Blog #2 - Broken system

Solaris The Artist
Apr 27
7 min read

Understanding humanity - a deeper look

Welcome back! Before we look at the present and the future, let’s take a look into Earth’s past for another moment. Money didn’t exist, capitalism wasn’t even a thought, how on Earth did people survive? Depending on where and when you look, some people adopted a barter-trade system, others lived in a community that provided everything for everyone, some even implemented both into their communities. How did this work? Villages would have different groups of people providing different things for the collective. Briefly stated in the previous blog, a group of hunters would hunt for food, artisans would craft clothing, carpenters would build and repair structures, doctors would forage for herbs to use as medicine and treat anyone that needed tending to (free healthcare?!). Warriors would defend and protect the village, every individual had a vital role that provided more than enough for everyone so the entire community could flourish. Nothing had to be paid for when the resources were provided freely, the only requirement was that everyone contributed to the wellbeing of the community. But this is nearly impossible today due to colonization, everything is provided to us at the expense of money. It’s because of this that the definition of survival has changed immensely from what it was before. Now “survival” means overworking to pay bills (more stress to pay them all on time), paying more to eat healthy, paying for healthcare, paying for basic necessities while struggling to have enough money and time to rest, relax, and actually be happy because everything costs money. Even with a job, most people still aren’t able to afford rent, let alone enough groceries to actually sustain themselves. Healthcare? Damn near non-existent. Still with me? Good, it’s about to get real and honestly, it’s going to make people uncomfortable.

Capitalism- an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market. The system we’ve known our entire lives, but in America it goes deeper than that. Rooted in misogyny, power, and dominion, thriving from exploitation, is the system of the patriarchy. Broken from the start, patriarchy at its core is the belief that one must assert their dominance over others, money and power are necessary just to have a place in this world, to have value. Patriarchy is established as a pyramid, profit at the top, above everything else with men right underneath, women and minorities underneath them, children and nature last. It works overtime to protect those with influence and silence those who've been affected by them, also encouraging the mindset of individualism and lack of empathy, “If it doesn’t affect me, why should I care?” When this is all you’ve known your entire life, it’s hard to imagine the world could be any other way. The individuals in control of the patriarchy though, that’s exactly what they’re banking on. Patriarchy and capitalism function in a way that keeps the nervous system dysregulated and rooted in dysfunction. The individuals at the top exploit this "advantage" and the fact that most people do not know any other way to function, reinforcing the belief that the world must operate this way. Taking another perspective on it, there’s two sides of the coin when it comes to the concept of control and asserting dominance. For some individuals, the need for dominance is a trauma response from having corrupted power exerted over them. For others, it is a behavioral conditioning from childhood allowing them to believe they are entitled to power. Both stem from long established family patterns as a part of the nervous system. Did you know that your nervous system is actually inherited from your mother? She and her siblings (if applicable) got theirs from your grandmother, who got hers from your great-grandmother, so on and so forth. Take it a step further by considering the type of environment they were raised in, constantly under pressure, nervous systems in dysfunction became normalized, finding a way to monetize any and everything became normalized.

Side note: have you noticed how bad allergies are all of a sudden and the production of pollen is higher than ever? That is the result of authorities planting only male trees. The reduction of female trees makes the males produce MORE pollen in search of a female (only females bear fruit), why does the government do this? Well they say it’s to reduce the safety hazards and the amount of waste that would come from fruit-bearing trees, but trying to make sense of this, it doesn’t make sense at all. Since fruits are naturally biodegradable, what’s actually being wasted if the decomposition would nourish the soil to make the plant life stronger (composting)? Reducing fruit-bearing trees prevents people from eating freely, therefore greatly increasing the motivation to monetize a basic necessity (go figure). I suppose there could be a concern of people just tossing inedible parts wherever thinking “Well if it’s biodegradable it’s not hurting the Earth.” The smell of decomposition could also be another thing to worry about. One solution to this could be teaching people how to compost correctly, to my knowledge there are already composting programs around the country, but instead of just doing it for people, also teaching them how to do it themselves. A conspiracy theorist could say governing authorities are intentionally “incapacitating” certain resources to make money selling said resources, like poisoning our food while increasing the cost of healthcare and the cost of eating healthy…

Reeling the tangent back in, those at the top of the pyramid seem to share this mindset: “The longer we can keep people thinking they need to work harder to survive, the more they’ll expend energy and productivity just to be free. How can we use that to our benefit?” Take a hard look at their behavior nowadays, this is what it translates to. The effect this has on us now? They’re able to manipulate the system in a way that deprives us of what we actually need to try and force us to work harder for less (thriving off the relationship between the nervous system and hustle culture), squeezing every last ounce of energy and productivity just to line their pockets. Then they punish (or just flat out ignore) those who speak out and ask for fairness to “make an example”, forcing people to give into their fear and comply with their demands, or breaking their spirit altogether. On top of that, automating almost everything to increase efficiency and cut back on human labor to, of course, capitalize as much profit as they can possibly get (no wonder it’s so hard for people to get employed). What it seems like is that they’re trying to tire people out and sanction the festering of the individualist mindset, trying to make it harder for us to come together and fight for the system to change.

Studying certain behavioral patterns in different environments I’ve noticed something: morality absolutely plays a part in the relationship between a leader, the people they’re leading and the wellbeing of them and their environment. Well duh! But allow me to break it down for you. A fact of life: when the conditions within an environment are optimal and fair, productivity skyrockets. This isn’t limited to physical conditions, mental and emotional conditions play a large part as well, but some leaders don’t know how to balance all of these aspects (some don’t pay attention to any of them). Leaders with low morality often believe they are owed and entitled to high productivity just because they’re in a place of power. Leading with fear/manipulation will ALWAYS lead to resentment and eventually retaliation, but leading with genuine care and mutual respect builds a stable foundation for the collective to trust their leader, vice versa. Those who lead with fear/manipulation often have an innate fear of people turning on them, or people treating them how they’ve treated others. Take a look at Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Mai and Ty Lee both got fed up and eventually retaliated, Azula started projecting her fears onto others which isolated her. Aang, however, cultivated a space where his friends felt safe enough to trust him even when it felt like he was making questionable decisions, he trusted them too.

I want to get your brain juices flowing for a second, ever notice that AI is

suddenly being forced on us almost everywhere? Some search engines don’t even give us the option to turn it off, most people don’t even want to use it anymore. Many people would argue there are plenty of learning benefits that AI provides, but at what cost? Answer: Critical Thinking Skills. Ever heard the term Cognitive Off-loading? It is the act of obtaining information but not actually retaining it, almost like taking notes for a test but your mind deleting that same information once the test is over. It’s performative and happens in both children and adults. When children are in an environment where grades are more important than actually learning, it pushes them to use tools where they don’t have to think or use their brains. Same with adults, when all of the answers are “right there”, who needs to do research? Who needs originality when you could have the tool that does it all for you? But then what happens when there comes a time that tool isn’t available or needed? The result: children in high school are unable to read or spell, adults in a business meeting don’t have the answer to a question that wasn’t covered in their presentation (true story, this actually happened to me while I was in college), these are just a few examples. It seems like that is the goal though, to create a collective of workers that are not able to think for themselves, that won’t question what’s factual versus opinionated and trust an experimental software over their own knowledge and intuition. The more we rely on technology, the less originality and the human connection will be valued, all for the sake of “better business”. Could it be that they’re using us to train the AI to mimic the human connection so they won’t have to hire humans? But at the root of it all, there it is again: the greed for profit (companies), and the accessibility (consumers). See how money stays at the top of the pyramid?

Gear up for the next blog, it’s going to be a REAL deep dive. Thanks for tuning in!

-Solaris The Artist