was listening to a podcast yesterday where they interviewed a former border guard-turned-border activist and one thing they talked about that struck me was when they talked about how the border guard used to do a lot more rescue, but at a certain point the suicide rate for the profession went up super high due to the increase in people dying, so they started outsourcing the rescue to a private company instead. and how one of the consequences of that that the former agent noticed was a much more callous attitude of border guards towards ppl trying to cross the border, bc they didn't actually have to deal with them personally anymore.
and anyway it made me think of this concept i've had for a while, about how one of the primary functions of capitalism is abstraction-- to insulate the human cost of decisions from the people making those decisions because its easier to make the profitable decisions if you aren't or don't have to or even can't conceptualize the actual people involved, the consequences of your actions, because the majority of humans are actually not as evil as we'd think based on how they act, so that abstraction provides an insulating layer for profits. and how all of us are complicit in this to some extent just by virtue of being born into this system-- even if you do your best to divest yourself of it, even if you consciously choose the right decision every time its offered, the system works so well that we can't even be aware of half of the costs of what we do.
not sure where i'm going with this but its been on my mind a lot. im definitely not trying to convince anyone its all pointless to struggle against-- lord knows i still do as much as i possibly can bear, and i think its important for everyone to push against their comfort zone particularly if they're aware of the harms it can cause-- but the scope of the problem outstrips my ability to conceptualize any kind of solution besides taking the steps i can see.
