The Opportunists: Parasites of Capitalism

The Ruins of Capitalism

“Since everything which exists or happens for a man exists only in his consciousness and happens for it alone, the most essential thing for a man is the constitution of this consciousness, which is in most cases far more important than the circumstances which go to form its contents.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

It poured outside at the dawn of capitalism, passers-by drenched in the rain of opportunism, while I looked on from my tiny little shelter far from the hue and cry of the market I had hardly ever visited, being neither a seller nor a buyer. The dull, sullen, pale faces, the fast-moving legs, and the mud-laden boots in the streets seemed to carry hundreds of stories of death — the death of love and joy, of life and liveliness, of oneness and unity, of peace and pacifists, of curiosity and exploration.

As an old proverb says, water that is too pure has no fish, so what role has to play for vegans in a market of beef and beef-lovers? This certainly implies that there naturally comes about a distance between the two sets of people, since there remains no opportunity — if there was any — for them to bump into each other even occasionally.

Unconsciously Turned Parasites

A vast majority of opportunists, unconsciously turned into parasites by the force of capitalism, fail to understand that they can succeed in maintaining long-standing relations only with people identical to them, and rarely ever with the genuine. Upon this instance, one wise individual someday from among them may ask themself what sorrow, or ‘Dukha’, is, and if evolved enough, may have a plausible answer that sorrow is only the result of their own self-centred activities, or what we call ‘Aham Vrittis’, that is, fear, greed, jealousy, insecurity, anger, possessiveness, hatred, and so on and so forth. The next question, if the individual is truly evolved enough, may be as to the cause and cessation of the self-centred activities. Is it that the very conditioning of our consciousness has the roots of aham vrittis? Is it that the very structure of our consciousness, which has evolved since the beginning of time, if there was any, has only aham vrittis and nothing else?

We are sorrowful, the cause being our own self-centred activities, and to obliterate this sorrow, we end up being more self-centred, instead of obliterating the self itself, that is, freedom from fear, greed, jealousy, insecurity, anger, possessiveness, hatred, etc. Who runs after happiness and light the most after all? One who is most unhappy and enveloped and haunted by darkness. Thus, we have our youths absorbed in alcoholism, sex, pubs, parties, super-ambitious drives, and ostentatiousness, and our middle-aged and old-aged chunks of population engrossed in their religious or familial conditioning.

Most of us possess not even the slightest clarity of the fact that the very structure of this society is such that joy and peace are futile and burdensome. Loss to doctors if society is healthy and not diseased, to lawyers if society is peaceful and not chaotic, to politicians if society has no crevices and divisions of castes and religions and languages, to capitalists if society is satisfied about the products already doing well with no need for upgradation, to pundits, purohits and jyotishacharyas if society is not sorrowful while constantly looking to the uncertainty of the future. We ourselves do not wish ourselves happiness!

The Lowest Pedestal of Evolution

Opportunists in the above lot stand on the lowest pedestal of evolution, and the greatest pity is owed to their struggle with their own minds. They are constantly programmed by the above society to seek — to seek fame, respect, success, wealth, and companionship to avoid the sorrow of anonymity, disrespect, failure, poverty, and abandonment respectively. However, the evolved must ask, “What is there to hold on to, when everything is changing every second? A mirage?” When mirages are chased, uncertainty and frustration must aggrandize and intensify as well. Pity, thus, for opportunists!

The only message to the evolved may be to never try to fit yourselves in the market of opportunists outside, since you are neither buyers nor sellers, nor do you rejoice in being the onlookers of the dangling products available therein. There may be a different market for you, perhaps, not as glittery as that of the pitiable, but surely far more genuine, corruption-free and deflated. Seek one, but far — far from those of the pitiable, and silently!