A Solidarity Society and a Livable Future

When you begin to realise that something’s wrong with the world, the first step is educating yourself about it. Mankind has constructed an economic system we can’t control. We are its slaves and victims. We have created a society in which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. We are so caught up in our own immediate problems that we cannot afford to be aware of what is going on with the rest of the humanity family or the planet. There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives. Divided, global issues are overwhelming. United, our collective strength is unstoppable. If we put our future into the hands of some new messiah, what will happen when those leaders betray us or imprisoned or who are discredited or otherwise disempowered? Do we put our future on hold? It is we, the people, who are making the future. We have to fight without any guarantee that we are going to win. We have waited too long to get started and have a long way to catch up.

Capitalism is a coercive economic system that creates economic deprivation. Capitalism is a ruthless economic system that rates everything in terms of its monetary value and sees everything as nothing more than a source of financial profit. If capitalism makes workers’ lives miserable, those who can’t work are treated even worse. Our civilisation is dominated by a profound fear. We have grown accustomed to horror.

With a growing awareness of mounting ecological, economic and social problems people are realizing that humans are social animals, encompassing identity that connects us with the whole humanity of the world - not just our friends and family, not just our city, our country, but every living being on Earth. It is a new understanding that sees everyone on this planet as one family - that everything is interconnected. There is no "us" and "them." For millions of people on the planet, the problem and suffering of the world are our problems. We stand at a critical moment in history, a time when humanity must choose its future. To move forward we must recognize that we are one human family and one community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on economic justice. We urgently need to share a vision of a world community and embrace a spirit of human solidarity and kinship.

Let us keep our eyes on the real goal. The great issue is not raising taxes on the rich or achieving a better regulation of banks. It’s economic democracy. If the debate isn’t about economic power, it’s irrelevant. The problem isn’t just a few “bad apples.” The crisis is not the result of the selfishness of a few investment bankers; it is the inevitable consequence of an economic system that rewards cut-throat competition at every level of society. Capitalism consumes everything, transforming the world into profit. The answer is not to advocate another version of capitalism or even reverting to some earlier stage of capitalism such as returning the gold standard. Tinkering with the corporate state will not work. If we do not wrest power from the corporations' hands we will be plunged into neo-feudalism and environmental catastrophe.

Virtually all of humanity lived by hunting and gathering before about 12,000 years ago. We realise more and more that the cultural beliefs surrounding capitalism do not reflect any universal "human nature." Assumptions about human behavior that humans are naturally competitive and acquisitive, and that social stratification is natural, do not apply to many hunter-gatherer peoples. The very existence of societies living adequately, even happily, with no industry, no agriculture, and few material possessions offers a challenge to the concept of human nature held by most economists. Many cultures have very different ways of organizing production and distribution. Among the Hadza, for example, there are elaborate rules to ensure that all meat is equally shared. Hoarding, or even having a greater share than others, is socially unacceptable. Apart from personal items, such as tools, weapons, or smoking pipes, there are sanctions against accumulating possessions. Accounts by early European explorers and anthropologists indicate that sharing and a lack of concern with ownership of personal possessions are common characteristics of hunter-gatherers. Sharing is the central rule of social interaction among hunters and gatherers. There are strong injunctions on the importance of reciprocity. Generalised reciprocity, the giving of something without an immediate expectation of return is the dominant form in face-to-face groups. Its presence in hunting and gathering societies is almost universal.