Some Thoughts

I wanted to dive deeper into two topics brought forth by things I've seen from two different friends. I will note that for my responses I take a very Marxist-Leninist approach. 

Reform vs. Revolt

The main thing that inspired this is a tweet from one of my long-standing friends of five years. He tweeted out "Republican Socialist", obviously in reference to what he believes is the correct way to bring change into the country, adding on that it'd be easier to deprogram people of the Republican party from their hateful views as opposed to converting them into Democratic Socialists or straight up socialists. While I believe it is a very good thing to take the steps to peel back the layers of their hateful ideologies, I also believe it is only the first in many steps to bring about proper change within The United States. The system which has ran this country for decades has been one built off of the expulsion, exploitation, and systematic oppression of minority groups. These ideologies have only continued to be propagated as the capitalist system has grown to become the dominant force of all Western nations. From what I have learned SO FAR, the system which currently allows this country to operate cannot and will never be changed through means of reform. This is not a new observation either, as both Stalin and Engels made note of how this would not work (in differing contexts with the overall sentiment matching). Engels in particular mentions that communists must stand against the bourgeoisie socialism my friend has suggested as it seeks to maintain the system a true communist seeks to overthrow. When it comes to breaking out of the chains we have put ourselves in, I believe there is no room for half-measures. While what he has suggested is not the end goal we should strive for (in my opinion), it is effective as a first step to achieve the grand upheaval this country so desperately needs. I think if one was to read more left leaning theory, one would come to similar conclusions as I have here.

A Narrow Lens

I have a younger friend who I've been in very heavy contact with, as I am one of the only people they can have reasonable conversation with when it comes to countries outside of the United States as well as actual political theory. He recently shared an article that he wrote titled "The World Within Sight: A Manifesto for Local Reality", in which it discusses the belief that our information age has brought about a profound misery in seeing things across the globe and within this country that we cannot immediately change. The main argument is as follows:

"When our internal landscape is filled with external noise, violence, extremism and other negatives, we lose the necessary building blocks and mental capacity to worry about ourselves. We become reactive machines rather than active individuals. Caring about a topic to a great extent is only meaningful overall if you have an agency to change the problem. Caring about things we cannot influence nor change creates a cycle of constant stress and mental debt that can be incredibly hard to escape from. From what I have seen on social media platforms such as Instagram, many people who hold these extreme opinions and reactions have zero agency to actually change it. This creates a group of people that “performatively suffer”, when they would be mostly untouched by any of the problems they are stressing over. So in reality, this creates knowledge without providence, or simply an understanding or opinion of a topic devoid of any purpose, guidance or potential to change." 

He then goes into more detail about how we should bring the focus into our immediate sphere of influence, providing people with a more calming way to go about changing their lives for the better while reducing the misery of living in our current climate. Similar to the first scenario, I believe he has outlined a foundational step towards the solution as opposed to the solution itself. One of the core principles of communism is that change must begin from community. With no organization, any idea of pursuing liberation is quickly snuffed out by counter-insurgent forces. He clearly understands how building up your local community is extremely important to the well being of everyone involved, as well as knowing better than to bury your head in the sand and block out all new information (which is a core aspect of modern conservatism). Where he falls short is only focusing on this local sector. Revolutionary thinkers understand that the struggle for liberation does not stop at one's own locality, and the liberation of the oppressed worldwide should always be the ultimate goal. To only strive for the well being of a singular community reeks of the "all for me and none for thee" mentality that most Americans have grown to believe in, both in the working class and (most obviously) the ruling class. I agree with the sentiment that having such a global understanding can be extremely taxing mentally, but our freedom from the elite will not come from being calm. It will come from constantly exerting ourselves in order to combat the systems which oppress us and our comrades across the globe.

In our texts further discussing the article, he mentions a talking point that has become omnipresent in the last decade about how we're doomed if Trump continues to hold the presidency. I have become extremely sick of this point, as it is a form of scapegoating which ignores the greater problems embedded within our society (and others which carry out such heinous crimes). Liberal thinking tends to pin all of the atrocities committed by a nation onto only the leader, absolving the people who voted that leader into power, the people who allowed said vote to follow through and the capital/imperial interest behind their actions. You see this concept done extremely often with Hitler and more recently Netanyahu. People believe that the problems within the nation just change once these leaders are no longer in power but it's just not how it works. That is why this reformist idea of voting in another leader will never work, it is simply fixing a symptom while ignoring the root cause. 

There are 3 major cases which highlight this concept:

In the case of Israel, their ruthless holocaust of West Asia will not cease with the death of Netanyahu. A change in leadership (no matter how progressive) will only result in the continuation of the Zionist agenda most of the population holds onto. Likewise, the two-state solution many liberals try to claim as the answer not only legitimizes what they've done since their inception, but does absolutely nothing to stop Israel from continuing their imperial aspirations. 

Germany, despite the popular stories of how they de-Nazified after WWII, has had a long standing issue with far-right ideologies continuing to permeate within the country (specifically in East Germany). The AfD's rise in popularity in recent years is blatantly indicative of how old ideas never truly die out, and that voting will not solve the issue of it's existence. 

In both Italy and Japan the far right have stormed into power in recent years in a similar manner to how Trump has become popular here in America. Many of the views both women hold are eerily similar (if not the exact same) as the right in this country. Simply voting these people away will not rid the countries of the systems which allowed people with such heinous positions to take power, as so many people within said countries share these same views.

All of this is to say that narrowing your worldview will blind you from the severe injustice that takes place globally, and in my opinion it is your duty to stand against it across the globe, not just within your own bubble. I believe that (again) with more reading of theory as well as continuing to grow up, he will come to understand how this is so important.