A r(Evolution)

“Eventually, the overall economy will recover, more or less. People will need to buy things and pay for services. But the coronavirus will radically reshape Main Streets across the country, accelerating changes long in the making — chain stores will replace mom-and-pop businesses, some storefronts will remain vacant, and cash that once went into local hands will be redirected to Amazon and Walmart…the pandemic will reinforce and exacerbate what were already the two key economic trends of our lifetime: consolidation and inequality.” James Kwak, article The End of Small Business

It’s no secret that small businesses have been decimated by the pandemic. Some were almost-immediately shuttered by lockdowns, while countless others have foundered and fallen under the weight of mounting debt as the months have trickled by. And as businesses like Cafe Evolution—the mom-and-pop operations that reflect a community’s unique personality—struggle to survive, the wealthiest reap greater riches. Giant corporations, and the billionaires who head them, receive tax cuts and low-interest or even forgivable loans, absorb their competition, purchase real estate at wholesale prices, and reap unprecedented profits from the shift to online spending, while everyone else sinks deeper into debt, losing jobs, homes, businesses, and even lives.

In mid-July of this year, Amherst resident, former software developer, and University of Connecticut law professor James Kwak published a short article in the Washington Post that paints a bleak picture of the post-pandemic business landscape (https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/09/after-covid-19-giant-corporations-chains-may-be-only-ones-left/?arc404=true). While we were not surprised by Kwak’s observations and predictions, the starkness of his words still left us sad, worried, angry, and defiant.

Corporate dominance of the economy is modern-day feudalism, which, in simple terms, was a socio-economic and political system of obligations of fealty and protection that flourished in Medieval Europe. Medieval Feudalism was brutal and exploitative thuggery of the most vicious sort, in which those with the least power, the least resource, were but a means for the enrichment of the powerful. They had no opportunity to lift themselves from their circumstances of servitude and were casually cast aside when they were no longer useful.

Sound familiar?

In place of the Pope—who reigned supreme during the later Middle Ages—is a president who gives or withholds rights and assets based on how he can benefit from the transaction. Our “kings” are mega-corporations, our “nobility” are the smaller businesses comprising the supply chain, and the “peasants” are all of the rest of us, the workers who depend on the very wealthy and their notion of “trickle down” to scratch out our existence.

The literal definition of the word revolution is “a sudden, radical, or complete change,” “activity or movement designed to affect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation,” or “a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something; a change of paradigm“ (Merriam-Webster).

Throughout history, social and political revolutions have been violent, bloody periods of tumult—i.e. the Haitian Revolution (1791), the French Revolution (1789-1799), the Russian Revolution (1917), and the American Revolution (1765-1783)—in which subjugated people rose up to overthrow their rulers and create new systems of governance. The systems borne of revolution weren’t perfect, but they were commonly rooted in a desire for greater equity and freedom from exploitation.

But the word revolution is loaded, isn’t it? Who has the energy to stage a revolution when we’re all working so hard just to subsist? Who is willing to risk losing what they have in a gamble for a new way few can imagine or believe in? How can we possibly fight back in the face of something so powerful? And what happens if the system that replaces corporate capitalism is even worse?

Here’s what we think: if corporate hegemony is the trend, in the face of the pandemic and beyond (and, by all accounts, it is), the mere existence of Cafe Evolution—small, independent, community-supported and -supporting—is a revolutionary act. You don’t have to bleed in the street or lose everything to bring about a revolution but you do have to rethink what is valuable, you do have to sometimes be uncomfortable, you do have to make some measure of sacrifice (with the nature of sacrifice being not loss but transformation).

Cafe Evolution isn’t what it used to be—in terms of how it offers services and how much revenue it can generate—and it likely will never return to its previous form, but we’re still here. We have turned to the internet for our survival, as have so many small businesses, and, so far, that’s keeping us afloat. We are working to survive to the other side of the pandemic and—sorry for the unintentional pun—evolve to the next iteration. We think our presence in the community makes a difference, makes a positive impact, and from what our supporters tell us we’re right in thinking this. But if we don’t all use our powers to resist the dominant paradigm of corporate feudalism, Cafe Evolution, and all of the other small, independently-owned businesses that keep our local economy strong and our neighborhoods vital, will fall. The writing, as the saying goes, is on the wall.

“So,” you ask, “what can I do?”

Contrary to James Kwak’s dire prediction, we hold a vision of a post-pandemic backlash against corporate dominance, a renaissance, if you will. Coming out of the pandemic, we’ll all be hungering for personal connection: in-person dining, music, art happenings, dancing, and reveling. We’ll want to gather with others in unique environments where thought is given to the personal, small touches that connect hosts and guests and transform the mundane into something sacred. We’ll value our shared spaces more than ever.

But this vision begins NOW. Open your heart and mind to the world you want to see when the pandemic is behind us and plant those seeds right now. We can’t allow heartless corporations to steal our dreams, break our spirits, siphon resources from our communities, and dictate what kind of society we will be.

Dream with us. Plan with us. Fight back with us.

This is a (r)Evolution.