Things Money Shouldn't Buy
Things Money Shouldn’t Buy
First, for Civilization to succeed, an important technical issue required addressing, and this was the development of sealable containers, to preserve surplus food from rodents and moisture. This condition was met with the invention of the Clay Jar, and then, was revolutionized to a high efficiency when, in the Old World Neolithic Civilizations, with the invention of the Wheel and then with the Pottery Wheel, the necessary storage jars could be mass produced and grains transported to central locations with relative ease. The New World Neolithic Civilizations, surprisingly, never invented the wheel, but made due only with hand-formed Jars, transported on back of man and beast, and so the New World Civilizations proved more tenuous and were maintained on only a smaller scale. But, in either case, when once this technical problem involving Surplus Storage was solved, then it only remained that the people themselves should be prevented from attacking the all important Seed Grain.
Any incipient Civilization could breakdown and perish in any single year if, through catastrophe, carelessness, or theft, the Seed Grain essential for the next year’s planting should be lost. Of course, once effective storage could be guaranteed, then the greatest danger was simply that the Seed Grains would be taken and consumed – either eaten, or mashed into brew for an enticing alcoholic drink. These were the First Civilizations, and the People still almost completely Barbarian in temperament, and their habits of consumption entirely hand to mouth, and though they were inured to enduring hardships in times of scarcity, when gratifications were within reach, the Barbarian Mind had little or no inclination for deferring enjoyment. For Civilization to take hold and survive from one harvest to the next, then the Barbarian impulse toward instant gratification would have to be transformed into a Civilized Disciplined Restraint. The Mechanism for this Transformation was similar across the board – too universal to be merely coincidental – an institution found in every first generation Neolithic Civilization – Human Sacrifice.
Human Sacrifice was not just for fun. The People were instructed to believe that the Spirits of the Sacrificed Dead would protect the Seed Grain, and provide the Supernatural Powers required for guarding the Surpluses. The Human Sacrifices, as Sacramental and Ceremonial Events, were central, elaborate and spectacular, and probably even festive. These Events were undoubtedly designed to deeply affect every single person. After all, Human Sacrifice is a Life and Death issue. The first step toward Civilized Restraint would be a Superstitious Fear to Offend the Sacred Dead by disturbing the Seed Grains.
Looking backward at these first institutions of Civilization, we might be surprised that Modern Civilization has few corresponding institutions designed to protect the necessary surpluses and infrastructures. And then we are reminded that of the 21 Historic Civilizations, all of them had eventually succumbed to collapse, as their wealth had been consumed or squandered with Barbarian recklessness in the absence of Civilized Restraint. The cruder Institutions of Human Sacrifice had given way to the Higher Moral Religions that had accomplished the same Ends but with greater finesse. But then, in almost every case, a corrosive trend toward an Educated Skepticism rises up to attack those Religions as being mere Superstitions, without seriously regarding the integral necessity for such ‘superstitions’ as being necessary to the fabric of Civilization. And then there is Money.
Nowadays money can buy anything, and in any quantity. If Money were evenly distributed, then this efficiency for purchase would not be a serious problem. But it is a universal truth that “the Rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. Such is the epitaph of the 21 Dead Civilizations. Today we see some signs of civilization’s immanent collapse. Food is being cornered – look at all the regions in the World presently not being fed. Energy is being cornered. In America, the Health Care System sustains itself only by deliberately excluding upwards of 30% of its citizens. The Infrastructures of Civilization are also being cornered, as Education, Sewage Works, Police Protection, Roads and Transportation, and indeed everything, is increasingly being withdrawn from the common citizens and transferred in unrestrained disproportion to the Wealthier Classes. All around the World today, in both the rural extremes and the inner cities, we see an increase in Hunger, suspension of trash pickup, a return to open sewage channels, a discontinuation in Universal Education, increased tolerance of lawlessness, and increasing unemployment. Where our previous Generations could speak of an obvious Linear Progress – in an Ever Improving World – today we see everything going backwards into decline, that is, except for the Wealthiest Classes who delight themselves in accruing what is lost to everybody else. Well, a Pyramid cannot stand upon its head, and Civilization must rest upon its base. When it comes to the point where every necessity of life is arrogated away from the larger Civilized Community, then it goes without saying that Civilization will collapse.
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Health Care and Education should be universal.
And, no, there should not be two tiers of health care. If one maintains a managed system for the general populace on one side, and a seperate system for the Rich, then what inevitably happens is that the superior bidding power of the Wealthy extracts away all of the Medical Resources of the Society.
Besides, in any Society where the Rich and Powerful have been able to successfull take care of themselves, then they do not perceive a problem. the plight of the poor is of little concern to the wealthy. Only if some Constitutional Arrangement is made whereby the Rich and the Powerful must be satisfied with a Universally Equal Portion of Health Care Services, then and only then, will we have the influence of the Rich and Powerful brought upon improving the general level of care.
This same argument would apply to Education. Now, the trend is toward abandoning Public Schools while the Rich and the Powerful send their children to privately funded schools. Now, if such private schools were suppressed, and a univeral equality of Public School Facilities insisted upon -- when the Rich Children would have to go to the same schools as the Poor Children, then and only then, would we see the Rich and the Powerful push for a general improvement in Education.
and I have already mentioned that Police Services are now being withdrawn from the General Society as the Wealthy Classes retreat into their Privately Secured Private Gated Communities. The Poorer Neighborhoods try to make due with their informal Community Protection Organizations, but in almost every instance, these groups are treated by the Established Society as though they are synonymous with Organized Crime itself. Propaganda calls them Mafias. What little attention these Poorer Communities receive from the Official Police is often targetted against any organized element in these Communities, almost as though the Police are enforcing the General Poverty, and fighting what they call "Organized Crime" in order to guarantee a universal chaos of unorganized crime. All while the Rich and the Powerful live behind their new Great Walls and under the protections of their private police forces and armed guards.
While the Wealthies Classes are convinced that their Wealth depends upon the successful play of Competition against those who must remain poorer then themselves, then we will see not a Civilization that strives for a General Improvement in Everybody's Condition, but a sustained attack by the Wealthy, against the Poor, all to enforce this Victory in Competition.
Indeed, Capitalism implies a War which everybody will eventually lose to one small very competitive Winner. and it is expected that we will all go quietly to our graves as good losers.
