Capitalism has not done the average man much good. That is something that most of us can agree on. One can always point the finger at the available alternates to the existing structures i.e socialism, communism, or the other quasi-socialist structures, that they have not done a decent job in replacing capitalism either, but this article is not about those possible alternatives to capitalism.
It is about something else entirely.
The consequences of capitalism, the “efficiency of production” as is touted by most blind defenders of capitalism, have been shown to be a failure, to say the least.
Letting this experiment run so far has led to the heightened production of luxury goods and wealth accumulation as people with money continue to get richer and the poor continue to starve and die. The very existence of private jets, jewel-encrusted cars, insanely expensive designer clothing, and one time meals that cost multiple hundreds of dollars shows us that capitalism is, indeed, a failed system of existence and distribution of resources.
As much as it would be fun to get into the horrors of capitalism and the fallacy of thinking that no alternatives could take its place, this article is not about that either.
There are some consequences of the existing capitalistic structures that are not much discussed, and today time will be taken to talk about a few of those.
In general, there is immense pressure on the psyche of the individual to be productive in every given moment of every given day. This is reflected in the skyrocketing rates of mental health disorders that result from this push by the system to be “of use” or “efficient”.
Being constantly told that your worth can be directly measured by the contribution you make to the economy is enough to hijack anyone’s psyche and change the way we think about things. Depression, anxiety, and a myriad of other disorders are can be directly linked with this kind of pressure that has been exerted upon the average man of today. Capitalism and its consequences have ruined a lot of lives, as well as a lot of the ways of life that were significantly healthier than that of today.
Which, in a roundabout way, is what this article is about. One of the little talked about consequences of capitalism. The effects that capitalism has had on our recreational habits in general, and specifically, how it has affected how reading fantasy and fiction is viewed in our society.
So let us begin.
“In fazool kitabon ko kyun parhate ho, iss ka koi faida nahi. koi knowledge wali kitab parho. Uss se kuch faida tou hoga” (Do not read these useless books, read something that gives you actual knowledge. That might be of some use). This sentence is one that most Pakistani readers are familiar with.
Generally spoken by an elder who spots the younger individual of a family reading a fantasy novel. Be it, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, or a book by Stephen King or Brandon Sanderson, it does not matter. Unless the book you are reading has “Autobiography”, “History” or a scientific term in the title, it will be termed Fazool Kitaab (Useless book) by the dad, mom, or uncle that sees that book in your hand.
Capitalism has left a unique mark on our South Asian society. From early childhood, children are going to after-school academies to score good marks in their exams. The exams also tend to be based upon rote-learning and regurgitating (but I digress, that is a topic for another day).
To sum it up, because fantasy books are generally viewed as stories that have no linkage with real-life and the real world, (and no value in the examination hall unless you’re giving an English literature exam), they are a waste of time. And since every moment spent on reading those kinds of books could have been spent in reading academic texts, it is seen as a loss of time and money.
Since success in the academic world and the exam-hall is directly linked to future earnings as a Doctor or Engineer and so recreational reading (especially that of fantasy literature) is looked down upon in our culture.
And even though this in itself can be seen as a bad consequence of capitalism, even that argument is one that has it’s own fallacies as most people are unaware of the amount of real-world learning that comes from reading Fantasy literature. And in some cases, the things one learns from made-up characters and situations might better pertain to the real-world than actual history books or philosophical texts.
Professor Jordan Peterson, of Harvard University and The University of Toronto, has mentioned multiple times the concept of “Meta-Truth”. Though not explicitly defined in any sense, the term is extremely pertinent when it comes to the use of Fantasy Literature as a vehicle for expressing human archetypes and the messages that lie there-in.
Basically, a story can be completely untrue, in the literal sense (as most fantasy books are, set in made-up universes with made-up characters) but can contain a certain meta-truth, an over-arching truth that can be applied to actual human stories in the real world. As an example, take the famous story of “The Boy who cried Wolf”, though it can not be said that there was a boy who suffered the consequences of lying to his village folk, it does become a vehicle for the idea that it might be unfruitful to lie about certain things and end up losing the trust of your peers.
Similarly, certain religious texts and children’s stories also embody this. The use of possibly fantastical scenarios to reflect real-world scenarios as a teaching tool is as old as oral history exists.
Also, a tyrannical ruler can influence the writers of his time to write self-aggrandizing accounts of himself, whereas he does not have control over stories that are not exactly about him but portray a similar situation. In these cases sometimes it is more reflective of reality to look at works of fiction during a time in which there has been censorship and a lack of freedom of speech.
Either way, the use of fantasy literature to teach people about the human condition and human psychology whilst also inspiring people with the accounts of a fictional character dealing with relatable situations is many times more effective than telling people what to do.
So let your kids read those fantasy books. It might help them become better people than those that came before.
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