We are slaves. That is the big secret. The oligarchs live in fear that we will discover that fact. Capitalism runs on a form of slavery. The primitive dark side of human nature encourages alpha males to enslave others to maintain social stratification.
Slavery is evolving away. As humans become more intelligent, they resent enslavement, and they revolt. As humans progress, the form of slavery changes from overt brutal domination to more subtle arrangements. Debt traps and wage slavery have replaced metal chains and shackles.
Oligarchs fear that workers will discover that they are not free. That is why neoliberal propaganda is all about “freedom.” The Republican Party is all about the myth of freedom. The right spins and frames the left as a threat to freedom when the opposite is true.
People sense their oppression, but it confuses them. They resent being tied to a factory or an office. Workers feel restrained when they cannot be where they want to be and do what they want to do. We have to ask permission to be away from work for a day. We are not free to express our opinions when working. Employers tell us what to wear and when to eat. Some of us still need permission to go to the bathroom. We are no more free to run away than a slave in the 1800s.
We cannot quit our jobs until we find another one. We can leave the plantation only after we take up another yoke from a different master. Employers keep us on a tight rope as we cope with debts, bills, and uninterrupted expensive private medical insurance.
We are slaves to debt. Oligarchs raise prices for desperate human necessities to the point that they are not affordable, forcing the consumer into a classic debt trap. We must borrow money that we cannot afford to repay to buy things that we cannot refuse to buy. We become slaves to the bank. Debtors and wage slaves cannot revolt. You can’t strike the plantation when the plantation controls your food and access to medical treatment. You can’t strike the plantation when you owe the plantation more money than you can ever repay.
Capitalism dies without some form of slavery. Capitalism runs on slavery. The oligarchs know that working people are still under a form of slavery. They fear that voters will wake up and redistribute political power. That is why the oligarchs desperately block democracy by whatever means necessary. They know that they cannot stop democratic progress, only delay it. Democracy breaks through one layer of oppression at a time. There are more of us then there are of them. A handful of old white men control half of all of the wealth in the US. The dam is breaking now. I can hear the cracking sound.