Killing In The Name Of: Three Dark Chapters In Capitalism’s Rise.
When one states in today’s world that one is anti-capitalist, it can be something of a double-edged sword. After all, many of us live in overtly capitalist societies. Others come from long-reaching legacies that directly benefit from the Capitalist system; also, many living in the western world today are fully knowledgeable about the failures of alternative systems still in existence around the world.
Communism promises much, but delivers only corruption. We all know what a failure fascism proved to be, even as ‘cults of personality’ such as the ones in North Korea, China and Russia continuously demonstrate their evils.
To be clear, to take a firmly anti-capitalist stance is not to necessarily denigrate capitalism in favour some other existing system. Often, it is to acknowledge that Capitalism, whilst better than some other forms of societal structure, is itself inherently flawed. Capitalism may be the best of a bad bunch in today’s world, but that doesn’t mean we cannot do better, as a nation, as a world.
It’s also important not to ignore the obvious evils of capitalism, and it’s extremely troubled past in the area of human rights. Still not convinced that Capitalism is corrupt and largely has become a force for evil in the world? It is, and has been for a long time. If you want to see for yourself, here are a few examples. I’ll just give you the basic facts here, as each of these incidents are well-documented and will lead you down some dark research rabbit holes. These incidents each would warrant an entire article onto themselves.
So, with that in mind, sit back, relax and let’s roll back over 3 of capitalisms darkest chapters.
1) The World’s Most Rich And Powerful Meet To Perform Weird Secret Rituals, where they worship an Ancient Pagan God called “Moloch” and simulate actual child sacrifice.
Don’t believe me? I’m afraid it’s quite true. It’s called, the “Bohemian Grove club” and it was founded in 1872. Whatever it was, it has now become an exclusive hideaway of the rich and powerful. By the 1980s, the club had 2,300 members, including influential senators, businessmen, and highly-placed U.S. government officials. Its waiting list for membership is 33 years long!
As if that wasn’t bad enough, some of the most important decisions in history have been made in Bohemian Grove. That’s right! No Democratic vote, no public transparency; important decisions affecting millions made by some drunk millionaires at an ancient pagan ritual-fest. Such as, oh, the initial planning for the freaking Manhattan Project! Yeah, you have the 1942 Bohemian Grove meeting to thank for the freaking nuclear bomb!
Not heard of this before? Well sure, outside visitors aren’t allowed, but no one denies it goes on. Probably a little embarrassed by the Giant Owl Statue of Moloch that they openly worship as part of their rituals. In said rituals, they wear costumes and burn effigy’s of small children they call “care” in front of that huge concrete owl. Oh, and the owl is wired for sound, so it booms commands at them.
More worryingly, it also pipes out the sounds of SCREAMING CHILDREN as they set fire to the baby Effigy’s! Yeah, that’s actually a thing. Ask YouTube for “Bohemian Grove (Human Sacrifice)” to watch the whole messed up ritual online, filmed by a cameraman who managed to break in once. Be warned though, it’s like watching a scene cut from “Rosemary’s Baby”. Go ahead. Tell me again how our leaders and captains of capitalism are ‘just like us…’.
2) The U.S. Military carved up Dead Babies like Turkeys and did Experiments on them.
Oh yes. It gets worse. Briefly, in the 1950s, the U.S. government was interested in how fallout from nuclear weapons would affect human bodies, and whether nuclear testing would be a hazard to human health! But they needed tissue samples from humans to test, and since most people would obviously not have been too fond of their bones being removed to test for the presence of radioactive isotopes, the government instead targeted a demographic that wouldn’t put up any kind of resistance: dead bodies.
So in a secret meeting in 1955, it was decided that most of these bodies should be recently-deceased infants, preferably from other countries where that kind of thing was easier to get away with.
Consent wasn’t even an issue. Look into it and you’ll come across the story of one mother named Jean Prichard who gave birth to a stillborn baby in 1957, asked for the body so she could dress it for a burial, and was refused. It turned out they were trying to hide the fact that they’d cut its legs off to hand them over for testing. Yeah, I know right? This is the kind of thing that would make Freddy Kreuger sit up and say “Dude! What the F*ck?”.
Just so we’re not laying this solely on the shoulders of the Americans, the UK Government was involved in this too, as highlighted above. Yep, I’m afraid so my fellow Brits. Don’t believe me? GOOGLE “Project Sunshine” or even easier — download the full PDF report here
3) infecting People with HIV for Sweet, Sweet, Profit.
Evil Military Projects aside, ask yourself - what's the most important thing in Capitalist Society? The Answer is obvious. MONEY! Giant, sweaty wads of it. And for the Corporate Hounds that now run our world, it is way, way, more important than human lives!
Probably the worst example of such profit-mongering is the pharmaceutical Industry.
I'll give you an example. In the mid-1980s, German pharmaceutical company Bayer discovered that one of their products -- a blood-clotting medicine designed for haemophiliacs -- carried a high risk of transmitting HIV to its users. Swinging into action, they immediately recalled the affected lines and released a safer alternative. But what then? What to do with all the old, dangerous product? Sure, they could destroy it, or lock it up forever in a warehouse but that would cause them to lose sweet, sweet profits. And they couldn't make the shareholders lose out on those annual Bonus cheques, now could they?
Fortunately, the Rules Of Capitalism provided an answer (Outlined in the fantastic book "Killing People For Fun & Profit: How To Get Ahead In Capitalism". Yours on Amazon for only £9.99 — No, this isn't a real book). Bayer started selling the shit out of their flawed medication anyway. They just did it in places where no one could have heard about their little screw-up, like Latin America and Asia.
The new, safer product was reserved for the United States and Europe. As a result of this decision, it's estimated that at least 100 people in Taiwan and Hong Kong contracted HIV. Of course, those are just the ones we know about. There are plenty more, no doubt, considering that the drug was also sold in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, and Argentina for an entire year before someone called Bayer out on this!
When documents finally brought the ugly truth out in the public eye in 2003, Bayer refused to admit liability, and essentially claimed that they would never do anything like that (whilst no doubt crossing their fingers behind their collective backs and looking anywhere but into the eyes of the families of all the people they killed. Like, so, so many dead people).
Of course, their innocent act was somewhat sullied by the also uncovered 15-year lawsuit their money-chasing deception had earned them, and the $600 million they and other involved companies had surreptitiously paid in compensation to the victims!
I could go on, but this post is long enough, and if you're trying to find examples of the evils of Capitalism, frankly, you could find enough examples to literally fill the volume of a Stephen King Novel. But I think I've made my point. As always, I encourage you to do your own research and let me know how you feel about all this in the comments.
I am Ryan and if you’re reading this, you ARE the Resistance! Write on!
