around the world very sick indeed!), let us remember our true nature and begin to heal.

Onward, fellow humans.
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Activism & Social Media/ Election 2016

As someone who is preparing to expatriate, I can no longer tolerate the atrocities politicians have committed against not just it’s own citizens but people all over the world. All but a small handful are suffering at the hands of one single fraternity called THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, Inc., and it’s obsolete, “ask not what your country can do for you..” mental conditioning that plagues our citizens 50 years beyond it’s relevance.

When the fuck will the majority get off their lazy asses and rise above this and bring it all down?  I mean, seriously, what the hell is wrong with our youth in that they actually believe social media is going to help create change?  I’m sorry but a meme is not powerful.

To those who believe a meme is powerful, ask yourself, what inconvenience does a meme cause to our political offenders?  What noise does a meme make to our political offenders ears?  What senses does a meme touch in the eyes, ears, nose and skin of our corrupt politicians?

Ask yourself, what’s more powerful? A picture? or standing in front of the White House in bright colors, holding a sign or a banner, screaming your pain across the white house lawn and beating on a drum, one angry fist pound per every wrong this country has committed against every single citizen in the world?

I’m not against social media “activism” I’m against it’s laziness, it’s lack of voice, it’s lack of masses and it’s lack of inconvenience to our oppressors.  It’s powerless.

THIS is power….  stand before your corrupt government and make some real noise!

Don’t call yourself an activist until you actually become active!

Stop being afraid to admit you are poor as if you should be shrouded in negativity and insults for being a human being trying to survive in a world that’s been manipulated by this fraternity called THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, Inc.   More than 90% of the world is poor.  More than 50% of Americans are poor and our unemployment rates are much higher than what the government wants the world to believe.  I live in the beach area in South Florida.  Some may think that because we live in a prettier part of town, we must be living in luxury but the truth is, over 45% of my neighborhood is unemployed and using sites and aps like ebay, letgo, craiglist and are having garage sales to float by month to month.  Being poor, under employed or unemployed should not be used as an insult.  It’s not our faults.  Its a fact of life in 2016 due to greedy politicians and their financial hoarding policies.

Don’t be afraid to apply for food stamps, welfare or medicare/medicaid or to admit it.  Our government pays the Chinese government over $85 billion per year to help Chinese citizens find employment, create employment and ship their cheap goods to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Inc, all the while, the job markets in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Inc are pretty close to nonexistent.  If UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Inc spent $85 billion per year on it’s own citizens, we would have jobs, food, stable financial status and less mental health issues.  Being poor, under employed or unemployed should not be used as an insult.  Its a fact of life in 2016.  Need help, receiving a hand up or a hand out should not be used as an insult.  It’s a way of life for the majority in 2016.

The longer we continue to use social media as a means of protest and fail to make politicians uncomfortable, the longer and worse our suffering will be.

Election 2016:  Trump will not save you.  He preaches hate.  Clinton will not save you.  She’s part of the administration that put you in the poor house to begin with!  Your vote doesn’t count anyway, the electoral college is bought and paid for, popular vote means nothing.  Ask Al Gore.  Then start asking what your country can do for you and not what you can do for it.  Those days are OVER!

A meme is only a powerful statement in the world of art.  Not politics.