Political Correctness, Segregation & Capitalism PART 5

Capitalism

Not only were we isolated from and in denial of reality, we were busy working. Distraction is, perhaps, capitalism's greatest evil. We are too busy to notice other people, and if we can’t see, we can’t care. If we can’t care, we won’t act.

Who had time to worry about people we couldn't see, people we didn't want to believe existed, when there was a mortgage to pay and the kids were dying their hair green and smoking pot? How could I focus on others when teenage angst was taking over and my number one priority was to move out of my parent's house? I needed money to do that, so I worked whenever I wasn’t in school. It didn't help that no one at school was addressing contemporary issues, which could have opened my eyes to the suffering around me. We focused on what seemed like ancient history: the Civil Rights Movement and the unique manifestation of midcentury racism. No one taught us about the structural, legal and institutionalized racism that was happening in our very classrooms. After all, teachers were distracted too.

If capitalism’s greatest evil is distraction, its greatest lie is individual equality. Capitalism tells us that everyone has equal access to everything. The only differentiating factor, according to capitalist ideology, is individual effort.

On the rare occasions that we do see others, capitalism is quick to hand us a tidy explanation: they just aren’t working hard enough. Capitalism keeps us emotionally separate from “the disadvantaged,” the necessary majority of poor that ensures capitalism’s continuation, by telling us the reason for their situation is personal: lack of effort and work ethic.