Hello fellow Hive Mind!
As I type right now, I am sad to share that I am experiencing yet another MS relapse. This one has rendered me practically deaf in my right ear, and left me with impaired vision. Reading and writing has become a chore that leaves me with a headache that would cripple just about anyone.
That being said, I had a bit of an epiphany.
Guys,
We are all blind.
For a while now, we have had a handkerchief placed over our faces in order to shield us from what was actually happening.
At first, we thought it was great. We were told that we were part of an ever expansive trading world. I mean, it was close minded and racist to not want to have an ever growing import/export relationship with one of the most powerful countries in the world. Plus, we give people across the world jobs, and we get cheap shit to buy.
Everyone Wins!
Well....kind of...
It turns out, we got a lot more than we bargained for, and this virus is just the tip of the iceberg.
I guess my biggest question for us as a species, is why it is that we find some injustices impossible to bear, and others we just accept in stride.
The types of inhumane treatment we have let China get away with would never fly with any other country, and it isn't that we haven't stood up to injustice in the past because we most definitely have.
For example, the world community came together and proactively crippled South Africa's trade economy over the Apartheid. As a collective, we said, take your bullshit elsewhere, and it worked. They could not sustain losing international trade partners and were forced to end the Apartheid. It didn't lead to a conflict or war, and it was pretty straight forward, so why haven't we done this with China? With North Korea? Why do we let these rogue nations continue to torture their citizens, imprison them, make them disappear, and then act like it is just a necessary evil?
Inhumane treatment isn't just something to blow off. It's not like China is drunk Uncle Bob at the family Christmas party, who you just love for who they are. "Oh well." we say. "I know they have their faults, but we need them in our lives. It is not our responsibility to change them." I call bullshit. China needs the rest of the world more than the rest of the world needs them. It is time to put Uncle Bob in rehab. It is time to call an intervention. Someone bust out the TLC cameras. It is time we called for some transparency and responsibility.
Now of course this is wishful thinking. The powers that be have way too much to gain from holding China accountable. It is ingrained in the very fibers that weave throughout our government, and even into our small communities. The CCP has been digging its tentacles in for decades through real estate investment, commerce, and even blatant nepotism from businesses like JP Morgan and Chase. One could even say that the fateful day in which we agreed to let China become part of the World Trade Organization was the day that we basically threw in the towel. We openly and overtly invited communism into our homes and with every cheap ass Chinese gadget we bought, we were supporting the imprisonment of social justice lawyers, and the prosecution of religious beliefs, the murdering of millions of baby girls, and the slavery of hundreds of millions of people.
But like, it was cheap, so who cares, right?
What is disheartening is that none of this is news. I mean, we all know what's going on. We know that Apple is installing suicide nets for its Chinese workers, rather than improving work conditions. We know millions of people are living in substandard housing, much of which is owned by the companies these people work for. We continue to worship Disney and fuel its funds, buying our own kids the toys off the sweat of the backs of other children their age, and we have been doing this for DECADES.
Now we have gotten to a point where it is almost impossible to about face, at least not immediately. What once was an option, as to whether to buy American or cheap Chinese plastic, is no longer an option in a lot of instances. A great example is the pharmaceutical industry. They sold us out to China years ago, and now, we are in a delicate dance with China over PPE and drugs. They have us right where they wanted us, caught in between a rock and a hard place. If we revolt and give them the big middle finger, millions of Americans could be without their medicine for months until we restructure the pharmaceutical production here. On the other hand though, continuing to allow the CCP to bully us and hold their medical products ransom should incite the global community to do something about this.
My real hope is that Bitcoin will break us free from national boundaries of currency, and open up a global currency that is uninhibited by one particular ruling power. The CCP is releasing a cryptocurrency, but it is not to free their people, but further enslave them by tracking every transaction they make. I have hope in that even the CCP nationalists have invested some in BTC. They must see it as a real threat, and a real commodity if they would go so far as to tank the market in order to invest in it.
Hopefully we all start to see more clearly.
- Beth