On the Unsustainability of Profit

The cracks in our culture and our systems are showing tonight: jagged, ugly, and centered yet again around profit. Somebody somewhere still thinks commodifying people, making our planet unlivable, and brainwashing us into normalizing brutality for margins is sustainable.

It's not, and none of the endpoints towards which we're hurtling are good. In fact, most days it feels like a miserable journey towards painful disaster is our most likely future as a species. It's a conscious choice to stay focused on my personal values of love, friendship, and art, and to cultivate hope as best I can.

And when I think about what I can do on a personal level, I can't help but wonder: what will it take to awaken us collectively? As clear as an apocalypse seems some days, our power as a global people to both stop it and to build something better seems just as clear, not to mention more immediate.

I know what I'm looking and listening for: vision, leadership, down-to-earth plans, courage, and inspiration. I'm looking for this in people, in institutions, in small groups of thoughtful, committed citizens. Fuck civil war and fuck revolution: violence at scale disproportionately affects the most vulnerable and marginalized. In fact, from where I sit, violence and war are the tools that got us to where we are today, and it's time for a new path. 

Global universal sustenance is possible: we can grow enough food to feed everyone, but don't have the socio-political systems to get it to everyone. Same with global universal housing, education, and health care. All of these are possible and feasible without the need for profit. Why the fuck are we still spending whole lives making plastic tchotchkes at slave wages for profit that goes right out of our communities and into the hands of a tiny, tiny few?

I want to be here the day we as a gloriously diverse and inclusive population rise up and let the yoke of profit slide off to atrophy in the annals of history. Let it to be a peaceful day, a celebratory day. On that day I will wash dishes, raise children, teach math, and play the guiro. What will you do that day?