2020, has been a overall, horrible year!
For a number of reasons so great I cannot even begin to list them all here. In one word, Covid.
The year of 2020, was originally met with ambitious hopes of a sequel to the Roaring 20’s; in reality this ended up being a year of fear of extinction. Whether that was the US and Iran In a game of nuclear chicken, Australian bushfires and American wildfires, turning the skylines a hellish red for a brief moment as a reminder of our impending climate disaster; and in the most ironic of all; the “sequel to the roaring 20’s” was met from the outright with lockdowns, stay at home orders, almost all celebrations and recreations cancelled, and being forced to wear a particularly oppressive piece of medical fabric, in hopes to re-turn to normal.
Despite being such a horrible year, 2020 does not appear to be a episode, as much as it is as a pilot to a series, that is the 2020’s. It is very unlikely 2020’s problems will all disappear in the next month, hell, we will be lucky if we can have a normal Christmas next year without pandemic mandates. So, considering this appears to be the new norm, I believe, the left should take away some takeaways from this year, in order to readjust ourselves to become a more efficient movement in the coming decade. I have compiled 5 of them. They are as follows.
1: Abandon Hope
I already know what your thinking. This is a horrible suggestion. Are you kidding me? Seriously? Like come on man. Hold up. Relax. I mean, abandon hope, in the system. We must abandon
Electoralism, at least as our primary means of change. The democrats have made it clear, that they have no intention of helping us, and that they don’t feel they need us. Some left leaning people have taken this as a opportunity to surrender and sell out most of there positions to try to seduce the Democratic Party establishment one more time. I say, Fine! We do not need the democrats either. Anti-Capitalism has always been a revolutionary movement. You cannot change the system from working within it. You must escape it, deconstruct and reconstruct it. When I say “abandon hope” what I actually mean, is abandon hope that the system can be reformed with electoralism. And abandon hope that your ideas alone will prevail. There are no ends, if there are no means. Abandon hope that the greatest evil this planet and the human race has ever known, can be defeated by playing by its rules; and using civility and Pacifism. Capitalism will disregard any rules it has claimed to have set for itself, so you should do the same. As comrade Fidel Castro said “revolution is not a bed of roses. It is a fight to the death between the future and the past”. And it is up to us, to ensure that fight to the death is won for the future.
2: Stay hopeful I know.
I know. Stay hopeful, right after abandon hope. But hear me out. As said already, you should lose hope, that the destruction of capitalism can be accomplished through anything less the revolutionary means. But, you should build up hope, on a individual and collective level, and for the movement. There is this notion, among the anti capitalist left, that we are the will of a cruel and unloving power, who could destroy us at any moment, and there’s no chance of achieving that. As long as you believe revolution is impossible, if is. But if you believe revolution is possible, it is inevitable. And let me tell you, revolution is possible. We have the numbers and the ability in us to revolt, and we’ve done it be-fore. Demoralization, as a tactic of our enemy, is the name of the game. We must not succumb to it. Our enemy, the capitalists, fear us. That is why they fight us. They fear us because they know and see us for the threat we are. A apocalyptic threat, for them, and there class. We have nothing to lose but our chains.
3: Never let them forget.
Coronavirus has been a not half bad radicalization tool for the left. As the problems caused by coronavirus, are almost all innately capitalist problems. There would not be people homeless or food insecure, had we had a socialist economy. You would not need to worry, about losing your job, if you owned your own labor. You wouldn’t need to worry, about our healthcare system being overrun, if you had a centrally planned public healthcare system. You would not need to worry about your economy being destroyed, if it were centrally planned. You would not need to worry about whether or not your “elected” owners decide you are worthy of a stimulus, if you had a dictatorship of the proletariat. All these problems associated with the pandemic, are problems of our capitalist economic system, and it is no surprise, that socialist countries, have done amazing work handling Covid-19, and in a causation correlation, the more capitalist a country is, the worse it has handled the pandemic. That being said, no matter how effective covid-19 has been at radicalization, there will be a liberal tendency, no doubt, once this pandemic is over, to take these leftist sentiments off with the masks. It is absolutely essential, we do not allow that to happen. We must make it known and re-membered, It was not Covid-19 that was the monster, rather, a capitalist, neoliberal electoral system, which completely fumbled a simple pandemic with sheer incompetence. And that because of capitalism, while the Vietnam and China were back to normal, America was going through a 3rd wave with records being repeatedly broken for days straight. If we are lucky, material conditions will continue to stop people from forgetting and going back to brunch. But if that fails, we must stop them.
4: appeal to everyone, and to those you wouldn’t
Leftists can be very picky. Often times, I have seen leftists repeatedly refuse to appeal or speak to conservatives or religious individuals. Which I always thought was strange, as rural folk, and religious people were at one point the backbone of the American left. The priests were the ones who walked at the front of the Civil rights marches of Martin Luther King Jr. and the anti-war protests during Vietnam. The rednecks, and the hicks, used to be a anti-fascist vanguard, from hit folk singers like woody Guthrie, considered “the spirit of America” singing lyrics advocating for the abolishment of property and hit folk songs such as “you fascists are bound to lose”. Hell, the first “rednecks” we’re striking coal miners, when they hung red neckerchiefs around there necks to symbolize there alliance with unions and the strike. These groups, used to be the front of the American left. What happened? Simple. We stopped talking to them. For religious people, with the new atheism movement, people began to sort of see themselves above religious people, and thus, they were no longer worth talking to. With Rural folks, the left has adopted a sentiment that rural people, are “uncivilized hicks” who engage in incest, and were thus, not worth courting. And the right swooped in, taking these groups under there wing, and next thing you know, religious people are denying covid, and farmers are chanting build the wall. Any piece on the chess board that is actively not claimed by us, is or will be taken by the enemy. And we need every piece we can muster. Understand, that, every recruit and conversion is of immeasurable value to the cause. And if they are willing to listen, they are worth being talked to.
5: don’t celebrate, until you’ve won
A lot of leftists have a very common tendency to celebrate the smallest of advancements. Hence, parts of the left at large, celebrating people like Bernie and AOC in congress, despite the fact there actual congressional careers are frankly not worth celebrating. We must understand, as anti-capitalists, there is no victory until capitalism is destroyed, and another, better system, takes its place. Do not allow yourself to become bogged down in electoral semantics, meaningless virtue signaling, and celebration over things that are backhanded achievements at best, or false hope at worst. There is to be no celebration until we’ve actually won. We must stay vigilant, and push forward with unending resolve, until our day of celebration, the day when capitalism is over-thrown. The world, humanity, and life itself is depending on it.
2020 has been of a hell of a year. And we are in for a hell of a next year, and a hell of well, life for the rest of the foreseeable future. But, let us make use of 2020, to allow ourselves to take on the years to come more efficiently. Revolution in our lifetime!
-Caleb Blair
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