I'm not sure this is an appropriate thing to post here. I've been kind of down lately and writing has always been something that helps me find some sort of release. I wrote a short essay concerning how I see the United States and the concept of freedom within its boarders. I don't pretend that any of what I say is new or unique, but I figured some of you might find what I wrote interesting. Any critiques are appreciated.
We Have Been Lied To
We have been lied to. There is no freedom in the US, only bondage and servitude.
Wealth and class are the only true indicators of freedom. Freedom comes not from the ownership of capital, but from the ownership of one’s time. The working class is not free because our time does not belong to ourselves. And yet, many are fooled by an illusion of freedom because we have capital to exchange for goods and services from our oppressors. This unequal exchange only makes our oppression easier.
Within many of us, there is a compulsion to consume. A compulsion that comes from being inundated with near-constant propaganda. We are told that we must consume to better ourselves. One cannot watch a video about climate change without being forced to sit through ads peddling the very cause of the crisis. We cannot escape these commands. They’ve been integrated into our entertainment, our news, and even the platforms that we use to communicate with each other. We’re always being reminded that consumption is king and that our value is tied directly to it. To be without is to be useless.
This is our bondage. Buy a house. Fill it with knickknacks and expensive furniture, electronics, and appliances. Buy these on credit so that you can have them now rather than later. Replace them when you’re told that they’re out of date or when they cease to function due to planned obsolescence. Start a family that you cannot possibly care for due to the lack of social welfare that in less sociopathic nations helps parents provide for their offspring without having to spend hours apart from them every day. Purchase a car so that you can spend hours in traffic every week, killing the planet in the process. Just so that you can trade your freedom to cover the costs of your consumption.
All of these actions are taken for granted by our population. It’s the very picture of success to have a large house, smiling family, and loads of debt. But it’s this consumption that allows us to be controlled. It’s either a happy accident for our oppressors or an orchestrated plot on a grand scale.
We spend so much time and capital to build these lives that we have no other option but to sell our labor for a pittance of its actual value. We receive pennies for this labor while our oppressors live lavish lifestyles off the backs of our servitude. We’re taught to think that this is moral. That this is a system that benefits us all. That if we work hard enough, we too could become a member of the oppressors. The same oppressors that pit us against each other on the basis of race, gender, and ideology—fracturing any chance we have of real solidarity.
However, if we try to stand up and change the system or organize to improve our conditions, all that we’ve built is threatened. An individual cannot fight back against their oppressor without putting their home, family, or even their entire livelihood at risk. For the vast majority of Americans, freedom is merely conceptual. The poor and the working class cannot know freedom. Freedom is something only the very wealthy among us understand from experience. The only freedom that we have is the freedom to choose which oppressor we’d like to grovel under.
We’re taught history as if it’s a continual march of progress. The errs of the past have been solved. We are now a better, more moral people than our ancestors. This too is propaganda. The working class in this country may as well live in a company town, not unlike those we were taught about in grade school. The towns where rich mine and factory owners controlled not only the means of production, but also the shops, the housing, and all of the infrastructure. The United States of America is a company town. We work so that we can consume the very products of our labor. All our capital goes right back to our oppressors. We can’t even attend to our health without signing a contract of servitude.
This system cannot be reformed. It must be destroyed. Either we take a stand and fight, or the system will collapse under its own weight, leading to untold levels of suffering for the very victims that the system has exploited. Our oppressors know what they are doing. They believe they can weather whatever crisis that comes. We will not be so lucky.