In western societies where a semblance of democracy is maintained, natural selection in the Darwinian jungle has shifted into conquest through intellectual persuasion, debate and trickery. The aggressive, darker side of our humanity, now wrapped in a mask of civility, has become an invisible force of control. This has created a trend of psychopathy within society that emphasizes antisocial traits and characteristics such as egocentricity and absence of empathy. The hyper-individuality prevalent in the west has made man a sophisticated social animal with an overgrown head. While the advancement of thinking opened up the possibility for freedom, at the same time it caused suppression of feeling and brought a sense of alienation. It is an irrational drive beneath consciousness, which from time to time threatens the supremacy of reason. Yet the primitive man denied by modern society still thrives. Western rationality appears to rule over instincts now.
The mechanical vision of Newton’s universe with its law of cause and effect replaced the forces of chaos and unpredictability. In Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West, John Ralston Saul (1992) described how the west strove to conquer the savage within and that its conception of civility was defined by the triumph of reason in a “struggle against superstition and arbitrary power.” Perhaps this wild creature represents primitive animalistic parts of man that have become the shadow of current civilization. The question of our time which engages us with the problem of this growing beast is the following: what is the dark force symbolized by the bull and how can it be tamed? Whatever names are used across ideological lines, more and more people are beginning to recognize this oppressive force that tends to drag all into an abyss. Some call it capitalism or neoliberalism, while others call it statism or corporatism. The image of the guarded bull at the world’s financial centre captured the essence of the deepening global crisis rapidly growing greed and ruthless aspects of humanity that are protected by those in power. At the onset of the Occupy movement, while protesters gathered in lower Manhattan, police put barricades around the iconic sculpture of the Charging Bull.
Back then no one went to jail and banks were bailed out.
Not much has really changed since the 2008 financial meltdown. Here are some familiar faces carrying on the same old cycles of corruption and lawbreaking, with no recourse. These included Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland. Some rights reserved.It was recently reported that a number of top world banks pleaded guilty to rigging the price of foreign currencies and interest rates.
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