Somebody’s Got to Suffer!
By Phil Polizatto,WWH – As usual, I get my best ideas just before I fall asleep. Naturally, all my thoughts make perfect sense. Like a puzzle of the world that I put together in my mind, every piece fits and it’s all very clear and simple to me. If only I can get out of bed instead of drifting off into the sleep I feel quickly coming on and pick up a pen and jot down the ideas before I forget them. But oh, I’m so tired and… damn you! Just get up and get the fucking pen! You should’ve brought in the recorder from the office! Well then I’d have to turn the light on so I can see the buttons on it. And stop yelling at me!
See! Now you’re driving yourself crazy and you’ve spent so much time thinking about it, you could’ve gotten up and written it down by now and… well, maybe I will if I can remember just what it was that was going to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and that would have made such a great article on such a great topic and if I can just quickly unravel that tapestry of words in my head into a couple of threads or even just one thread… say it over and over… and if I can remember that one thread tomorrow morning when I get up, just that one thread… maybe all of a sudden I’ll remember all the other intricate pieces of the puzzle and how to put them together. Everything will fall into place and I’ll have the answers to all our problems.
That’s what I’m doing this morning, trying to remember just one thread from last night, and I must give myself props for trying so hard to remember even though I have yet to figure out what “props” means. I don’t know where or why I’m trying to fit in or to whom I’m trying to appear young and hip… and, and… there it goes… there it goes again, dammit! There goes my train of thought off into the distance… It’s gone around the bend and the sound of the horn grows ever fainter because I just can’t seem to stick to the topic I thought was so important and clever to begin with… and now it’s bothering me so much because I can’t remember… but wait… wait… here it comes… get ready… it’s almost here… wait for it. Ah… ah… yes!
It was when someone said to me at a dinner, “Well, somebody’s got to suffer!” Yes, that was it. That was the thread. “Well, somebody’s got to suffer!” He had made his case well. He had described the condition of America; the systems that are in place in the here and now… the actuality of it all… it seemed a logical conclusion that “somebody’s got to suffer.” I wasn’t quick enough with a rebuttal there were so many thoughts arranging themselves in my mind. One of the first was a question? How did we come to believe that economics is immune from morality, capitalism in particular?
Remember, capitalism is an economic system, not a political one. But does that mean it’s exempt from morality? So strange that the call for laissez-faire capitalism from conservatives is so antithetical to a country that thinks of itself as a democracy and Christian. This doesn’t exactly make for the sexiest three-way. In fact, a truly capitalist nation wouldn’t like any political or religious system at all because it wouldn’t be in a corporation’s best interests to have any government which could interfere with an absolutely free-market economy or a religion that could impose its morality on it.
What we have done, of course, is to make laissez-faire capitalism not only our economic system, but our political and religious one as well. Laissez-faire corporate capitalism owns our politics. Corporate capitalism imposes it’s morality on our beliefs. It has created the Morality of Capitalism, which takes precedence over any other school of morality. The greedy people use the Morality of Capitalism to justify their behaviors, which by any other measures would be considered immoral.
The phrase “Well, somebody’s got to suffer” is really about a mentality. It frames the ideological rationale for keeping in place… fighting to keep in place… what everyone knows is an immoral system. “Somebody’s got to suffer” is a phrase that draws a clear line in the sand dividing those who use it as a salving mantra and those who believe, “no one has to suffer.”
There are people who have much, much more than they need to live in absolute mind-fucking luxury. I don’t deny them their luxuries at all as long as they don’t cheat to get them and that no one else has to suffer because of it. It seems so simple to me that it’s only within an economic system of unbridled capitalism that “somebody’s got to suffer.” In fact, capitalism is sometimes called the “false economics” and yet the majority freak out if you refer to any other system, saying it’s undemocratic or irreligious, when in fact, laissez-faire capitalism wants nothing to do with either of them. It is also a fact that true democracy cannot co-exist with unbridled capitalism or religion.
Over the course of centuries, multi-national corporations have created their own convenient morality: “Somebody’s got to suffer” so that others may watch the graph of their wealth and power follow an uphill curve that rises more steeply with each passing day. People have been brain-washed to believe this is just the way it is and always was. That’s life. They can’t change it. They can’t control it. They can only accept it.
But not any more! Now the people awake. Now they demand a true democracy and if that means giving up laissez-faire capitalism, so be it. If that means returning to the true separation of church and state that was guaranteed to us all along, so be it. If that means rising up, marching in the streets, and putting our bodies on the line, so be it. We do it gladly because those of us who have experienced the connectedness of all beings do not want to live in a world where “Somebody’s got to suffer.” We want to live in a world where “No one has to suffer.”
Perhaps I’ll have another brilliant existential conversation with myself tonight as I nod off into slumber. As usual, the words will fit together perfectly and the threads of thought will be impeccably logical. I will weave them into a tapestry that can make the most pig-headed see the light. But if, as usual, the tapestry unravels before I can rouse myself into action, I hope I can cling to just a few threads that will remind me in the morning that the most beautiful tapestry is woven from the threads of love, peace, social and economic justice, and respect for the earth. Namaste!
To contact Phil or find out more: check out his website and blog
For a copy of HUNGA DUNGA
Phil Polizatto – Worldwide Hippies Bureau Chief – West Coast USA, is a graduate of The School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He was a feature writer for the overseas division of UPI, a copywriter for CBS, and an award-winning corporate film producer. Mr. Polizatto is a published poet and a regular contributor to Worldwide Hippies as well as a variety of other arts and literary journals. Hunga Dunga is his first published novel. He resides in the Pacific Northwest.
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Phil, great article and let’s hope the pig-headed see something….anything.
I keep pen and paper with me at all times..you can easily scribble half asleep.
Love you, Phil.
Next time someone uses that phrase, tell ‘em “Why not start with YOU then?”
good one Bill. I will!
LOL, you crack me up man. Why do you think I write my articles on Friday nights around ten. That way I can sleep in Saturday morning. I have brought up the conflict between capitalism and religion before. Most of the time when I hear people saying about how everything would be better if we just had prayer in school. Really???? That would solve the world’s problems? They seem to forget that many of these execs that call the shots and make millions in bonuses for putting Americans out of work went to school during a time when we did have prayer in school. Personally, I think it is more wag the dog type of moves. The conservative/capitalist forces in this country try to wrap themselves in a religious coat in order to continue the charade. Yet, how many of them would turn on Jesus if he were here today. You know, that guy who wants to feed the poor, take care of the needy, and heal the sick. They would have him up on charges of practicing medicine without a license. I can only imagine how they would react to his raising the dead. Of course, if he was in a park in Florida and multiplied the bread and fish to feed the masses he would be fined or jailed. Of course, the whole bit with turning the water into wine would have the ATF knocking down his door.
Love ya bra!
Back at ya, Ed. How easily some people invoke the name of Jesus and vilify regulated Capitalism let alone (dare I say it?) Socialism. How readily they go up into their corner offices of some skyscraper and make millions with a few phone calls, but really end up being made on the backs of workers. And ironically full-fledged, unbridled Capitalism would have nothing to do with Jesus, socialism, any religion or politics, especially Democracy, where there is the danger that the people will rise up and demand capitalism be heavily regulated at the least.
The belief that “someone has to suffer” underscores a narcissistic defense structure that depends upon the devaluation of others and the idealization of self. The “best” response then, to someone who walks into a room and announces. “Well someone has got to suffer” is to turn to him/her and say. “I am so sorry you feel that way, is there anything I can do to help.”