The Price of Reality
by Digital By Birth

I see that anti-Capitalists protesters are "Occupying " some place or other again. I think what they have to realise is they've already lost the battle and their beliefs are dubious to say the best. Maybe their ideals are pure but do they fit reality? What would make a world without money work? If we removed capitol value to things would anyone actually work, would anything get done and who would clean the sewers? It takes some real hard commitment to live with out buying anything, no Subways, no coke, no beer, no music or movies, you should remember even your humble fish finger is attached to a vast Corporation and in truth every avenue of living is owned by some company or other, nothing is free. So you can say to me you don't have the choice, that Capitalism has enslaved us all and exploited the world and raped its resources and ALL of that is true. . . but is there a real alternative? Of course you CAN live for free, you can raid dumpsters for the food Supermarkets throw away, stretch out your Job Seekers Allowance, covert your house to solar energy and collect rain water and grow food in your garden "The Good Life "style, buy clothes from charity shops and wear them till they wear out, pirate all music and movies, walk or cycle instead of driving but to live 100% free of Capitalism is hard to do.

What I think the protestors really want is a fairer world where people don't try to define their self's by what they buy and the constant need to get more stuff. If you take it from a Buddhist point of view you don't really need anything and you enslave yourself by your consumption and I guess there's an ideal there, but I think what they really want is just to live in a less exploitation world, ie no expensive " Nike "trainers made under gun point in the 3rd world, no deforestation to clear space for cattle to make burgers, no arms companies selling weapons to the " enemy of the enemy ", a change from oil to renewable energy. AND that's the point I think...

I used to be fiercely anti Corporate and had the whole smash the state mentality but I think what you have to ask your self is what are you really objecting too? For me I was so pissed off in my everyday working life and all the problems I had at the time that violent revolt was more appealing to me than the actual change! The whole "R.A.T.M " revolution I believed in was flawed. As we saw with the recent London riots the reality of action against police isn't some glorious revolt, all it is is innocent people getting attacked and having their property burnt down and at the then end nothing is changed. Let's suppose that this happened en-mass what would happen afterwards? All there would be is "Mad Max" style anarchy BUT most of the protestors probably don't want full on rebellion. What they're objecting to isn't Capitalism itself and the companies within it BUT the practices of said companies. Now that's where the real power and revolution lies, NOT to end Capitalism but to make the corporations within practise with some responsibility and social conscience. You see all we really have to do is not destroy the corps but make them act with responsibility Look at all the free stuff and charity work they do now but there's still a great gap between the money they make and the good they do. Many have the wealth of small countries so if they began to spread out their vast wealth equally imagine the good they could do, and it's happening now to some degree. I'll admit to not being most well informed person of the subject but some examples I've come across is "Velvet " the toilet paper company now plant 3 trees for everyone they fell, Ben and Jerry use only fair-trade products... I even saw some super market chain at the moment is collecting old clothes to give away for charity at no profit for itself! Even the filthy ol' McDonalds seem to be cleaning up their act - although I hasten to add I have no idea how much damage they're still doing else where . . . These are just a few examples of course and the real change is yet to come.

So the real power lies with the boycotting of companies who have exploitive and destructives practices in the hope of forcing them to change how they do business. Of course a company is dependent on its customers so if applied a consumer has a great deal of power to effect how they do business. And this to me seems to be the future, NOT the end of Capitalism - that battles lost - but just a fairer world. As I say on our CDRS " The change won't come by gun and bomb but by the positive actions of all people in all walks of life! " And the truth is when all the corporations start looking after us it could be a very positive time!

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