Ken Wentworth

Our individualist driven culture espouses that we all have the capacity to access the financial bounty on offer, if we work hard enough. That, we all have the opportunity to rise above our innate lack of financial security, if we are unlucky enough to be burdened with this journey. (Others, like Paris, have it easy it seems?) Figures of success (rags to riches) are held up as proof that capitalism rewards those who aspire for the pivotal symbol of success, money!  

But what happens to those who do not fit this picture? Who do not base their own success on these lofty ideals, if they were blessed with the opportunity and or the intelligence to do so? They are left in a powerless position that robs them of personal dignity. Through a gradual erosion of the welfare system and reforms of Industrial Relations laws (In Australia), this divide is sure to grow,leaving us who are not fortunate enough to have found a place for ourselves on top of the heap (If our ideology could allow us to do so?) begging the question, why?   

 Our social and cultural fabric should not be built upon a financial system that propagates social inequity - It should not be 'financial', it should be based upon building community and self sufficiency among citizens, not disenfranchising and disempowering people - placing them in a subservient role that ensures they are not able due to the position they are placed, capable of demanding for or actively creating a situation that is more equitable.

 We live in a barren landscape, the 'drought' is more than just environmental - it is psychological and cultural - as long as globally we are prisoners to a financial market that is detached from the 'human' and 'environmental' forces that in the end must be acknowledged - we destroy our natural environment, severing our humanity and capacity for compassion in the process... creating a disconnect with our ability to connect on a meaningful level, collectively and individually.