Capitalism has turned the natural, balancing, grounding act of creation into just another way to make money. It’s turned every feeling into a hostile takeover of our money making potential.
And capitalism exploits our emotions in so many ways to keep us from resisting it. It demands our isolation. We drive in our personal little boxes to our personal little boxes at work where we spend every hour of daylight working on a little box, before coming home to our little box and eating from a little box before laying on a little box to return to the same boxes tomorrow.
This isolation keeps us alienated. This means everyone is suffering, but we are forced to suffer alone. This isolation becomes internalized and we blame ourselves for it. We have no energy to revolt or change anything. We don’t even have energy to reach out to people we love. The only energy we have is for survival, which means we have to continue putting every ounce of ourselves into our labor and productivity.
All we have left is our labor, which means there’s no energy left to fight the people exploiting it.
The “cost of living” is killing yourself to barely stay alive.
Our physical and emotional vitality is tied to our creativity and passion, but these too, have been coopted by a society that puts value only on economics.
Capitalism worked hard to keep us from ourselves.
Our politicians use emotional agitation and manipulation to keep us compliant and/or defeated. We’re forced to stay in the role of the laborer.
And because they’ve designed the system to keep us isolated no matter how bleak it gets, we have no appropriate outlets to release this emotional weight. Most people have no idea how to even identify their emotions let alone process them effectively, so we end up blaming ourselves for having them. We see everyone else in their boxes and we assume they’re doing just fine and we blame ourselves for being “broken” or unable to keep up. We internalize the shame and pain instead of externalizing it, which is part of the cycle that keeps the pain coming.
What we don’t realize is that everyone of us who labors or works for a paycheck is struggling in some capacity. We are lonely, terrified, and defeated. We’ve been convinced we can “win” and “catch up” if we just keep our head down and work hard. But productivity is up and profits are up, but wages are down and as a result, so is hope.
We blame ourselves for being human and we hide in shame when we feel any emotions. The problem is, nobody can keep up.
If you love urself, you can rest without shame, and the shareholders cannot make a profit on that. If you love yourself you won’t buy endless products thinking the next one is gonna be the one to help you get your shit together finally, and shareholders can’t profit off of that. Shareholders have manufactured self-loathing and shame in each of us, much to their benefit.
Reclaim your emotions. Reclaim "unproductive" output. Reclaim connection. Do the work to push back against the people exploiting us.
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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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