Theofilos Chaldezos - Canary in the Mine: A Thought on the Economic Crisis

We are justifiably frightened of what tomorrow may bring. Many of us wake up wondering how life will be even in just a few months, once again living in uncertainty. With highly inadequate practices, governments are making decisions to prematurely relax their lockdowns in a desperate attempt to soften the blow to their economies, using their populations as a kind of “canary in the mine.” Others, like the European Union, are giving “aid” to their member states in the form of loans, further increasing their debt, which the public will have to bear in possible future unemployment, bankruptcy, pay and pension pay cuts, and other malevolent consequences in an attempt to further drive the neoliberal agenda. History may judge them harshly, but in the present, real people will suffer. In times like this, we are reminded that most politicians are just businessmen and lawyers, severely underqualified to take care of the well-being of all people and the environment. They are subservient, just like all of us, to the bottom line – profit. Leaders are put there to keep things as they are, which is to perpetuate our frail global operating system. “Frail operating system” is a term that I use to describe any operating system that has its focus fixed on infinite economic growth on a finite planet with finite resources. The fragility of the rules of the game that we all agree to play by are exposed when a crisis, such as a pandemic, financial bust, or some combination of both, grows as a byproduct of the inefficiencies of our current global economic system. It seems to me that the five elements of planetary destruction, namely: Political, Religious, Legal, War and, Financial institutions, continue to interact to lead our society to oblivion by driving forward to achieve their bottom lines without any regard for the collateral damage they invariably cause. While necessary in this type of system to ensure that people adhere to quarantine and social distancing protocols, and for them to gain knowledge of who has the virus and who doesn’t, governments are asserting emergency powers over their people and collecting insurmountable amounts of data about the population. As always, we have hardly any idea of what the governments of the world are up to. Transparency seems to be a one way deal in this system. An economic system that crumbles if people don’t exercise mindless and reckless over-consumption is far too infantile in its understanding to possess the power it [wields]. It is holding life on the planet hostage to its stupidity. We need something immensely better. We need a Global Resource-Based Economy. Refuse to be the “canary in the mine” and find us at www.thevenusproject.com