My freshmen year of college, I began to consume every kind of documentary videos that I possibly could; I found them to be both captivating and thought-provoking. College is a transitionary period to contemplate and understand the world around you as well as your role in it -- and that is exactly what I sought to do, and I absorbed, read, analyzed, and studied more information than I ever have in such a short time. Only after I had completed my freshmen honors seminar, however, and been shown the works of the greatest thinkers in history -- Socrates, Plato, Homer, Machiavelli, etc. -- could I honestly say that I attained wisdom from all of that information, which are not to be confused. And I vividly remember Facebook messaging one of my very liberal, intellectual-type of high-school teachers, expressing my disgust with the public school system that I had not been exposed to any real knowledge until I paid for it (though, to be fair, I was lucky enough to receive a full-tutition scholarship, so I suppose I can't be that mad about it).
So, what's the point?
Sometime throughout my first year, I stumbled upon a documentary relating to macroeconomics and the structure of the economy as a whole. And in that documentary, I was exposed to a cruel realization, which I'm sure all of us have contemplated at some point, but never been fully to articulate: the entire global financial system is essentially the most elaborate, intertwined, disguised, and sustained Ponzi schemes ever.
I realize that I likely just caused any Republican or individual with an Ayn Rand-based ideology scratch their eyeballs out and leave this page. But it's true. Despite the comfort that having money in our pocket or our bank account may give us, it doesn't actually stand for anything.
Don't believe me? Nixon even stopped backing the U.S. dollar with gold reserves in the 70's (https://www.richmondfed.org/faqs/gold_silver/).
However, at this point, we are way too deeply dependent upon this archaic system, which was established at a MUCH different time period in human history. Capitalism is great, do not get me wrong, I enjoy it just as much as the next person. It works so perfectly and is in beautiful in so many ways; the intricate nature of the relationship between supply and demand precisely balancing out the value of any product.
But.. it's nowhere near perfect. And it's only getting worse, with the advent of technology increasing the disparity between the rich and the poor to historic levels, which has resultantly allowed for the formation of Mega-corporations which have amassed such vast wealth and power that it is unfathomable for the everyday person. Our unwillingness to change reflects a natural human inclination, however, we are too intelligent of a species to allow ourselves to blindly walk down the path of our inevitable demise.
Let me explain what I mean. Today, in our overly-Capatilistic global system, there are people who are constantly working to produce products that already exist, just for fractionally smaller production costs, attempting to undercut a company providing reliable and functional products. This is simply not an efficient use of our resources: time, energy, and the environmental impact.
We must stand up to the big oil and other natural gas-related forms of energy production which are archaic, inefficient, expensive, and damaging to the atmosphere and humans. While I understand that these are just people who must provide for their families and ensure their own financial stability, that is the sacrifice that has to be made, as the free market does daily anyways, in order to preserve the well-being of our planet and species. We must stop thinking in our closed-minded, complacent, consumeristic society and allow ourselves to see the bigger picture that is becoming clear. We can no longer afford -- and have absolutely no excuse anymore with the wealth of data that exists -- to continue pleading ignorance. It is a new day, and as change is the only true constant in life, we must adapt as we always have, and fiercely and relentlessly encourage the development of alternative, renewable sources of energy.
Free your mind. Forget the system. Save our species.
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