242) Day 10 -- Reason #10 to revolt against predatory capitalism

There are lots of psychology experiments on "the illusion of control".

If you give people something, like a button to press, that they BELIEVE exerts some control over an outcome, people will press that button and CONVINCE THEMSELVES they actually have control. Even when the outcome is completely, utterly, uncontrollably random.

This is what our voting system is. "The button". It makes us believe that we influence outcomes about how our society is organized, when by and large, we don't.

But the outcomes of society are not "random". They are "designed". They are designed by people who pull the levers of actual control in society, those who control the laws, who write the economic policies, and who OWN the institutions that do those things.

So, we vote. We argue with each other about who to vote for. We hold rallies, and watch the news, and sign petitions, and worry about who will be the next "leader". But in truth, MOST decisions that matter are almost entirely out of our control, as voters. I mean yes, it does matter somewhat who is in power. Different political parties have different ideologies, somewhat, and this translates into differences in human rights, social programs, housing projects, etc.etc. It's not IRRELEVANT who you vote for.

But ALL major political parties operate within a framework of industrial-corporate-military control. No matter what they PROMISE they're going to do, there are hard limits on what they can actually do, or they find themselves quickly out of power.

This is why, in Canada, although it matters if, say, the Liberals or the Conservatives are in power, somewhat, at the end of the day, they both promote the growth of a predatory-capitalist agenda. They both are controlled by HUGE industries like the oil/gas industry, the factory-farming industry, the military/"defence" industries. Etc.

So year after year, decade after decade, we dutifully cast our votes, and all we do is SLIGHTLY speed up or slow down the degree to which our society devolves into a system of iron-clad control. Below, is the best, shortest summary I've seen about why we don't live in a democracy. And why we need to, in effect, revolt against the current systems of power, and create something better.

Which will, of course, be mind-blowingly difficult. It is the project of not only our lifetimes, but of generations. But if you believe in Freedom, this is absolutely, 100% necessary. Or we will remain slaves to this system of control that we were all born into.

I don't use the term "slaves" lightly. It has horrible historical precedence of which we are all aware. But, it is an appropriate term. Because we ARE slaves to a system in which our lifeblood, our time and energy, are OWNED by the very wealthiest people in the world. In the 1800s, around the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, people who worked for a salary were widely considered "wage slaves", whose lives were, in effect, owned, and whose freedom was subject to the whims of their industrial "Masters". This situation is not only still true, it gets progressively worse as time goes on.

So, Freedom? You believe in Freedom? Then you have to SEIZE that freedom, and work together with others to make it real, society-wide. Or, you don't really have any Freedom to direct your own life, in the ways that matter the most. You can play, in the sandbox that the powers-that-be allow you to play in. But that's only "Freedom" until something outside-the-sandbox, like a war, enviro-collapse, economic downturn, law passed against whatever group you are part of, etc., takes it away.

As a trans woman, I feel, acutely, the vulnerability I have to "the State", for my Freedom, my health, even my life, is indeed, tenuous.

That's not Freedom at all.

That is just the Illusion.