We have all heard the term “class warfare” being used in a political debate or another. For those of you who are uncertain as to what class warfare is, allow me to elaborate: as the name suggests, class warfare is defined as the conflict of interests between the different classes in society. In societies such as ours, which are heavily influenced by modern capitalism and laissez-faire economics, this conflict often boils down to the differences between the rich and the poor, those who run businesses and those who work for them.
Truth be told, I sincerely think that the term “class warfare” is misleading. Upon seeing the word "warfare’, one would think that both of the classes mentioned above have an equal amount of power to be used for the achievement of their goals. Sadly, reality is very different. Today, it is very clear that only those with the money and the power have a say in this world whilst the common worker is left to the mercy of the wealthy capitalist’s boot. Think about it: modern society is not the pretty picture it is painted to be in the media (media mostly owned by wealthy businessmen, obviously). You are only allowed to vote once every four or five years. This means that you, as one of the many cogs in the one big machine that is society, are only allowed to decide who is going to shape the future of your country once every five years.
Furthermore, your choice of representatives is limited to members who normally pertain to the higher echelons of society – doctors, lawyers and other politicians with high paying jobs who have no particular interest whatsoever in your well-being. I do not wish to generalise and put every single politician in the history of democracy into one category; after all, there have been political representatives who were of great service to their countries. The problem with the system is that these men and women who have been exemplary in their terms of office are few and far in between, and that there are way too many politicians who are just in it for the money.
This is where the problems begin. Nothing good can come out of mixing greedy politicians with businesses who run the entire economical infrastructure of the country. This is capitalism’s greatest flaw: if you allow corporations and business to grow to the point where they can pay off anyone in power, the system is going to crash. These corporations are able to obliterate any modicum of power workers’ unions have, and they will basically be able to run the country and use the politicians as puppets. As the character V from the popular film V for Vendetta would put it, “the vox populi (voice of the people) is vacant, now vanished”. Sure, we may get a vote; sure, we do choose who our representatives are; but what choice is there really when corruption and greed are the names of the business? It has happened time and time again; a dirty oil company or an arms manufacturer or a food chain with less than noble intentions pays off a politician, said politician turns a blind eye and before you know it, they’re in control. It’s like a twisted version of a fairytale which is repeated over and over, and it never will quite end unless the system is changed.
Despite all this, however, there is one thing in favour for those of us pertaining to the working class; we have strength in numbers. We are many, and they are few. The fighting in our society shouldn’t be against people of different religions or different ethnicities, but against people who want to be elitists and want to exclude everyone from the bounties of the world except for themselves.