As a citizen of the United States, it has become clear that I suffer from a debilitating deficit of historical and ideological education.
As I wrestle with the obstacles of understanding, comprehending, deprogramming, and learning how to identify the ubiquitous propaganda coming from my country’s institutions, I am struck by the extreme detachment of our citizens from our humanity – especially when it comes to our collective unity as human beings, and communities.
Our fracturing hyper-individuality is an obvious mental illness that our rulers are clearly pleased to cultivate.
In that environment, I find that engaging with people, even lifelong friends and family about political topics is practically impossible, because disagreements are entrenched and endless due to fundamental ideological differences. Some, who consider themselves “centrist” or “above it all”, refuse to engage with political topics altogether, or are even completely disengaged from politics of any sort.
I personally find that to be a paradox and impossible, since even a refusal to participate in politics or such conversations is itself a ideological political stance – of passive, tacit approval of the status quo. Nevertheless, I’ve discovered that it seems nearly impossible to convince even people who claim to be “there for you” or “friends” or “family” that organization against the ruling class is necessary through direct action, community building, and advocacy against systemic injustice in this country.
For me, the challenge is not just in effectively communicating the complexity of the issues involved (which includes trying to undo years of effective brainwashing, of myself and conversation partners), but also in the emotional investment that these topics require. It is painful to witness the resistance to acknowledging systemic injustices, as it forces individuals to confront uncomfortable truths about not just their privilege and complicity in sustaining the status quo – but often times even their very identity – which is effectively mired in the tribalism and nationalism deliberately cultivated by colonizers and imperialists.
Attempts to articulate the importance of unity and collective action often feel like shouting into a void, met with defensiveness or, worse yet, apathy.
Even among allies, ideological differences sow discord, but among the unconverted, it seems pretty much impossible.
What should I study? What should I read? Are there ways through such problems from within such a toxic culture?
I think you start out with the community building, which will give you a platform to discuss specific political issues. If you want to connect with coworkers, invite them to meet up after work. If you want to connect with friends host a get together semi-regularly (board game night? Idk). If you want to connect with neighbors find community events and help organize them.
What you’ll find is people who want to connect, and from there you need to filter for the people who have an interest in what you have to say. Just wait for someone to say “Bernie/Zohran is pretty cool” and jump in from there: “yeah totally, we need universal healthcare at a bare minimum. I sometimes wonder who is going to bring that to our community and what that would look like (assuming you don’t live in VT or NYC)”
Just cultivate the good vibes and people will tolerate it when you offer a “hot take” here and there like “this Venezuela shit sucks” or “China is doing some interesting stuff, we are going to start missing out soon”. You don’t need to debate or explain everything you believe at once, just offer them license (someone link the relevant redsails pls, forgot which one) to believe the same thing. Probably won’t happen right away, but since our materialist outlook offers more clarity, it’s very likely they’ll come around over weeks/months. I’m surprised sometimes what people reflect back to me! But yeah, they will hear you and then see what you say confirmed in the world without you having to monitor it.
Before too long you get them to identify as “socialist” in some form and you can start drilling down to pull them away from pure social democracy.
I think the short answer is “historical materialism”, finding roots in the material conditions that you are struggling in, and joining in the struggle.
The long answer is more of the same. At least from my perspective, starting from ideology has the whole thing backwards. I’m sure someone else can explain this in more detail, but the main thing I want to get at is that we have a lot more in common than we think. Most of us have to hold and job and we have an endless list of bills to pay. We pay too much for insurance and get too little out of it. Something like 60% of Americans want a system like medicare for all. We have so much in common, but we are too focused on just surviving to see it.
One way I’ve seen it put goes like this, “you don’t think your way into acting differently, you act your way into thinking differently.” Inviting people to engage in new activities is way more effective than a direct debate-style confrontation. You can’t really get people to do inner work with force or pressure, you have to invite them to start pulling their own threads and provide a supportive environment for doing so.
You’re basically signing up to be a social worker, so I hope you like patiently talking to people! Changing our culture means working through these issues with ~every single person in America.
Read what is to be done? (the essay not the novel), and join a group operating with democratic centralism
Thanks! Will do.
I doubt there are any such groups in my redneck of the woods. But I will try.
Is there a way to get rid of the ideological differences in the first place? I get the material differences along the lines of indigenous land, patriarchy, etc. But a lot of the online “left” schisms are people adopting fake ideologies that evaporate upon sunlight.
Any organization needs to have a code of conduct, that basically boils down to “don’t be an asshole to everyone else”
It’s a lot harder than it sounds, it’s what eventually led me to resign from the SRA
Give of yourself what people need. I’ve got very close friends that a don’t really “talk politics” with. It’s not that I hide who I am (the way I have to sometimes at work), but that it isn’t why we’re hanging out. I’ve got other friends that I see in exclusively political/organizing contexts, and we don’t really hang out otherwise. My family is kind of a mix depending on who it is.
Be a good, kind and helpful person. Have strong personal ethics, but try not to be dismissive or judgmental towards the people around you. If you aren’t likeable, nobody is going to respect what you say.
