A Blueprint To An Imperfect World
We, Americans, believe that we are the least brainwashed people out of all the nations in the world. We point and laugh at propaganda overseas while we sit and watch cable news with the same Orwellian messages playing over and over:
“War Is Peace.
Freedom Is Slavery.
Ignorance Is Strength.”
We are told that we must send troops to distant lands to pillage, police our people, and incarcerate people of color and the poor to “keep the peace.” We must bow down and obey the manager, the Party, and the establishment to maintain our American freedom. We must reject all other schools of thought that may transform our society. Imprison the communists, for their ideology will send us back to the stone age. Fire queers, for they pose a danger to the social structure. Police black and brown people, for their darkness are a danger and a sin. Steal the land from the indigenous and do not, for any reason, return it, for they must be sacrificed to achieve so-called “civilization.”
Tragedy, trauma, and sorrow are social facts. They are a part of life for everyone that roams the Earth. Our history books are made up of entire chapters that discuss tragedies, the worst in humanity: war, exploitation, brutality, colonization, segregation, oppression, and genocide. Trauma, hatred, fury passed down through the generations, for energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transferred. History is made up of contradictions and conflicts based on the material needs and conditions between the classes. Major historical events with different names but with the same principles, same conflict, and the same contradictions:
diversity v. hegemony,
peace v. war,
liberty v. incarceration,
life v. money,
labor v. capital,
dignity v. oppression.
The addict, the uneducated, the immigrant, the prisoner, the unsheltered, the worker v. the rich, the powerful, the supervisor. The worker grows up and lives in a world where it is easier to hate those who are less fortunate, to act as if they were a temporarily embarrassed billionaire, to turn a blind eye to the person that tells them that the weight of the boot on their back is necessary for peace; that pain is necessary for stability. Observing these contradictions, one must ask, how do we break the cycle that creates needless pain and suffering inflicted over generations?
Many people that read, watch, or hear about past and present movements that have aimed at building socialism, such as the Soviet Union, fall into a false dichotomy: 1) socialism is oppressive and can never be achieved, or, 2) this is the only and absolute way we can build a socialist “Utopia.” It’s important to recognize that the systems of governance and economics in other countries should be determined by the will and needs of all people in those countries. It is foolish to believe that tragedy, trauma, and suffering will not occur in a socialist society. Falling into this mentality promotes passive politics instead of proactive and dynamic world-building. Society will always need fixing, a world of peace, and harmony, and socialism is a world that hangs on a delicate balance, that constantly needs to be criticized and built upon. What we must do is learn from history, to see how revolutions for change can be more effective. After all, that is how our current society was built, from countless revisions and edits made by the colonizers, the capitalists, and the powerful.
However, we can seize the narrative and the fruits of our labor to build a new world through trust, tenacity, networks, and hope. We must disobey, learn, and find joy in transformation and collaboration. We must work with neighbors, workers, and the underclass to revolutionize our society. A world that is built on 10 principles. A world where:
- Education is holistic, practical, and does not exist to create the meek worker.
2. Crime has a multifaceted solution, that is trauma-informed, restorative, does not penalize, and does give up on the individual.
3. Our economy is based on needs, not extravagance, marketing, and product fetishization. Comfortable, practical, and available for everyone instead of wasteful, expensive, and excessive for no one.
4. Our climate is healthy and stable, where nature is present in all of our lives, whether rural, suburban, or urban.
5. Politics are not ruled by bureaucracy and corporate parties, but by direct, powerful, and meaningful democracy, in its purest, fluid form. Where dissent is welcome and change is possible.
6. The land is managed and governed by indigenous people and the public.
7. Community lives and thrives.
8. Life is deemed more valuable than property.
9. All are cared for, regardless of creed, ethnicity, race, gender, and ability.
10. All are welcome and all are equal.
This list of needs for transformation and a socialist society may sound abstract and overwhelming. However, the revolutions inscribed in our history books did not appear out of thin air, out of indifference, out of fear, or out of inaction. We will only be able to build an imperfect, but better, world by engaging in the real, concrete, material conditions of the community. What does the neighborhood need? Are my neighbors fed and taken care of? What are the systemic issues that are present in our lives? How can we improve the lives of people in the community now? How can we move past survival? How can we question without fear? How can we disobey?
We start with talking to our neighbors because community is resistance. We start with mutual aid because a fed belly and an active mind is resistance. We start with the abolition of the police because safety is resistance. We start with a Green New Deal because creating a lifeboat for the people and a healthy climate is resistance. We start with political education because welcoming our neighbors, even if they are in disagreement, with open arms is resistance. We start with protecting black,brown and poor children, letting them breathe and laugh because life, joy, and survival is resistance. Join a grassroots organization, contact your local politician and demand to be heard, talk with your neighbors, lean on each other. We start working today so we continue to improve tomorrow, because no matter what we may do, tomorrow will be here. Organize, protest, disobey, and attack the limbs of the system that keep us down. Do it out of love and compassion for one another, for organizing out of anger is unhealthy and unsustainable.
You, the reader, must not be a passive bystander in history. Don’t interpret this essay as a feel-good piece of literature that is to be read and forgotten. This is a real call to action, a demand, a plea. A plea to open your ears, unlearn, conversate, organize, mobilize, scream, shout, disobey, and strike for an imperfect, but better, world. Where all are welcome, and all are equal.
