Episode 17 - Dirty Laundry

If you're anything like me, you might have a pile of dirty laundry somewhere in your room. On a chair, on the floor, maybe it's in a basket. It's a human ailment, clothes get dirty and need to be cleaned, they're worn again and it all starts over. What a thing. We all have different systems of organization we use on a day to day basis, even as ordinary as moving piles of clothes around.

In Episode 17, we do not talk about dirty laundry, but instead, a different endless cycle. Capitalism! The system that governs the functions of our everyday lives, the one that was created through legislature written in the 16th and 17th century, that spread across the globe through colonialism and slavery, among an endless list of genuinely sinful and evil crimes against humanity. People hate it, people love it (allegedly), but what is it?

That is a loaded question, highly philosophical, and answered in-depth many-a-times in the most brain-numbing way by many white men that died before your great-grandparents were even born. I am not them, but I have been forced to learn about them, and this is my rendition, to the best of my knowledge, of what this petrifying system is. Listen to this if you want to maybe learn some interesting and loosely objective thoughts, theories, opinions, and tidbits of info about capitalism. Some from me, some borrowed from professors accumulated over time, some from old white dudes. The more you know about something, the better you can use it.

In all seriousness though, if you made it this far, give it a listen. There's a little bit of gross academic language I use, but breaking this down in a clear(ish) way might make some space for that laundry. When systems I use don't make sense to me anymore, I run into a bit of resistance to changing them. But then one day something clicks and a better way to do things was found without even thinking about it. Until then, fold your laundry and enjoy the show :)