The Beauty of Cancer

The cancer metaphor is in need of rehabilitation. It has been much abused in the past, usually by authoritarian regimes who equate its malignancy with dissent and subversion. In their minds, cancer is a disease to be excised through force and oppression.

Yet, when you stop and think about it, what is cancer if not a vehicle of untrammeled growth, and what is corporate prosperity if not a product of untrammeled growth? To the corporate state, cancer is a life force without which stagnation would set in. It is the most perfect union of parasite and host because the two become one as cancer evolves into the organ it has laid its healing hand upon.

Our plutocrats love bon mots of meaningless wit that help the masses to endure their misery. One of them is:

Change is inevitable; growth is optional.

Is that not the philosophy of a cancer cell?

The reason cancer kills is because the body refuses to adapt to a new situation. Were it to simply go with the flow and accept the accompanying pain, it would find its life much less stressful.

This is why humility is touted by organized religion. One attains a state of holiness by meekly accepting one’s station is life, even if that station includes rotting organs. We are born to die, so why sweat the petty details.

When you think about it, healthcare represents a potential threat to a well-ordered society. The person who demands physical health is the person who could demand economic health, as well. And since the corporate state can only prosper if it impoverishes its citizens, too great an emphasis on a healthy economy could well become counterproductive.

There was a time when good health was important because a healthy worker was a productive worker. This was true when we were still an industrial nation,. But now that manufacturing is being shipped overseas and the ranks of our unemployed continue to swell, the need for healthy proles is shrinking.

To the corporate state, cancer is life and life is a cancer. In the end, it’s all about growth.

--Belacqua Jones