Yogurt: A Barrier to Women's Success - Raritan Valley Community ...

30that seems to reflect this idea that capitalism is a divisive force is the one inwhich the band sings, “In the end you’ll pack up and fly down south, hideyour head in the sand, just another sad old man, all alone and dying ofcancer” (Pink Floyd). One way to interpret this is, in chasing money overeverything else, we will all eventually become “lonely old men dying ofcancer,” meaning that we will lose sight of things that are important, likefamily, friends, and personal health (because money can’t buy a cure forcancer yet). That seems to be the direction society is taking, according toReich. “We know the roots of the great economic deals we’re getting. Theycome from workers forced to settle for lower wages and benefits. They comefrom companies that shed their loyalties to communities and morph intoglobal supply chains…” (194).The presence of all this evidence provided by Robert Reich and PinkFloyd in their cases against big business is evidence itself of the overlaps intheir ideas, which are that maintaining a deceptive image of good will is acore component in any institution that revolves around making money, thatpeople are expendable, and that capitalism has usurped democracy andother important values of modern civilization. It’s interesting that theseideas are so widespread that they can be found in academic writing andprogressive rock band song lyrics. Largely because of pop culture, a lot ofthese ideas are already familiar to Westerners. It makes one wonder, howlong will it be before the various democratic societies of the world are forcedto confront the issues caused by our global capitalist economy more directly?How do we fix all this? Reich ultimately insists that it’s up to all of those ofus who live in nations with democratic forms of government (as mostwealthy nations are) to become better, more active citizens, as theparticipation of an informed public in the political process is what we need toreinvigorate democracy (197).