devaluing, commodities and soul sickness

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

I am currently reading the
“Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844”
by Karl Marx…

It pretty much about workers and their relationships…
to money, to fellow workers, to those who own the means of production…

and Marx hits its on the head when he refers to workers as
commodities… nothing more then slaves or property…
and as property or as a commodity, workers are valued less
than land or money…I am replaceable… as I have been told dozens
of times over my 40 years of working…

As a human being, I have no value in capitalism outside of
being a commodity, a means to an end…and that end being
making profits, making money…
and if I don’t make a profit, I have no value in capitalism…

I have been devalued, reduced to being a thing… property…
and this devaluation of me as a human being, has an effect…
to believe that I have, as a human being less value than money,
is, in part, why society and human beings within that society,
are soul sick…we have been reduced to being a commodity…
a thing…if human beings are considered to have no value,
then why should we turn around and considered to hold life
as valuable…we are life and in today state, society, we have no
value, as life…so what does it matter if I gun down 21 people,
if as life we have no value outside of making profits?

We have been devalued by society, and in turn, we ourselves
devalue life…if life has no value, than killing is not a problem…
commodities killing other commodities…

the spate of mass murders only matters if, IF we consider life
to have value and in this society, in this state life has no value, no
meaning…thus we can see how by being soul sick, believing
that live has no value, we can have mass murders and violence
against people, because we have no value as human beings…

you want to end gun violence, or even violence at large, you have
to being by making life, human beings having value again…
if you say, we cannot fund programs like WIC programs because
they are not cost effective for taxpayers, then you have made
money being more valuable then people… to be pro-life, to
be truly pro-life, you must put people’s life ahead of money,
ahead of profits, ahead of the GDP… and millions of people
would call that communism, which really means that those
people aren’t pro-life, but pro-money…
and being pro-money is anti-life, anti-people…
if money/profits are your highest priority, then people
are not your highest priority, which is to say, you put money ahead
of people…and in doing so, you have devalued people, turned
them into commodities… and that is being soul sick…

I thereby accuse America of being soul sick…
I accuse the GOP of being soul sick…
I accuse conservatives of being soul sick…

if money has more value than people, you are soul sick…

and as long as America is soul sick, we will continue to have
mass murders in schools and gun violence in the streets…
until we think of people of having value, of being of greater
value then money/profits, we will continue to devalue people
as commodities…

Kropotkin

2

this devaluation of human beings continues in our attack on
immigrants and non-Americans… if we devalue people because
they are not Americans, then we devalue people… as conservatives
have devalued people claiming that illegal immigrants don’t have
any value or don’t deserve any social programs to improve their lives…

in other words, only Americans deserve to have valuable programs to
educate them, to feed them, to have health care… and why?
Because of the soul sickness that only Americans are worth
anything, because they are Americans… you have devalued,
dehumanized other human beings because they are not Americans,
even though they are human beings…to devalue illegal immigrants
by denying their human nature, is to deny them any value or worth
of being a human being…

that is being soul sick… denying basic human values to others because
they are not an American… what ego to deny others the values you give
yourself… and so it goes… we deny basic human values to others
because they are workers, illegal aliens, women, people of color,
gay or trans… and you wonder why mass murders are happening all
the time now… it is because we have denied basic human values
which is a message to people that their own human nature has been
devalued, denied… if we deny some people the decency of being
human, we deny everyone that decency…

for that message is lost on many people… we cannot have a society
that has value for some, but not for all… to be a just society,
we must be just to everyone, not just to the ones we approve of…
we must treat everyone with dignity of being human, including
workers, illegal aliens, women, people of color and yes, trans/gay
people…to deny to one, is to deny to all…

Kropotkin

3

if you support capitalism, you support this continuation,
this devaluation of America and its people…which is being soul sick
to put money/profits ahead of people is being soul sick…
so how are you going to overcome that?

Kropotkin

4

One of the questions of existence is our own individual roles
within society… how do I fit into society? What is the relationship
between individuals and the society/state? If I have an obligation
to the state, then what is the state’s obligation to me?

These questions, among others like them, fit into philosophy
as political philosophy… who rules and who pays… is one short
hand understanding of political philosophy…

now if a large part of the society, the state is functioning as
a means to devalue life, devalue workers, then does that
state deserve to exist? If we have a large percentage of the individuals
within a state or society, being devalued, treated as a commodity…
is that state, is that society just? I don’t think so…
why should I put in the work the state/society demands if
all I do, has no value other than to create wealth/profits for others?

Why bother to work or even exist in a state/society that only devalues
me as a human being, negates me as a human being… why put in
that effort or work, if I have no value within that society/state other
then the creation of profits/wealth, not for me, but for others…
what is the point of existence if I only have value as an creator
of profits?

now some may say, but Kropotkin, you get some of that back,
as wages… but if you were honest, you would note that I
get back pennies on the hours of work I put in…after 40 years
of work, and I don’t even have enough to retire on…
and I am not alone, millions of people have put in the time
and effort and have nothing to show for it… why did we suffer
and slave for decades if we get nothing out of it? Is that really
the point of existence? to slave for decades and have nothing to
show for it?

and If I actually accepted this state of affairs, I would be
soul sick… for under no circumstances should I be able to
accept my working for decades and have nothing to show for it…
to think this is right is being soul sick… to have degraded myself enough
to think that a lifetime of being devalued and dehumanized is
acceptable in some fashion… to accept being a slave is to
accept being degraded and devalued… I haven’t sunk that low,
yet…

and yet, millions think that is acceptable… I can only suggest
they are educated/ which is another word for brainwashed into
thinking that capitalism is the only possibility for us to become human…
when capitalism denies us our human possibilities,
capitalism says that we only have value if we create profits/money…

to seek one’s happiness is ok, as long as it creates profits/money,
it improves the GDP…then society/the state approves…
if we seek ART or beauty, we are laughed at… because
how can you make any money in ART? If it doesn’t make money,
it has no value in the state/society… thus we deny ART, philosophy,
beauty and even Science if there is no money to be made in it…

Life has no value unless it creates profits… and only the creation
of profits/money has value in our capitalistic society…
so we will continue to have violence and mass murders
and gun violence because according to capitalism, we have
no value unless we are creating profits/money…
and does the working class of America create profits?
no, and thus it has no value in America…the class warfare
against blacks and minorities exists because they don’t create
enough profits to justify them in capitalism… all values are judged
by how much profits/money they make…and all people are judged/
valued by how much profits/money they make or create…

thus we deem the poor to be less human, to be devalued
and dehumanized… are Illegal aliens valued? no, because they
don’t create profits/or money… and Doctors are valued higher then
garbage men because Doctors create greater wealth and profits,
then do garbage men…and do teachers create wealth? NO,
thus, they are also devalued and dehumanized… only the creators
of wealth and profit has value in modern day America…

Kropotkin

5

If ART has no value because it doesn’t create profits/money,
then politics and morality have no value because they too,
don’t create profits/money…my actions are judged in terms
of profits… if I am at work, and I take off my clothes, I am fired
not because taking off my clothes is immoral, but because I
have damaged profits for that day, nothing more…
If I can increase profits by taking off my clothes, I am not
only encouraged, but quite often told to take off my clothes
morality isn’t a question in the business world…
it is what makes money? and quite often, as the news will attest to,
business will ignore questions of morality and do what it takes to
make profits/money…right or wrong has no place in the business world,
only making profits matters… and thus we have the business motto
in hand… right or wrong? who cares as long as it makes profits…

dumping chemicals in the water… no problem, as long as we don’t get
caught… stealing money from people, or even employees, no problem…
corporations steal money from their employees all the time…
in not following the law in overtime pay, in stealing tips,
in not paying fair wages… we see this behavior in business all
the time…I am part of a lawsuit because the corporation
I work for didn’t pay overtime wages… as it legally was supposed to
… and it happens all the time…legal… illegal… right or wrong…
who cares as long as we make profits…
and thus we return to the fact that we are nothing more than a
commodity to corporations…and have no value…

Kropotkin