We Persist

The corporate right to make money has always superseded our right to live.

I repeat. The corporate right to make money has always superseded our right to live. Do you need it again? The corporate right to make money has always superseded our right to live.

The coronavirus has revealed the deep level of unfairness built into a culture where corporations rule the day. COVID-19 has revealed the folks who are important to keep society intact. And we know it is not the barons of corporate America and their political lackeys who are taking an honest lead.

The lead is being taken by those of us who are making the effort to see COVID-19 and its effects as clearly as possible, to as best we can interpret the intentions of the elite who, as always, seek to leverage a disaster for profit  [see Naomi Klein’s Disaster Capitalism], and with these two recognitions determining how to create the future we want for ourselves.

 Any doubts about who’s work is important has been clarified by what we see today. It’s our front line medical personnel, drivers and sanitation workers, the scientists and virologists, our farmers, fire and police, grocery folks, etc. Nowhere in this litany of the needed are hedge fund managers, Wall Street barons, CEOs or other elites. They just run things in our corporate led, money driven culture. A money as power culture is now exposed for its corruption, cruelty and the scourge on our lives and our Earth.

Many point out the need for corporations so we can have commerce, but that is a false notion. There are individuals, partnerships, coops, collaborations and not yet defined entities that can be used as the grease for acquiring and selling goods and services. As we recognize the value of meeting as many of our needs locally as possible, we improve the quality of our lives in countless ways. Not the least being capable of tracking and mitigating viruses.

For those unfamiliar with the 1,000 year rise of ‘the corporation’, you can check online or in my book, World 5.0. It’s an ugly history, with dark deals among rulers and elites that caused European colonialism, concentrating power under the guise of government and religious objectives.

Again, corporations are not a required legal entity. They spend billions convincing you otherwise, but other forms of business ownership are perfectly useful. And they do not rip us off and rape our planet. There is a very simple measure for a business entity – does it engender greed or abundance. We’ve seen what the other leads to.

There are hosts of us already working to create a better culture in a myriad number of ways. Ending war, ending fossil fuels, ending globalism and worker abuses. Ending inequality. All worthwhile efforts. And yet we’re just playing ‘Whack a Mole’ if we don’t get to the heart of the problem.

Now our efforts are impacted tremendously by coronavirus. How do we protest when we can’t march? It’s true we are hampered. Yet we are not helpless. We can organize online, create alliances to strengthen our impact, work toward vibrant local cultures, and look forward to when we can again mingle without fear of dying.

COVID-19 is a clear scourge, like corporations themselves. Yet this reset is an opportune time for we progressives and awakened to push hard for universal health care, a green new world and a world without war. We will find our new world. The old world is crumbling and we persist.