If the social experiment of capitalism and colonization has shown us anything, it’s that power corrupts (or maybe it’s cause/correlation; that those who go for power are corrupt or those IN power have corruptions stemming from elitism.)
We need to run our people-systems differently than we run businesses. We’re not products on a shelf, static in existence. It’s not that simple.
Self care is an act for the community greater good and it’s when we don’t take care of ourselves first and foremost that we become a burden on the support systems, but these systems’ literal jobs are to support the citizens.
Right now, all of these systems are run in a “power-over” structure, rather than an empowerment model. We need to stop micro-managing as a government, and trust our citizens a little bit more. All of our care systems for mind, body, and spirit are isolated and often at odds with each other. We are reacting to the check engine light, where the systems need to make routine maintenance easier. People do what’s easy.
We need to create safe, empowering environments for citizens to get the care they need in a multi-faceted approach, where the burden of labour isn’t wholly on the system or on the citizen. We already have so many systems in place, if we simply integrated systems that can leverage each others’ strengths and support each others weaknesses, everyone will be able to function more effectively, be happier and healthier, and by extension, business and creativity will thrive in sustainable ways.
Right now, patients in medical systems need to fight for care, and there are different standards of care for many reasons. People in the trans community, the black community, generally any demographic that isn’t white male does not have comprehensive research into diseases/treatment, nor their pain taken as seriously.
We need to stop treating the mind and the body as separate realms. Our mind may be driving our body, but there are so many direct connections to how stress and emotion affects the body, and when we have isolated systems looking at symptoms and not the whole picture, it will always be band aid solutions and not addressing the root causes. This will always be a heavier burden on the medical system than proactively managing and mitigating illness, disease, and will ensure happier citizens.
Right now, gay men still have different restrictions on giving blood when the justifications they give for why are not isolated to gay men. There are still “loopholes” in the system where gay folks can marry, but not with the same comprehensive rights.
We need to release this grip on gender we have. We need to treat everyone as humans first and foremost, without conditions where the rights degrades with certain labels. Gender can and should be freeing, particularly for those who may not have related to the gender they were assigned at birth. Our systems have taken gender and orientation, religion and ability, and used them as factors that allow them to decide what level of care you receive.
Right now, we have cities dumping resources into suing tiny-home builders rather than housing those living rough, while still insisting they “can’t be here”. Those living rough are not so different from the majority of us, just a couple missed paychecks. The stigma they face from this “othering”, coming from citizens and officials alike, even further dissolves the sense of self, community and purpose, furthering the divide. It’s no wonder those who feel outcast from society find their own where they’re not “others”.
We need to help our fellow humans, and no one should have to live rough, particularly in a pandemic. The funds that are being allocated to fight someone who stepped up to fill a gap in the system instead of solving the problem in the first place is such a strong indicator towards the attitude and direction the Governments take; that this is a business venture first, and secondly come the responsibilities with the power.
Right now, we have companies creating green and eco products as their luxury tier and earth-damaging overpackaged crap as the cheap price point. This is absolutely backwards, and companies hold the burden of responsibility as they are creating and making available products (and by extension, the packaging they come in,) yet consumers are told they personally are the reason for all the dead sea turtles because they use a straw. This mortgaging to and manipulation of emotion for the consumer is how marketing pressures you into buying more expensive “green” products. When those in poverty can’t afford the “green” products, or the healthy food, they get the bad wrap.
We need to make all packing as minimal as possible, any packaging that is needed needs to be biodegradable, returnable for refund, or reusable. We cannot allow companies to continue to take the cheap shortcut and then mortgage the emotion burden of wastefulness onto the consumer.
We are trapped in an abusive relationship with these systems, where we can’t speak up without fear of repercussion, we can’t protest for safety, we can’t even ask for the truth, because when we do it becomes a heated argument and we’re blamed for not trusting them.
But how long are we expected to ignore the mismatch between actions and words? Are we just supposed to stand by and watch as our world burns, us alongside? We cannot just trust the word of those in power anymore, we need to listen to their actions, and this isn’t a call for cancel culture, but rather the opposite; This is a call for accountability culture, a call to NOT lett them walk away.
We see these same patterns play out, we get the same apologies, the promises of never again, and like clockwork, the same profits-first bottom line, regardless of the toll on the people.
