The Little Conqueror

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The Mirage of Progress

Our economic structure has been captured by little kings, gods, and lords in the form of CEOs and shareholders who exercise absolute power in an autocratic workplace, where we spend most of our lives. How far, then, are we from the life of a feudal serf? The serf, who, from dawn to dusk, worked the land for next to nothing in comparison to the lord, who grew fat off of the peasants labor and enjoyed all the benefits. Kings, lords, and peasants were simply replaced by shareholders, CEOs, and wage laborers. God was replaced with Capitalism, and profits have supplanted morality.

We Americans pride ourselves on our democratic ideals, yet spend most of our waking lives under an autocratic hierarchical structure. Our idea of democracy in America is simply that: an idea. Ideas are safe and cozy. Acting upon them poses a serious threat to the hegemony of the ruling class. The perfect potion to keep the working class satiated in the United States is the idea of the American Dream. If you don't like your job, just move! Or quit, who's stopping you? In order to understand how Capitalism achieved its current iteration, an autopsy of the Left must be briefly addressed. 

What Went Wrong?

With the Revolution of 1776, the bourgeois of the American colonies, influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, captured the State. With that, they created a mythos of freedom for the individual as long as you were white and had access to capital. As America industrialized, she created a new class, that of the proletariat. The workers of the Industrial sector were subjected to the whims of their Overlords, and abhorrent working conditions. Capitalism in the 19th century  and early 20th century was like a destructive toddler, taking and breaking whatever it wanted in order to get more of what it wanted. Naturally, the birth of labor unions and the ideas of socialism started to take hold in America. Socialist and Communist parties formed, and a socialist candidate named Eugene Debs ran three times (once from prison for his opposition to the US involvement in World War I).

Then came Franklin D. Roosevelt and his social democratic reforms under the New Deal after the economic collapse of 1928. Social programs that we consider to be rights, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, never before in American history (nor after) has such a dramatic redistribution of wealth occurred. The primary reason capital owners agreed to that sweeping legislation was the fear of a socialist/communist revolution. Things were that bad. After all, if it could happen in Russia, a backwards country that had not escaped the feudal order, it could happen in an industrially advanced country like the United States that already had an intricate web of production capabilities. Since the New Deal, capitalists have been waging war against the working class to take back what they thought was unfairly usurped from them. 

Enter the Internet, and an emergence of a different type of capital. Economist Yanis Varoufakis refers to these entrepreneurs as Cloud Capitalists. By harnessing the powers of the internet and developing algorithms to effectively sell products, they captured the traditional capitalist class, and the working class, by making us codependent on their platforms for everything from selling products, to our behavior towards our relationship to products. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, all of these Big Tech corporations have created a surveillance state that continues to learn and to socially engineer a populace to think, feel, and work for them for free. Varoufakis argues in his book, "Technofeudalism, What Killed Capitalism" that at work, we sell our labor to corporations for fire sale rates, just to work for Big Tech companies after work, completely free, by feeding their algorithms our data so they can sell it to corporations. This, Varoufakis claims, has turned us into Cloud Serfs. 

The Little Conquerors of America use their powers to isolate, constrict, and suffocate any sort of pro-labor movement that is born at home, and abroad. What would you do if your entire self-worth was predicated on bottom lines and increasing net worth? The CEOs must perform for their board of directors and shareholders, who, in turn, own them. That’s what we, the workers, fail to understand! The Little King must think: If it affects my bottom line, they’ll find themselves another, better, possibly more gallant conqueror!

Capitalists will deflect blame for workers’ hardships back onto you and magical market forces. It’s not our fault your life sucks; it’s the invisible hand of the market—it’s really there, I promise! With cult-like fervor, they unite. In fact, we can see the market, and the hands that make it function are not invisible. The upper echelon of capitalist society robs us right in front of our eyes and then has the audacity to blame it on fantasies and make-believe! Or, gaslight us into believing the economy is actually the best it's ever been.

Stephanie Aliaga, writing on behalf of JP Morgan Chase, captures this disconnect perfectly:

"If the U.S. economy were a pop star, it might be peak Taylor Swift. On nearly every major measure of economic health, the economy is in great shape and far ahead of its developed market peers" (Aliaga 2024).

She goes on to explain that people are unhappy with the economy for reasons such as feeling "sore" about the cost of living, specifically food prices. One can almost imagine a bloated plutocrat reading this article and wondering, Why not let them eat cake?

JP Morgan also points to home ownership as an indicator of economic prosperity, though they admit that home affordability has sunk to "historic lows," with homes on average costing 4.6 times more than the median family income (Survey of Consumer Finances 2023). Rising debt, soaring grocery costs, and home prices far outpacing wage increases—do these truly point to the "greatest economy in history"? Only in fantasy.

In essence, the wealthy accumulate capital at the expense of the majority. Aliaga even highlights that the net worth of the bottom 50% has grown 95.5% since 2019. Yet, the working class remains dissatisfied. Why? Because, while wages rise marginally, corporations raise the prices of essential goods and services. This ensures that the rich remain rich and the poor remain poor. Inflation continues to erode the value of what little the working class earns.

Wages, in reality, are stagnant, and mass layoffs are rampant. According to Alex Christian of the BBC, wage growth has significantly fallen since its peak in 2022 in the U.S. and continues on a downward trajectory. Employers are attempting to "reset" the economy to pre-pandemic levels, which, to them, is the natural order. As layoffs rise and unemployment claims surge, people are struggling to make ends meet. That is the core of our economic system—and the only way it is able to function. There has to be exploitation of the working class by the Little Conquerors to keep the Plutocrats happy. Reconciling these differences is impossible without systemic change.

"Grocery price are high because of the market!" Never mind the record-setting profits executives are raking in or the Christmas bonuses they so “deservedly” earned. No, they’re not murdering the American people—it’s just business. Nothing personal.

This brings us to an essential question: how can we address the systemic issues that drive inequality in the workplace?

What Can We Do? Democratize the Workplace

Here is economist and professor Dr. Richard Wolff’s definition of workplace democracy:

"Our core goal is the development of a major (and, if possible, prevailing) sector of the economy that is comprised of enterprises (offices, factories, farms, and stores) in which the employees democratically perform the following key enterprise activities: (a) divide all the labors to be performed, (b) determine what is to be produced, how it is to be produced, and where it is to be produced, and (c) decide on the use and distribution of the resulting output or revenues (if output is monetized)" (Wolff 2018).

Democratizing workplaces means giving employees direct control over decisions that affect them—what to produce, how to distribute profits, and how to organize labor. Mondragon, a cooperative in Spain with over 70,000 workers, demonstrates that large-scale workplace democracy is not only possible but also profitable (Mondragon Corporation).

Opponents worry that workplace democracy would bog down important decisions with inefficiency. However, as Phil Kenkel points out, leaders and managers of cooperatives are democratically elected and perform decision-making roles similar to traditional hierarchical corporations (Kenkel 2017).

The struggle for freedom and equality has always been a long and treacherous road. Throughout history, those who fought for the working class were vilified in their lifetime, just to be martyred upon their death. That is how the self hating Capitalist structure shields itself with a thin veneer of false morality. It martyr's those who criticize and fought against it, even going as far as calling them heroes, and patriots. 

 I believe we are at a time where we can see through the veil. We've been to the Emerald City, we know Oz is behind that curtain, we know billionaires and the ultra rich have taken over our country. Without collective action, the wealthy elite will continue to exploit the working class, draining every ounce of labor and potential until nothing remains. 

"Every ruling class has wanted only this: all the rewards and none of the burdens. The operational code is: we have a lot; we can get more; we want it all." – Michael Parenti

A Letter to All Little Conquerors,

We were born to explore and multiply, aimlessly wandering; in the end returning to dust.

We can conquer the lands, the sea, the moon, the galaxy— then what?

A machine inside us drives this conquest, but it cannot reconcile the truth: life is fleeting, and all that we build will vanish in time.

After our dust has settled, and the war drums have ceased, one fact remains: we must die.

Everything we see is a mirage—a dream that will live forever here on Earth. Toil as you may to create your own kingdoms, where one can be god for an instant and bones in another—nothing will remain.

"I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind." – King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 1, NIV)

The plundering of the world  has reaped benefits never before seen by the annals of history. Our current economic order has no place for morality or collectivism, and that in turn created a society that is morally bankrupt and filled with Little Conquerors, hell bent on taking everything they can take from us. 

We have been brainwashed and propagandized into believing in the American Dream: that we can all become the Musk's and Bezos's of the world. 

 We, as a population, have been conditioned into believing that all of us can be the Little Conqueror. But you, my friend, I trust, have already killed him by this point in my letter and understand that it is simply untrue. Most of us will die in the same economic class we were born into. An unfortunate statistic for those who preach upward mobility. I know the Little Conqueror inside is screaming, not me! I’m different! Mine does too—every day. Wealth! All of us have been hypnotized by the American Dream. 

 “You have to be asleep to believe it!” – George Carlin 

 Keeping others from enjoying the fleeting glimpse of the universe that we are entitled to is denying yourself that same privilege. Let’s move on from the American Dream. I’d rather deal with the reality of things.

jdw






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