Humans do not feel comfortable discussing cannibalism.
The idea of being eaten or being devoured makes us feel vulnerable to the core.
But cannibalism has been practised in all communities and periods of history.
A documentary on the Druids and the Roman conquest of England that I watched yesterday.
The Druids sacrificed human beings to their gods in order to defend their homes from the Romans. They may have also consumed their own flesh and bone marrow in order to acquire strength against an army unlike any they had ever encountered.
Today, we might consider this behaviour to be horrifying and cruel, but a social anthropologist provided an insightful justification: the Druids were in a desperate situation,
They lacked the military prowess to hold off the Roman invasion, and the Roman invaders did not have a good reputation as welcome visitors.
The Celtic settlements were completely destroyed by the Romans when they pillaged and raped them.
The Druids’ last chance of surviving was to murder their own people in an effort to please a god.
The Druids were virtually wiped out from their own land and now only exist as legends as a result of their sacrifices failing in the end.
I started to consider cannibalism in contemporary society.
The few known instances of cannibalism are only found in communities that are in extreme need and danger.
But I’ve found that there is still cannibalism today, and it takes the shape of financial cannibalism.
Through the ages, we have witnessed rulers, political figures, and business people rob the populace of their livelihood rather than necessarily their lives.
I like to refer to it as Corporate Cannibalism in America today (although already exists with a similar definition and song).
We are currently being robbed of our means of subsistence in our nation in order to further the wealth of others (greed).
And it’s all around us—from banks and credit card corporations to small local businesses—selling and persuading us that we need their products and services.
We require insurance for both of these things.
Every three months, we need change the oil in our cars. Our pets also require immunisations, and our kids demand the newest styles.
Is all of this necessary?
Do we actually require everything that businesses tell us, or are they simply stealing our money to make a profit?
You might believe that it is only money and not blood.
But how many people are going without food as a result of their inability to pay their bills?
How many people are dying as a result of their inability to pay for medical care?
How many people ended their lives as a result of a Wall Street banker staking their retirement?
How can we accept the soullessness of people who sacrifice others for their own avarice when we may condemn the druids for engaging in human sacrifice and cannibalism in order to survive?
If we are cannibalising our own for profit and American corporations are doing it, how can we claim to be civilised?