THE DARK SIDE OF CAPITALISM

Train journeys can sometimes become really boring. Especially if one is travelling overnight and one's only companion is fast asleep. However, the good part is it leaves one with ample time to think about trivial matters like markets, systems, progress etc. Which is impossible thing to do in the company of lively people. Its not that thoughts dont come, it is retention of thoughts which gets handicapped when dealing with a number of varying stimuli, each trying hard to get a piece of the same scarce resource - Attention.

I am writing this post sitting in a train helped partly by the lack of interesting conversations around me and partly by the intense desire to strike a conversation with myself which I have not been able to do for a long time now.

Long ago, I had accidently stumbled upon a marvellous story on the internet (which ofcourse I am presenting after adding a few flavours of my own). A humble farmer and a wealthy industrialist were sitting on the bank of a river with their fishing rods. After looking very thoughtfully at the farmer for a while, the industrialist inquisitively asked, "You are good at fishing. Why dont you buy a big boat, a big net and catch more fish?"
The farmer seemed confused "How would that help?" he questioned back.
"See, you can use your expertise to your advantage by using a big boat and a big net. You will catch far more fish than you currently do with your fishing rod. You can sell the catch in the market and make lots of profit with which you can buy a bigger fishing boat or even a ship some day and become an industrialist like me". The industrialist replied.
This made the farmer grow even more confused. He shot back at the industrialist, "But I dont want to be you. I undertake fishing for my own consumption and sell off the remainder in the market to earn just enough money to sustain my humble living. I am happy with my simple living ways. More money from bigger catch will make my life complex, becoming an industrialist will force me to leave my village and move to a city. I will have to work sleepless nights to protect imaginary notions like wealth. My life will become miserable and my happiness will be gone. Moreover, catching more fishes will deplete the supply of fishes in the river and turn my fellow villagers, my friends, my relatives against me for their source of livelihood will be gone."
The industrialist laughed at the farmers simplicity, and tried to explain the simpleton about the benefits of scaling up. " You are a good man. But in this world being good is not enough, you have to be great. Greatness comes from making people dependent on you. By becoming an industrialist you will provide employment not only to your fellow villagers but to many more. The sleepless nights you will put as an industrialist will help you amass unforeseen wealth by the time you retire. This intangible value called wealth will help you rule the world. And yes once you are through with the ruling part, you can always buy a big villa at a river bank in a small hamlet and spend your time at leisure, as I am doing now."
The farmer smiled at the industrialist's words and said, " I am doing the exact same thing NOW which you have come to do after considerable pains throughout your life. I dont see why I should give it up now to complete a full circle and fall back on it during retirement. I dont have a big villa or large sums of imaginary value in the form of wealth, but my humble house is on the bank of this river, I spend my full day at leisure or in whatever manner it pleases me and I am happy. Plus I have got with me my family, friends, neighbours, fellow villagemen which you dont."
The industrialist walked away cursing himself as to why did he even bother himself at trying to help such a big fool. "Lazy Dogs", he barked.

99% of the time I find myself agreeing with the industrialist. You can look at it as a conformity bias, the industrialists view simply conforms with whatever I myself believe and therefore I tend to hold it true . But the balance 1% of the time is when I feel terribly frightened - for if the industrialist's theory of how life should be lived is wrong, then God help us cause that means we are living in a terribly messed up world...

YF - IThink