In which i make shaky links between che guevara lip balm and seven of nine

[rhyll]

First off: i am having phone issues. if you wish to contact me, bear in mind that while i can receive smgs, i cannot reply to them. so, if you msg please include a landline or something where i can call you. or, alternatively, don't, and be patient: you are still important and loved. oh, also, my phone has stopped registering missed calls.

and, if you too would like to join the ranks of those who have difficulty contacting me, request my number. we could be friends, or maybe just make prank calls.

Now, let me tell you why

Well, i’ve been reading interesting articles and getting a little more fired up about my project, and about politics generally. It reminded me of a discussion that i had earlier with boxer_the_horse and barakketh (or perhaps two entirely different people), about how to get ‘the kids’ interested in the revolution. Or incremental, peaceful change, even. My memory is not great at the best of times, but as far as i can remember one (or all?) of us was suggesting that what was needed was a ‘marketing strategy’ for the revolution (“incremental, peaceful change” just doesn’t have that ring to it, ok?) If, somehow, the revolution could look sleek and shiny and sexy enough, more people would play. I have to say, in recent months i have come to severely doubt this (assuming i didn’t before, and that this was even the topic of our discussion…with my memory i really have no idea). Well. This mini-rant is sparked not so much by that discussion, but by a few since…

Anyway. To summarise – consumerism is like the Borg, and all efforts to defeat it using its own logic will be met with painful defeat and bad special effects. I only watched one episode in which the Borg appeared, suffering at the hands of my mother’s painful addiction to ‘strong women’ in bad TV series, but as far as i can gather, the Borg defeats all opposition by assimilating it into itself, becoming larger and stronger in the process.

What it comes down to, on an individual level, is that consumer culture convinces us that if we buy something it changes who we are and what we are doing with our lives. You’re guilty of this (yes, you), i’m guilty of this, it’s a game we’ve all played. Buy new clothes – become more attractive. Buy good books – become more well-read. Buy fair trade coffee, buy dolphin-safe tuna, buy a ribbon, buy a wristband… I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t try to make good consumer choices. I believe in buying fair trade, environmentally sound drinks, shoes, clothes, whatever else i can find. There are innumerable things that we do need to buy to live – and a heap more that we don’t need but aren’t going to stop wanting anytime soon - and you might as well try to buy things produced well and fairly.

But as long as political choices get expressed solely as consumer choices, political action is going to remain limited and fragmented. Politics as company boycotts, monthly charity subscriptions, and buying ‘politically conscious’ products is useful in many ways, but it suffers from many of the same limitations as voting does – in both, politics happens predominantly at an individual level, and doesn’t really effect our broader lives. Today’s capitalist system – and the political systems intertwined with it in the West - relies on people remaining fragmented, self-interested individuals, and on the idea that for every life choice and every belief, there is an appropriate product (and you will always need to buy more). The revolution will only succeed by undermining that logic, by replacing the idea of ‘more’ with the idea of ‘enough’, and with a different idea of how identity is expressed – as a thing you are, rather than things you have (thank you, vaguely remembered eric fromm).

I’m not just ranting here. I’m looking for a way out, and it’s hard. Because i want to buy interesting books about activism, and i want to get more green and black cocoa, and i subscribe to UNHCR and the wilderness society, and last time i checked i was part of no activist community at all, because i’m too busy reading about activism and typing out incoherent rants for my livejournal.

I get so dispirited with my work sometimes. Because i was better at english than at political science, and picked this up because i wanted to feel more…useful? Politically engaged? Perhaps. But so often it really feels like i am just working on some tiny little niche that will disappear into a journal somewhere. Not always, of course. A couple of weeks ago it felt like what i was doing was amazingly relevant and vital. Now i am not so sure, and trying to remind myself that maybe if i get through this later on i can be more useful. It does feel a bit like most of my life is like that, though…waiting for later on, when i can actually start feeling useful.

Any world-shaking epiphanies for me?

Comments

[boxer-the-horse.livejournal.com]

Sky, I respectfully disagree with some of that (yes, I was one of the people you had the original discussion with) but it will take me a day to come up with a response. Hehehe, you are warned! :P

[alexmoon.livejournal.com]

excellent. i look forward to it.

my thought-stream gets a little undirected without anyone to argue with. or even with, i guess.

on the plus side, i now have some very nice free trade hot chocolate from oxfam...mayan gold... orange and spices in it. so bring on the disagreement-on-some-points, and i shall sip hot beverages and peruse.

[fatwalrus.livejournal.com]

I know much better than to get into a political argument with you. Karlos is bad enough, the problem is that I have difficulty articulating my points and when people interrupt me I pause to let them talk which doesnt work well in arguments. So in an argument where im constantly being interrupted and not clear on my reasoning, people tend to just dismiss my point of view and talk over me. Even when im on a topic i can argue well I get frustrated when people start to argue illogically based on some emotional feeling rather than what makes sense (even if they do come back an hour later and agree with what I was saying) or if i feel they arent listening to me.

[fatwalrus.livejournal.com]

Opps, just the first sentance was relevant to you, the rest of my bitching was about other people heh.

[alexmoon.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously i realised you couldn't possibly be bitching about me - all of my arguments are always most rigorously logical. And correct, most importantly.

[fatwalrus.livejournal.com]

Hehe yeeeah