Seeker
4th July 2006, 22:19
About a year ago I found myself working for a capitalist corporation. Every day I would go to the office and my labor would actively harm the cause that, as an anarchist, I claimed to support.
Yet I would post on this message board (among others) and feel like maybe I was making at least a little bit of a helpful difference. Perhaps I was helping to clarify my or other people's conception the philosophies discussed. Perhaps. Eventually it was no longer good enough.
Alienation.
I eventually reached a state where I knew what the term meant. I knew it beyond textbook definitions; I was awash in it. Every morning I would feel as if waking up was an act of treason. The commute to work was an exercise in masochism. Once I arrived, I would hear about the latest atrocities that I was supporting with my labor. The false-flag attacks on New York's twin towers and London's subway, perpetual war, globalized usury and stratification, ect.
I was ready to ACT, but I didn't know how. Taking a long weekend to attend a protest seemed like it would not come close to going far enough. An examination of how I spent my time would show that my lifestyle was still contributing to the desecration of the planet and its people. Becoming a weekend warrior could not atone for the damage I was causing with my (relatively) massive consumption of resources and labor contribution to the cause of global capitalism.
I thought to myself, "If only I could use my force of will to consume less, then I would be making a difference." So that is what I tried first. It felt like failure. Life in suburbia is requires consumption by design, and that consumption greases the gears of the machine I wanted to wreck. Without a local food source, an army of trucks rolls into town every morning to provide for worker bees such as myself who drive to the "super"markets or fast food franchises. Single-family homes ensure that water and electricity will be used in a most wasteful manner (personal air conditioners, water heaters, and refrigerators, clothing dryers, and so on). I was still using pounds of products to ensure that my physical appearance was suitably conformist so that I could keep my job as a revolutionary turncoat and continue to have access to food and shelter.
The solution was not to be found in suburbia. Only by living the values that I claimed to believe in could I find succor. Cooperation. Mutual aid. Equality. Solidarity. As a resident of North America, I didn't think I could find a way to immerse myself in the struggle 24-7-365 and was filled with hopelessness and despair for a long time.
But there is a way.
Even in the belly of the beast, inside the USA, there are pockets of people living in cooperation rather than competition. As a nation, we are very much behind the global curve. From what information I can gather through internet and people that have the means to travel, the transition to communism is already well underway. For example, one of our guests who had lived in Puerto Rico for several years tells me that almost everyone there lives and works in what we would call a co-op or intentional community. An article on RevLeft that I read recently said the same is true for parts of Italy. I recently spoke with a traveler who said that she was able to visit and learn from the many cooperative communities spread across Western Europe.
You don't need to support corporate America to get your daily bread. By living and working together, we can take care of our families without the astronomical rate of suburban consumption, and without laboring to make the bosses richer. You don't need any capital to begin to make a difference. And if you are reading this, you already have all the tools you need to start today. Right now.
Quit spending your life supporting a corrupt capitalist system and government! Quit working everyday to make some other person rich!
Quit your job and move in with us!
http://www.acorncommunity.org/
http://thefec.org/
http://www.ic.org/
Yet I would post on this message board (among others) and feel like maybe I was making at least a little bit of a helpful difference. Perhaps I was helping to clarify my or other people's conception the philosophies discussed. Perhaps. Eventually it was no longer good enough.
Alienation.
I eventually reached a state where I knew what the term meant. I knew it beyond textbook definitions; I was awash in it. Every morning I would feel as if waking up was an act of treason. The commute to work was an exercise in masochism. Once I arrived, I would hear about the latest atrocities that I was supporting with my labor. The false-flag attacks on New York's twin towers and London's subway, perpetual war, globalized usury and stratification, ect.
I was ready to ACT, but I didn't know how. Taking a long weekend to attend a protest seemed like it would not come close to going far enough. An examination of how I spent my time would show that my lifestyle was still contributing to the desecration of the planet and its people. Becoming a weekend warrior could not atone for the damage I was causing with my (relatively) massive consumption of resources and labor contribution to the cause of global capitalism.
I thought to myself, "If only I could use my force of will to consume less, then I would be making a difference." So that is what I tried first. It felt like failure. Life in suburbia is requires consumption by design, and that consumption greases the gears of the machine I wanted to wreck. Without a local food source, an army of trucks rolls into town every morning to provide for worker bees such as myself who drive to the "super"markets or fast food franchises. Single-family homes ensure that water and electricity will be used in a most wasteful manner (personal air conditioners, water heaters, and refrigerators, clothing dryers, and so on). I was still using pounds of products to ensure that my physical appearance was suitably conformist so that I could keep my job as a revolutionary turncoat and continue to have access to food and shelter.
The solution was not to be found in suburbia. Only by living the values that I claimed to believe in could I find succor. Cooperation. Mutual aid. Equality. Solidarity. As a resident of North America, I didn't think I could find a way to immerse myself in the struggle 24-7-365 and was filled with hopelessness and despair for a long time.
But there is a way.
Even in the belly of the beast, inside the USA, there are pockets of people living in cooperation rather than competition. As a nation, we are very much behind the global curve. From what information I can gather through internet and people that have the means to travel, the transition to communism is already well underway. For example, one of our guests who had lived in Puerto Rico for several years tells me that almost everyone there lives and works in what we would call a co-op or intentional community. An article on RevLeft that I read recently said the same is true for parts of Italy. I recently spoke with a traveler who said that she was able to visit and learn from the many cooperative communities spread across Western Europe.
You don't need to support corporate America to get your daily bread. By living and working together, we can take care of our families without the astronomical rate of suburban consumption, and without laboring to make the bosses richer. You don't need any capital to begin to make a difference. And if you are reading this, you already have all the tools you need to start today. Right now.
Quit spending your life supporting a corrupt capitalist system and government! Quit working everyday to make some other person rich!
Quit your job and move in with us!
http://www.acorncommunity.org/
http://thefec.org/
http://www.ic.org/