Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
“The Paradise of the Rich is made out of the Hell of the Poor.” --Victor Hugo
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
The Benefits of World Hunger
by C.A. Matthews
There have been so many upsetting stories in the news lately that it's difficult to know what to write about and what hasn't been written into the ground already. But one article I encountered in my readings this past week hit me out of the blue, and I couldn't shake it. I decided to borrow its title and explore some of the aspects of what those five words mean.
The title? The Benefits of World Hunger.
You can learn more about how this intriguing article came about from this article:
United
Nations Scrubbed Article Heralding Benefits of World Hunger from Website After
It Went Viral https://www.globalresearch.ca/united-nations-scrubbed-article-heralding-benefits-world-hunger-from-website-after-it-went-viral/5786053
The original article written by George Kent is now archived here: https://archive.ph/zKzzH
To give you a flavor of what the thesis of Professor Kent's article is, here's an extended quote:
The non-governmental organization Free the Slaves defines slaves as people who are not allowed to walk away from their jobs. It estimates that there are about 27 million slaves in the world, including those who are literally locked into workrooms and held as bonded laborers in South Asia. However, they do not include people who might be described as slaves to hunger, that is, those who are free to walk away from their jobs but have nothing better to go to. Maybe most people who work are slaves to hunger?
For those of us at the high end of the social ladder, ending hunger globally would be a disaster. If there were no hunger in the world, who would plow the fields? Who would harvest our vegetables? Who would work in the rendering plants? Who would clean our toilets? We would have to produce our own food and clean our own toilets. No wonder people at the high end are not rushing to solve the hunger problem. For many of us, hunger is not a problem, but an asset.
The last two sentences really grabbed me. No wonder people at the high end are not rushing to solve the hunger problem. For many of us, hunger is not a problem, but an asset.
Hunger… an asset? When you put it that way, I guess it is. Those who have everything necessary for a healthy and comfortable lifestyle--such as a lovely home, easy transportation, an excellent education, a satisfying career, plentiful food, adequate medicine/healthcare, travel opportunities, entertaining hobbies, etc.--don't have to worry about the little details in life. They just happen. They happen because those with material wealth believe they deserve the wonderful things that happen to them, too.
Why are designer vegetables so cheap and abundant in the upscale supermarkets? How do posh meeting haunts magically keep themselves so sparkling clean? The answers are simple. These things are the way they are because those who have wealth typically don't share much of it with those who have little to none. The threat of starvation is enough to get the Haves what they want from the “slaves to hunger.” The threat of starvation forces the Have-Nots to do all the grunt work/dirty work the Haves never have to do for themselves.
The threat of starvation--The Benefits of World Hunger--is what makes capitalism go 'round--and 'round and 'round and 'round!
Things are getting worse and worse because the systems that are in place are designed to exploit and oppress rather than to uplift and help thrive. Those systems will protect their own ability to continue to exploit and oppress until the people use their numbers to replace them with something healthy. The people will never use their numbers to replace abusive systems with something healthy as long as they are successfully propagandized away from doing so.
This is why our political and media institutions act the way they act and why our systems are set up in the way that they are: to keep us from realizing how easy it would be to shrug off the old mechanisms of oppression like a heavy coat on a warm day and build something new that works for all of us.
Things will keep getting worse until we find a way to cut through the propaganda brain fog and rise like lions. -- Our Entire Civilization Is Structured Around Keeping Us From Realizing We Can Do This
So, hunger is a great motivator to keep the vast majority of us working for meager wages, a.k.a. slave wages. Constantly toiling, we laborers never have the time or strength to come to the realization that we as a group might actually be able to end this oppressive system. We've been brainwashed by our “superiors” to think that we can't do anything, and that's the way it is. We've been made to feel inferior by those who have it all and can't be bothered to share any of their wealth with us.
The Benefits of World Hunger… It explains so much. We The People are controlled by our stomachs and our minds, through the threat of starvation and through an insipid indoctrination into an economic system that can only exist by keeping those who labor constantly worried about the threat of starvation.
How do we escape this threat?
How do we take away the benefits that the well-to-do, a.k.a. the
bourgeoisie, expect from this corrupt, exploitative system? How do we keep them from threatening us with hunger by buying up all the arable farmland, such as billionaire Bill Gates is currently doing?
First, we the workers must learn to feed
ourselves without outside interference. Feed ourselves with food grown in our backyard gardens and community gardens. We need to food bank together with
our neighbors. Food co-ops and other organizations that take care of
the nutritional needs of the working people are essential. Mutual aid groups are a necessity.
Secondly, we must feed our minds and our souls with uplifting, nourishing praise and rhetoric that teaches us that we are indeed capable of creating a fair and just society. We can create a society where none are made to starve or live in fear because of the threat of hunger.
We must free ourselves from the bondage of The Benefits of World Hunger and all who believe the threat of starvation must continue.
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion,” said Albert Camus. We must become rebels. We must become free to act and to think for ourselves. We need to feed each other with the confidence that no one will ever be able to use a essential element such as food against us ever again.
In a moral and just world, hunger
should never be thought of as a benefit
to any person, place, or thing. We need to resist any government or leadership that insists that it is.
 |
| The mayor of L.A. getting rid of homeless people. |
Related articles:
Corporate Billionaires Are Wrecking the Supply Chain https://popularresistance.org/corporate-billionaires-are-wrecking-the-supply-chain-just-look-at-the-railroads/
Mutual Aid Groups That Arose During COVID Gather to Build Power Regionally https://truthout.org/articles/mutual-aid-groups-that-arose-during-covid-gather-to-build-power-regionally
Our Entire Civilization Is Structured Around Keeping Us From Realizing We Can Do This https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/our-entire-civilization-is-structured
Stagflation and Global Hunger Are On the Horizon. Neoliberalism Needs To End https://truthout.org/articles/stagflation-and-global-hunger-are-on-the-horizon-neoliberalism-needs-to-end/
Dutch Farmer Protests Inspire More Actions Amid Food Shortages https://popularresistance.org/dutch-farmer-protests-inspire-more-actions-amid-food-shortages/
Pushed To The Brink https://jesseventura.substack.com/p/pushed-to-the-brink
Why Capitalism Loves Disasters (video) https://youtu.be/v2ZVx8QiEUg
The People RISE UP! (video of Sri Lanka uprising) https://youtu.be/SnXGnQVHdIc
The Benefits of World Hunger by George Kent: https://archive.ph/zKzzH
United Nations Scrubbed Article Heralding Benefits of World Hunger from Website After It Went Viral https://www.globalresearch.ca/united-nations-scrubbed-article-heralding-benefits-world-hunger-from-website-after-it-went-viral/5786053
WTF?
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) July 9, 2022
ANOTHER $400 million to #Ukraine?
Billions upon billions of dollars have magically materialized for war, but nothing for the children living on the streets of our country, nothing for people without healthcare, nothing for the hungry and impoverished.
The rest of the world’s poor are rising up against their oppressors. Americans should be taking notes.
— Robert (Durden) (@realrobdurden) July 9, 2022
Imagine cheering for millionaire politicians that are pushing starvation wages of $15 an hour in 2022. It isn't 2015. Seriously out of touch. And the sad thing is the "progressives" in Congress will be calling for $15 for another decade, at least.
— citizen uprising (@cit_uprising) July 11, 2022
I don't know what Biden would have done with all that money if it wasn't for Ukraine but I know what he wouldn't have done with it. End homelessness or enact universal healthcare.
— Janus Tiresias🕊🍀🇵🇸 (@JanusTiresias) July 10, 2022
I know there’s a lot of examples of our country being cruel for cruelty’s sake but I just can’t get over how we had a policy that reduced childhood poverty by 30% and our Senators measured it, saw that it worked, and then decided “hmmm I guess I’m happier WITH the child poverty”
— Brendel (@Brendelbored) July 10, 2022
Reminder: Joe Biden and his Democratic Majority just sent enough money to Ukraine to fix all the pipes in Flint, give Americans free community college for a year, and end homelessness permanently.
— Robert (Durden) (@realrobdurden) July 10, 2022
***
In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...
Zonta’s
world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at their village's community garden to
investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she
persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist
fighters) take action?
Available now: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie
Please buy direct from the small publisher and not via Amazon. Why? Amazon takes a huge percentage of the book's price and leaves very little for the publisher and author to share. Thanks.
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