Aztec faces

Human sacrifices

Here's an issue you might want to think about. The Ego and capitalism are inseparably related. Neither want to contemplate, or hear about the possibility of sacrifice. But sacrifices need to be made. So who decides who is to be sacrificed? Are we talking about human sacrifices?

Now it would appear that we are centuries away from, and even a few civilizations away from, the Aztec Empire where human sacrifices were made on the altar of a temple, their still beating heart sliced out of their living body to appease the gods. But we're not.

Western civilization, here and now, today, is centred around the widespread belief in neoliberal, 'free market', unregulated and unrestricted capitalism which results in perpetual economic growth and corporate profit. Within this, and many people believe this, corporate profit equates to wealth distribution. This is the new religion. There is a disturbing number of people who somehow seem to believe that working full time in some job with a living wage somehow puts you on equal footing with billionaires and banks and that we are all somehow contributing to society.

Within this you have the Ego, in the modern sense, completely meshed and embedded into the capitalist psyche thanks to the works of Sigmund Freud and others. The Ego is the basis of all that we think we are. It's the basis of the social contract of "I will make believe you are who you think you are if you make believe that I am who I think I am." Having an Ego is a necessity in modern Western society. Without it you are toast. It's also the basis of whatever model of reality you have in your head. The only issue is that the Ego is an illusion, a concept, an image, and you are neither a concept or an image, are you?

But see also - and this is my personal take - capitalism is not that much different to gambling. It's something that needs regulation and some degree of restriction given the fact that the needs of the market are rarely if ever the same as societal needs. However in modern Western politics this is something of a taboo subject. It's like when a doctor has a patient who is dying from emphysema but who still smokes 40 cigarettes a day and the doctor doesn't want to discuss the possibility of giving up smoking. Politicians generally do not want to talk about limiting or regulating free market capitalism or free trade.

So what you end up with is a society based on inequality. Some people go through life not making sacrifices and having unlimited opportunities. Then you have many more people who are forced to make sacrifices and who often have few if any opportunities. Now it's all well and good if you're the one who is choosing to make your own sacrifices. That's okay. That is your choice to do so. But for many people this is not the case and far too many people are forced into making sacrifices against their will by other people who are making decisions that force other people to have to make sacrifices. When you have an unequal society where many people are forced to make sacrifices not of their own choosing, you're going to end up with resentment, bitterness and social divisions.

The necessity of sacrifice

See this is the situation we're in right now. In order to secure our place on this planet and to rebuild society we're going to have to redistribute both income and opportunity and make cultural changes. This means that we're going to have to make do with less. We're going to have to maintain cultural positions we wanted to do away with. There is no way round this and there is no way forward without diminishing Ego and regulating capitalism.

I've been talking about this for roughly three decades, maybe more. Two decades I was making predictions. I've stopped making predictions about a decade ago. There is no need to make any predictions. The existential crisis is now. It's right here, right now, right in front of our faces if we care enough to pay any attention. Business as usual is not on the menu. Business as usual is not an option.

Business as usual is going to make this century far more horrific and tragic than the 20th century was. Even now, a quarter of the way into the 21st century we're struggling to deal with the trifecta of 20th century innovations - fascism, digital technology and Freudian Ego - so far there have been no new innovative ideas this century. There's maybe two, three decades before - continuing our current trajectory - society and life probably will end up being irreversibly screwed up.

There is no rosy, wonderful future here. If there is, nobody really believes it.

We're facing a future which involves persistent and widespread scarcity of resources. We're already struggling to deal with scarcity of financial resources and funding. We are dealing with increasing control and regimentation in our lives from governments and government-backed organizations. We are dealing with increasing amounts of propaganda to distort public perception about social issues forcing us into making different choices.

We are also seeing and dealing, increasingly, people put into situations where they are forced - beyond their circumstances and ability to make choices - to make sacrifices by others who have no knowledge or understanding of their life circumstances. People are being forced to sacrifice incomes, businesses, careers, opportunities, relationships, and even lives.

Premature mortality - where people die preventable deaths - is a very real thing. Currently there's roughly a million premature deaths in the UK every year. It's not suicide, because there's roughly 5,600 suicides a year in the UK. It's not homicide or murders, because the numbers and statistics are low as well. The vast bulk of these premature deaths are quite simply, and bluntly, human sacrifices. These are people who die as a result of not getting social care. These are people who are dying because they're waiting too long to access healthcare. These are people who are dying because they didn't get access to the healthcare to secure a diagnosis and effective treatment.

Modern human sacrifices

See back in the Aztec Empire human sacrifices involved no more than a few people periodically during a ritual or ceremony to appease the gods. In US states with the death penalty each time there's an execution there is widespread media coverage and whoever is executed is executed with something of a legacy. In many places throughout the West there are countless war memorials commemorating the First World War and the Second World War. The names of those who died and who 'gave their lives' are listed for posterity and history. Keep in mind the Allies lost around 500,000 people during the five and a half years of the Second World War.

But for the human sacrifices, around a million each year in the UK, outside of a simple cremation or a funeral, there is no ceremony, no legacy, not even a mention of their names. Outside of their bereaved, grieving families, loved ones and friends, nobody will remember them, and there is no honour. The world turns just the same, the current system continues, with the needs of the market predominant over everything, and we all continue along the same trajectory.

These are people - which in direct comparison to the five and a half years of the Second World War among to over 4 million people - who are dying because of what? The failure to provide adequate healthcare and social care? Or can we say that they are unwilling human sacrifices necessary to keep our current system going? Let me offer you a couple of reports:

This is not a prediction. This is all happening right here, right now, and also year in, year out, as part of the potlatch thinking that is so deeply embedded and interwoven in our Western political and socio-economic culture. Let me be clear what I'm saying here. There are people who are forced to sacrifice their lives to keep our socio-economic system going yet there are others who don't seem to have to make any sacrifices to access a level of opportunities that most people can only dream about. This is the level of inequality we're dealing with.

Please keep this in mind when you come across zealots arguing that this is the best possible system for a global economy.