Hi everyone, I regret to inform you that my post for this week will be late. With school getting very busy it's difficult for me to write an article. But do not fret! I promise you all I will be writting once again! As for now, hope all is well, and keep on checking in!
Max
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Call to Arms: Identifying Class
I was travelling by train today as a Via Rail first class passenger where I found a distinct separation of class. Not actively so, where people actively disdained those of lower class, but passively making the lives of the lower class uncomfortable. For example, Union Station in Toronto has a separate lounge for 1st class passengers that has comfortable seating, free refreshments, and desks from which you can work while you wait for your train. What do Economy passengers get? A standing line where you could be waiting for several hours until your train is boarding. Quite unfair, I think. Also, free alcohol, high quality dinners, comfortable seating, and larger than average washrooms await your pleasure in first class. Now, if I can enjoy the perks of being first class, why should I be complaining, or even finding fault? Why not just enjoy my perks in silence? Because I have a roommate who does not have these accomodations, and there are many people who will only dream of being able to travel in such splendour. Why should they be subjugated to lesser travel accomodations just because they paid less?
You may say, "Because you paid more, you should get more." You may also say, "Executives deserve to be different from the rest." But both those statements, and many more similar to them, are products of the poorly designed system. Company executives are still people, no different than the high school teacher who taught you History (I was visiting my old high school, where my History teacher stopped me to talk for several painfully slow minutes, so forgive me) or the taxi driver who brings you to and from the train station, so why should they get any more special treatment because they have money? Oh right, "Because you paid more, you should get more." How about give the service, and the same price, to everybody? Exclusion is only the start of revolution, and the more you exclude, the more dangerous the revolution becomes. This brings me to the state of scoiety today: a society that has no more equality than Victorian England and no more fairness than Caesarian Rome, we've just given it a different name.
Capitalism. Free market economy. Independent wealth. These terms come up often enough when we consider society and who is running it. In order to be considered successful, you need to earn money. In order to earn money, you have to participate in the free market economy and compete. In order to compete and win in order to be considered successful, you need to be independently wealthy. Hmm...something doesn't seem right here. You need to have money to make money to be considered successful. This doesn't seem...oh, what is that term, oh, right...sane. It also means that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer just like every society of the past 2000 years. Capitalism, and a democracy run by capitalism, is only another name for an autocracy who reside at the top of the economic scale.
Doubtful is the nature of classes going to change; most likely it will be the method in which we define the class structure that changes; however, the more people who can see the class structure the more likely revolution will occur and the sooner we may be able to leave our greedy humanistic natures behind.
This is the first of several articles entitled "Call to Arms". These are published on the first Sunday (or Monday, as the case may be) and deal with the identification of the class system in today's society.
(I apologize for the late article - the server is having issues...thanks for your patience)
You may say, "Because you paid more, you should get more." You may also say, "Executives deserve to be different from the rest." But both those statements, and many more similar to them, are products of the poorly designed system. Company executives are still people, no different than the high school teacher who taught you History (I was visiting my old high school, where my History teacher stopped me to talk for several painfully slow minutes, so forgive me) or the taxi driver who brings you to and from the train station, so why should they get any more special treatment because they have money? Oh right, "Because you paid more, you should get more." How about give the service, and the same price, to everybody? Exclusion is only the start of revolution, and the more you exclude, the more dangerous the revolution becomes. This brings me to the state of scoiety today: a society that has no more equality than Victorian England and no more fairness than Caesarian Rome, we've just given it a different name.
Capitalism. Free market economy. Independent wealth. These terms come up often enough when we consider society and who is running it. In order to be considered successful, you need to earn money. In order to earn money, you have to participate in the free market economy and compete. In order to compete and win in order to be considered successful, you need to be independently wealthy. Hmm...something doesn't seem right here. You need to have money to make money to be considered successful. This doesn't seem...oh, what is that term, oh, right...sane. It also means that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer just like every society of the past 2000 years. Capitalism, and a democracy run by capitalism, is only another name for an autocracy who reside at the top of the economic scale.
Doubtful is the nature of classes going to change; most likely it will be the method in which we define the class structure that changes; however, the more people who can see the class structure the more likely revolution will occur and the sooner we may be able to leave our greedy humanistic natures behind.
This is the first of several articles entitled "Call to Arms". These are published on the first Sunday (or Monday, as the case may be) and deal with the identification of the class system in today's society.
(I apologize for the late article - the server is having issues...thanks for your patience)
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