is the will and patience to organize, agitate, and put pressure on the system and not just on the self
what's missing from the organized agitators who take time to put pressure on the system and not just on the self
is the will and patience to listen, to console, to commiserate in love and in relationships
i'm learning every day that my job is to do both. to connect the two worlds. and to do so in commune with the masses. to hold tightly to the human needs for emotional support and systematic support. and to recognize, in prudence, that one cannot truly succeed without the other.
this is no easy task. i need you here with me. we need each other if we ever want true emancipation, true liberation, true freedom, true joy. we can play games within the system... help each other get by. we can and we should for our own peace of mind, for the sake of simply enjoying the gift of life that's before us. but how satisfying is the momentary relief of pressure? how long should we be forced to play games with ourselves simply so we can get a handle on this thing called life?
i want long-term systemic change. not short-term relief. i want a system and a society that does not exploit my labor (or the labor of men and women throughout the world) for someone else's profit. a system that provides high quality education to everyone who walks through its doors and values the educators. that allows anyone to be legally recognized for their love for anyone else. that values that sanctity of our earth, our elders, and our animals. i want a system that does not feed me sickening advertisements telling forthright lies about what i need to look like, own, or consume. mostly, i want a system that values people over profit, human rights over greed, community over competition, love over fear.
i want this kind of system, and i'm ready to fight for it.
it can feel overwhelming, i know. my days are often spent in spouts of paralysis and isolation, with pressing urges to curl up into a ball and just sit in the corner and rock myself into numbness so i don't have to come up against the hugeness of it all.
this is because i, like so many others, have fallen into the trap of believing that i'm in it alone. i, like so many others, am exactly where the capitalist wants me to be--trapped and paralyzed in individuality.
we've been made to believe that we're in it alone. that it's our very own responsibility to find peace of mind and happiness. if you're laid off, it must be you fault. if you're overweight, it must be your fault. if you're in debt, it must be your fault. if you're anxiety-ridden, it must be your fault. you get the point--you are to blame for the problems in your life.
while each of us should take personal responsibility for creating better lives for ourselves, we must also stop for a moment and take a look around. we are all suffering in so many ways. we are all losing to the capitalists who have infinite more access to resources, media, weapons, and politicians. we--the common people--are not meant to win this game. we're not even meant to come close. and frankly, we're losing by a landslide.
the only way that we can win is by lifting the vail of individuality and joining forces. our greatest power is our numbers. we must ban together.
if we think for even a moment that the people in power will hand their power over to us, for the sake of equality, humanity, or peace, then we are naively delusional. and if we believe (which i often have) that individual or even community acts of kindness or counter-culter can be examples to the rest of society that inspire people to begin living alternative life styles, then our hope is admirable but also a bit misguided.
there will be no change for all of us, unless a critical mass of us participate in bringing that change to life. unless we recognize our own oppression within the system, and ban together to fight that oppression and create a better system from the ground up, together.
this is what i want to do. call me a revolutionary.
it's true.
"power lies in unity and hope lies in defiance." - a 20 year old taiwanese woman protesting against the exploitation she and her co-workers experience in their factory.
5 comments:
"You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know, you better free your mind instead"
why does it have to be an either-or? i'm in favor of freeing my mind. (truly). but in a system that will constantly try to oppress and exploit me, you, and everyone else, how far can we--a collective human race--really get?
I don't think it's either-or so much as "The Institution" was made by people just like you and me. You can replace the old ways, but (to quote The Who, because apparently quoting 60s lyrics is the best way to do this) "the new boss" will end up being "same as the old boss".
ah, but i'm not calling for reform of the current paradigm, i'm calling for a whole new shift in the way we practice democracy. in a society where the working people own the fruits of their labor, and have a say in all the decisions of their lives, there would be a certain pressure to not allow "new bosses". but for each of us to become and remain our own and each other's bosses... holding each other accountable to maintain a more equitable system. your attempt at breaking that bond would result in being ostracized from the community, the system. you would not succeed. (that'd be my hope anyway. one i think is worth fighting for).
I agree that that way sounds really good (and I mean that). What I was trying to say, and I don't think I said it very well, is that the root problem isn't the system; it's us. We can try to make better systems, better societies, etc (and we do and should), but they're not going to work how we want (utopia, etc) because we can't do it. You can blame the system if you want, but until you 'free your mind', it ain't gonna change the way you hope.
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