Duty Now For The Future, 2023 edition (Part IV)

So where do we go from here?

Honest to God, I lack any clear idea.

I think we’re seeing what Marx and others predicted re late stage capitalism, and I think capitalism as a system my finally collapse in our lifetimes.

I also think Marx and others, having based their predictions and expectations on a misreading of the past (see Part I), don’t necessarily offer a clear view of the future, either.

Constant growth cannot continue, especially as the labor force gets decimated by AI and automation.

Right now our current economic system is a metastasizing cancer that will eventually kill the patient.

It cannot be curbed, it needs to be cut out.

We can and should replace it with a system of limited, localized growth.  Discourage investment in mass marketing anything that can be done better on a local level.

Electronics, vehicles, plumbing supplies, medical supplies and equipment, yeah, have standardized mass production of those.

Clothes, furniture, media?  Buy local.  Nothing prevents you from ordering long distance in this digital age, but local should always be the first option.

Let it be unique / distinctive / odd / quirky.

We can stand to let local tastes and flavors grow without large corporations trying to influence us.

If nothing else, it will spur creativity.  That Beverly Hills outfit might be completely impractical for Montreal in mid-winter, but it might spark an idea in come Canadian tailor.

And it certainly will spark it better than mass produced junk being shoved down our throats.

In short, we need to create not merely a new economy, but a new culture.  The narcissistic sociopathic obsessions of corporate capitalism expressed as consumer economy is a rapidly approaching dead end.

We need an economy that springs naturally from a culture that asks, “How can I help?” rather than “What’s in it for me?”

We can have such a culture.

This one is the result of centuries of deliberate propaganda by those who stand to benefit directly or indirectly off the exploitation of others.

We can do better.

We must do better.

What will happen to the 1% when they see their free money shut off?

We have lessons from history.  Hopefully we can learn from them, but it’s always been bad.

It’s bad when the 1% loses.

But it’s much, much worse when they win.

© Buzz Dixon