The supply chain issue of human resources in London
London is such an entity, the force that the city comes with drowns out the individual. Such an environment is good to climb up the hierarchy of capitalistic elitism. Throughout the ages humans have gathered and shared resources in different ways, however the concepts that exist today have taken shape in a way we haven’t seen before. In London there are systems in place to create structural inequality, giving power of production and distribution of human resources to a select few groups who leverage their position to dictate the pricing and quality of goods to the masses.
Through the propaganda of consumerism via adverts, and entertainment, we the people have been distracted into ignorance over these systems that govern our existence. It has become an accepted hijacking of our collective assets, to the hands of a small class of people, giving the majority of the population no power, stuck in an endless loop of being ripped off. Kanye West once explained in an interview how industries are actually set up to help each other keep us running on metaphoric treadmills. Your job is an hour away from your home, so you get a car and getting to work requires petrol and there will be wear and tear so you will need check ups on the car. This all costs us money and poisons the earth. Now on the way to work there’s no time to make food so you get fast food to poison your body. Lowered health will have you in need of the Pharma industry, which profit from alleviating symptoms of disease, not curing the problem. Now the whole concept of a job is to get enough money to borrow money from the bank to get a mortgage for a house which we pay more bills for with the price increasing every year. I could go on forever but you understand the collusion of these industries and how they work hand in hand to maintain structural inequality.
To touch on ‘mass’ culture. As these industry titans produce more and more commodities, through their advertising they use our weaknesses against us while simultaneously psychologically programming our minds to shift the culture of society to be centred around the purchase of their products. We all want an idea of luxury in our lives; a fancy car, Gucci bag, definitely an iPhone. I would argue a smartphone has turned into a basic need in our society, but even more basic than that our food is genetically modified, added with synthetics, and sold to us at steeper and steeper prices. To take London as the example, the lifestyle or culture in the city has been very much industrialised. The tube taking you to the shopping centre where people buy clothes they have been tricked into believing will bring them happiness. The music we listen to on the tube helps the corner store, open until 2am outside most flats where the population buy alcohol and cigarettes to diminish health. These are all cases for how London has been engineered to create structural inequality, in the end leaving you with a feeling of emptiness you continue to try and fill with more meaningless commodities that the culture perceptually warped you into believing is making you more powerful.
There are systems of power in place in our society that control the production and distribution of our resources. Marx assembles these into two categories: the base (I.e. factories, land, materials) and the superstructure (I.e. the ideologies and media propaganda). The superstructure are the systems that are in place that use the base for its assets to function. Take McDonalds for instance, the food goes through factories then served in store, this being its base, while their advertising all around London by the bus stop, in train stations, on billboards, and via social media are the superstructures in place to support their system of power. McDonalds have a serious system of power. They have a store on every major road in every city in the country and the media programming is also everywhere. This is why we see they have dominated the fast food market and transcended into such a cultural force its difficult to avoid it. What do you when you leave the club at 3am and need a sandwich? Or when all your friends want to go there for its cheap price and convenience. After a lifetime of consuming fast food we see a rise in diabetes and obesity, so the masses go running to the pill manufacturer for salvation and yet another system of power thrives off our ignorant compliance. That’s what happens when the systems of power have fooled a population into merging them with their cultural identity.
I have a proposed solution though, it sounds simple but requires a lot of hard work. Simply put we have to change our culture and own systems of power for the people. This can be done if we take over the supply chains, and it starts at the base. Owning assets like farms, factories, stores, etc. Through owning these assets one builds the knowledge of food/agriculture, production and selling goods, etc. This way not only do we have the means for creation but together with the knowledge we no longer can be taken advantage of due to our higher position of power. Right now if I don’t own a farm, Asda can dictate whatever price for food and I have no power to do anything about it. But owning an asset that can provide me with food means I am self sufficient. How to maintain our own systems of power we must replace the current consumerist culture with one based on tradition. We need common goals and morals to navigate this world, to make sure our own downfall is never again served to us as a desirable idea of false life. The individual’s ownership of systems of power in their own life, and the knowledge of how to operate the production and distribution of human resources will introduce more diversity, fair and informed trade and higher quality goods. What are your thoughts on how we can combat the existing structural inequality? I would love for this to be a discussion.