Let's break out the shotguns, we're going to town

[mountbrocken]

You know, with the way the economy is alot of people are on edge. I
think that many of the things that most considered stable and secure
in the past are now being shown as temporary and unstable. Jobs are
scarce and goods and services seem to be waning in the market. But
while all of this is clearly a symptom of what some see as the
necessary twists and turns of a global market, there is one thing that
is revelaed through this mess; that is the failings of capitalism.

But capitalism is just the sort of system that, while it has always
enjoyed a comfortable seat in the economy of mankind, has not always
been as prominent. Consider our own country. It is often touted that
one must be a good capitalist in order to be a good American.
However, I hardly see this as a context in which the early proponents
of our own constitution would find themselves in. They were simply
farmers whose livelihood was predominately self generated. This is
not to say that commerce was not present. However, to compare the
lives of eighteenth century men and women with ours is like apples and
oranges. The fact is, we are not a compilation of independent men and
women. On the contrary, we are all dependent on companies and
businesses who determine the success or failure of our lives.

Mercantilism, as a slow evolutionary phenomenon, emerged in the middle
ages as serfdom waned. The feudal system would be slowly replaced by
what we see today as capitalism. And yet, it was not but a
convenience in the early beginnings of our nation. And now it is the
basis for not only our economy but our very lives. Its conception
could be arguably traced back to small ethnic communities who, under
the oppression of racism and the marginalizing of certain ethnic
groups, sought alternatives to 'hard work;' which could hardly produce
satisfactory results in the face of kingdoms bent on suspicion and
racist tendencies. As such , instead of simply working hard at a
profession, one who found one's self in such a hated group would have
to trick their community as a career. If one could not be a
blacksmith, one must buy products produced by the blacksmith and trade
it, at a higher rate of return, to another. This of course was not
easy, but given the underhandedness of the merchant or 'capitalist,' a
successful living could be made.

Soon, men and women found this as an alternative to a skilled labor.
Rather than produce, why not trade? This left a vacuuous discrepancy
between what the producer could enjoy from his or her labor and what
was pilfered from him or her through the capitalists around them. And
now, we are in the midst of this horrific situation. For people can
not find satisfaction in an occupation that is but a shadow of what
humans are designed, wired to do. Rather than enjoying the meaningful
and almost spiritual experience of manual labor, we are forced into
offices and retail outlets to sell or buy plastic replications of what
we truly desire. We are held on assembly lines far from sun and moon
and stars to mindlessly and senselessly produce what we neither long
for or really need. Plastic love is but a tasteless odorless void
where only the revolution of the unemployed, a revolution that is
coming once more and more people are unemployed (the logical
consequence of greedy capitalism), will fill the hearts of once sons
and daughters of God.