Locked in a vice,
Pulled ever further in.
It’s the world’s biggest heist,
It’s the system.
It demands your all,
You’re bent to it at school.
You’ll work to till you fall,
It’s the unspoken rule.
Told you’ll be a success,
If you graft hard.
You’ll be forever oppressed,
With these brittle canards.
Truth is: you’ll never earn,
What you’re truly worth.
And there’s no higher return,
Than accident of birth.
So they’ll take your muscle and ideas,
Though they want your soul.
Keep you paralysed with fear,
While they consume you whole.
You’ll empty your pockets to live in a city,
Or be fleeced by ceaseless commute.
And kept forever busy,
In the endless pursuit.
For though we’re closer than ever,
The bills keep us further apart.
We can’t come together,
Lest it strike a beautiful spark.
Yes, the world can burn.
But the system may not.
The worm cannot turn,
Because the money can’t stop.
I wrote this this to express how the pervasive nature of capital is and what it really feels like to live in its shadow. We’re socialised accepting capital very early whether that’s via money appearing in maths lessons or career advice that seems more like setting you up to be a productive cog in the machine. (It also tells you who to look down on IMO, though the pandemic may have helped reset that perspective a little.)
As we grow older, the myths start: work hard and you’ll do well etc. etc. But the thing is, working hard demonstrably isn’t enough, we don’t live in a meritocracy, and even if we did I doubt you’d ever see the full return for your efforts. Work is often a social endeavour, and capitalism leverages that as cover to hoover the money upwards while encouraging competition and division below to distract from what is going on.
In many ways it’s scary how well honed the system is now, keeping us apart through striving and exhaustion. We’re encouraged to buy houses we can barely afford or submit to rents we often can afford even less. Once we’re on the treadmill standing still isn’t an option, and so the time to organise is squeezed ever more. Who has time to band together and face this down, much less the energy? When you’re so dependent on a pay check, why even dare to stick your head above the parapet?
More cheerfully I should note this musing is part of ALE’s monthly theme of capitalism. We’re a left wing media collective, flipping capital the bird because we’re not going to let atomisation take hold and nor are you!
