What is our Heart of Darkness?

Heart of Darkness is a classic novel about the dangers of imperialism. Its message about imperialism, however, goes far beyond simply "imperialism is bad." The novel discusses a level of blindness among both the oppressors and the oppressed. Although imperialism as Joseph Conrad knew it is no longer relevant to our society, there are plenty of other "hearts of darkness" to be found in modern society.

1. The wars in the Middle East. US soldiers terrify, slaughter, and ruin the lives of hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern civilians - sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Meanwhile, back on American soil, we preach the true "meaning" of these wars: freedom, protection from extremism and terrorism, and so on and so forth. While politicians and citizens alike describe our wars with Iraq as "fighting for our freedom," our American "freedom" is under no immediate threat - Americans go about their daily lives untouched by the war.
2. Sweatshops. Although there have been movements against manufacturing items in foreign countries and terrible conditions (mostly in the area of clothing manufacture) these movements have been superficial, pathetic, and short lived. Even though a single valiant consumer might succeed in purchasing only goods produced in the United States, it does nothing to fix the problem;  goods produced in foreign countries by employees so badly paid they're on the verge of slavery are so deeply ingrained into our everyday lives that it's almost impossible to avoid them. Brands like American Apparel, which uses its fair-pay American manufacturers as a selling point, only prove this idea: American Apparel's clothing roughly twice as expensive as its made-in-China equivalents.
3. Slave plantations. Yep, that's definitely something we 21st century Americans didn't expect to be dealing with. Although we think of slave plantations as something that disappeared in the nineteenth century, the truth is that they only disappeared in America; slave plantations exist in many forms all around the globe, and many of them supply us with our food and material goods. Take chocolate, for instance. Chocolate is primarily grown in various parts of South America and Africa, particularly Brazil and the Ivory Coast. Many of these plantations use children workers who have either been bought from their parents, stolen, or taken from their parents under the guise of giving them an education. Children on chocolate plantations are whipped, starved, and forced to work under extremely dangerous conditions, such as climbing trees with no protection and using large machetes to cut down the pods. Even plantations that claim to be "fair-trade" are often also guilty of underpaying or abusing their workers. What are some companies that use slave labor to produce their chocolate? Hershey, Mars, Nestle, Godiva, Craft, and many others. (Check out this list of alternative chocolate companies)