Hi! It’s Charluxx.
I recently released my second single Justice (with a lot more to come in a short little while!)
Because I wrote the song about the need to take back control of our collective lives, I decided to do a blog on the state of Justice.
So today I want to broach a big subject: What we have done wrong as an evolved species, as humans.
Societal imbalance
The answer to this question is simple: We have abandoned each other.
Nothing more and nothing less. Frankly not any better than a lot of other animals.
But, we are supposed to have a huge advantage over the other creatures of the world: intelligence. We created our own world and universe that is frankly mind-blowing. We should have the ability to be caring and compassionate with each other. But we keep hurting each other.
Greed has ruined the earth, literally. As I sing in the upcoming song Lit “Justice is rigged, the rich have bought it.”
In a world where just 1% of the population has all the wealth and is in control of the other 99% something has to give. Such an imbalance cannot exist forever in nature, it is bound to fall. We just need to push. Gently but firmly.
Let the numbers speak
I’ll make it clear to you using arithmetics and use Canada as an example because it is where I presently reside.
Let me introduce you to Galen Weston part of the Weston family (a long lineage of inherited money), owner of Loblaws (a supermarket chain), and Canada’s third-largest fortune, estimated at nearly $14 billion, Mr. Weston refuses to pay his workers a decent living wage... Much like another poor excuse for a human being: Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person at $160 billion. That is beyond greed.
It got me thinking, if he is the third richest person in Canada, who are the others?
So I did a bit of digging. All of this information is readily available on the Internet. Luckily for us so is most of humanity’s knowledge... we live in an era that could be so wonderful!
In March 2019 Forbes released their annual Richest People on Earth list. There is a pretty impressive number of Canadians on the list: 45 billionaires. The top 10 alone on the list (including Galen Weston) account for around $117 billion. The top 45: $153 billion.
In a country of 37 million inhabitants 1% would be 370,000 people. Think about that. These 45 individuals represent just a tiny fraction of 1% of Canadians.
The 87 richest families in Canada have more money than 12 million people, one third of the population!
What’s interesting is that their fortune doesn’t change much over the years, which means they are holding on to the money, not spending it and definitely not contributing to society. And they hardly pay taxes.
According to various estimates Canada has over $600 billion sheltered in tax havens.
Why are they keeping all this money to themselves? They do not use it and probably never will. How is that good for humanity? It is cartoonishly farcical. Poor people contribute more to the economy. This disparity in wealth is so enormous that it cannot even be properly illustrated with a chart.
It is the same in your country, look it up... depending where you live of course, some of you don’t have access to this information because of your government’s censure. But, it is mostly readily available.
A story as a metaphor
A few years ago while living in Toronto I was witness to an incredible event. An allegory of sorts for the ills of the world.
I was sitting by a pond that was surrounded by at least a hundred Canadian geese. It was a very hot summer day, yet none of them were in the water even though they wanted to be. Why? There was a magnificent white swan in the middle of the pond. It would violently come after any goose that had the temerity to venture into the water.
I had several thoughts while observing this (for well over an hour!)...
First, if all the geese decided to go in the water simultaneously, the swan would have no choice but to let them. He just could not possibly fight all of them—99 to 1?—and would have had to leave eventually or accept this new reality and share the pond, status quo instated, non violently. But this did not happen of course.
Second, this fable of sorts is the very problem we face in society: we glamorize rich people and put them on pedestals. In general, we dare not question them, defy them or demand equality.
Why? Because of fear. As I sing in my upcoming song We Got This, they control the medias and put themselves and their ilks in such a bright light. They are, for all intents and purposes, untouchable gods. These people control the governments. If you try to raise awareness to the plight of 99% of us, they will use the full force of the media to paint you as the aggressor and justify violence against you.
We are indoctrinated to fear and oppose “the other": anyone who looks different, has different beliefs, is a different color, etc. This keeps us in check and prevents mass organization.
Demanding justice
Change can be achieved, it can be done. History shows us that such imbalances can be resolved non-violently. When we put our differences aside, united we can change society.
What are we waiting for?
Peace and Love,
Charluxx.
p.s.: share your thoughts and ideas below!..