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What’s this “future” shit? That’s how it is now. We have healthcare tied to employment in the US, and if you post anything negative about Nazis you will lose your job.
This is thinly veiled “china bad” bs
I am once again recommending you read theory. This is becoming a big pattern with your posts, you have doomsday predictions that are framed in the views of “good vs evil” as though those are the driving mechanisms of the problems of today. I really think trying to get a solid understanding of the way capitalism works and its contradictions will help you make better sense of the world, which can be much more comforting than relying on conspiracy theories about crypto and predictions from John the Theologian centering the idea that currency will become invalid and we will all have to run into the hills and barter to survive (as your linked post states).
Such an economy would collapse without workers, you aren’t going to be hunted, capitalism rests on wage labor and needs continuous labor and circulation to keep going. What’s more likely is imperialism waning as profit rates trend lower and lower and the global south seeks independence, resulting in crisis, not some even stronger oppressive capialist force that can act with any kind of coherent plan. The capitalists aren’t going to run automated megafactories and hunt former workers for sport, they need workers to consume to continue the process of circulation. When circulation becomes untenable because of overproduction of goods and not enough wages to buy said goods, the system crashes. It isn’t going to get stronger, it will get more desparate and violent but weaker at the same time. Fascism is a cornered, hungry animal lashing out.
Even as the capitalist world gets increasingly fascist, the way you frame the ways it will act ignore that the primary purpose of fascism is to save capitalist relations, not just to do evil for evil’s sake. The way we fight fascism is fundamentally centered around organizing, not fleeing cities and trying to rely on physical currency. The mechanisms of capitalism are understandable, and as such we can move on to understand the ways it will actually decay and run into crisis, and how we can move on to socialism.
Here’s an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list that you may find helpful.
Yes, the problem is that everything I’ve talked about could happen suddenly, for example, after wars. I don’t know exactly when it will happen, but I have a bad feeling about the future, a very bad one. But I’m glad to hear your criticism; it helps much more than kind words. Thank you.
Emotions are important and allowing them, feeling and working through are important. And so is not reacting from the emotional storm, or immediately after it’s passed. Give the invisible charge in the air to pass, metaphorically.
David graeber has some good stuff on the nature of money and debt, if you want something a little easier than Marx’s ‘capital’.
Here’s Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber, I believe this is what you’re referencing. Capital isn’t too difficult, IMO. It’s long, but the first 3 chapters are the most complex, after that it’s fairly smooth sailing, and Marx is actually a pretty witty writer. Just in case anyone was too scared by its reputation to read it!
I want to stress that I’m not trying to be mean, I genuinely think you’ll feel more comfortable by trying to get a better handle on how society functions. Much of what you talk about is more speculative fiction than an actual likely course of events. That doesn’t mean the capitalist world isn’t headed towards crisis, but the way in which it reaches said crisis is going to look a lot more like the Great Depression or Russian revolution than it would 1984 or the Hunger Games. This fundamentally changes how we prepare so that we can better alleviate the problems coming in the future. I mean this with all kindness, a better world is possible, and it takes educating, agitating, and organizing.
I see Hunger Games metaphorically like all mythologies, poetry, court jesters, Shakespearean plays, etc. And like myself, reactionaries tend to take things literally, rather than get a handle on their passions and channel them in more creatively appropriate ways, when opportunity presents. Something about luck means preparation meeting opportunity. But part of preparation is knowledge and understanding. It’s a long, hard, frustrating process for we who are conditioned into expectations of ease, comfort, and drive-thru results. There will be the five stages of grief accompanied by bitterness and many of our comrades will get stuck in the five stages, bitterness, and the way things were/could have been. I think those who are able to see and move beyond these things, accept there will be hardships and work through them to move beyond will be the ones shaping the future. The choice is yours. The choice is mine. The choice is our comrades. Choose ye this day whom you shall serve. A spirit of defeat serves the enemy, regardless of where our loyalty lies.
You’ve been such a reassuring, steady influence as I work through my issues. I’m ever grateful for it and proud to acknowledge it.
Thank you, that’s extremely sweet of you to say, comrade! And very well-put. One thing interesting about the “prepper” community is that it often is filled with right-wingers convinced the world will collapse, rather than organizing for revolution. They see no way out, and this turns them inwards to try to save themselves and maybe their family and friends. Understanding the world is the first step needed to find the way out!
No thanks needed. It’s a decades long process of seeking, for we who are conditioned from birth by the well-meaning who were also conditioned from birth, for centuries. But that protestant work ethic will become a useful tool, rather than a weapon of destruction, for those who join us.
Well-said again!
Hopefully those who have ears to hear will.
It’s just that recently the risk of a third world war has appeared. I have many different theories, but I can’t confirm every one of them.
Okay, we’ll see what happens next, but it’s best to be prepared for any horror, even a sharp rise in food prices. I’ve seen videos and read articles predicting an imminent catastrophe, and corporate greed tells me that this catastrophe is just around the corner.
… I’ve seen videos and read articles predicting an imminent catastrophe, and corporate greed tells me that this catastrophe is just around the corner.
my own doomerism had me believing this as well, but then learning about texts like the ones cowbee has shared w you has shown me that our situation was predicted a century+ ago and I found it reassuring.
The most wild part is that it was never just some fringe leftist prediction; even liberal & conservative scholars from a century ago also predicted it like Keynes, or Polanyi, or Roosevelt (yes the president). It turns out that almost a century ago americans and other westerners just stopped paying attention to all the warnings from all of the scholars that they used to listen to and now were in this doom filled future because all the people who benefit from the status quo have successfully created an environment where the future is either more status quo or nothing but abject horrors to scare us into drinking the kool-aide of inescapable climate change and perpetual oligarchy.
Once I developed a rudimentary media literacy because those texts; the mainstream media became transparent and it became clear that everyone, but the people of ruling class are kept ignorant of reality because ignorant people are easier to manipulate into all the unnecessary asshattery that we’ve been doing for the last five generations.
I can attest to this as well. These days I’m scared by the immediate possible horrors of American fascism but I’m actually hopeful for the future beyond that. I also think now I’m much better prepared for escaping the worst of the acute fascism than I was before.
… now I’m much better prepared for escaping the worst of the acute fascism than I was before.
i’m expecting it to smack me down hard since i already was not having a great time under non-fascist capitalism.
you should teach a class on how to prepare for it. lol
Not much to teach. Just lucky to have another citizenship and some savings. Then theory just helps with answering questions like:
- Could there be life-disrupting/threatening political change in Canada in the foreseeable future?
- Would it be safe if we just move to northern Canada?
- Should we move out of Canada in such an eventuality?
with a “yes,” “no” and “probably yes.” Previously I might have answered those with “no,” “yes” and “no.”
You have good experience, and you’re right about a lot of things. And yes, ignorant people are easy to manipulate, especially if they’re poor and desperate enough.
especially if they’re poor and desperate enough.
aka the yin to the fascist yang.
in other words: make them so worried about trying to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table that they’re don’t have the energy & time to think about why they have to do this when there are litterally billions of other people on this planet who don’t have to worry about doing the same thing.
We own nothing, nothing is ours Not even love so fierce* that burns like baby stars But this poverty is our greatest gift, The weightlessness of us as things begin to shift…
Added missing words
Well, yes…
I think it’s important to discern capital voices, reactionary voices (regardless of sincerity), and level -headed voices, regardless of whether they manage to get money or not, in what amounts, although sources should be scrutinized. No one is perfect, but we need to evaluate motivation.
A third world war is not that likely. The US Empire cannot win an outright war against China, either China would win or both would lose. What’s more likely is the US Empire going the way of Rome, continual decay until eventual collapse. It does help to be prepared for anything, though, I agree.
Cats have healing powers mrrrrp purrrr
