how does one remain optimistic and hopeful, given what’s happening in the us right now?
this is coming from someone who supports revolutionary optimism and such. seriously!
I balance reading theory and org work with fitness, spending time with my spouse, and other personal hobbies. Theory in particular helps us understand how the world is developing, where it’s likely to head, and why. Socialist countries like the PRC are rising while the US empire is collapsing, and the so-called “end of history” is a farce. This alone gives room for much hope, even if the present moment can seem dire.
When the capatalist superpower is nosediving in power and the communist superpower rocketing upwards, then what pessimism do you have?
That it’s not going to turn out like star trek, the neo-utopian socialist show where it was capitalist US that evolved into communism and took the world and the whole galaxy into an end of history, because the US can do everything better, even communism?i focus on doing things irl, makes you feel less like a loser because you have small victories every time you go out and do stuff
This decade (and the coming ones) are probably the most hopeful time humanity has seen in the past few hundred years. The PRC has lifted more people out of poverty in the last 25 years than any country in world history. They’re developing green energy, fusion power, re-igniting enthusiasm for space travel (we’ll see mars missions within our lifetime), and building massive infrastructure projects all over Africa and Asia that promise to lift the majority of the world out of poverty.
We’re witnessing, rapidly and in real time, the end of the Columbian epoch, the historical era of of western imperialism inaugurated by columbus, and thanks to the success of the PRC, seeing the rise of a multi-polar world, and an end to the low-wage trap poorer countries found themselves in after the rise of western finance capital in the 1980s.
The wests strategy of satiating its population with the spoils of imperialism, and exporting its own productive base, and class struggle to underdeveloped countries, is finally failing. The moment of triumph, and I think it will come within 20 years or so, will be when the US starts to close its 800+ foreign military bases, and withdraws its navy from aggressive actions in the south china sea.
I feel comfort by looking at my country’s (usa) history over the last two generations.
What is there to feel comfort about? There are only losses to see, there is no progress on most things important in socialism. Society is on autopilot. In many respects, the billionaires and corrupt mess seems to have won. It’s definitely depressing.
But… there is hope. And for that we need history. The USA has experienced social disintegration and population movement over the last two generations. And this is much more than the original Industrial Revolution. All countries have experienced this, but in the USA, the population movements and stretching of social bonds are an order of magnitude more than most because there is simply so much space for people to relocate.
This relocation has stalled political change, and eliminated politics on the local scale. At the same time, the types of ways people communicate and organize is exponentially evolving, even now.
I feel like what this means is that there is huge potential for change. I’m not sure how and why or when change will occur, but when it does happen this will occur quickly. Much like a rubber band being stretched too far and popping back.
And everyone will be caught by surprise at the speed of political change. I’m not saying that it will be change welcomed by socialists. It may be something else, or chaos.
But I think the best way I can contribute is to be in my own small community, helping to prepare for a change that may happen next year, or ten years later
how do you think we should solve the trump problem at this point?
I feel like the elections are manipulated to extract wealth from the population. This means democrats will probably control congress next election, and most probably next a democratic president. Followed by another gop series of victories.
Trump is there because of an unmonitored and corrupt system. Most likely he did not win the primaries in 2016.
I also feel that Trump is more a symptom of something worse than him
how do you think this can be solved from a socialist/communist perspective? oh and what do you mean by “something worse”?
Elections will never fix this mess. New political parties cannot install reform.
Later, when local politics do become possible, in my hypothetical above, socialists must come out on top. If not, things will never change.
Communism in the USA is the only thing that can prevent a lot of suffering lasting decades or more.
As for something worse: there is a lot bad going on, families going hungry, people dying of preventable disease. The list of that continues for several pages.
This country, as it is, cannot help them, their communities cannot make things better for most. That is scary.
Most of the crimes Trump is doing is backed and empowered by other crimes and injustices, In the grand scheme of things, who is in power there is not so important as the system itself. Trump is like a bruise showing up on the skin resulting from cancer. The bruise is unsightly but ultimately insignificant.
do you think revolution is the best option we have, and what can we do to unite both progressives AND conservatives in the cause of socialism?
No. We need a vanguard party first. And there is a lot of work to do before that. I have to learn more but I know mutual aid, unions and hopefully finding a group is in order before we can begin to build a vanguard party.
what communist party in the us should be the vanguard party? can all socialist/communist parties be merged into a new party?
i’m talking about a big tent populist vanguard party. seriously!
I think if communism prevails one need only look to other large regions of the world to see how difficult that was to do it there
what do you mean by that?
are you talking about a one-party country (where only the communist party is the sole legal party), or a multi-tendency country (the communist party is the sole legal party, but multiple factions of the party appear as if they’re different parties; the communist party work with like-minded socialist parties in a ‘vanguard coalition’; or multiple like-minded socialist/communist parties compete the way other countries do)?
I think there are many ways to mess up a communist movement after winning and I hope some pitfalls are avoided
can you explain?
Life’s a farce. Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show
what do you mean by that?
Basically Nihilism vs. Absurdism. Nihilism is, life’s meaninglessness and now I’m sad. Absurdism is, life’s meaninglessness and I’m going to try just cause I want to.
Life’s meaninglessness either way, the question is are you going to be a little bitch about it?
There’s a lot of ways you can take it. I look it as if you take a step back, the world is a strange and surprising place absent of your place in or ability to influence it. I say why worry about what you can’t change and delight in it as it unfolds. A less cynical take on “farce”.
