Reply #14: the demand that we produce

[Two Americas]

Excellent post. Thank you undergroundpanther.

We are coerced to produce, and we must produce only that which benefits the few at the expense of the many. So even the meaning of the word "produce" has itself been corrupted.

Look around and it is easy to see that those who are producing things or providing services of real value, or things that cannot be easily controlled by the corporate juggernaut and harnessed to use for the benefit of the few, are either being "privatized" or are under horrendous assault and persecution - artists, teachers, nurses, farmers, to name but a few examples. Not only are our worst urges rewarded and praised and admired, our best urges are punished.

This corrupted and perverted notion of production has also corrupted every other aspect of our culture. Material success - most easily gained by committing oneself mind, body, and soul to anti-social predation and exploitation - has come to also mean "moral righteousness" and "mentally healthy" and "good citizenship." Good art is only that art which sells best on the "free market."

The demand that we "produce," and the severe and cruel penalties leveled against those who refuse to cooperate and are then called "losers" and "mentally ill" and "immoral," is actually a demand that we become slaves - physically, morally, and intellectually - that we become morally depraved, that we knuckle under to bullying and fully accept and contribute to the destruction of all that is truly good, truly productive, and truly healthy.