Hello Beautiful!
First things first! If you haven't done so already - check out part one of this post here.
This week I'm diving deep into all the social issues we face, that we are currently blaming on individuals making 'bad choices' that I feel may actually be coming from a SYSTEM that's broken and disempowering.
I want to dive deep into this because I feel like in order for us to create a new system that's going to work for LIFE - we have to understand that blaming ourselves for the failures of the system isn't going to work.
We aren't going to self improve/spiritualize our way into being successful/happy/healthy in a system that is fundamentally against life - and in order to change the system we have to first identify the actual CAUSE of our suffering - the system. We have to break out of the conditioning that says if we can't make it work in the system that WE suck and need to fix OURSELVES.
This is a big one, so let's explore and see how we go.
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What If Our Individual Problems Aren't All Because Of Individual 'Bad Choices'?
If we were to take an HONEST look at culture, society and how we got here - how many of our current cultural problems that we’ve been so quick to blame INDIVIDUAL CHOICE for, are actually rooted in a system that functions in a way that necessitates that people struggle, suffer and go without?
For instance - there is SUCH a social narrative that our health is a personal choice. That our health status is purely a result of our individual choice to support/not support our own wellness.
But what if this isn’t true?
In our current system, MOST people have to work long hours. Most people have to sacrifice large portions of their days/weeks to jobs that require them to be seated indoors for long stretches of time, working in factories, working around chemicals, working in high stress environments, constantly having to override their need for movement, sunshine, fresh air, socialization and breaks. MOST people have to put their bodies in harm's way in order to earn the money they need to survive.
The human body wasn’t designed to work 8 hours/12 hour shifts/overtime/several jobs a day. It wasn’t designed to continually get up before the sun, commute, work inside all day, commute home, have just enough time to eat and vege out in front of the T.V. It wasn’t designed to do long hours of physical labor only to go home and work even MORE to sustain and maintain the home and family. It wasn’t designed to do the same things, day in and day out. It wasn’t designed to stare at a screen all day, to be continually irradiated with WIFI. It wasn’t evolved to sit in offices, stand for long periods of time, be indoors for extended lengths. It wasn’t designed to cope with constant stress/deadlines/pressure. We simply don’t have the biology to match our current working environments. So even IF people try to take control of their health with their choices outside of work - the very fact that they have to do the work they have to do, in the WAY they have to do it MEANS they are going to be sacrificing their health. Sure, fresh air and sunshine may be ‘free’, but only if you have the time and access. These things aren’t readily available to all humans to just choose to partake in.
On top of that, because our systems are built on production/consumption over value and pragmatism, most of the food we have available is ENGINEERED for it’s addictive qualities, its ability to last forever on a shelf, for its taste, flavor and texture - not its actual nutritional value.
The foods that are the MOST abundantly available and affordable in most Westernized countries are PROCESSED foods that bear little to no resemblance to what our bodies evolved to thrive on.
Without making any moral judgement on food - just looking at basic biology - so many people don’t have access to whole foods. Don’t have access to fresh air. Don’t have access to sunshine. Don’t have access to green spaces and the ability to move their bodies. Don’t have access to a sleep schedule that would support them. None of that is com-modifiable - and thus these things have been systematically REMOVED from our daily way of life, in exchange for cheap, flashy, long lasting, addictive ‘products.’
Exercise is a luxury.
Nature is a luxury.
Clean water and air are luxuries.
Food has become a form of entertainment and coping that helps stimulate us to get through our day, and helps to numb us to sleep at night. We are using it as a drug more and more, more and more addicted - not because we are weak willed or hedonistic - but because we are SO burnt out from the constant hustle, the constant pressure to be successful, the constant NEED to work and produce in order to make just enough not to die AND due to how food is manufactured, produced, subsidized and distributed. As much as we may want to deny this fact - health is for the wealthy. Access to the food, lifestyle habits and environments that the human body is CAPABLE of finding health within are ONLY available to those with extra time, resources and support. There are so many people that CAN’T prioritize their health. That ARE TRYING and still don’t have the time or access. That simply can’t afford the mental/emotional/financial investment in caring about their health status - through no fault of their own - society is set up so that in order to survive they HAVE to sacrifice their wellbeing.
How many of us have a relationship with our bodies where we have assigned MORAL VALUE to our size/shape/ability?
Where we judge ourselves and others by beauty standards, productivity standards and wellness standards?
How many of us see our bodies as status symbols vs. our homes?
How many of us eat, move, sleep or otherwise address our health with the intention of changing how we LOOK and will be PERCEIVED/how much we can produce vs. wanting to FEEL GOOD? Vs. wanting to have as much joy in our vessels as we can have?
How many of us have shame around our identities, our sexualities, our capacities, our forms and shapes and internalize that shame rather than recognizing that it’s coming from a culture that is totally WRONG about human life and value?
How many with chronic health issues don’t have access to the care they need because they’re not valued by society?
What if we were to realize that it is the human body that has value inherently, and the systems of eating, sleeping, working and producing we have should be about SUPPORTING ALL BODIES to have the best chance at a life they can have? How would that turn things around, if we focused on systems supporting the body, not the body living up to systems? How much has the body been used as a weapon of division, a tool of the powerful to marginalized groups of people for their own profit - leading us to have deeply complex and wounded relationships with our physiology and the physiology of others?
Because everything is a COMMODITY - that which supports actual health is either only for the wealthy or ignored because you can’t make money from it.
How many people stay stuck in abusive, codependent, unsupportive relationships that harm themselves and their children, because we have been culturally groomed out of social support systems?
How many people are trapped in cycles of poverty and abuse due to generational trauma passed down through the line purely because there’s nowhere else to turn? Because to leave would be WORSE than to stay? Because they don’t have access to adequate birth control? Because they don’t have a community around them to help them get OUT of abusive situations where their lives are at risk? How many people stay in dead-end marriages or get INTO relationships that then dissolve into abuse or misery because they are SO BUSY working, striving, trying to be independent or relying just on the nuclear family? How much of our inability to raise healthy, secure children comes from the fact that we can’t create healthy, secure homes, because we are socialized to be in constant competition with one another, seeing everyone as someone who’s vying for the same limited resources you are - so we have no support structures and then wind up stressed, angry, resentful, lacking in awareness of ourselves and others and again, trapped in relationships that are terrible but that we have to stay in because if we LEAVE we have LESS than nothing.
How many people would KILL to be able to get an education that would allow them to move up in society, but literally CAN’T because the sections of society they were born into make that education totally impossible?
Making getting into a good school inaccessible because they didn’t get the ‘right’ primary education simply based on their zip code? How many people had to make the choice between staying in a dead-end school system that wasn’t going to lead them anywhere and finding something that could make money NOW - sacrificing their futures for the desperation of their present? How many people can’t get a loan, can’t find the time to study, can’t afford to be in school mentally, emotionally, financially or time wise and are trapped in their current state in society 100% based on the conditions of their upbringing? How many people, if they had been given the CHANCE to succeed would, but aren’t because the barrier for entry is specifically set so that they couldn’t even if they wanted to? Again, we have so many people who look down on those who didn’t get educated/didn’t make something of themselves even with the societal obstacles they face, and yet those very people who are looking down NEED those people to be in their positions of plight in order to maintain their lifestyle, and are the very REASON those who have no upwards mobility have no upwards mobility. The rich are REINFORCING the systems that hold these people back, then judging those who are held back as weak, lazy and incompetent. Criminal. Making bad choices.
How many of our environmental issues come down to our systems of production and consumption that individuals have no say in?
How many of us would KILL to stop having so much plastic waste be a part of our day - but all of the food we have access to comes in those plastic wrappers? How many of us would LOVE to eat locally but live in a climate where food has to be imported? How many of us would love to support sustainable agriculture but big food makes its money on mass production of mono-crops/animal lots and therefore that’s what’s affordable and available? How many of us would like to see renewables replace fossil fuels - but at the end of the day throwing up a couple solar panels and buying a Tesla (if you have the means and resources to do so) makes essentially NO impact because it’s the actions of the large corporations that are creating MOST of the environmental destruction we see today? How much of the latest ad campaigns targeted at individuals, telling them that environmental destruction is because we use the wrong light bulbs or aren’t buying the most environmentally friendly versions of their consumer goods is actually just a front for us not realizing that it’s the big corporations that need to sacrifice their bottom line in order to create sustainable practices AND that are convincing us again, that MORE CONSUMPTION OF GOODS is the answer?
The entire idea that we are going to ‘consciously consume’ our way to a more healthy earth is ludicrous.
What’s actually going to happen is the large corporations that provide our food, energy and transportation have to change how they’re doing what they’re doing. They have to stop putting profit and expansion over pragmatic production in a way that sustains the planet. Shareholders are going to have to take a cut. Large industries are going to have to convert to new, green methods of production and distribution. We have to STOP BUYING SHIT period. It’s not about getting the latest water bottle or the new eco-friendly yoga mat. It’s about using that bottle and mat that you have until you literally can’t use it anymore. It’s about NOT giving these companies MORE money. More power. It’s about demanding that they change what they are doing AND giving them less of our money and attention.
How many people that make ‘bad business choices’ are actually making those choices because they are being preyed upon by unregulated for profit industries that have no accountability?
How many people are in desperate situations where crime and other ‘unwise’ options are the ONLY option available? How many people are sold the idea that they can have ultimate success if they just ‘work hard’ - being told that those who have success are ‘just like them’ when in reality those who have success again had opportunities, access, education and a background that automatically set them up for success, that those below them will NEVER have?
How much of our mental health crisis is due to this capitalist society that fully goes AGAINST our fundamental needs as human beings?
How many of us never feel a sense of satisfaction, fulfillment or like we really DISCOVERED ourselves, because we were to afraid to explore undeveloped interests and passions because we didn’t know we would be ‘good’ at them, or couldn’t figure out how we would monetize those passions/interests? How many of us base our worth on how much we HAVE, how many people follow us and how hard we’re working? How many of us are addicted, stuck in cycles of self harm and abuse, are constantly feeling hopeless not because we suck, but because this SYSTEM of constant grind, constant competition, constant need to show up is driving us literally insane? How many of us lack the community support we need as humans?
How many of us don’t have time to RELAX and ENJOY and EXPLORE this human life because it’s not productive/not seen as valuable/simply not possible because we have to work all the time?
How much of the mental health crisis we are seeing these days is due to people consciously or subconsciously seeing that there’s no hope of upward mobility for them? Because they are seeing the system for what it is, knowing they are at the bottom and always will be - so they give up? How many of us are RESPONDING to the messed up way of life we’ve created via our need to cope, numb and sabotage?
How many of us are anxious and depressed precisely because this system leaves us genuinely alone, afraid and in a state of constant fear for our lives - no matter how much we have - because there’s no social safety net to rely upon? How much are we relying upon approval from others as a source of security and what’s ‘right’ - leading us to abandon ourselves and what would actually serve our expansion? Trying to fit in as a method of self preservation - that comes at the expense of the very self we’re trying to preserve? How much of our conditioning that love = safety is killing us at this point?
How many of our quote unquote ‘hero celebrities/social media influencers’ are fully supporting this messed up system/selling us straight up lies?
How many of our entertainers that pump out pop songs, movies and other media material glorifying hustle culture, grinding, having money, having clothes, having STUFF, having power, having fame, war, saviorism, individualism and playing directly into the topes of ‘the person who had it hard and worked their way up’ are actually helping to LIBERATE us from this system vs. being a part of the problem? How many of our self love/self improvement/self help guru’s sell us their ‘relate-ability’, their ‘struggle’ as the pitch to their 30 day programs that are built again upon the idea that YOU, your emotions, your body, your mindset, your productivity levels, your sense of un-fulfillment and so on, are all based on the fundamental flaw of YOUR nature - which their program will help you heal/eradicate/overcome so that you too can be a success IN THE MESSED UP SYSTEM?
How many celebrities now are trying to position themselves as ‘relatable’ so that we won’t look at them and realize they are fully a part of the elite that require that masses of people have less than they need in order to maintain THEIR status? I literally don’t care what charities you start or give to, how ‘relatable’ your entertainment is, how much you seemingly give back, how much you ‘ethically employ’ people - if you go beyond what is actually required for a basic good life in terms of your personal revenue, you are playing the system. You are holding it up. You’re promoting it as a virtue to be successful in a system that is built upon exploitation and keeping people down. These celebrities and instagram coaches aren’t like you. They have access you won’t ever have. They have resources you don’t. They are hoarding just like big oil and big pharma. They are keeping you distracted with their entertainment and brainwashed into the idea that individual liberty and personal development are the keys to life, that having more power and financial success brings happiness and that hustle and grind are virtues.
How much of what we buy is based on the idea of what it ‘means’ about us that we have these things? How much of what we consume are we consuming because we think it’s going to fill some sort of existential void in us? How much of what we do for entertainment/numbing/coping comes down to needing these escapes in order to get through the pain of our current models of society? How much are we buying into the idea that wealth and status are GOOD and important? How much are we buying into the idea that unresourced/struggling people are there by some moral failure?
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This is a lot. Let’s take a break here and come back for the ‘solutions’ next week.
<3
