Unsustainable | Teen Ink

Unsustainable

October 25, 2013
By PeanutButterJamm BRONZE, Lapu Lapu City, Other
PeanutButterJamm BRONZE, Lapu Lapu City, Other
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Throughout our very understanding of the fabric of the universe – whether it is in biology, chemistry, or physics – one thing remains constant and that thing is the concept of balance. Without balance, instability occurs, and instability threatens the very existence of something. It brings about destruction, volatility and ultimately change – change that, when complete, once again settles into a balanced state.

Nothing ever stays in a perfect state of imbalance, because a lack of balance is unsustainable and contradicts with the very nature of the universe as we understand it – when you take something from one side of a gradient; something immediately leaves the other side to fill that hole. Otherwise, a vacuum is created – a hole that attracts and sucks until it is eventually filled and balance is restored. Nothing exists in perfect stability without balance, simply because that is the very nature of the cosmos.

So why allow the imbalance that is threatening the very fabric of society? How is it that wealth, the very thing by which we define the value of a person and the very thing, by which we define our ability to provide for both security and health, is such a volatile and imbalanced concept? Why is it that we are faced with massive social issues such as poverty and starvation, and can still call our system of wealth simple, or even ideal?

There is an embarrassing apathy in most of those who have for those who do not, and sadly, the very system that is built to serve the people in the end only manages to steal from them and starve them, simply to satisfy the whims of those who are truly in power. While the majority of us either starve, freeze or die of disease, the lucky among us get to live to a great old age, only to be milked of every hard earned penny through medication and a failed pension system. While all over the globe, immeasurable amounts of currency and resources are being pushed around and redistributed at the leisure of men and women in power, somewhere in a tiny village the same amount of people live without even the most basic human needs. And somewhere in the middle, every working class human citizen works not for themselves, but for the purposes of this great system – a system that somehow managed to warp itself from a force of servitude for the common citizenry, to a force of empowerment for the select few with the inherit resources and influence to control and manipulate it.

The issue is not that this system is unfair, or unjust, or mistreats millions, nay, billions, and generates a massive amount of suffering for not one, but several social classes, no; the issue is that this system is unsustainable. It is volatile. It is incapable of coexisting with nature, and with nature being something as massive and mind-blowingly incomprehensible as the entire universe, it is something that is on the verge of implosion and has been since its warped inception. How will it implode? How will it the system collapse?

When you starve enough people and alienate enough of your citizenry, you create not just enemies, but an oppressed force. You can have all the power in the world, but when 99% of the human population is much poorer and hungrier than you and those among your 1% elite, nothing can come between them and your downfall. It has happened before – the poor have stood up in the past to reclaim what was once theirs, to take back the world, and to forcefully redistribute massive amounts of wealth in an effort to recreate society with a clean slate.

A system of control and manipulation only works as long as the majority of the system’s subjects are under the illusion that life is good. That illusion has been broken long ago, and now, the greed that conceptualized the system is becoming instrumental to its recalibration – a forceful manual recalibration by way of revolution. Be it an organized political movement that seeks to end the deliberate destruction of the planet in pursuit of energy, be it a solution to both world hunger and the unsustainable, culpable, and viciously corrupt mess that is the world’s food industry, or be it total bloody anarchy, drastic measures must be taken, and they must be taken responsibly.

We can all take part in devising a system in which every human being not only has basic rights to their physical needs, but actually has access to those needs, we can help in the creation of a system that serves the masses, a system in which those inherently in power are made responsible for the suffrage of those who aren’t, the making of a world in which we can all live a fulfilling life, all of us, not just those with money, not just those who have, not just the sons and daughters of the few that control the system, but everybody, regardless of gender, race, cultural origin or religious view.

We’re all humans, after all, and if there truly is a grandiose purpose to life, then that purpose is a world in which we can all live life without the fear of not having a roof over our head, or not having anything to eat. It isn’t naïve, it isn’t ignorant, and it isn’t impossible. It is difficult, and it means a total recalibration – less focus on blatant consumerism and superficiality, less manipulation, less secrecy, and, most boldly of all – total redistribution of wealth to a point where every human being is, by right, ensured good health and security, and a committee that ensures both the wellbeing of everyone, regardless of class, while keeping those in charge of energy, food, industry and currency under heavy taxation. People can strive to do better, to be better, but even the lowest among us would still have a place – they wouldn’t be ignored and discarded to live in a hole and die of something as ridiculous as not having access to clean water.


The author's comments:
In nature, if you take a cup of water from a small puddle, the puddle works to immediately fill the vacuum you just created. The same concept works on a quantum level, and on a larger social scale - otherwise, the imbalance created results in volatility - which eventually becomes revolution.

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