The
Great Divide
by C.A. Matthews
Imagine,
if you will, a Great Divide so wide and so deep that it takes hours—if not days—to cross on foot. To get from one side to the other, you must
carefully climb
down the first wall, taking care not to start a fatal rock slide, until you
reach
the canyon floor.
Once
on the plain, you hike several miles until you get to a
river, a whitewater, fast-flowing stream with no way to get around
it
except to swim through it. If you survive the river crossing, then
you face
several miles of canyon floor to cross in order to reach
and scale
the
steep precipice of the far-side wall.
Did
I forget to tell that you
have no tools save your bare hands to climb to the top of this near
vertical jagged rock cliff? That’s
the situation,
but
still you struggle and strain and slowly inch your way to the top.
You’re not going to let the Great Divide defeat you. You keep
working harder and harder...
At
last! You’ve made it to
the top where you are left panting in exhaustion with
only
a few cuts, bruises, gnashes, and muscle pulls to show for your
exertions.
There’s
no celebration of
your achievement or
even
a cold
drink of water waiting for
you,
sorry. A
sign commands you on
pain of death to
turn around and do it all again. And again. Because.
Now,
imagine that
same Great Divide you just traversed
with
a long, high bridge crossing it. No, you don’t get to use the
bridge to cross the
second time.
The
bridge is
not for the likes of you. Only those deemed worthy to take the bridge
will be ferried across the gorge in comfortable luxury vehicles
driven by chauffeurs.
They don’t
even
notice ant-sized persons like you
crawling
up
and down
the walls, hiking
across the plains, and
swimming
through the churning river
below. They just swoosh
past you, sipping champagne in
their posh rides,
leaving you choking on their exhaust fumes.
While
it takes you long
hours
to cross the Great
Divide,
those being driven across will cross it in a matter of minutes. What
awaits them on the other side is far better, too. They’re
greeted by
a cheering crowd of friends and family at a party where cocktails
and hors d’oeuvres are
served
by good-looking hosts and hostesses. They are given a choice whether or not they wish to cross over again on the
bridge, too. Choice, comfort, recognition...they
deserve
it. Why?
Because they were born with the correct last name.
Fair enough, right?
If you’re starting to question this corrupt socioeconomic system most Western countries live under,
you’ll probably have a few choice words to give those who zoomed by
and left you suffering in their wake. Why do only
certain persons
get to
take the
shortcut? Why do they get to take
the
easy route
and even employ others to do the actual hard work like driving for
them?
What besides sheer dumb luck of where and when and to whom you
were born to determines which path
across the Great Divide you’re
allowed
to take?
It’s
difficult for many
working class Americans
to grasp just how great that Great Divide is
between those just
scraping
by and those whose total net worth is larger than some countries’ Gross National Products. A recent study done
by Oxfam tells
us that for every $1 you earn as a worker, a billionaire makes $1.7 million.
This isn’t an exaggeration. Let's say you make $10 an hour working. In that same time period a billionaire
sipping champagne makes $17 million an hour—and he doesn’t even risk
getting
his
hands dirty!
The
super rich have been growing wealthier
over the past three years of the pandemic, growing wealthier than ever in history. While
millions suffered from COVID-19, Long COVID, and the deaths of loved
ones due to COVID, the billionaire class and their wealth have
kept
growing
and
growing and growing…
We
the workers can take comfort in the fact that
the actual number of billionaires on the planet is actually
still
quite small—only about two thousand in total. But these two
thousand individuals
own most of all wealth in the world, leaving a small portion for
the remaining eight
billion of
us to
share.
According
to Oxfam, an international humanitarian organization dedicated to
fighting poverty and hunger, in their report Survival of the
Richest the
wealthiest 1% of the world’s population took nearly two-thirds of all
new wealth, six times greater than the wealth made by the poorest 90%
of workers. Simply put, billionaires are getting richer while overall global poverty is
increasing. Oxfam warns:
Since
2020, the richest 1% have captured almost two-thirds of all new
wealth – nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99% of the
world’s population.
Billionaire
fortunes are increasing by $2.7 billion a day, even as inflation outpaces
the wages of at least 1.7 billion workers, more than the population
of India.
Food
and energy companies more than doubled their profits in 2022, paying
out $257 billion to wealthy shareholders, while over 800 million people
went to bed hungry.
Only
4 cents in every dollar of tax revenue comes from wealth taxes, and
half the world’s billionaires live in countries with no
inheritance tax on money they give to their children.
A tax of up to 5% on
the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7
trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, and
fund a global plan to end hunger.
You're probably catching on to how wide, deep, and treacherous the Great
Divide is. And it’s not just about how horrible the distribution of
material wealth is on Earth. The Great Divide is an analogy for how
political
and military/police power
is distributed as well. The more money you have, the more power you
wield and
the more military/police
might to back up your claim to that wealth and power you have.
This is readily apparent at a
yearly
gathering of the super-wealthy
and their sycophants in Davos, Switzerland.
The
World Economic Forum in Davos is where our “betters” get
to tell
us, the struggling workers, what we should be doing. They'll toss a few nuggets of wisdom our way, like we all should stop purchasing gas
stoves or we should simply stop being sick and
get back to work whether we have access
to
health care or not. Those little patronizing gems are supposed to convince us that the elites actually care about those of us at the bottom of the pyramid of wealth accumulation.
You
know that COVID pandemic
thing that’s “over” according
to President Biden?
The
billionaires at Davos see the threat
of the coronavirus
in a completely different way:
From
The billionaires at Davos protect themselves from COVID-19, while declaring the pandemic “over” for working people
...State-of-the-art
ventilation and HEPA air cleaners have been made available in common
spaces and private rooms and the over 3,000 attendants will ensure
these areas are cleaned and disinfected several times a day. Free
access to N95s and respirators was provided because the participants,
who have called such measures useless (for working people), know very
well that they work. In fact, meeting organizers said that on
“Forum-provided official transport,” the requirement is for “all
drivers (chauffeurs) [to] wear masks at all times.”
And
if this wasn’t enough, there have been reports that Upper Room
Ultraviolet Disinfection systems and Far-UVC lights have been
installed to disinfect the spaces and remove any virus that gains
unauthorized access to the meeting.
The rich elites won't be missing any ski parties from coming down with a nasty virus, will they?
Why
does this
handful of billionaires get to dictate terms to billions
of
other
human beings?
Why
do they force workers back into the workplace when they themselves
know that the pandemic is still raging, killing and crippling workers daily around the world? Why
do they get to use the expressway
over the Great Divide while the rest of us have to crawl through the dust
on our bare hands and knees? Think
about it. You
know why.
Capitalism
is the magic socioeconomic system that cures all ills, according to
our masters at the WEF. Two thousand hoarders of wealth and power get
to tell us,
the
other 8 billion inhabitants
of Earth, what’s
what.
And
the truth of the matter is that we
of
the bottom 8 billion
don’t count in their big picture. We’re just here to provide them
the
wealth
that
our
labors generate.
The Great Divide is essential for capitalism to exist because if all
of us had adequate
food,
shelter, and
health
care—or
even
an access to the “bridge”—then how would the billionaires ever
“motivate” (read: frighten,
scare,
threaten)
us into working for them in
the first place?
Someone
has got to drive the billionaires around, clean their toilets, cook
their food, sew their designer clothes, manufacture
their fancy cars, fly their private jets, perform their facelifts, etc.
If we’re content simply to take care of ourselves and our
neighbors,
we’d never take care of
those
at the top, or
so
they
fear.
We might even ignore them until they become as poor as we workers
are—and
that can’t be allowed! (Read Why Are the Rich So Scared of Socialism for more answers.)
So, what's the real reason why the rich can't become like the workers?
Look at their last names again. That’s why.
Because
there’s no real reason why any human being should hoard wealth at
the obscene rate these handful of billionaires (and their close
friends the multi-millionaires) have done. We are all equals under
the sun or in the eyes of God (if that’s your belief). Equals don't allow equals to starve just for the sake of showing off vast hoards of material wealth and flaunting their power over others.
Capitalism
as an socioeconomic system is a perversion of how to organize work and community for the benefit of all. It’s totally
lacking in a sense of community for starters. Capitalists intentionally
divide
workers into different groups so these factions can
be manipulated into
spending
time
and energy
hating other factions
so much that they don’t have time to actually see it’s the
capitalists who
have forced
them into this untenable situation in
order to control them.
The next time someone tells you that certain people (Gays, Muslims, Blacks, Asians, etc.) are "inferior" to you stop and think. Who told me to hate people from this group? What reasons do they have to make me hate others? What control do they exert over me?
We the workers must get past the “othering” we’ve been brainwashed into doing. There's no time for it. Our
planet is in the grips of a climate emergency:
Over
the longer term, the greatest existential risk the world faces is
climate breakdown. The last eight years were the hottest ever
recorded, with 2016 being the warmest. Extreme weather events that
once took place every several hundred years are now taking place
annually.
We have already started to
approach the tipping points that will rapidly and unpredictably
accelerate the processes causing the climate breakdown. The oceans
are becoming acidified, arctic ice and permafrost are melting, and
forests are being lost at a devastating rate. (...)
The
greatest risk the world faces comes from the class currently
assembled at Davos. If they really wanted to save the world, they’d
hand over their wealth and power to their workers—the only class
with the ability and the incentive to deal with the challenges the
world currently faces. --From
Davos
Elites Can’t Solve The Problems They Create
If
it’s freedom to choose the bridge over the Great Divide you’re
looking for, then look no further than a system such as socialism that rewards the
workers for their labor and gives them an equal vote in deciding how
to run things. Americans in particular have
been duped to think “capitalism equals democracy” when, in fact,
it’s the opposite. Capitalism equals rich people telling working
people what to do, how to do it, and when to do it, punishing us when
we the workers don’t or can’t do it. That isn't democracy. It's oligarchy.
Why
are we of
the
8 billion strong
allowing
a handful of capitalists rule over us? It’s time for
us to
organize and fight back. A new organization forming called
Workers
Strike
Back
could help lead the way in the US. American workers should check them out.
Remember: We
the workers have the power. We certainly have the numbers. Now is the time for us to take control of our future. Our children and our planet are counting on us.
Related Links:
The Billionaires at Davos Protect Themselves from COVID-19, While Declaring the Pandemic "Over" for Working People https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/01/21/gkzt-j21.html
The WEF's Diabolical Plans To Control Your Life (video)
True Priorities of the Global Elite https://popular.info/p/the-true-priorities-of-the-global
Oxfam: Social inequality and poverty soaring in Australia
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