Am I starting to become an anti-capitalist?

Something isn’t right with this world.

I assumed until recently that it was all how it should be and all part of the way that humanity evolves.  Yet it slowly dawned on me that it’s all gone a bit wrong.

I don’t really mean the wars and the hatred, although they are of course all part of it, but I mean the complete disproportionation between the extremes co-existing on this planet.

I recall one of those documentaries about people living in a near-desert dry land, probably part of Africa.  I can’t recall where it was, but I remember this young girl, probably about 19 or so who was covered by some tatty but durable nondescript clothing.  She would get up every morning and would think nothing of walking 4 or 5 miles to the nearest water supply.  If the supply has gone since last time, she will have to search for an alternative.

Then she would retrace her steps carrying a collection of makeshift containers full of not completely clean water in order that her family wouldn’t go thirsty.

I recall that she did this because that is the way their life is.

But what struck me was how far away – a world away, literally – she was from the typical Westernised 19 year old girl.  A typical 19 year old girl here will cover her face in all the odd shit that young girls are told by the fashion police to cover their faces in.  She has to have the right colour or make of lipstick, or everything is ‘wrong’.

If she hasn’t got it, she will indignantly make that long trek via buses, trains, or her parents’ car to the main High Street from which she can purchase it in order that her OCD can be fed. If she can’t find it, she may have to walk in and out of other shops searching for it.

How so very different their two lives are.

I don’t know if anybody ever has, but I wonder if the desert girl would have the slightest comprehension of what it meant, if somebody sat down with her and explained the life of the pursuit of the perfect lipstick.  Would she make any sense of it?  I expect not.  Would she even be jealous of the fact that there was a world with lipstick in it?  I expect not.

I fear the whole lipstick and inane vanity thing drummed into Westernised females wouldn’t make any sense to her.

Quite right too.

In truth it actually makes no objective sense whatsoever beyond it being something that Western women are trained into spending money on.

There are a few hundred very rich people making money out of selling stupid people pointless products after infecting them with a fear of not having them.

The whole culture of ‘fashion’ is evil, and is nothing more than a tool to dope the masses and whilst they are high to then keep taking as much money from them as possible.  That money adds itself to even more money until the person addicted to collecting it has just so much that even when they spend Billions of it on yet more pointless things, they’ve still got 99% of their pile left.

Something is wrong with this picture.  It’s all out of balance.

If money is the device that can be used to organise and create things, why isn’t it being taken from those who are obscenely hoarding it and being put to use to supply the desert girl’s family with local clean water?

And at the same time, why aren’t we doing anything to stop and re-train those currently being conned into parting with huge amounts money to buy lipstick?

I believe I am, along with rapidly increasing numbers around the world, having my first major doubts about capitalism, and maybe I’m right in now thinking that we are on the edge of seeing its final downfall.