The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-02-08
Py w. j. Curry,
Vancouver, Is. G.
The Social Parasite and Its tilimina.
ton.

ton.
"Thc problem of civilization is to
eliminate the parasite Ebert Hub
bard.
What Mr.. Hubbard told us is UNI
doubtedly true, and yet he himself,
although a worker, was nevertheless
an cxploiter of labor and sometimes
sold his brain power to support pri
waite ownership and exploitation which
are the parents Of social parasitisn.
1t is fact that II this enemy Of
the human is not eliminated, civiliza-
ton must decline and eventually per-
ISL.
Many thoughtless optimists seem to
! think that because capitalism is in n
state of collapse, cooperation and so
cial democracy are inevitable, and yet
the ruins of antiquity prove to us that
exploitation and parasitism in numer-
GUS cases collapsed and instead of
giving place TO higher social struc-
ture the result was ruin and national
| death.
| Think of what befell Egypt and
| Rome The whole history of life and
of mankind on this planet is marked
by the graves of species and races
which failed to conquer social forces
or to adjust themselves to changing
conditions and therefore they per-
ished
Does the fact that millions now in
the battle line of Europe engaged in
slaughter without knowing why they
| fight, that millions at home are APP
plauding the conflict, or the fact that
today we have famine in the midst of
plenty, prove that we are wiser and
safer from social destruction than the
civilizations of the past?
Not Yet Ready for Democracy
We have little to boast of and it is
true that the vast majority of men
and women desire nothing better than
to live on the backs of the community,
to belong to the leisure class. The
majority of our citizens in this or any
city would like to live on real estate
or through rent, interest or profit,
unholy trinity of social parasitism
This social depravity is largely due
to the fact that the parasitic classes
supply our ideas and ideals to very
great extent. This class pollutes the
fountain of knowledge at it's source
The average preacher, teacher or edi-
tor dare not state the truth regard
ing the great problems of the day
since doing so would endanger their
| prestige and their meal ticket" and
mean their economic ruin.
Among the primitive races there
was no privileged class, no monopoly
or private ownership of land. In those
days man, to provide himself with
food and the essentials of existence
had a constant struggle. His means
OF production were crude. Dangers or
every side made permanent rest and
leisure an unattainable desire, and
there was no atrophy of physical OIL
mental forces through disuse as we
have today, and he gradually adj
vanced
With the first slave, however, came
the first master, and then began ex-
ploitation on which parasitism feeds
and fattens. With every advance in
our forces of wealth production I'M
der private ownership parasitism be-
comes more intensified and more vic
ious, more disastrous to society.
The Question Is Not, Do You Work
But What DO You Do?
We all know that the majority of
insect parasites are workers and ii
is so with the social variety as well;
in fact, the bulk of the work carried
on in this city is not only useless to
the community but had better be left
undone, and so the question is not
"Are we working? ?" but "What are we
doing to earn our living?"
If we take more from society in the
form of food, clothing, ETC., than we
give in social service, then to that ex-
tent we are drones and a burden to
the producers of wealth, and to our
race.
But the worst form of the social
parasite is after all the idler, and he
exists by reason of his ownership of
land, banks, railroads and other So
cial necessities
John d. Rockefeller is a type of
this class. Some time ago he testi-
fled in court that for over ten years he