“Ah, woe is me,” exclaims Ophelia, appalled at Hamlet’s apparent madness. What cries of woe are we today then to raise at the folly and madness of modern capitalism. At least it could be said of Hamlet’s madness that it was an “antic disposition,” put on all the better to mislead those around him. But what are we to say of the world around us which reverses the situation exactly. Every elaborate method and device is used to assure us that the present money-and profit-making society is the sanest possible way of life and that any suggestions to the contrary are sheer lunacy. All the more reason for the Socialist to persist in his condemnation of capitalism as an utterly crazy and insane system.
Take, for example, the “artichoke war” in France. Apparently this summer has seen in Britanny a record crop of this vegetable. Instead of everybody jumping with delight at this welcome bounty of nature, the growers and sellers are very perturbed and about 7,000 tons (calculated to represent 15 million artichokes) have been allowed to rot. The reason? The price offered to the growers was so low that most of them refused to sell out for a loss. To make sure the price was not further depressed, they have been driving them to disused quarries after trying unsuccessfully to sell them on the markets, and have then sprayed them with diesel oil to prevent the public getting completely free artichokes. Times, (29/6/60).
Under Socialism, of course, we would use artichokes for eating and diesel oil for running diesel engines. What a commentary it is on our present system that in France they use the one to destroy the other.
An interesting sidelight to the above affair is contained in the Times of 2/7/60. Here we find that the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations is launching an international campaign to promote a better understanding of the problem of providing enough food for the present and future population of the world. Our aim, says Mr. Sen, the Director-General, is to increase public and government awareness of the extent and cause of hunger and malnutrition. Perhaps Mr. Sen could begin his crusade of enlightenment by explaining to us why the aforementioned artichokes (not to speak of the millions of bushels of stored-up wheat in U.S. granaries) are not distributed to those in need of them. Elsewhere, Mr. Sen tells us that “hunger is seldom the result of nature’s harshness; it is often the result of ignorance and human failure.” Very true. Ignorance that the primary purpose of capitalist production is the making of profit and not the satisfaction of human needs, and human failure (including Mr. Sen’s) to replace it with a productive system concerned only with satisfying these needs.
Max Judd
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