ive been getting into our hunter gatherer history and the idea of ooga booga woman abandoning a disabled baby is not true. we took care of our disabled individuals so vehemently. baby abandonment actually exploded AFTER that. when we had nothing we took care of each other but now that we have everything we die on the streets.
i feel like i owe everything to everyone and i want to help people. when i talk to my friends i feel better. i dont want us to be divided. i think about inmates in jail and i dont understand why they have to stay locked and have no friends. etc.
Just as capitalism remakes us, so too will socialism. The restoration of humanity’s full cooperative nature is one of the benefits of transitioning to communism, and in this way communism “rhymes” with early communalism, forming the negation of the negation in the process of dialectical development.
God, it makes me so hopeful to think of the future “homo sovieticus”. People will really look at our era and see the behaviours of today as desecrable and lost in the past as we see slavery in antiquity.
Yep, revolutionary optimism is a constant companion! Plenty of reason to be hopeful if you look for it.
I roll my eyes so hard when someone says socialism wouldn’t work because of “human nature”. How would we have ever survived as a species if we didn’t have a communal instinct? As a kid you learn to share and it’s easy to understand, the competitive nature of capitalist society beats it out of us. It’s the saddest part of our profit-driven culture to me, that we are forced to be opposed to each other so we can survive when there is enough wealth on earth for everyone to not just be fed but be immensely comfortable if the resources were distributed properly.
we are the most social of the great apes, which is generally a highly social family of animals
how do these people think we got to our position lol
how do these people think we got to our position lol
they don’t. they spare no thought to history and think the current order of things is eternal and decreed by god
they think it’s purely because we have big brains and high IQs, which certainly has no relation to the huge part of our brain dedicated to social functions, empathy and language
socialism wouldn’t work because of “human nature”
God, such a dangerous statement. And fuck me it’s so thoroughly ingrained into the zeitgeist, it doesn’t matter what I think.
Capitalist realism moment
Einstein spoke in one of his essays about how capitalism is what breeds competitiveness and greed which goes against human nature. It was not always like this and it’s only going to get worse as capitalism continues to decay.
It’ll get really ugly for some time, but there will be a sunrise after all of this
It’s actually a topic in indigenous oral histories. Their ancient history tells of a much more violent, self-centered time that was reversed through generations of strict punishments and community coming together
Thanks for bringing that up because it is part of the really old stories and those stories are riddled with taboo to the point it’s almost unsaid what is being said, if that makes sense. Lots of it is just gone, lost forever. My great uncle was a Midew (medicine man) and he died without passing everything on. The old ones kept knots instead of writing things down.
I really like thinking about those times and those stories, though. And I do wonder how much can and was transmitted through the ages. I can’t even add more details except to reiterate what you said. It was a bad time, a dark time, before men were men and the “spirit” wasn’t in them, or it was but it was sleeping. It’s so vague. But oh so interesting.
that is tragic how much is lost 😭
in the good news it’s not permanent
like ironically it shuts down capitalism too.
: “You want a job? Sorry, but I like to keep to myself, no job for you! Giving jobs is too much finger lifting for me!”How is work supposed to be done if the people we’re counting on to find work for people to do don’t even want to do that?
The parable of the Good Samaritan does address this phenomenon and I tend to judge the Christianity of those who profess that faith when they miss the point.
The Samaritan isn’t good just because he helps when others do not. The Samaritan is doing the sacred work of god by risking his own safety to rescue the injured man! The Samaritan values another life above his own, and in Christian ethics, this is an act of love and human fraternity.
The reason that the priest and the other traveller justify ignoring the man is they fear falling victim to the same bandits. It’s not that they lacked the ability to help a man it’s that they lacked the spirit and morals to RISK SOMETHING.
I am not Christian but I do think they got something right, here. Sin isn’t just doing bad things, it’s also refusing to do the right thing because it’s hard or it’s risky even though you have the means.
That kind of thinking ends up at conclusions that mesh well with what Engels called Social Murder
Clearly these are not new ideas but what is new is the capitalism-riddled iteration of it we are currently experiencing.
I think American culture is a shining example of humanity that’s unfortunately too naive in it’s belief in some inherit goodness.
No you sometimes need the people’s stick against all the corruption and evil. Which is understandably scary, authority is always scary there’s a certain risk of misuse of power (also evident in the same USA), but idk I guess maybe there need a century of humiliation and lawlessness, that makes people go" “We need laws and a way to enforce them democratically.” Like it’s very easy to blame all the issues on an evil all powerful entity so maybe it does have to be crushed, for people to realize that was not the source of literally all the problems.
its easier for the rich to justify killing when we are taught that we only have to care about ourselves.
ice steals your neighbors whole family but you are supposed to still go to work the next day like thats a normal thing feels bad man
You can literally find neolithic nomadic hunter-gatherers with healed femoral fractures. That means people transported and cared for them for months while they would have been basically incapable of moving themselves as they healed. People have gone to great lengths to help others in need, even in incredibly difficult situations that involves lugging infirm people for miles across rugged terrain
I quit working for tech companies to work for homelessness orgs in my city. Just starting at a new one today as a community organizer. Pay is shit but its much more rewarding.
this is not only capitalism too, but othering as well - which of course capitalism is reliant on. That’s why they make propaganda to divide us. When we see someone’s otherness, we lose sight of their personhood, and it inhibits us. It’s harder to make their struggle our own.
I got grilled by my friends for buying a homeless person food a few months ago.
Capitalism has turned us into monsters.
I hate that whenever a stranger talks to me I can guarantee they’re not being friendly but are asking for money. I’d be more inclined to give if there were instances where this is not the case.
I can agree that it can be a little unpleasant, but this is exactly what OP is talking about, and it just being a little annoying is frankly a pretty privileged position to be in.
You’d be more likely to give if people’d just stop asking you to give?? color me skeptical on that one
I just want some human interactions that are not just market exchanges.
Be the change you want to see in the world, talk to strangers!
And give the people some change for cripes sake, they aren’t begging because they want to make society less fulfilling for you, they just need to survive same as all of us
I’d suggest mutual aid but almost everyone parroting that term is really just like, doing charity, which is great and all but as you may have noticed, not super conducive to forming strong social relationships
Be the helper. There’s plenty of opportunity. When I see something unusual, I look for an opportunity to help. For example, a couple months ago I was coming home from work right about dawn and I saw these two guys sitting by their car in a parking lot. I pulled up just to see what’s up, turned out they needed a jump.
Fuck isolation, get out there and talk to people. Be part of your community. Look for the places where you can make other people’s lives better.
Yeah there’s some risk in dealing with strangers. Be alert. But don’t let that stop you from making the world a better place. The vast majority of people are just trying to live their lives just like you are. They don’t mean you any harm.
