The Fish Rots From the Head
Playing a childhood game got me thinking about how things have changed over the years. Societal values seem to be changing for the worse, and I think I’ve figured out why.
The aim in Monopoly, as you know, is to win. I remember when I was a child and cheating was frowned upon, but as I got older I noticed that cheating went from being offensive to cheeky, then funny, before finally we arrived at an edition where cheating is encouraged. Ironically, though, the original version was actually created as a commentary on wealth disparity, to “demonstrate the evils of accruing vast sums of wealth at the expense of others.”
After more than a year of being stuck at home, playing Monopoly and watching the news, I started to see parallels between the two. I could be delirious (what month are we in now?), and I want to clarify that I’m not a communist before continuing.
As I was saying…
Like Monopoly, capitalism is (supposed to be) designed for anyone to be able to win. But through time, new and unspoken rules have been written into the game. We now see companies doing whatever it takes to win, regardless of their corporate social responsibilities; CEOs making more money in a week than their lowest-paid staff make in a year; an economic structure that leaves those lowest paid workers unable to afford their own space to live in, and puts them first in line for redundancy when the going gets tough.
I could spend a few thousand words explaining how the working classes are tricked into believing that this is normal, and how much I wish that every individual in society would be more stoic in turning down employment that doesn’t make ends meet, but that’s not my point here.
Luckily, there might be a little hope for the future. A recent report by the American National Intelligence Council predicts a possible scenario in which a new global coalition emerges, “driven in part by social movements” in order to address some of the issues caused by a “mismatch between governments’ abilities and publics’ expectations.” Of course, it isn’t to be assumed that such a change would be simple — with violence, internal conflict and state collapse listed as extreme examples of what might be expected along the way.
It is important to note that these scenarios are not meant to be accurate predictions, more ideas based on the information we have on historical trends and current events. There are various scenarios put forward in each report — so no need to panic just yet. At the same time, it is interesting to note that the previous report, which was released in 2017, imagined a global pandemic might happen in 2023. It also imagined a reduction in global travel in order to stop the spread. Spooky.
We are potentially staring down the barrel of a worrying future — but how did we get here?
My thinking is that misinformed generations have taken the idea of capitalism and pushed it further than they should. Just like in the game of Monopoly, where we have normalised cheating to the point of making it more enjoyable and even encouraging it, we find that in everyday life people are making more and more misguided decisions in the name of getting that coin. Is it because they are bad people? I don’t think so. Not necessarily, anyway.
So keen are some, for status and recognition, that they will do anything to achieve it. Our culture has encouraged society to swap integrity for intelligence (like when politicians lie), ethics for economics (as in profiteering), and society for self. The healthy middle-ground is fast disappearing as things get more and more polarised and mimetic desire pushes things even further in the wrong direction.
These things have been happening for a very long time, but as new generations of workers join the system, the measures of their success are set by the results of those that came before them, which are pretty unimaginable when you are starting from scratch. And herein lies a flaw in our thinking. By focusing more on the destination rather than the journey, we stopped caring so much about morals. We stopped caring so much about integrity. And now that the people in charge almost have none, we find ourselves heading further and further towards disaster.
Somehow, we have come to believe money is more important than anything else, even though there’s no biological need for it to exist. The onset of the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns seemed to remind us of that, when suddenly nearly all of us were obliged to not go into work. Governments found the resources to support people in ways that were previously said to be impossible. It was a chance to be reminded that money isn’t as important as the humans who work for it.
Then there were the social movements to support black lives, acknowledge our key workers and protect our freedoms. Suddenly, corporations were lining up to express support for these causes, though some were more authentic than others. I am extremely skeptical about any employer that doesn’t pay all staff a living wage and yet claims to care about society (it’s worse than you think), but I was thankful that at the very least these important issues had made it into public conversation, and hoped that some of the actions taken by governments and employers to support everyday people might signal real positive change on the horizon (please note, I was not hopeful about the government’s race report).
As well as the Conservative’s predictable attempts to gaslight ethnic minorities (or as the UN described it, normalise white supremacy), this year we have been treated to continued stories of profiteering (by our own government as well as private companies), the bizarre and short-lived European Super League, and a bunch of other incidents that showcase the kinds of greed and ignorance that most of us should hopefully been advised against as children. It is difficult not to feel overwhelmed and disheartened — but there is still light at the end of the tunnel.
The public backlash on some of these issues have forced some prompt u-turns, proving that some people can be made accountable, and there are still moral and ethical people out there — just not the ones in charge.
The fish rots from the head, after all.
