The Myth of “Hard Times”

Over and over again, the media mouthpieces of the corporate oligarchy tell us that we are in “tough economic times” and that “things are tough all over”.

And we just take their word for it. They flash some impressively byzantine numbers at us, assure us that this means things are bad, and we just suck it down like chocolate pudding.

But what does “tough times” even really mean? Does anyone really know? You can talk about unemployment, housing starts, or the Dow Jones all day long, but when all is said and done, most of us have have no idea what any of those things really mean, or whether they even mean anything meaningful about the state of things at all.

So to most people, these words mean nothing intrinsically, but they are potent codewords spoken by the true God to which we are all enslaved : The Economy.

And what the priests of the great Mammon known as The Economy are truly saying to us is : lower your expectations. Put up with abuse at work because it’s so hard to find a job in This Economy. Don’t even think of asking for more… there is no way we could afford it in This Economy. In fact, you will be expected to take one for the team when you tighten your buckle and make do with less. Don’t dare complain… you should be glad you even have a job in This Economy.

And because we have all been taught to worship this false God called The Economy, we believe it. The Economy is angry. The Economy is withholding jobs and security from us because we did something very, very wrong. We strayed from the path laid down for us by the priests of The Economy, and now we must be prepared to do whatever it takes to appease The Economy so that it will smile upon us and grant us prosperity again.

And what do we do to appease The Economy? Why, whatever the bought and paid for priests of The Economy, the financial analysts and economists and stockbrokers, tell us to do, because the will of The Economy is mysterious and unknowable except to the chosen few, and so we have no choice but to just trust them that The Economy is how they say it is and works like they say it works.

This blind faith is expected of us despite how clear it is that these priests of The Economy work entirely for the wealthy elite and serve their interests, not ours. It is expected despite the very clear evidence that their advice almost never delivers the results they promise. It is expected despite the fact that the entire intellectual basis for their voodoo is riddled with unsupported suppositions, absurd simplifications, and a patently obvious lack of understanding the very human beings who make up the economy.

Because that is the big lie they so desperately want you to believe : that they, and only they, can understand the will of The Economy, and therefore, like any priest class, they act like they own The Economy.

But they don’t own it. They have simply snowed us into thinking they do. The economy, the real one not the false Mammon, is us. We are it, and it is we. It is our labour, our ingenuity, our perseverance, our blood and tears that generate an economy, and therefore this Economy god is nothing more than a golden idol used by the corrupt elites to distract us from our true power as consumers, as citizens, and as human beings.

They don’t own the economy. We do. It is ours. And like all things in a democratic society, we can do as we please with it and if it stops serving us, we are free – completely free – to change the rules until it does.

Stop believing their lies! It could not be clearer that the rules no longer serve the average global citizen, but instead serve to take money away from the many and pump it up to the few, with nothing trickling down.

Because as it turns out, rich people taking your money does not generate economic activity, especially in the modern age where risk is something the little people take and the rich can get richer without ever bothering to hire anybody or invest in anything.

They just pick a pony in the mass hysteria experiment known as the “stock market”, and if their pony wins, they keep the money, and if it loses, they just declare a shell corporation bankrupt and leave us, the little people, to pay for their poor luck.

This in no way helps those of us still living on Main Street. They have told us that it does, and that we should all care about the results of the latest horse race as much as they do, and get all sad when the Dow Jones goes down as if it is anything more than a meaningless aggregation of gambling decisions.

Now think about your lifetime. How often have you been told you were living in hard times? Who told you that? How many of the year of your life have been lived in hard times as opposed to good times?

And why has nobody ever actually told you “these are the good times”?

Because the very people in charge of the economy in our absence loathe “good times”. It is not in their best interests for people to start thinking things are good, because then they might just want a bigger slice of the pie and the wealthy elite would much rather keep it all for themselves, no matter how rich they are.

They want us meek and docile and undemanding, and above all, cheap. They have never liked having to value human life, and so they keep us thinking we are in hard times, and when that starts to be hard for the people to believe, they are not above deliberately crashing the whole economy in order to bring back those “hard times” (which for them are the “good times”) that they love so much.

Do you know what this means? We have left the economy – the real one – in the hands of doctors who do not actually want it to get better.

And yet, kings and governments (all run by the rich, of course) keep taking their advice.

Well enough is enough. We need to rise up as one global population, cast off the myth of The Economy, repair all the holes they have drilled in the rules that are supposed to protect us from them, and put in governments that get results… or else.

Because let me be clear…. while the world’s governments refuse to rein in the wealthy elite, they should not know a moment’s peace. Same for the elite themselves. Every peaceful effort must be made in order to make governments listen to the will of the people again.

And that means maximum resistance. There should be no place those in power can go where they will be safe from the voices of protesters. There should be no online forum where they can be safe from the opinions of those they oppress. There should be no protection from the people demanding that all funds connected to themselves, whether or not they have been entrusted to these priests of Mammon before in the form of retirement plans, be divested of all connections to corporate oligarchy. There should be no employee they can trust to remain in their employ once it is revealed how bestial they truly are, let alone trust with their secrets.

They act like they are gods but they feed on our blood. It is in our power to deny it to them. We are still in control, despite what they would like you to believe.

If we all divest, we can starve them. If we all protest, they will hear us.

If we all resist, we can stop them.

The question is… are we ready to do it?

Or would we rather let monsters run the world if it means we don’t have to bother and can go back to blissful ignorance while sociopathic corporations and their morally despicable masters rape us of our blood?

This is the choice we face, and we have to face it now, while there is still freedom left to protect. The politicians cannot solve problems for us when it is in their best interest not to solve them at all.

We the people can still take back the reins of power and shove aside the vampires and jackals who have tricked us into letting the foxes run the henhouses.

It only takes the will and determination to stand up and say “No more!”.

These monsters stand atop towers made of a meek and docile humanity.

Let’s show them just how far they have to fall, and MAKE THEM TUMBLE.

That’s all from me for today… talk to you tomorrow, folks.

One thought on “The Myth of “Hard Times”

  1. I had noticed that it has been “tough economic times” (a phrase I always found clunky) for my entire adult life, at the very least. I’m sure they were saying “…but in this economy…” in the seventies and eighties, too. I wonder if they were saying it in the fifties?

    They do mention good times, but only in retrospect. Apparently the 1990s were a time of economic prosperity. Looking back, that is.

    As Phil Hendrie said, when someone asks you about the economy, the answer is whatever’s going on in your finances at that moment. When you’re poor, the economy’s bad. When you’re doing well, the economy’s good. Nobody’s going to convince you we’re living through a boom if you’ve been out of work for two years, and you’re not going to believe the economy’s truly bad if you’re making more money than you ever have.

    It seems quaint now when I watch Robocop 3 and there are characters killing themselves the moment they get laid off or fired. In 1993 we were just starting to feel the chill. Now it’s the new normal.

    You should be a speech-writer for a charismatic politician or grassroots organizer who can say those words and get everyone behind him.

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