Cure for Ennui? Revolt!

by Sadaf Javed

Whether we are busy drowning ourselves in fabricated realities or on our way down the miserable road to disillusionment, it only takes a quick line of reasoning to conclude that we live in a sick world. The dystopia is not in the future; it is already here, has been here for a while. But just like in books, very few living in a dystopian world actually realize it. However, once you do, there is no going back. You cannot put the blindfold over your eyes once it has been ripped off. We are surrounded by a society that is obscene in its apathy. It might seem that no sane person will agree to live the way we do; yet, here we are, chatting and laughing about the latest tv show, celebrity scandal, or an inane piece of gossip. All the propaganda in the media and government sources, our education system, and the ‘appropriate’ set of values we are supposed to be raised with converge to produce an obedient and class-submissive population that relies on extreme cognitive dissonance to survive. In short, we are not okay. 

We live in a world driven by greed for infinite profits and growth. Only 1% of the world population owns 57% of global wealth. In capitalist havens, such as the United States, France, and the UK, the top 10% owns about half of the country’s net wealth while the bottom 50% own a negligible 6% [1-4]. This means that while we squabble over our differences, the people who rule us profit from our distraction and submission. Classically, the poorest and the most vulnerable among us are used as scapegoats for the issues our society faces. Why are there not enough jobs? Because the immigrants are stealing them. Why is the planet warming up? Because we do not recycle enough and those backward people in the third world countries do not care enough about the climate at all. Why is there not enough money for infrastructure? Because all the tax money is given away as charity to people with disabilities or single mothers. Do we seriously challenge these false notions and more importantly, do we fight against them to uplift the weakest among us? We hardly think about the billionaires who fly in their private jets every day, who consume more than they need and hoard resources to make a profit on them. These simple lies fed to us about the issues in our local environment also prime us to digest injustices happening around the world. At some point, we stop verifying propaganda and start blindly swallowing it.

In the last few years, I have learned to coexist around people who remain unbothered by the butchering of thousands of innocent people and the ceaseless humiliation Israel puts millions of Palestinians through every single day. Many of these people claim to hold a ‘balanced’ perspective on this ‘complicated’ issue. They pride themselves on their rationale and ability to talk about sensitive topics in a civilized manner. But all I see is thinly veiled apathy and absolute submission to a system that makes you think that you are the smart one if dead children do not stir your heart. They somehow rationalize that their lives can be and are separate from the lives of Palestinians, that they are not soaked in the blood of children simply because they are not the ones holding the gun. The West has learned to live with contradicting beliefs as a society. While they preach the message of rationality, democracy, and civilization, they are also the most violent, barbaric, terrorizing, and undemocratic ‘civilization’ to have ever existed. The murder of a privileged white person will make news headlines, portrayed as a tragedy, but millions of non-white people being murdered or starved every day does not spark even a hint of outrage in mainstream media. The lives of the latter are decided to be unimportant. It makes me conclude that we do not live by any principles except those that serve us in the given moment. We lack empathy unless we can wield it for our gains. This pathological insensitivity has hollowed out our communities and society. We continue to support the rich and tread on the poor. We love only those whom we deem to be like us and despise those whom we label as ‘other’, and all the while our planet burns.

No section of society can isolate itself from the rest without serious repercussions for all. For instance, if scientists claim to separate science from politics, they shrug off the accountability they owe the society for how their research is used. A scientist can invent an atomic bomb and do so out of sheer curiosity, but it will be used to kill people whether they want to admit it or not. Even a scientist doing more fundamental research can be complicit in human rights violations as we have so clearly seen in the case of collaborations between Israeli and Western institutions. A university is an organism in itself, its separate branches working together to keep it going. While defense research is more directly involved in crimes against humanity and the climate, there are ways other than outright violence to annihilate someone. Archaeologists and historians can erase the history of a people, and fundamental research is excellent in cleaning up the image of a university and stamping an illegally established institution with legitimacy [7]. Education is a versatile tool to legitimize illegitimate and illegal actions; it is a tool that the powerful fight to control while the victims fight to reclaim. Neutrality of educational institutions is a sham. Neutrality arms the oppressors and strips the victims of their right to justice. Neutrality is complicity.

Scientific advancement determines the progress of the society, it cannot exist in idealistic isolation. Knowledge is power. The accumulation of scientific knowledge in the West is not because of their superior civilization but because of their violent and bloody history of colonization and exploitation of the rest of the world. Scientists cannot ignore this fact. Even today, most countries in the global south are intentionally crippled by the US-led capitalist imperialist world order that forces governments to put the interests of the imperialists over those of their own people. From the resource-rich Latin America, Africa, Middle-East, and Asia, US-backed authoritarian regimes oppress the local populations, siphoning raw materials from and exploiting cheap labor in the global south, increasing the wealth of the US and its allies [3-6]. Failure to comply with this world order results in swift coups and assassinations branded as ‘missions for liberation’ to ‘spread democracy’ around the world by the West. 

What we need right now are strong communities. Our communities, those built on altruism and love for each other, are scant. We live isolated and disjointed lives, and I do not think that this is unintentional. The more disconnected we are from each other, the easier it becomes to pit us against one another. We might spend time with some colleagues or have friends we see once or twice a week, but there is little beyond that. Having a community means caring for people from a range of social classes and being cared for by them in return. It means that you not only share meals with people but also organize to make the world a better place. For me, community is not defined by looks, abilities, sexual orientation, nationality, language, faith, or a certain neighborhood. I find communities based on common ideals of equity, justice, and an immense love for the planet we live on.

Resisting the capitalist forces in a dominantly capitalist society is a long struggle. But it is a cause worth fighting for because capitalism defies everything good about humanity. If you want to make a profit on every commodity, you cannot let pesky things like conscience and ethics get in the way. Workers are paid so long as they can be controlled. Put one toe out of line, and the herd will shun you into submission or the boss will fire you. People are simply labor, something that needs to be of use. Concern for our welfare goes only so far as we stay an asset to the capitalist machinery. That is why the homeless are blamed for their condition. We are told not to question the system that does not view shelter, food, water, and dignity as the right of every living being. The people profiting from our labor know better than us that if they do not make us believe that we must earn these fundamental rights, the entire system will crumble under revolt. Working us to exhaustion and flooding us with easy entertainment and instant pleasures also ensures that we never have the time to see through the web of lies straightjacketing us. This means that we are always too overwhelmed with work or too tired after work to organize and fight for our collective rights.

The more educated masses have a greater responsibility to drive change. Academics have the power to change the public opinion through their work. Academics in the so-called ‘hard sciences’ in particular, need to acknowledge that their work is not and cannot be apolitical. And because we cannot be neutral, apolitical entities, we need to educate ourselves about the world and spread awareness among our peers. Whether we admit it or not, hard sciences are better funded than the social sciences not because the former is somehow superior to the latter, but because we are more profitable to the corporations and do not challenge them in any significant way. When a faction of us does start challenging the infinite profit model of capitalism, like environmental scientists have in recent years, we immediately see the repercussions [10,11]. There is a long history of corporations funding research in favor of their products to shape legislations and discredit independent scientific research on their health hazards, the tobacco and alcohol industries being the most notable examples [12,13]. So, the illusion of hard sciences having no influence on politics is just that, an illusion.

It is already too late to join the movement for justice for so many people massacred by the Western capitalist system. It is almost too late to speak up for Palestinians if you haven’t already. But the world needs to change. Those in power need to be held accountable for their crimes, and the corporations and the billionaires need to be stripped off their influence on how our world works. Palestine has become the beating heart of revolution. That is why billions are being poured into skewing the public opinion against the Palestinians, because all struggles against power are interconnected. Once we, the people, see that and unite, there will be no stopping us. There are way more of us than there are of the plutocrats who hold us slaves to their wishes. For this planet and for all those who live on it, Revolt!

References

1. Wijburg, G. (2024). On undevelopment and de‐development: A geographical critique on perpetual growth and resource‐based accumulation. Area.  https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12988 
2. Chancel, L., Mohren, C., Bothe, P., & Semieniuk, G. (2025). Climate change and the global distribution of wealth. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02268-3 
3. Multilateralism in an Era of Global Oligarchy | Oxfam International. (2024, September 24). Oxfam International. https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/multilaterialism-era-global-oligarchy 
4. Survival of the Richest: How we must tax the super-rich now to fight inequality. (n.d.). Oxfam Policy & Practice. https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/survival-of-the-richest-how-we-must-tax-the-super-rich-now-to-fight-inequality-621477/  
5. venezueladmin. (2013, October 23). US- Venezuela Relations: A Case Study of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism – Venezuelanalysis. Venezuelanalysis. https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10112/ 
6. Editor. (2023, March 27). “The Dwindling Band Of Iraq Obsessives” – Endless War And Media Complicity. Media Lens. https://www.medialens.org/2023/the-dwindling-band-of-iraq-obsessives-endless-war-and-media-complicity/ 
7. Wind, M. (2024). Towers of Ivory and Steel. Verso Books.
8. Landy, D., Ronit Lentin, & McCarthy, C. (2020). Enforcing Silence. Zed Books Ltd..
9. The deafening silence of South African universities. (2022, June 23). Africasacountry.com. https://africasacountry.com/2023/10/the-deafening-silence-of-south-african-universities 
10. Attacks on Scientists: Lessons from the Monsanto papers. (2024). Collaborative for Health & Environment. https://www.healthandenvironment.org/latest-research/blog/attacks-on-scientists-lessons-from-the-monsanto-papers 
11. Editor. (2007, March 21). CHANNEL 4’S CLIMATE SWINDLE – THE DISTORTIONS CONTINUE. Media Lens. https://www.medialens.org/2007/channel-4s-climate-swindle-the-distortions-continue/ 
12. Who is Science Serving? A Closer Look at Industry-Funded Research – Morning Sign Out at UCI. (2024). Uci.edu. https://sites.uci.edu/morningsignout/2018/07/27/who-is-science-serving-a-closer-look-at-industry-funded-research/ 
13. Hellman, M. (2018). The alcohol industry’s never-ending interest in research and policy. Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 35(4), 237–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/1455072518782660