It started as one of those viral emails that within hours spread throughout the world. And then it continued spreading virally but by word of mouth. The slogan was simple: to overcome social inequality people should refuse to work and to consume more than is strictly necessary for subsistence. Doing so, the evil system would fall. No, it wasn’t just another strike, here there was no complaints, no demands, it was simply refusing to work.
It worked.
Not immediately, of course, employers, union hierarchies and the other gears of the system reacted and repressed the protesters. But people, thanks to the viral message, were not afraid and defended themselves. Many died, of course, but as they were majority, they finally were victorious. In addition, the system needed for consumers, and if no one consumed, the production of goods lost all meaning.
That's how the system fell.
Victory achieved, the sensible thing should have been to distribute the wealth equally. But wealth had lost its value in a unconsumerist world, and the very act of sharing was working, so that millions of goods that once had been coveted were abandoned and forgotten.
When food and the accumulated resources ran out people faced with another problem: providing new resources for self-support was working; and working was simply to revive the system.
That's how people died.
Someone wrote that if a group of chimpanzees were given computers and enough time, one of them would end up writing the works of Shakespeare. But nobody thought that before this happened he could write a viral email and send it.
That's how we became the dominant species on the planet.
Original title: Todo lo sólido se desvanece en el aire.
Translation: Saurio
Saurio
http://brevesnotanbreves.blogspot.com/2008/08/todo-lo-slido-se-desvanece-en-el-aire.html
The system works just because it has too. It has no other choice but to function. Great point of view. I really enjoyed the journey.
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