staying positive?

[ralphusthered]

the longer the struggle goes on, how have those of you involved for years keep positive in the face of overwhelming odds?

[The Idler]

The ruling class face overwhelming odds, not the working class.

[Comrade Nasser]

I've only been in the movement for about a year and a half. I can't speak for hardcore vets of the movement, but I just bide my time by trolling Scumfront and trying to get more involved in the movement outside of the internet (which is hard for me to do as i'm still in high school :()

[LOLseph Stalin]

Tbh, I have been very pessimistic about the left movement since I've started. Like it just seems so unlikely sometimes that there'll be an actual successful revolution. I don't really have much to do to counter these feelings unfortunately.

[#FF0000]

I don't ever expect to see a socialist society or even get any better.

I just find a little comfort in talking to and spending time with like-minded people.

[Sidagma]

By having a well-balanced life in other areas. I pray, I make friends, I participate in "non-revolutionary" activities, I work for social change in the (relatively few) social spaces that I carve out for myself while seeking out strategic revolutionary breakthroughs.

Knowing who I am as a person helps me contribute the most to the movement(s) in ways that are intuitive and comfortable for me.

[Geiseric]

Work for a revolution and you'll feel that much closer to it. That's all you can do, just don't be a sectarian, protect the poor, and work on building independent working class political bodies. Everybody feels that way sometimes.

[rylasasin]

Tbh, I have been very pessimistic about the left movement since I've started. Like it just seems so unlikely sometimes that there'll be an actual successful revolution. I don't really have much to do to counter these feelings unfortunately.


This.

Yeah I feel the same way. And given the fact that it looks like the earth is approaching a point of no return (environmental damage) does not help matters.

Oh well, for me there's always fantasising to hide behind. Though that does come with the side effect of getting rather pissed off and generally holding disdain and contempt towards non-leftists.

And since I live in america, that pretty much means just about everyone.

[Crabbensmasher]

I keep a punching bag

[rylasasin]

I keep a punching bag

For me it's legionares/slavers/bandits/thalmors/raiders/enclaves/etc.

[slum]

find other radicals, so you can alternate between the narcotic 'folie a plusieurs' of talking about the revolution, and the strange, bitter comfort of crying into your beer in good company.

alternatively, take the long view of human history.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I don't know. I think it's best to always keep the big picture in mind, while staying rooted in the present. Knowing that this is likely a long process but that we can make subjective steps to helping our coworkers and community better able to defend and hopfully assert itself against oppression and our rulers.

We are constantly told that our lives are meaningless (outside of the market) and that things can't change, so that people can always and do seek ways to fight back eventually (even if limited and imperfect) is what keeps me positive. But the gap between the possible and the daily shit is big and can be demoralizing.

Focus on the long-view, take advantage of oppotunities and movements and instances to fight, and otherwise try and maintain your mental and phsical well-being and enjoy life as much as you are able.

[Red Commissar]

-Occasionally talking to comrades, it helps to sound your views off like-minded people to refine them. This forum is one of several ways I do that.

-Hobbies (like anyone else...)

-Burritos

[Narodnik]

By act of will. Staying dedicated to what is right no matter what, as a general rule in life. People should embrace idealism :rolleyes:

[Art Vandelay]

“Life is not an easy matter…. You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.” - Leon Trotsky.

I feel that way sometimes too, actually most of the time. If I remember correctly there is some beautiful prose about the ebbs and flows of history, at the end of Trotsky`s my life, which I remember being really inspiring.

[Art Vandelay]

-Burritos

Burritos are literally packed with revolutionary optimism. :thumbup1:

[Leftsolidarity]

Cherish the gains you're able to make

[Tenka]

I feel no positivity. Negativity towards the existing social order drives me, and the small things that do not fit please me.

[black magick hustla]

get new hobbies

do online datng

[Crixus]

I embrace the empty nothingness that is the indifferent universe while acknowledging the fact that reality is absurd. I basically refuel/rest/recharge by not giving a shit about anything for short periods of time. Alcohol is usually involved.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Drink booze. Do drugs. Have sex. Find religion. Watch TV. Join a club. Read a book. Etc.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Sometimes I feel the same. But one day we'll win. They said Communism was dead when the Paris Commune fell, then we had the Russian Revolution. They said that Communism was dead when the USSR failed, then we had the Nepalese Revolution, and when that failed our comrades took up arms again to have another try at it, and I don't think anyone in Nepal is going to say with a straight face that Communism is dead. One day our day will come, and every time we get stronger and learn more from each struggle. The next time we will be unstoppable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQv77rA1iF4

tiocfaidh ár lá my comrades, tiocfaidh ár lá

[Anti-Traditional]

Drink booze. Do drugs. Have sex. Find religion. Watch TV. Join a club. Read a book. Etc.

From a philosophical point of view somehow this answer makes me feel worse as if to say embrace the opiate (not just religion), try and ignore your despair etc...

[Althusser]

Read Wookiepedia

[Os Cangaceiros]

From a philosophical point of view somehow this answer makes me feel worse as if to say embrace the opiate (not just religion), try and ignore your despair etc...

Well I don't view "opiates" to be necessarily bad things...after all, the purpose of an opiate is to relieve pain. It's hard to fault people who are in pain (either economic pain or the existential pain of being human & having a seemingly meaningless, finite existence) when they try to escape from that pain. I think that you can definitely manage to simultaneously have a clear view of how the world operates & work towards changing the things you find objectionable, and also engaging in "escapism" now and then. Either that or one can stoically endure despair and anguish over the world, I suppose.

[Anti-Traditional]

Well I don't view "opiates" to be necessarily bad things...after all, the purpose of an opiate is to relieve pain. It's hard to fault people who are in pain (either economic pain or the existential pain of being human & having a seemingly meaningless, finite existence) when they try to escape from that pain. I think that you can definitely manage to simultaneously have a clear view of how the world operates & work towards changing the things you find objectionable, and also engaging in "escapism" now and then. Either that or one can stoically endure despair and anguish over the world, I suppose.

I guess that's all we can do. George Carlin once said something about life being a freak show where most people are on the stage but a lucky few are just in front row observing, with the more artistic types making notes. Unfortunately it can be hard to take this position as a communist, seeing as were also up there on the stage acting as a proverbial psychiatrist trying to help the freaks.

Having said that, when a socialist despairs it is usually because of the perceived inertia of the working class, it's obliviousness. To some groups, such as the nihilist communists, who reject the idea of ''raising consciousness etc'', this is less of an issue.

[Akshay!]

“Things are going to get unimaginably worse, and they are never, ever going to get better again!”

- Kurt Vonnegut (at a graduation speech)

[Sidagma]

Yo. You can actually put genuine time and effort into self-knowledge and self-care, even in an oppressive atmosphere. It's not like I'm the only one to ever do it.

But it means knowing yourself, it means knowing who you are and what makes you happy and what you want out of life. It means chasing these things to the end of the earth. It means motivating yourself to actually do it. It means digging your feet in somewhere imperfect and spreading your roots in order to make it more perfect. Sometimes it means deflating your overinflated ego and sense of self-importance and taking things one step at a time, finding or, if need be, creating community around the values you want to embody. It doesn't mean bringing the rev tomorrow. It doesn't mean wallowing around in guilt for not bringing the guilt tomorrow. Because when you know who you are and how to affect your environment, positive change comes naturally.

[ralphusthered]

your right, and burritos rule:grin:

[Philosophos]

have new hobbies, flirt around, try NOT to learn something philosophical/economical etc etc for one day and try to have some conversations about complete irrelevant to politics topics... That's what I've been doing lately and it kinda helps...

[Sidagma]

I'd actually take that advice a step further. For a long time, I all but prohibited myself from political action, which included reading, because I didn't have anything in my life that could counterbalance it. This led to me being a massively unhealthy person in more ways than one, and left me not only politically powerless, but friendless, angry at the world, and seriously mentally ill.

Your emotional resources are a vessel that can be used to carry your politics and your ideology, along with, God willing, many other things. Your political ideology can't carry your emotional resources.

[Rugged Collectivist]

I've only been involved for a couple years, but I stay positive by noting that capitalism necessarily contains the seeds of it's own destruction, and as long as the working class exists there will always be members who seek to emancipate themselves. So short of a fundamental shift in the mode of production, the communist movement will never die. It may be weakened, but it won't die.

Don't let this convince you of the inevitability of socialism though. This is just a response to people who say communism died with the USSR. I acknowledge that There's a good chance we won't achieve socialism in our lifetimes, and I'm quite young. That doesn't mean we should quit though. If we quit, what would we have to look forward to?

[Red Economist]

I find thinking Dialectically helps- although it is very much a mixed blessing. Progress is not a one way street- there are backward steps as well. But each step back contains the lessons for the next step forward.

[Comrade #138672]

Many people who are sick of everything and are longing for change. We would all like to kick some ruling class asses. This is what makes me stay positive.

[Brutus]

Get drunk, read capital

[Art Vandelay]

George Carlin once said something about life being a freak show where most people are on the stage but a lucky few are just in front row observing, with the more artistic types making notes.

Pretty sure Carlin said something along the lines of 'When you're born into this world you're given a ticket to a freak show and when you're born in America you're given a front row seat.'

[Ravachol]

Not staying positive is a major factor in being able to hold out. Hope is the midwife of despair.

That and trying to seize life whenever possible (admittedly far less frequent than I'd like). Tbh I don't see a distinction between my attitudes to 'life' and my 'political' attitudes.

[cantwealljustgetalong]

Meet with like-minded people on a regular basis. Also meet with people who have nothing to do with your political tendency, but that you share some interest with and like being around.
Pick up hobbies that feel constructive and empowering, or at least don't make you feel shitty.
Steal books, music, and movies from the Internet and see where it takes you; alternately, get a library card. Make sure to read some philosophy outside of your ideological bubble.
Try your hand at any kind of art or self-expression. Write, draw, or steal a music program from the Internet and try making a song.
Start working out when you have spare time and try eating healthily. Maybe learn how to cook so healthy food won't be as expensive.
Online dating can be an adventure. You could do worse than OKCupid. Save this step for when you have some of the above going for you; it may be unnecessary by the time you do.

[Slavoj Zizek's Balls]

Become a positivist.





:laugh:

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

I don't really like being positive. It's really delusional. Same with pessimism though.
How about staying realistic instead?

[Ravachol]

I don't really like being positive. It's really delusional. Same with pessimism though.
How about staying realistic instead?

Oh well, you know what they say: a pessimist is an optimistic realist.

[Ele'ill]

the longer the struggle goes on, how have those of you involved for years keep positive in the face of overwhelming odds?


by being negative and thus realistic about our/my relevance and probable outcomes/the future