Perspectives of a Wanderer

This is a tangent on Saying Goodbye to Materialism and Is it Time to Start Thinking about Setting up a Separate Society?

Society has been caught up in the trappings of Materialism, Relativism, and Liberalism for too long and is paying for it now. In the past 150 years or so (over 200 if you include the “first” Industrial Revolution), society has been transformed (more like perverted) from a simpler time to a point where it is going too fast and is heading for a wreck.

Before this “revolution”, most people either worked for themselves or for “small business” to learn a trade. Commerce was more on the local level except for certain rare commodity that could only be found in certain parts of the word. Today, multi-national corporation has made so that nothing has to be local anymore and controls a large percentage not only commodities, but also people

Are we better off? I say no. We are now slaves (I include myself in this) to these corporations for not only our livelihood, but for most of he necessities needed for survival. We can no longer fend for ourselves and that makes us vulnerable. You can see this in the “panic” to the recent “crises”. People get worked up over the least little thing that could threaten their comfort.

Economic cycles (both up and down) are exaggerated due to the web of globalization that send shock waves through its threads to every place on the planet. This was not always the case. Yes, there were cycles, but they were more regional in nature and not as wild in either direction. Capitalism has wound the economy and society so tight that is could easily collapse.

What are the alternatives?

Socialism? Hardly. With socialism, you are just replacing the “corporation” with the “state” and, in the extreme case of Marxist Socialism, you make people property of the state. We have seen the ravages of Socialism with the collapse of the old Soviet Block and are seeing it in Cuba, North Korea, and the beginnings in Venezuela. No, central state control of Socialism is even worse that the oligarical control of the Corporate Capitalism.

What then? The answer may lie in what is called Distributism. Disributism is the ownership of the means of production should be spread as widely as possible among the general populace, rather than being centralized under the control of the state (socialism) or wealthy private individuals (capitalism). I have only begun to look into Distributism but, from what I have read so far, it was more like the economies before the “industrial revolution”

Now, you may be wondering how this translate into a “simpler life”. By going from a global scale back to a more local type of society, you are reducing complexities inherent in the “global society”. You are also enabling people to rely more on themselves and local businesses for necessities rather than someone half way around the globe. In addition, you are increasing, even on the local level, the sources for goods and services.

Yes, the drawback is that it would be harder to get rich and certain goods would not be obtainable. However, those are the trappings attributed to Materialism. In addition, local economies would be less affected by events in other parts of the world.

Will Capitalism and Globalism go away? Unless there is a complete collapse of society, which may happen, I would say no. However, we would be more prepared if it does happen since Globalization would be less of an influence.

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