BREAKING: 3 killed at Maryland mall

[mindwalker_i]

104. The TPP has everything to do with this post

"What perpetuates the system is apathy."

There's definitely some truth to this, but it's closely related to what I said earlier. If, for example, the banks go around and steal people's houses, using forged documents and getting the police to help them enforce theft of homes, they have done a great wrong. In many cases, nothing was done about this. I don't have specific examples, but I'm sure they can be found easily enough. In addition, the government architected or at least agreed to a settlement that effectively erased the wrong-doing, at least in legal terms, cutting off the recourse that people had to address the wrongs done to them. Apathy by the people, deciding there was just nothing they could do about it, perpetuates the system whereby they get screwed over. Specifically, the money they earned by working for a company (or themselves), is stolen by the banks and by not doing anything about it, the people agree to that "theft".

When the financial system collapsed, the government bailed it out, primarily for practical reasons. When the government, particularly Republicans, fought any regulation to prevent it from happening again, they were effectively endorsing the theft of our money, paid in taxes, by the financial institution because they support having the "meltdown" and subsequent bailout with our money happening again.

If you, as an individual person, allow this to keep happening, you are endorsing the system by which you are repeatedly robbed. If you vote for people expecting that they will stop this from happening, and they don't stop it from happening over and over, you are being "apathetic," and supporting the system. So if voting doesn't help it, what is the next step? Is it moral for you to just keep voting and hoping for something to change, while following all the rules of society, a.k.a. laws?

As for the mall shooting, it's immoral to shoot and kill people, but I can NOT say that it's immoral to break laws when other groups or corporations are allowed to break laws (effectively, there are no laws that apply to corporations then). Being apathetic and not doing something to change the situation is, at best, participating in the robbery of yourself, but it's also participating in the robbery of everybody else.

This idea needs refinement. Stealing from your neighbor is obviously not the solution (assuming your neighbor is an individual). However, following the rules while companies systematically do not, and are rewarded for not following the rules, is immoral. If the TPP passes and companies are allowed to change the rules to protect their profits, at the expense of people, continuing to follow the rules (abridged by corporations) is highly immoral, similar to participating in your own rape.