As a Marxist, I criticize the contradictions within our capitalist system. But in working on my upcoming doc, Horseshoe Theory is Right, But Not How You Think, there’s a point I make in part 3 that I believe sets me apart from a lot of prominent communists: I don’t hate capitalism. I don’t hate billionaires. I don’t hate success.
I'm kinda right there with you. The two biggest words in my "leftist vocabulary" are Dignity and Agency; and my entire half-century of life has seen capitalism regressively seek to strip more and more people of those things through the use of material conditions and abuse of its own 'rules' for the system.
It's like the capitalist order has a mortal hatred and fear of those qualities, in the hands of anyone but themselves.
Dignity and Agency must not be luxuries reserved only for the fortunately born or the lucky; they are the basic bread by which a healthy society is formed.
So we all gotta have some of both. If the system wants to impede that, then the system has to go.
I've had fellow "socialists" choose to not hang out with me and my family because they disagreed with our success even though they themselves were successful. So weird. I want everyone's quality of life to be improved without even having to wait for socialism so I'm all about doing what's available to us now to make that happen. Practicing gratitude is amazing for mental health. In lieu of praying, I walk my family through gratitude exercises when I feel like they're feeling too sorry for themselves or too down about the state of the world. We are so lucky even when we are in pain so I try to remind them and myself of that. We love The Kiffness' song "It's a Beautiful Day" if anyone wants a catchy song about gratitude to make them smile.
I'm kinda right there with you. The two biggest words in my "leftist vocabulary" are Dignity and Agency; and my entire half-century of life has seen capitalism regressively seek to strip more and more people of those things through the use of material conditions and abuse of its own 'rules' for the system.
It's like the capitalist order has a mortal hatred and fear of those qualities, in the hands of anyone but themselves.
Dignity and Agency must not be luxuries reserved only for the fortunately born or the lucky; they are the basic bread by which a healthy society is formed.
So we all gotta have some of both. If the system wants to impede that, then the system has to go.
That's where I start from, anyway.
I've had fellow "socialists" choose to not hang out with me and my family because they disagreed with our success even though they themselves were successful. So weird. I want everyone's quality of life to be improved without even having to wait for socialism so I'm all about doing what's available to us now to make that happen. Practicing gratitude is amazing for mental health. In lieu of praying, I walk my family through gratitude exercises when I feel like they're feeling too sorry for themselves or too down about the state of the world. We are so lucky even when we are in pain so I try to remind them and myself of that. We love The Kiffness' song "It's a Beautiful Day" if anyone wants a catchy song about gratitude to make them smile.
It is because socialism is "good morals" in their brains. It's not. It's a change in material relationships! Thank you for sharing!