An American friend shared a startling photo on social media recently, showing a little girl in a red coat crawling under a train. The photo was from this post, showing in film clips and photos that this little girl was just one of many children in a working-class suburb of the US town of Hammond, Indiana, who are frequently compelled to risk their lives and their limbs by climbing over or crawling under stationary trains, trains that could start moving at any moment, in order to get to school.
It profoundly shocks me to see this kind of thing happening in the USA, the country we’ve all been brought up to believe was the “leader of the free world”, a country where education is seen as vital in order to gain a future livelihood and a place in society.
From time to time images circulate on social media showing the precariousness of life in countries like China or South East Asia – mothers with babies on their backs climbing precipitous, unprotected mountain tracks; people on mopeds carrying enormous loads. “How can this be allowed?” we think, “is health and safety not a civic concern in these countries?”
Most people in industrialised parts of the world still imagine that their governments care about their welfare. But the more these governments talk and make laws about health and safety, equality and inclusion, the more insecure life actually becomes for many people.
Profit before people
The other thing that disturbed me about this article was the sheer length of the trains. Some of them are up to two miles long, and this is why the children are forced to climb over or crawl under them when they stop at junctions. They can’t just walk round them.
The trains have been getting longer because shorter trains are less profitable. They are freight trains, carrying goods, not people.
It’s an image that haunts me. It suggests that we are at the tipping point of a corporatist ponzi scheme, where profits can only be made and wages paid in extreme situations, where trains are literally miles long. Where goods are more important than people.
The economy has already crashed
It suggests that our industrialised economies are not about to crash – they have already crashed and we are existing in the detritus of our failed civilisations, wondering what comes next and trying to convince ourselves that everything is just as it always was.
I think this article killed off the last remaining little bit of cognitive dissonance in my mind that things might be just about OK in our so-called “civilised” world. Things are OK for me, for now. I have food, warmth, shelter and support. But increasing numbers of people are being pushed closer and closer to the edge, with restrictions on movement, on where people can stay, restrictions on farming and food production, restrictions on the use of gas and open fires, all forcing prices up and catching people in a net of debt and dependency.
A new king is to be crowned in the UK next Saturday. No one seems interested in this historic event (certainly not me). One of my friends went to Ballater, not far from the royal estate of Balmoral, and circulated a photo of some knitted royal figures she encountered there. It was noteworthy because it’s such a rare sight. The only time we have flags and fireworks where I live is if there’s a big football match on.
Our governments seem to be led by middle managers – slick, public-facing people in suits who are barely indistinguishable from each other. If one of them turned out to be a robot I wouldn’t really be surprised. They come to power when another one resigns, and if they are elected by the public it’s usually because voters don’t want the other team to get in. It’s hard to believe these puppets have any actual power - their orders come from corporate lobbyists and secret vested interests.
The power vacuum is even more obvious in the US. If Joe Biden disappeared for six months and excuses were made for his absence, would anything change?
Who’s really running things? The WEF? The secret services? The mafia? The bankers? The illuminati?
More and more I’m starting to see this question as irrelevant, because whoever runs this ship of so-called “civilisation”, or “liberal democracy”, it’s already sunk. Trying to find the captain and crew, or even a new captain and crew is pointless.
If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to quietly abandon it and start building a new ship.