THE ENEMY IS POVERTY
And Other 21st Century Falsehoods
Wednesday, 8 October 2025
THE ENEMY IS POVERTY. This is the modern-day scapegoat; the coverup for the slow death of integrity and conviction at the altar of capitalism’s only god: MONEY.
It is the first line of defence when an activist who once raised fists for justice now types threads defending blood-stained leaders. The excuse that soothes the conscience of the artist whose voice once echoed against oppression, but is now reduced to an embarrassing praise tool for those in power. It is the refuge of the influencer who swore disdain for the ruthless government of the day and even recruited others to the hate train, posting filtered selfies with politicos, swearing they’re misunderstood. All with the hope of cashing out and living large like the very thieves they once condemned. The desperate straw for the work colleague who throws others under the bus for a space in the boss’s good books.
But let’s be honest, poverty is just a convenient justification to silence the guilt of lacking a backbone. A stand. A noble excuse to baptise greed and self-centredness as ambition. If we look hard at ourselves, the truth is simpler and uglier: many are too eager to trade integrity for a seat at the table; even when that table was and is being built on the life (read death) of innocent people. We are too quick to trade the collective dream for personal comfort. We justify stepping on others as “doing what we must” as long as WE are not the ones suffering.
The cycle never ends because the system feeds on this self-preservation. Those who once cried for justice now dine with those who cause the hunger. We call it survival when, in truth, we lack a collective conscience.
“The enemy is poverty,” they say, as they remind the poor to hustle harder if they also want to make it. This is code for sucking up to power and standing for absolutely nought. It’s pitiful to watch grown men and women fangirl over power just to get bread.
So, maybe it is true that the enemy is poverty. But not the empty pocket. The empty soul. The moral poverty that convinces a person that selling out is survival, that silence and feigned ignorance is wisdom, that betrayal is strategy and street smart.
No one is really free until we are all free. Anything less is feeding the beast. Remember, the biggest enemy of revolution may not even be in a position of power, but in the mirror.