About the time my new grandson drew his first breath, I turned the first page of Guy Standing’s book The Corruption of Capitalism.
Murphy’s arrival in the world was exciting and a moment of unrelieved joy, but my thoughts were pregnant with concerns arising from Standing’s writings.
This tiny boy — he was just over 3kg and seemed to me a blank slate — has found himself forced to live in a world populated, largely and most certainly beyond his immediate family, by people whose prime interest is profit rather than people.
I weep.
That’s a slight exaggeration, as that is not really in my nature, but I was grumpy, depressed, disillusioned, confused and alarmed that some of the world’s supposedly intelligent people (they are not, rather they simply understand and know how to exploit the world’s economic system, and its resources, for their short-term advantage, and, it’s worth noting, that is all they know) have created a dystopian world in which profit is preferred over everything, including human life and the broader wellbeing of the Earth itself.
What, I wondered, as I looked at this beautiful face as yet untouched by the travails of life, would be ahead for Murphy, as the rigours of life tugged at his beautiful soft skin.
Some argue that we become what we are because of nurture, for others it is nature that calls all the shots in shaping our destiny, but I stand with those who attribute socialisation to ensuring we become a responsible and thriving member of our society.
And this is where my concerns for Murphy come in, for right now he is like clay to be shaped and from the moment he becomes aware, his tiny and naive mind will be pounded with rhetoric introducing him to a broken world.
Yes, the world is fundamentally flawed. Equipped with only unbounded cuteness, Murphy must negotiate a world ensnared by an economic system that has only one destination: chaos.
What the world, including Shepparton, lives with, is an economic system that hinges on, and feeds on, continuous growth; something that even those of us with only a slender grasp of arithmetic know is impossible on a finite planet.
Murphy’s mum and dad are both caring and intelligent people, and it is my hope that they will help him become a man that plays a pivotal role in helping us understand when and where we lost focus to put profit ahead of people.
It’s here, on Murphy’s behalf, I must step into the ring and declare the economy, at least capitalism, and its progeny neo-liberalism, is at fault, and followed forensically it can be seen as the root cause of most every problem, both human and ecological.
Listen to Jason Hickel writing in Less is More: “Growth is the prime directive of capital. And as far as capital is concerned, the purpose of increasing production is not primarily to meet specific human needs, or to improve social outcomes.
“Rather, the purpose is to extract and accumulate an ever-rising quantity of profit. That is the overriding objective. Within this system, growth has a kind of totalitarian logic to it: every industry, every sector, every national economy must grow, all the time, with no identifiable end-point.”
Well, in recent decades that end-point has become blazingly obvious, the world has ‘stamped its foot’ (although few seem to have noticed), its fever is raging; nature’s life support systems are failing; distress signals are coming from all parts of the Earth; and still we go on as if the war is over, or rather, it never started.
Guess what, the war ain’t over — I look down at Murphy’s innocent face and wonder what can I do to ensure this tiny boy has a viable future?
Still gazing at Murphy’s tiny face, I recall that we not only inherit the earth from our parents, we also borrow it from our children, in this case, my grandson.
Alone I can’t do much — I’ve tried for years by talking with Shepparton people about the climate crisis, but it feels like two steps forward is followed by three steps back — and I need you to help me and demand immediate action on the climate crisis, which is obviously directly linked to our tyrannical system of economics.
Yes, we need our leaders at every level of government, particularly state and federal governments, to embrace the science that explains the climate emergency and act to disenfranchise its causes.
Yes, join me as we work our way intellectually through this dilemma, come up with practical solutions and lay the foundations for a viable future.
Murphy, I’m sure, will thank you.