Why individual action is counter-revolutionary
Lots of people like to write inspirational messages on dollar bills. I suppose because they're not too valuable, and are bits of perfectly note-sized paper that circulate quickly. This one struck me, though. Maybe it's just because I've just watched Animal Farm, but I'm not sure I've taken quite the intended message.
In any case, the source (Post Secret), would lead me to believe so, since it is typically full of 'inspirational' sorts of things. Indeed, in any other presentation, I would probably take those words as a new-agey expression of the interconnectedness of mankind, or the universe, or whatever.
But on a dollar bill? It's about Capitalism, dude, plain and simple. We cannot escape the system; it governs every aspect of our lives. Oh, sure, with enough know-how I suppose we could go primitivist and live out in the wild, hunting and gathering our food, shivering through the winters. But to remove ourselves to that degree would leave us powerless to change anything, and who wants that? Even dumpster-diving and squatting, living off the rancid fat of society, cannot cleanse us of the sin of consumerism, because that way of life still requires the culture it leeches from.
...Pretty bleak, isn't it? But is there a way out? Is 'the Revolution' even possible? I always waver... I'm pretty indecisive in general. I've got them radical politics, sure, and even--somewhere in there--a strong spine (really!). It's the uncertainty that bothers me. Even though I don't believe them, lots of people--Mandeville, Smith, Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan, even my own mother!--have said that greediness is 'just human nature' and Capitalism somehow turns this greed into a socially productive force. It's the last of that list that bothers me. Though I am usually loathe to admit it, time has proven my mother right about most of the things we've argued about. Not always, though; it took finding an OED entry for me to prove that 'proven' is actually a word, but she finally conceded that point.
One interpretation of Animal Farm is exactly that: that human nature is to be greedy and sieze power if they can, thus Communism is doomed to fail. Of course, one can also read it as a criticism of the Russian revolution in particular. Such is the trouble with parables and satire. (Oh, and in the film, that dog is totally Gorbichov.)
I think I just need to read a lot more Anarchist and Socialist philosophy. It would help systemise my ideas and intuitions, which at the moment are all loose and tangled and nebulous. I'd like to weave them into something more coherent. So, on that note, I'm off to read some more of Marx's 'Capital', by the light of a lamp that bears a sticker with the following message: "Warning: detachable base".
In any case, the source (Post Secret), would lead me to believe so, since it is typically full of 'inspirational' sorts of things. Indeed, in any other presentation, I would probably take those words as a new-agey expression of the interconnectedness of mankind, or the universe, or whatever.
But on a dollar bill? It's about Capitalism, dude, plain and simple. We cannot escape the system; it governs every aspect of our lives. Oh, sure, with enough know-how I suppose we could go primitivist and live out in the wild, hunting and gathering our food, shivering through the winters. But to remove ourselves to that degree would leave us powerless to change anything, and who wants that? Even dumpster-diving and squatting, living off the rancid fat of society, cannot cleanse us of the sin of consumerism, because that way of life still requires the culture it leeches from.
...Pretty bleak, isn't it? But is there a way out? Is 'the Revolution' even possible? I always waver... I'm pretty indecisive in general. I've got them radical politics, sure, and even--somewhere in there--a strong spine (really!). It's the uncertainty that bothers me. Even though I don't believe them, lots of people--Mandeville, Smith, Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan, even my own mother!--have said that greediness is 'just human nature' and Capitalism somehow turns this greed into a socially productive force. It's the last of that list that bothers me. Though I am usually loathe to admit it, time has proven my mother right about most of the things we've argued about. Not always, though; it took finding an OED entry for me to prove that 'proven' is actually a word, but she finally conceded that point.
One interpretation of Animal Farm is exactly that: that human nature is to be greedy and sieze power if they can, thus Communism is doomed to fail. Of course, one can also read it as a criticism of the Russian revolution in particular. Such is the trouble with parables and satire. (Oh, and in the film, that dog is totally Gorbichov.)
I think I just need to read a lot more Anarchist and Socialist philosophy. It would help systemise my ideas and intuitions, which at the moment are all loose and tangled and nebulous. I'd like to weave them into something more coherent. So, on that note, I'm off to read some more of Marx's 'Capital', by the light of a lamp that bears a sticker with the following message: "Warning: detachable base".