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The collapse of worker solidarity is a moral downfall.

 

 

We have not done away with cruelty, corruption, and the general alienation of the masses; and only because capitalism and its advancement have perpetuated apathy among the Western working class. In foreign nations, indignities persist, akin to the early industrial era. Those indignities still befall — although primarily in developing nations — the workers of that nation, owing to a lack of collegiality among the global working class. Moreover, the deprivation of that collegiality is because the Western proletariat– that being the Western majority — no longer finds itself in the role of societal victim and is apathetic as a result. Rather, the entire Western working class, for that matter, has been recast in the eye of the bourgeoisie to be a perpetrator of indignity equal to that of the bourgeois.

The working class — so the argument ran — through its acute modes of organization, would obtain the means of expunging the capitalist and would inevitably go about doing so. That optimism was somewhat sensible; the early to mid-twentieth century was the epoch for social reorganization in Europe and elsewhere in the industrialized world (Berger, 2008). Consider, for instance, the emergence of socialism in Eastern Europe which had threatened the bourgeois no matter their setting. The bourgeoisie, rather aptly, surrendered much of its control in society to the working class at large. This was a global process made evident through a vast social revolution, one of undeniable subtlety, whereas, in the United States, we criminally expelled the Gilded Age to the Third World. This can best be assessed in the Western increase in wages, working conditions, and the entire reorganization of the economic structure in America and the West. Such a change only came about amid the end of the Second World War, whereby the American wage rate had doubled (Star, 2015). But, critically, this revolution had not prevailed in the developing world.

Perceivably this action would have been an immense and catastrophic reckoning for the gentry. Rather, the bourgeois treachery reimagined itself and presently continues to subjugate the worker to indignities in lands external to our own. The previously mentioned economic refashioning of the Western apparatus inclined the bourgeoisie to outsource heartless means of production to otherwise paltry nations. In the case of the Congo, whereby 70 percent of the world’s Cobalt is mined, the ruthless pursuit of profit has subjected the foreign worker to drudgery. Of course, cobalt mining is a rather tragic ordeal, where the global proletariat, many of whom are children, suffer (Lawson, 2021).

This is a critical understanding, that although the standard of living for the Western working class has been raised substantially; the need for commodities has only augmented. Therefore, the Western populace and its otherwise expansive numbers, have been profoundly utilized as a malleable market for mass consumption rather than production. It manifests itself in the American fetishism to the possession of general commodities, whether it be of material, food, or technology. Just as we indulge ourselves in ill-gotten chocolate, that which may have been harvested at the hand of a child (Whoriskey & Siegel, 2019).

The Western proletariat has lost all advantage or any precedence it had once held against the bourgeois. Both because it is without the leverage needed to overpower the exploiting class, but also because we require the same commodity as we were before — although it is not us who are responsible for its manufacturing. We are now fantastically at the mercy of the wealthy class, who possess all manner of material and subsistence for the proletariat by virtue of their sole ownership of foreign industry.

By acting as the consumer, we have given rise to new indignities and alienation in lands external to our own. Therefore, the Western proletariat is not only profusely ignorant of the global aristocratic oppression, but much of that class is unable to feel an inkling of compassion for persons other than himself alone. Because we have been absolved of that same cruel labor, and to an extent, our wealth is reliant on it. As in the Congo, where cobalt is mined for the Western consumption of computers, phones, and other trivial commodities. Or evident in third-world sweatshops. In a few words, the global working class will inevitably prey upon itself as a means of nourishment.

We may also attribute this indifference of the global proletarian misery to cultural capitalism, which has occasioned apathy among the Western working class.

The social and cultural apparatus are determined by capitalism, and therefore beget indifference inherent to capitalism. The following pages examine the capitalist expansion into our culture and its consequences.

II

Genocide, mass mutilation, and a multitude of indignities do so often occur, in foreign otherwise impoverished nations (Tisdall 2023.). And yet the considerably wealthier working class of the West does not put forward an inkling of adequate or influential aid. All that is offered, instead, are rather ornamental and honeyed words of supposed solidarity, seemingly inclined by publicity. The wealth and opulence of the United States alone could, within a mere flash of a camera, end genocide in Darfur and Myanmar. However, indignities and injustice will never be exorcised as long as there is no absolute chance to commoditize the conflict or indignity inflicted. We affectionately name this practice rational governance because it adds to an already surplus arsenal of resources and wealth. This farce is only prevailed by the elementary notion that by refusing to engage in justifiable conflict or intervene on behalf of a foreign people, we are by some measure behaving rationally and sustainably. However, the rational’s of the West are in no sense the dependable logicians they claim to be. Isolationism and capitalism at large, which idealize the premise that we live solely for ourselves alone, is a mere dressed-up idiocy.

Virtue, or ethical prudence, could be defined by empathetic actions in service to others. Similarly, rationality is characterized by a desire to properly serve society’s majority. In short, both seemingly contradictory thoughts are fundamentally compatible. Therefore, isolationism and capitalism at large, are unethical, and to a lesser extent, rather insipid and irrational. There is no numerical metric as to why the wealthy minority of the western hemisphere of Europe and America should enjoy a life long and well lived. While the East and nations of a lower economic quality are to toil in exploitation.

Considering isolationism, the United States and its administration will often use it to mitigate calls for intervention in their claims that American lives should not be risked. And yet, by what judicious or ethical cogitation are a handful of American lives not a worthy trade for the liberation of thousands of foreigners?

Amid the great difference in splendor between the Western apparatus and that of the East, a greater principle for government and thought needs to be worked into the global community. Apathy may only be expelled by the elimination of capitalism and the subsequent reorganization of society with an impetus of morality. A complete reengineering is not what is idealized, but instead what the bourgeois has relegated society to do.

Every hand of the superstructure, or the social apparatus, of the West, has been engineered with a malevolent intent. Therefore, even the very fibers of our culture must be refashioned with a new philosophy of virtue rather than capitalism and its ill-begotten apathy. All actions of government must be the product of an agreed-upon ethical credence with the intent of availing all life on earth, unimportant in this case are differences in race, creed, gender, and religion. An ethical state must surely remove from society all manner of economic nationalism, as they are often inherent to capitalism. These efforts to alter the very nature of society can be made through the education of our posterity and future generations, a cultural rotation above all else is required.

American culture and the social structure exist to exploit the mind into accepting an unpleasant aspect of society as a standard, or something rather pleasant. These standards are only tolerated due to their apparent normality in society. Consider the American family. In American society, new adults often cut themselves away from their families, accepting that practice as a normality. Instead, this practice holds little basis in ethical reasoning. The family elsewhere in the world is seldom abandoned and instead is perceived as a perennial connection between life. As evident through the practices frequented by the Arabian bedouin, they prove themselves to be completely in service to the family unit and not to the hand of some commodity (Ghazal, 2012).

These societies, most of which are yet to be industrialized, show greater gratitude for the principle of fraternity due to their reclusive manner in existing away from the capitalist extent. The dogma that success and commodity supersede all tangible connections of morality and family is the result of Western culture and media. And more, the characteristics of the Western-capitalist superstructure that have been perceived as a normality and permeated into the minds of the Western populace.

Apathy and capitalism simply beget one another. It is this principle that has tragically assumed control of the Western entirety, and it may only be undone with the reintroduction of morality as the primary mode of government. Regarding apathy, it was the Industrial and Capital Revolutions along with the Enlightenment that implemented this cancer into the Western viscera. However, in no sense is the alternative, that being a monarchical body, historically benevolent, instead, it had been equal to some capitalist indignities. Yet, it was the removal of these principles that were the introductory circumstances to capitalism and Western indifference. Preceding these times, the state’s action was in service to, or at least influenced by, an ethical principle enacted on a greater purview. Cyrus the Great, and other virtuous persons with that characteristic and intellectual dexterity, had been in the service of their propriety and had consequently brought peace, stability, and the deliverance from misery to millions of ancient peoples. The Enlightenment and its liberal reformation had dissolved the state’s oversight of the economy and the individual. In a manner, it had done away with royal tyranny and crude monarchy but had inevitably manufactured a well-to-do and organized capitalist tyranny. Because these effects of the Enlightenment favored individualism, they consequently removed any social obligation from general society and the cultural superstructure. The collectively shared axiom of Cyrus and other such persons was effectively annulled, and as a result, many were not so bothered with society’s flaws as they would have been. That enlightened era had been in part the result of Adam Smith. In a nutshell, Smith was under the cynical impression that man is constantly in service to himself alone and his own financial inclinations. But Smith, upon determining this assumption to be a certainty, had encouraged man to continue his greed. Know that Smith had made no conscious effort to subdue that human attribute, rather he and the old liberals trusted the invisible hand to do this for society.

Following this argument, how can cruelty and apathy possibly be erased with the re-introduction of an ethical state? The means of doing away with cruelty, incorrectly, implies violent force would be the manner in which cruelty is removed. However, ironically, all attempts to remove inhumanity with force must inevitably make use of cruelty as the means of doing so. Therefore, the introduction of a new ethical state would be of the same reasoning, claiming cruelty is to be opposed. Hence, we can be certain of a lack of violence in its very eradication. Another possible criticism of an ethical society is that it will, as a matter of course, give way to an all-too-powerful state to overtake society’s current and flawed functioning.

The contemporary world, in all its benefits, for the most part, opposes tyranny and monarchy. Therefore, a state, obliged in service to a greater ethical standard, ought to have these principles in service to that people’s general welfare. That, of course, ensures the prevention of a despotic state for all future posterity. For the same reason, a culture electrified by morality rather than wealth will, by force of circumstance, be democratic because democracy is the practice in which the overwhelming majority maintains the societal apparatus.

An integral aspect of an ideal ethical state is its service to global life rather than nationality; those in bondage, domestic and abroad, as well as any instance in which a grave injustice is committed, will be liberated from their drudgery. Thus, all institutions that are responsible for the at-large exploitation of the laborers or the destitute, within our nation and abroad, would be stamped out. Furthermore, a society in service to a robust and well-defined ethical standard will make use of global collegiality to eliminate treachery abroad. That ideal society will be capable of doing so, on account of a lack of financial incentives in all political action. As an example, the modern drama of warfare has been with the means of furthering national wealth, as a result of the industrial military complex. If, however, socially our state had abandoned greed as an impetus to action, then indignity and war abroad would be interceded, with the intent of fulfilling some ethical obligation. Moreover, if virtue is given the same bother as the ownership of commodities, the Western working class would make use of proletarian collegiality and deliver the universal working class from its exploitation. The global proletariat would as a matter of circumstance ascend from cannibalism and instead share in its desire to achieve a worker’s utopia. Whereby all citizenry, foreign and domestic, would act on behalf of one another. Owing to the absence of any manner of capitalism or the desire to grow in the prosperity of the self rather than the collective.

In this case, an extension to the argument would best serve its structure. Those who take issue with the aforementioned opinions may do so on behalf of their loving obedience to capitalism, rather than some pragmatic devotion. Capitalism is fetishized and upheld by its questionless supporters; they claim capitalism is an inevitability and has acted as the most successful economic model in our tragic world. Yet Germany, whose workers maintain and own a sizable percentage of the modes of industry, has proven the capitalist a farce. The German economic base marches towards absolute collectivization of the means of production. And they prove themselves a completely capable and immense force despite this (Jager, Noy, & Schoefer, 2022). From this principle alone, we may not possibly offer any reasonable defense to the exploitation of the Congolese worker, for instance.

Many may also find fault in the argument’s persecution of the working class, and their lack of universalism. Agreeably, it seems odd that although we denounce the bourgeois for their exploitation, we do not denounce their lack of action in support of morality. And yet, if a man unleashes a beast onto a crowd, and if this action results in death, then it is not the beast we persecute. Rather, we persecute the maniac who had the temerity to unleash such a danger, knowing full well that his actions would result in disaster. The bourgeois cannot be assumed to act morally, just as the beast only did what its existence had entitled it to do, the bourgeois is, by its genuine nature, bound to exploit. Although it is the working class with the capability of tenderness, who had failed to act per its nature. That being, a member of the universal proletariat, one who must inevitably set about a return to morality rather than commodity.

That being said, our primary objective must be to bring about a return to a state in which morality is the impetus for all government. Rather than the apathetic pursuit of wealth which has impeded the betterment of many people, especially those of an impoverished nation. The pursuit of morality — as opposed to the pursuit of commodities — can deliver millions from misery, just as it did under Cyrus. It can put into effect an era of perpetual peace and enjoyed existence, for there is no moral justification for the private ownership of wealth, nor is there any moral reason for the unequal divorce of capital and ownership.

If we are to undo apathy and capitalism, by and large, it must be by the hand of the working class that such a change will inevitably occur. The foreign worker, for the most part, has yet to be torn away from its obligation to morality. As such, that class is the only social stratum with the capability to bring about social change. With the global worker as its vanguard, this new paradigm of thought must surely assume control of society. And eventually, the entirety of the world ought to throw off the fetters of capitalism and engage itself in an era of collegiality and absolute egalitarianism. Under these conditions alone, will the global working class excise itself of class cannibalism. Now electrified with the principle of morality; we will liberate ourselves of cruelty and alienation.

A justification is much needed in this case. We have acknowledged apathy’s existence, albeit we have not persuaded anybody as to why apathy is a particularly detrimental thing. Apart from misery subjecting the destitute, the indifferent are not inclined to do away with that suffering. Hence, the indifferent must find themselves capable of comprehending apathy’s spoiling effect on themselves. Humans are a social species, one who has never been willingly restrained to isolation. As such, we find gain in some sense of empathy. Even the apathetic is still derived with this attribute, although it is often impotent in its ability to behave according to it. We must therefore make use of empathy if we are to properly satisfy our nature, the process in which society shares in its prosperity, is the same process in which society flourishes. And therefore, doing otherwise is an appropriation of nature. Caring for a neighbor will inevitably bring into being a greater and more visceral alliance between those two parties, as such, empathy towards one another, will ensure our species is not to further its general collapse.

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