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"Advocating Economic & Personal Change"


Stress

Those most versed in the topic of health know that, in fact, stress is the most pernicious force the human organism can experience. It is far worse than even poor diet, the present strong and ubiquitous social focus on the latter, notwithstanding. Yet, how can we reasonably expect to be stress-free, or even maintain relatively low levels of stress, in our dog-eat-dog, law-of-the-jungle, hypercompetitive, money-and-profit-based society?

Similarly, it is said that the most healthful thing an individual can do for themselves is not to worry, since worry, like stress, is extremely damaging to the human organism. However, isn't it true that in certain situations or circumstances of danger or potential danger, worry is an appropriate response?

Indeed, given the plethora of threats to our physical and mental well-being posed daily by capitalism, ranging from the fear of job loss to the presence of harmful pollutants and chemicals in our environment, how does one rationally resist the urge to worry?

(And should one resist the urge? Isn't it better to allow ourselves to experience our natural and logical reactions and responses to the ubiquitous misanthropies of capitalism, so we don't lose touch with the reality that capitalism actually is a multifarious hazard to us, and so we remain rooted in the fact of our status as slaves, one of the oppressions of which is the compulsion to live with the multifarious hazards?)

The extremely injurious and often insidious biological realities of stress and worry are among the most potent reasons that we must transition away from a money-and-profit-based social system:  if capitalism truly excels at one thing, it is the fatal and never-ending generation of psychological and emotional stress, and its handmaiden, worry.

(Hence, the obesity epidemic.)

In sum:  stress is a killer, and capitalism produces nothing but stress!


The Love Ethic

The high and sustained level of stress we continually experience is also bound up with, indeed determines, our ability to concretely love our fellow human beings, every day. How can we do it, under these kinds of mental conditions? It is extremely difficult, indeed impossible, which is why a full and complete flowering of the beautiful ideal of the love ethic cannot occur under a profit-based system. This, in addition to the key problem of stress, above, is another powerful and absolutely essential reason we must move away from money-and-profit as the basis for our society, and toward the deceptively simple yet ultimately very powerful principles of love and cooperation, as beautifully and logically manifest in a Cooperative Society.


Suggested Link

Understanding the Have-Knots: The Role of Stress in Just About Everything



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