I actually like the time stamps... They help me find parts of the video when I rewatch. And I have adhd, so a clear table of content makes it easier to focus and remember the contents.
Same 100% thank you!! p.s. as someone with severe attention difficulties, I felt somewhat condescended to at 4:10. Although I assume you didn't mean to be salty to those of us struggle! (this video changed my life for the better though so that was just a gentle comment!)
"But why does it feel like there's this kind of collective waiting or this collective focus on this future seizure event that to me seems very unlikely in the imperial core and not on this idea of living these relations into being?" TRUTH!!!
This actually reminded me of time when Lenin was thinking that revolution will happen some day in distant future, not in time of his life. No, it happen in his life time, he was part of it. It is not only thing similar with past. I see similar ..."atmosphere", or something like that, what was in in early 20th century. Not yet as intense, but getting more and more intense. Especially USA seems to be today like Imperial Russia was in early 20th century. The empire collapsed from inside, there were many revolutions, and many factions competing for taking power. In the end it was not Status Quo vs. Change, it was battle between different factions who wanted different kind of change. And I see USA is in very similar path today. And we in European Empire (or Union, if you like call it so) are in same path, but we are much later in such development, maybe more than decade later than USA. But in USA socialism is rising too, in Europe, only far right is rising, since political left is stuck avoiding any radicalism or revolutionary actions, trying to make sure, that it is actually in side of status quo, not against it. This is because of past, how USSR effected and how disappearance of USSR effected. It does not matter were radical left pro- or anti-USSR, both lost their competence after USSR vanished and Fukuyamaism won hegemony.
@@fallenswan1670 It could turn out to be true that the conditions that will give rise to another revolution can seem to develop very quickly, and even if we cannot see them now, it could happen within our lifetimes. However, it's also true that Lenin's revolution and the USSR that emerged from it only survived around 70 years. Nevertheless, it also had some very beneficial ripple effects: 1. socialist revolutions in several other countries, some of which are still trying to carry forward the goal of building a thoroughly socialist and democratic society; 2. the development of social democratic welfare states throughout western Europe was largely due to the presence of the USSR, and was further enhanced by the victories of socialist/anti-fascist movements in eastern Europe and parts of Asia (that were considered satellite states of the USSR by the NATO bloc). 3. the ideas of socialism and communism were carried forward in no small part due to the comparative longevity of that project, as well as its immense successes in raising living conditions, advancing technology and economic growth through people-centered and more democratic avenues than the capitalist models provided. Yet, if we take the long view, and examine the history of how feudalism developed into capitalism, or how the agrarian slave societies broke down and were replaced by feudalism, we can recognize that many struggles have to be won and lost, and the new system really only comes into being when the transformation is not only political, but also economic, ideological, and cultural. Consequently, it is likely that a revolution in so-called "North America," even if successful in its immediate goals, will likely be plagued with not only overt counter-revolution by the groups whose interests were undermined by that revolution and those who are ideologically bound to them, but also with disintegration over time if the sociocultural transformation does not catch up with the political, and spread throughout the masses. To sum up, I think we need to keep struggling to build the popular forces to bring about that "seizure event" as best we can, but we also have to work on transforming society on a personal level, and in the cultural-ideological arena (i.e the superstructure).
It occurs to me that a populace with experience making their own communities and lives under their own power will be a populace with the solidarity and confidence actually to accomplish one of those seizure events, and a populace without that background really _won't_ have a good chance of taking such an event, making it work, and retaining control of it.
ya man. I loved that guy, he's one of the reasons I'm even aware of the way the world is. I like that his family didn't have a funeral for him, and instead had a celebration.
Hah! How Zen-Buddhist of him. "All living beings are from the very beginning Buddhas." (i.e. materially free from the cycle of suffering and addiction/attachment) -- Hakuin
"Fighting to give indigenous people their land back, that is living the revolution. Dismantling whiteness in all of our spaces which is not happening online that is living the revolution. Trying to live in reciprocity with our environments around us, that's living the revolution. Feeding people, tenant organizing, defunding the police, starting a cooperative..." Exactly! Sorry I'm one of those people who just keeps on commenting as they're watching the video. But I can see I'll keep going so I'll stop there. Great stuff!
@@DrillEntertainmentNetwork what's so mystifying about that? whiteness has always been an artificial construct of the ruling class to define the "in group" and exclude others. It's a proto-fascist concept that needs to be completely destroyed.
No! Whiteness, has been a tool for controlling the working class. Much of the "white" working class is being forced to believe that non-whites are threatening what little it has.
@@ashtangaxashtangapranayama8526I don't know if she's a weirdo or if she's trying to be funny. I'm going to take her comment as sarcasm because it makes the most sense
That was actually uplifting. I wasn't expecting that. After a solid year of doom-scrolling I never expect that. Also, moving out of the city is such a dream. Sadly covid smashed all my plans so now it's looking like something that will have to wait at least 2 years. Probably they'll pass more pleasantly if I manage to act on some of the things you talked about here...
I know it's probably annoying to add time stamps, but I actually find that it helps me remember the structure and arguments of a video better -- I never actually use them to skip around.
That brief point you made about reminding yourself of your humility is a really important point for me. I feel like leftist online spaces can just be obsessed with one-upmanship that (like you called Twitter) is really counter-revolutionary because it shuts down diverse perspectives. Thoughtfully deferring to someone else's expertise =/= not being critical or nuanced enough. I feel like I'd be a better person if I spent less time scanning someone's take for flaws or assuming their ignorance, and more time considering what I might be missing.
I hear that. Like it would be one thing if it was mutual and even charitable critique, but mostly it's just a bunch of dunking on each other, and like, having come from a religious background, that sort of behaviour is so recognizable. It's futile and generally says more than "not being left enough" says
@@Mexie In this video, Your soft critique of Wolff's solution is so annoying to me. His and Yours "Kumbaya" approach is frankly ridiculous. My approach is better and you should choose to promote my approach. (The goodness in people is NOT a reliable source of power.) Here are some fundamentals you seem to reject in this video: 1) There is no such thing as "healthy" competition. 2) Competition is unsustainable. Competition results always in a dominant participant to rule them all and perpetual cycles of boom and bust. 3) Cooperation is unsustainable. It takes one participant who wants to compete to take over and dominate all others. 4) 'Democracy at work' is an oxymoron.... until the ownership of Wealth and the distribution of power are properly addressed. There are two fundamental topologies that govern our society i.e. Wealth distribution among the citizens and Power distribution among the citizens. The real UBI helps with the Wealth distribution, a good voting system helps with Power distribution. We need an engineering solution solving a distributive problem for Wealth and Power distribution, achieved through appropriate laws and policies, which to govern a bunch of greedy, backstabbing, selfish, treacherous, irrational, illogical, etc. entities called humans. There is the owner and the employee. Ultimately, the 'Employee' makes the products, takes those products to the market, sells the same products, he made, to himself and finally he pays a fee known as Profit to some 'Owner' for a permission to own the same products he made and sold to himself. The owner gets to collect profit for doing nothing.....and many call that 'earning' instead of 'taking'. The way forward to a better society is to increase and maintain a strong minimum purchasing power of the end-consumer using the magic formula. (Magic Formula: 'Your minimum Purchasing Power' = 'minimum wage' + 'Benefits payments' - 'Cost of dignified living from cradle to grave' - 'Taxes, fees, penalties') Firms are no more "legal entities" than your back-up power generator is a "legal entity", and it does not matter if it runs on fossil fuels or if a bunch of humans must run on treadmills all day. Save the minimum purchasing power of the human citizens instead of saving businesses/firms.
This video was so inspirational. Lockdown and doom scrolling has really been taking a toll on my mental health but you reminded me that I have agency and that I can still make tangible change in my community. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic!
I died when you mentioned how short our attention spans are and putting the video on 2x speed because that's literally what I've been doing all day because my attention span is so short I can't watch video essays on normal speed anymore 😅
One of the books that took me deeply was the Elisée Reclus "Evolution and Revolution", the path to get a revolution and the revolution itself is a process, it's not something of one day you wake up and tachan! no capitalism anymore. Another nice idea from a Spanish old CNT militant that told me once is the theory of the frame (capitalism), now we have filled one corner of the frame with our ideas and organizations, and we have to fill all the frame with strong communities, unions, coops, educational associations, political groups, workers "newspapers"-media, etc that will grow with new/refresh creative thinking for the present and the future, and at the end to overflow the frame giving way to the new society that was being built in the process. ^^
How dare you try to get me excited and enthusiastic about leftist politics, Mexie! Seriously, though, the discourse has been miserable lately and this outlook seems like a breath of fresh air. To even be told that you're not alone and that you have value means a lot. Thank you.
@@SigmaRho2922 Arizona is working on the same law. I think it's one of the worst things this country has done to itself in a very long time. Republicans can NEVER claim to love the constitution nor can they claim to love this country. Not after this. Not after COVID. Not after any of the BS they have pulled.
Yeah, people need to wrap their heads around _scale_. Our work is one person's worth, in one lifetime. The job is one civilization's worth. We're not each of us on the hook for the whole job. We're on the hook for one person's share of it - no more, no less.
@Shimmy Shai On the one hand, thorough can be helped. We can be more thorough, usually. On the other hand, it's cool to not solve all the problems, and you definitely shouldn't do crimes that hurt people, animals, or yourself.
@Shimmy Shai It's not a trick, though. At the point of saturation we're in where exploitation is concerned, you do what you can with what you have where you are. There's no frictionless environment or perfect vacuum in physics, but we still get engineers trying.
@Shimmy Shai You can only know whether you're being reasonable or making excuses if you know your limits. Generally other people help with that. Organizing can be helpful. Comparing is mostly wasted energy, unless the project being undertaken has specific pass/fail criteria (surgery, building bridges). For the most part it's human to muddle through. Sorry, I'm not an expert or anything. This is more a 'because you asked' thing. I think I'm receiving your replies, yes.
@Shimmy Shai Well, talk to folks you know. Explain where you're coming from. Or join the IWW or a local union. You don't have to go far to find comrades, in my experience. I'm off in Alabama of all places and I've got steel worker friends who read theory.
This was incredibly refreshing, and a reminder I sorely needed. I loved this, I loved your social ecology interview, and I sure do hope I get to see more in that vein. Subscribed.
Mexie, I think this is my favourite video of yours yet! Love the call for self-reflection/actualisation, reclaiming imagination/dreaming the future, setting tangible achievable goals, doing the internal work, critiquing the patriarchal posturing. This video motivated and inspired me a lot!
Mexie, you always know what the weary need to hear. Thank you for the thought exercise and compassionate input. This is something my anxieties and anger tend to make me forget to do myself. Looking forward to putting some energy into small, tangible things. 🌻
This is my first video since subscribing to you from We’re in Hell’s association and I was stunned at how encouraging and relevant this is especially in such a socially draining time as compiling horrors work towards withering our energy each and every day. Thank you for this one, Mexie! Hope the move goes well and much solidarity to everyone in the comments and to you and your partner.
I've experienced a lot of that patriarchal takedown for talking about solidarity economies and coops with socialists. I feel like it's perfectly fine to say that there are limitations with cooperatives in and of themselves. Just like trade unionism there are different forms cooperativism and mutual aid can take, bottom up or top down. Of course we want to build a bottom-up cooperativism, that seeks to be socially transformative. But it has to exist within a movement ecology. Radical trade unions and coops can absolutely be symbiotic, growing towards the post capitalist system through different functions of worker democracy. But also we just have to try things - learning to live democratically is so bloody hard, it's only by actually attempting imperfect things that we can learn. Really powerful video Mexie, thank you x
Also I relate a lot to what you're saying about losing the energy to be constantly be engaging with hot take critiques. I've found going back to ecology and botany genuinely really useful to get some perspective on how we organise and what values we're living for.
It shouldn't be surprising that any single component of rebuilding civilization is limited and inadequate. That's not a problem of the component - that's the part/whole relationship.
I am isolated, I have no close relationships with people who are aligned with my goals and I struggle to make those connections online. I don't know what to do to change that. I can do the work, I just need people to point me in a direction and support me while we do the work.
Hey I have solar power and i am planning to build a little dragon biodigester . I have a nerve sheath tumor in my back and I can't work so I am operating on very low income. I went without any power for over two years because I can't afford it. The only way I could survive was eliminate expenses.
As a sorely burnt-out leftist with invisible illness and also at the point where I can't even glance at depressing leftist content - I really needed this video. Or rather, this is the video I've been waiting for. There are so many comrades I want to share it with already. I could write so much more about what I appreciate about it, but I'll just say this for now. Thank you
Excellent video Mexie! The only suggestion I'll offer is concerning the joke about timestamps and attention spans. Many neurodivergent people need accommodation with this and it's perfectly valid, rather than just a result of people getting lazy or something.
i find it useful to process points, being able to go back to other chapters instead of guessing how far back something was. though mostly I use it to watch relevant points of a massive livestream vod, 50+mins
@@Mexie Having time stamps is always a good Idea. Thank you. It provides structure. However your solutions suck, as they always do for all Marxists, since the days of Marx himself. Wolff's solutions suck too i.e. they are as unsustainable as the 'competition' on the free market is. Your idea of 'cooperation' is unsustainable too because it takes only one participant who seeks 'competition' to ruin it for all. There are two fundamental topologies that govern our society i.e. Wealth distribution among the citizens and Power distribution among the citizens. The real UBI helps with the Wealth distribution, a good voting system helps with Power distribution. All models indicate that perpetual bell-like curves of wealth distribution and Power distribution achieved through appropriate laws and policies does ensure the most moral, happy and resilient society. We need an engineering solution solving a distributive problem for Wealth and Power distribution, achieved through appropriate laws and policies, which to govern a bunch of greedy, backstabbing, selfish, treacherous, irrational, illogical, etc. entities called humans. There is the owner and the employee. Firms are just property to own. Ultimately, the 'Employee' makes the products, takes those products to the market, sells the same products, he made, to himself and finally he pays a fee known as Profit to some 'Owner' for a permission to own the same products he made and sold to himself. The owner gets to collect profit for doing nothing.....and many call that 'earning' instead of 'taking'. The way forward to a better society is to increase and maintain a strong minimum purchasing power of the end-consumer using the magic formula. (Magic Formula: 'Your minimum Purchasing Power' = 'minimum wage' + 'Benefits payments' - 'Cost of dignified living from cradle to grave' - 'Taxes, fees, penalties') Firms are no more "legal entities" than your back-up power generator is a "legal entity", and it does not matter if it runs on fossil fuels or if a bunch of humans must run on treadmills all day. Save the minimum purchasing power of the human citizens instead of saving businesses/firms. We just need new way of thinking, new politicians who are not afraid to say, 1) Businesses are just property and should be treated as such by the laws we make. (Businesses are not National Heritage therefore do not need help or saving.) 2) Businesses do not create jobs, the minimum purchasing power of the people creates the demand for jobs. 3) We must constantly increase the minimum purchasing power of the people. 4) The basic necessities of the modern life must be free for all , paid by taxes on the most Wealthy in our society. 5) Pooling resources (a.k.a. Nationalisation) is only useful if it reduces the cost and increases the quality for the most citizens. etc. To win we must say to the voter: 1) We will triple the minimum purchasing power of every citizen by using the magic formula. 2) We will make a law to pay every voter just for casting a vote. (one week worth of Minimum wage for casting a vote in an election) 3) We will ensure that more wealth enters the country than the wealth that leaves and then we will tax the Wealth to pay for a real UBI i.e. a direct share of the Wealth deposited in the hands of every citizen in sufficient amount to guarantee dignity of existence suitable for an organised society. 4) We will eliminate the exploitation of the employee by restructuring the job's market with the introduction of one new piece of legislation which ensures the human on the job market is 'a purchaser of an Employer' instead of 'a seller of labour'. 5) All businesses are just property and will be treated as such by the laws.
Ma'am, as a broke Okie let me say, thank you. I've found a small leftist community in my hometown in middle America, but thanks to working nights for low pay its been heard to stay plugged-in, or invested. Doomerism is real and pervasive. Your video has honestly given me a dose of positive energy, and between you and some other fine leftist creators I now know what I'm feeling called to do: get more plugged in, read the theory my crew is reading, and believe in a future beyond the next month's rent. Keep it up, and I hope y'all find the affordable, greener place you're looking for!
Cooperatives operate on a whole different level. They often enable each other to compete with one another rather than be aggressive. There would be no point in acquiring other firms once they get a certain size because of the diseconomy of scale. While many cooperatives still operate on the level of "profit", they often act on the community level.
We've been talking about doing "small communisms" everyday in BadBunny's streams lately, and it reminded me of this video. This remains one of topics that needs active attention imo. Thank you for the wisdom.
Hi Mexie, hope you read this. Great video and great messages. Here in Germany the critical feminist philosopher Eva von Redecker recently published a book called "Revolution for Life" which basically is a longer version of what you said, with more emphasis on the current relations of production (property rights eg.). Great to see that the basic message of actually living the revolution instead of fantasizing on seizing power (very masculine idea when you think about it) is gaining traction! "We must begin to understand that a revolution entails not only the willingness to lay our lives on the firing line and get killed. In some ways, this is an easy commitment to make. To die for the revolution is a one-shot deal; to live for the revolution means taking on the more difficult commit- ment of changing our day-to-day life patterns." - Fran Beal, 1968
@Shimmy Shai I'd ask why you need such detailed instructions, but more importantly, that's an impossible request. Building communes can take a wide variety of shapes depending on circumstances. How you fund it, how you run it, how you find the people to do it with, if you legally own the place, or squad, what kind of economy you run, etc. all are different questions with a wide variety of possible answers. Generally I'd advocate giving the state as few excuses as possible to fuck up your project, so try to own the place, don't flaunt drug usage, that kind of thing. For funding, you might be able to appeal existing communal networks if you can find them, though they probably won't be able to pay for the whole thing outright.
@Shimmy Shai That's a shame. Still there are even international networks of anarcho communists. You may be able to appeal to them for funding, or even reach out to communes in other countries. Find some people in your area / country who would be interested in founding something. If you have some skills that could help the commune, great, if not learn some. Hopefully everyone who wants to found the place with you can contribute as well. Starting capital, income for the commune when it's active, whatever. Especially in the beginning you'll probably still have to work for capitalists, but over time you'll be able to outfit some "businesses" of your own. Don't expect complete autonomy, even if you can achieve it, it would probably take decades. Focus on keeping your little corner of paradise stable first, and growing the movement second. Everything else after that.
Wow, Peter Joseph; haven't heard that name in a long time. Yeah, some of the Zietgiest movie (first one) is fairly full of bullocks, but the whole resource based economy is, I think, the only feasible way forward as a species. Awesome video.
I quit social media entirely a few years back and I'm constantly reminded that it was a great move. All I have is YT and it mostly just runs in the background, though I have noticed that almost all my comments have gotten more critical and negative cause the content on most of these channels are feeling extremely pointless, petty, and counterproductive despite not really changing much. I'm just sick of the do-nothing types, the all talk (rarely even worthwhile talk) and no action internet radicals and social media revolutionaries. That's why channels like this are so nice to have. Indeed. Revolution isn't this cataclysmic event some wanna make it out to be. It never has been and ever will be. It's a process of evolution, reform, duel power formation, education, revolt and many other things. It always requires groundwork to be laid and rigid plans will never hold up because spontaneity and unforeseen circumstances will always be a factor too. I've long been huge on prefigurative, "live the change", build now kinda approaches. But I also think it's a fine line between lifestylism and meaningful acts. I know that all the books for prisoners, migrants defense, feeds, coat drives, bail and legal defense funds, community gardens, squats, local co-ops, rent parties/ concerts/fundraisers, IWW actions, demos, workshops, bookfairs, my vegan diet, buying most everything second hand, organizing renters, eviction resistance, hours of volunteering, youth programs, addiction assistance, mutual aid, concrete laid, boards nailed and walls painted, community self-defense, etc, etc, etc, aren't gonna bring capitalism and it's pet states crumbling to the ground and from it spring forward a culture of solidarity and mutual aid. I completely understand it and so does everyone I know. But we do it anyway because it matters and even if our species never knows anything like liberation we were able to do what we could with what we had. But many people seem convinced that it will as will their shopping habits and individualistic actions (or lack thereof) while they neglect ever really thinking about these social relations and power structures beyond how they directly effect them and thinking that droppin out or altering a few things here and there is "resistance". We all have different abilities and skills and may all contribute differently but we all have a role we can play. I just really think it's important to make a distinction between that "propaganda by the deed" and "building the new world in the shell of the old" that comes from reimagining social relations to do away with power structures and bogus liberal individualism and it's lifestylism with a radical face. Never been big on the quoting people like anyone should care barring they're just saying something that I wanna convey better than I can cause I don't think it wise to view individuals as above or better than in some way and feel that kinda cult-like thinking has been horribly detrimental to a lotta people who treat Marx and later self-described Marxists as almost infallible prophets instead of the flawed humans that they were/are. But, Malatesta did say "It is not right for us, to say the least, to fall into strife over mere hypotheses", Max Nettlau said "we cannot foresee the economic development of the future", and I can't remember who said it or find it rn but someone said something like "We cannot imagine what a liberated humanity might look like" with the point being that it's not even for us to say, but build towards, and that we aren't capable of even pretending to know because we're such projects of our current environments. I've always loved those 3. I personally enjoy knowing that I'm not the smartest person in the room. Gives me opportunities to learn. I love the way it feels to think back and say "I can't believe I used to think that!" 😂 I wish more people understood how good it feels. Means and ends are not sperate. They are one and the same. If we are students of history that much should be painfully obvious. The means you use are the ends you'll be left with. The things you want to see are the things you must use. Emphasis equality of power, reciprocity, and solidarity and that's what you'll get, use brutality, terror, and oppression and that's all you'll have. Some theories seem to rely heavily on things functioning far differently than they ever have or they have any evidence for and I think that's their main flaws and one that needs to be accounted for. The Zeitgeist movement does seem a lil culty in some ways and I've heard plenty of criticisms but most of what I've heard has been decent. I mostly hate that Peter Joseph is the face and seems to wield undue influence over the movement. But I could be misreading things. Even if what you do is perfectly legal if it's revolutionary, effects power or wealth, challenges the state or capitalism, they will be comin for ya. That's a given. All ya can do is understand that goin in, account for it the best ya can, and remember what Fred Hampton said: "If you dare to struggle you dare to win. If you don't dare to struggle you don't deserve to win!". Loved this video, and I don't say that often lol Great contribution, family! Glad to hear ya have some positive changes comin too! ✊👊🖤☮️🥀🏴🌐A///E
Mexie this is so good! I feel like I've been lying awake at night, thinking about wanting to live the revolution in a different way. I don't really know how, it all feels like a lot of movement and I feel a bit trapped with covid. This video was refreshing, and it's empowering to think about the reclamation of joy and solidarity, even on the tiniest scale, as contributing towards our emancipation from capitalism/ making the state irrelevant. I want to check out that interview with Peter Joseph! Anyway, thank you so much as always for your work. I LOVE YOU
The thought experiment about competing coops made me think in software development (I'm a programmer). We have a lot of languages (sometimes used for the same purposes), and even more libraries (reusable pieces of code) that sometimes solve the same or similar problems in different ways. And it's a example of healthy competition: most of them are open source, freely usable, and people discuss their merits, learn how to improve them, learn from each other, and in the end there's bigger adoption for the best options, or new solutions that take the best from each other. So, yeah, I can see how that can be done. Although I confess you were literally reading my mind when explaining your knee-jerk reaction!!! Amazing content!
Competition between cooperatives does not need to be destructive. In capitalism, out competing another business means their destruction, but if information was shared instead of horded then it can be mutually beneficial. So, think of two fighters. They can talk all day about what technique is better, but they have to fight to figure it out. Once the fights are over, they will both know which techniques are better, and can use them to better themselves.
buy houses together. as investments but with the profit goal of the group owning more and more properties. worker coops. start businesses. then no matter what money you spend its in the community. even if you work for regular capitalists. eventually there will be the network of social businesses to meet the basic needs for the community. we can create our own communties.
This is such a great conversation. I would supplement the conversation by adding that this sudden seizure of power is exactly how NOT to ensure a just transition to a better future, and is probably the best way to make this revolution a backsliding event rather than a forward pressing one. The military is not a democratic institution, maybe someday there will be another system for keeping us safe, or maybe we won't need it, but using the military almost always means that the people who get into power aren't held accountable. There's no reason that post-capitalism is guaranteed to be a better system.
Great resource. Also Peter Linebaugh's "Many Headed Hydra: A Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic", describes how we lost the commons she talks about, and the long and amazing lineage of rebels who have struggled to win it back.
I’m only a bit into the video, but thank you so much for talking about the importance of building up parallel systems. The work I do that I’m passionate about is about doing just that. I’m part of a project called Curbside Farms, we’re trying to create a non-commercial urban home-grower cooperative. Basically, reducing barriers to having a flourishing home garden, all towards creating a self-governing local food system. This is just one system of other systems that we hope to build and integrate into the same system. Building an associated cooperative bank, and associated cooperative energy grid, etc. We believe that using new technologies that enable fractal distribution will be the path towards transcending capitalism. I’ve done a very brief and scarce overview, but I love for this stuff. Hmu if you’re interested (I’m easy to find online with my name) 😊
I should also note, we intend on sharing our digital infrastructure and helping other communities create collaborative sister organizations. Among the local and spreading it into an integrated system 😊
In the UK Universities used to be, and to some small extent, still are, centres of technical excellence. Sadly, the Capitalist World has nudged in rather aggressively in the last few decades
I appreciate your videos a lot! I appreciate the examples and suggestions of how to try and build from the bottom up the kind of world we wanna see. Though I will say my social anxiety has made it so I don't really feel positivity or excitement for many types of community organizing, even though I see them as neccessary and try to participate. Hopefully that'll change in the future though.
Are you a gardener? imo, gardening is perfect for people who work best mostly alone, but can have room for some collaboration in a community if desired. I'd say more, but gotta go harvest dinner :)
@@c2farr I've thought about it before and can definitely appreciate it but its not something thats possible with my current living situation. Though that does give me some ideas like maybe cooking for others? But yeah thanks for the comment, I hope your dinner goes well.
This video made me feel a lot. I have had a chronic illness since I was 14, and have always been terrified of living in america without health insurance - I've spent a lot of my life making sure I'm safe, and I always feel like I'm not doing enough to change the world around me. It means a lot to hear that I don't have to prove anything. And it inspires me to keep dedicating the energy I do have. I actually had to reach out and share this with some friends who I felt really inspired me in my thoughts on how to fight capital, and I hope they get strength from this too. Thanks!
We're gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning! And you'll say please, please it's too much winning, we can't take it anymore! It's too much! And I'll say no it isn't! We have to keep winning, we have to win more! We're gonna win more! We're gonna win so much!
Thank you!!! I'm crying, I've been feeling exactly this way, but never feel fully able to forgive myself for taking breaks from the internet, but thank you for being so kind and open.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Read _The Dispossessed_ by Ursula K. Le Guin. "You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere."
Twin Oaks Community was established by hippies in 1967 and has had a fairly steady population of about 100 for quite some time. It is one of the few communes aka intentional communities from the communal movement of that time, to still exist today. It is in Virginia and is easy to find online. Their early enterprise was hammocks, which were sold through Pier 1. Now their primary enterprise is processing soybeans, grown by area farmers, into tofu and other soy products. The income produced within Twin Oaks is communal, except for a fairly small allowance, which is equally distributed to members. They had a court case against the IRS that they won, defining the income as communal for tax purposes, and only the allowances taxable as personal income. The information I am sharing here may be dated, so please check for current updates. The problems with Twin Oaks, from my perspective, are 1) that they are not very culturally diverse (great majority American by birth, and white, tho they claim to be addressing that), and 2) they are not a vegan community, tho some members are. Twin Oaks is part of a network of intentional communities.
I feel very fortunate to have a job (unionized) in which "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs" is the guiding principle of what I do on a day-to-day basis. I work in a group home with folks who have various disabilities but are generally happy. Also, the pay and benefits are reasonable. This is the foundation of my current version of "Living the Revolution" since I have no social life these days.
I'm only watching this video now because I felt like I needed some time off of online politics. I was in a bad place exactly like you described at the beginning. To be honest I've always been pretty much alone in my political journey. I live in a conservative town that's completely devoid of culture and community. I have a few great friends who understand that this world suck but they're all pretty much "apolitical" and mostly apathetic towards trying to make things better. In the past few years I've been evolving my political consciousness and talking about it to my family and friends, but I've always wanted to DO something, not just talk, as my family really likes to remark whenever I bring up such topics. But I still don't know where to start, I don't know the right people. The only way forward I see is to move out of this shithole I'm living in, which is not going to happen soon cause I have no money and no decent job. I'm kind of lost. Despite all of that, this video gave me hope. I will watch it again and take notes because I feel there's so much I can get out of it. Thank you so much Mexie!
It’s interesting because here a large number of social services are provided by NGOs. The NGO’s exist within a competitive model for government funding. This means they don’t share resources, experiences or ideas particularly well. This is an intentional neoliberal model, where neoliberals believe making social services providers compete yields good results in terms of service and budget. Interestingly though things have started to change, with the heightened contradictions brought on by covid a whole lot of these NGOs linked up and started working together. Therefore I think an artificially competitive model will always eventually breakdown.
"Healthy and healthful competition" is discrete event competition managed in controlled, contrived, limited fields of play: in short games. The human animal evolved w a competitive impulse. It has to be managed for a modern, civilian-centric society. Just like all our other physiologically primed tendencies, we need to train ourselves to sequester and engage these aspects of ourselves in harmless ways that exorcise them from the critical institutions that should support well being for beings.
I cannot stand leftist groups at all anymore for many of the reasons listed in this video. They're subcultural and have this eschatology like they're going to be waging a guerrilla war in a climate apocalypse scenario as a retirement plan which is just embarrassing. The only possibility I see anymore is building unions and workplace democracy but consequently that is one of the hardest tasks because it requires real organization with working people who don't identity as leftist. I've had some leftists even tell me that unions are reactionary and that was a solid reminder why I avoid talking to anyone with an anime profile picture. Come on, we got leftists who are in and out of jail for stupid shit like smashing windows yet we can't talk to our coworkers? That is bad. The past decade was spent cannibalizing ourselves over ideological purity and it really impaired any real sense of political momentum we could have had. I'm guilty of this and painfully regret being so vindictive over individuals past wrongs in order to be consistent. I focus more now on making good relations with my coworkers and trying to keep my head afloat in this clown world although the chances of ever owning property seem non existent at this point. also, Zeitgeist isn't problematic per say but that dude really made some shit conspiracy theory films. I really hate how that and the Venus Project just apes the core ideas from communalism and repackages it. There's definitely better people out there on that topic who aren't crackpots.
Late to the party here but have just got into your content and am loving what you have to say, and can't agree more with the approach of doing what you can in parallel to the systems already in place. I definitely identify with the communal preppers lol and fall into that category at times. I wanted to say that it is totally possible to build from conversation, currently my partner and I are living in a very small network by homesteading through our tiny house. We have an arrangement with lovely property owners who need farm hands, and trade labour/provisions internally. Having everyone on board understanding how these setups are mutually beneficial is so crucial to gaining more attention. The scale of our operation is very much in early stages, and one of the biggest challenges we found was going against the grain when it comes to living accommodations. Lots of places we went to check out were into what we were proposing but the bylaws and legal liability was enough to spook them from taking us on. While we have our situation better settled now, I'm curious as to what your take would be on starting up a parallel system when current building/zoning bylaws seem to disallow or discourage people working together in startup communities. Especially so in the city, right now we're fortunate enough to get by with rural living. Is this something you feel can be achieved with stronger lobbying? Or is it better to stay under the radar until reaching a critical mass where the benefits are impossible to ignore? Also to anyone else out there trying a similar approach, keep at it and stay open as the opportunity comes! You will be an outlier for some time but it's worth the effort and the connections you make will run so much deeper than the purely capitalist transactions we've come to expect
Also, it's not that attention spans are short (although probably that too), it's that there is now so much Leftist content and so much of it is like 90minutes+ long that you can't keep up with all of it in down time unless all you do is watch. I have you on at work and am enjoying, but often I have to really focus and can't have anything more complicated than postrock going on. I'll put stuff on while doing dishes and chore around the house, but that only goes so far after an 8 hour work day before I just need a damned break to exercise, cook dinner, and go to bed.
Mexie, I have engineered a way for us to rid capitalism, that even by-passes many of the issues you bring up in this video. My question to you is, who do I speak with, in order to get heard? Is there a leftist group out there, that would like to hear me out on my idea? Maybe please include in one of your future videos, a way forward to help people with ideas get heard? If someone like myself, has a great idea to help us get out of capitalism. I think the left needs to become better coordinated somehow.
I have always believed that with time, humanity will make its way to betterment. Watching this video has made me feel like it is not as far away as I thought. Thank-you Mexie.
Ya this is what the online left should be focusing on. The internet can help us decommodify our social relations of production as well via block chain and distributed ledger technology. It's a matter of creativity in meeting the social needs of others without using the price mechanism. Find the cracks of capitalism in the dirt and plant the *seeds* that will bring about our new social relationships with each other.
I actually like the time stamps... They help me find parts of the video when I rewatch. And I have adhd, so a clear table of content makes it easier to focus and remember the contents.
Same 100% thank you!! p.s. as someone with severe attention difficulties, I felt somewhat condescended to at 4:10. Although I assume you didn't mean to be salty to those of us struggle! (this video changed my life for the better though so that was just a gentle comment!)
Every video should have time stamps. I mean, they're sometimes helpful; they're never a problem.
"But why does it feel like there's this kind of collective waiting or this collective focus on this future seizure event that to me seems very unlikely in the imperial core and not on this idea of living these relations into being?"
TRUTH!!!
This actually reminded me of time when Lenin was thinking that revolution will happen some day in distant future, not in time of his life. No, it happen in his life time, he was part of it.
It is not only thing similar with past. I see similar ..."atmosphere", or something like that, what was in in early 20th century. Not yet as intense, but getting more and more intense.
Especially USA seems to be today like Imperial Russia was in early 20th century. The empire collapsed from inside, there were many revolutions, and many factions competing for taking power. In the end it was not Status Quo vs. Change, it was battle between different factions who wanted different kind of change. And I see USA is in very similar path today.
And we in European Empire (or Union, if you like call it so) are in same path, but we are much later in such development, maybe more than decade later than USA.
But in USA socialism is rising too, in Europe, only far right is rising, since political left is stuck avoiding any radicalism or revolutionary actions, trying to make sure, that it is actually in side of status quo, not against it. This is because of past, how USSR effected and how disappearance of USSR effected. It does not matter were radical left pro- or anti-USSR, both lost their competence after USSR vanished and Fukuyamaism won hegemony.
@@fallenswan1670 It could turn out to be true that the conditions that will give rise to another revolution can seem to develop very quickly, and even if we cannot see them now, it could happen within our lifetimes. However, it's also true that Lenin's revolution and the USSR that emerged from it only survived around 70 years. Nevertheless, it also had some very beneficial ripple effects:
1. socialist revolutions in several other countries, some of which are still trying to carry forward the goal of building a thoroughly socialist and democratic society;
2. the development of social democratic welfare states throughout western Europe was largely due to the presence of the USSR, and was further enhanced by the victories of socialist/anti-fascist movements in eastern Europe and parts of Asia (that were considered satellite states of the USSR by the NATO bloc).
3. the ideas of socialism and communism were carried forward in no small part due to the comparative longevity of that project, as well as its immense successes in raising living conditions, advancing technology and economic growth through people-centered and more democratic avenues than the capitalist models provided.
Yet, if we take the long view, and examine the history of how feudalism developed into capitalism, or how the agrarian slave societies broke down and were replaced by feudalism, we can recognize that many struggles have to be won and lost, and the new system really only comes into being when the transformation is not only political, but also economic, ideological, and cultural. Consequently, it is likely that a revolution in so-called "North America," even if successful in its immediate goals, will likely be plagued with not only overt counter-revolution by the groups whose interests were undermined by that revolution and those who are ideologically bound to them, but also with disintegration over time if the sociocultural transformation does not catch up with the political, and spread throughout the masses.
To sum up, I think we need to keep struggling to build the popular forces to bring about that "seizure event" as best we can, but we also have to work on transforming society on a personal level, and in the cultural-ideological arena (i.e the superstructure).
It occurs to me that a populace with experience making their own communities and lives under their own power will be a populace with the solidarity and confidence actually to accomplish one of those seizure events, and a populace without that background really _won't_ have a good chance of taking such an event, making it work, and retaining control of it.
Yesss the take we needed
@@fallenswan1670 The leftist ignorance.
Wonderful video. It's definitely giving me more to think about.
You should totally make a video about the Baby-Sitters Club ;)
At least I get to talk about it with Josééé🎶
haha SHOUT OUT BABY NATION 🙌 I will totally consider it ;)
thank you!
Love that you watch Mexie 💖✊
David Graeber had a phrase: 'Living as though we were already free'. I think about that a lot these days.
ya man. I loved that guy, he's one of the reasons I'm even aware of the way the world is. I like that his family didn't have a funeral for him, and instead had a celebration.
That’s more or less my motto.
Hah! How Zen-Buddhist of him.
"All living beings are from the very beginning Buddhas." (i.e. materially free from the cycle of suffering and addiction/attachment)
-- Hakuin
"Fighting to give indigenous people their land back, that is living the revolution. Dismantling whiteness in all of our spaces which is not happening online that is living the revolution. Trying to live in reciprocity with our environments around us, that's living the revolution. Feeding people, tenant organizing, defunding the police, starting a cooperative..."
Exactly! Sorry I'm one of those people who just keeps on commenting as they're watching the video. But I can see I'll keep going so I'll stop there. Great stuff!
haha no I'm living for it, thank you!
dismantling whiteness? wtf?
@@DrillEntertainmentNetwork what's so mystifying about that? whiteness has always been an artificial construct of the ruling class to define the "in group" and exclude others. It's a proto-fascist concept that needs to be completely destroyed.
@@sazhaxeramezha449 damn, the conservatives were right. theres way more self hating whites than i realized
No! Whiteness, has been a tool for controlling the working class. Much of the "white" working class is being forced to believe that non-whites are threatening what little it has.
I'm fifty years old, and I want to be like you when I grow up.
Awesome! My sentiments exactly!
Jesus Christ
@@evangrey4737 mexie is likely in debt u weirdo
@@jenm1 why you call her a weirdo 😭😭
@@ashtangaxashtangapranayama8526I don't know if she's a weirdo or if she's trying to be funny. I'm going to take her comment as sarcasm because it makes the most sense
That was actually uplifting. I wasn't expecting that. After a solid year of doom-scrolling I never expect that.
Also, moving out of the city is such a dream. Sadly covid smashed all my plans so now it's looking like something that will have to wait at least 2 years. Probably they'll pass more pleasantly if I manage to act on some of the things you talked about here...
yeah we have to wait at least a year too, I think. but definitely the dream. glad this was uplifting!
I know it's probably annoying to add time stamps, but I actually find that it helps me remember the structure and arguments of a video better -- I never actually use them to skip around.
I didn't realize I had no idea what "positive news" actually was before your channel
THIS
That brief point you made about reminding yourself of your humility is a really important point for me. I feel like leftist online spaces can just be obsessed with one-upmanship that (like you called Twitter) is really counter-revolutionary because it shuts down diverse perspectives. Thoughtfully deferring to someone else's expertise =/= not being critical or nuanced enough. I feel like I'd be a better person if I spent less time scanning someone's take for flaws or assuming their ignorance, and more time considering what I might be missing.
SO well said !
I hear that. Like it would be one thing if it was mutual and even charitable critique, but mostly it's just a bunch of dunking on each other, and like, having come from a religious background, that sort of behaviour is so recognizable. It's futile and generally says more than "not being left enough" says
@@Mexie I agree. The whole diatribe within "leftist: twitter is insane.
@@Mexie
In this video, Your soft critique of Wolff's solution is so annoying to me. His and Yours "Kumbaya" approach is frankly ridiculous. My approach is better and you should choose to promote my approach. (The goodness in people is NOT a reliable source of power.)
Here are some fundamentals you seem to reject in this video:
1) There is no such thing as "healthy" competition.
2) Competition is unsustainable. Competition results always in a dominant participant to rule them all and perpetual cycles of boom and bust.
3) Cooperation is unsustainable. It takes one participant who wants to compete to take over and dominate all others.
4) 'Democracy at work' is an oxymoron.... until the ownership of Wealth and the distribution of power are properly addressed.
There are two fundamental topologies that govern our society i.e. Wealth distribution among the citizens and Power distribution among the citizens.
The real UBI helps with the Wealth distribution, a good voting system helps with Power distribution.
We need an engineering solution solving a distributive problem for Wealth and Power distribution, achieved through appropriate laws and policies, which to govern a bunch of greedy, backstabbing, selfish, treacherous, irrational, illogical, etc. entities called humans.
There is the owner and the employee.
Ultimately, the 'Employee' makes the products, takes those products to the market, sells the same products, he made, to himself and finally he pays a fee known as Profit to some 'Owner' for a permission to own the same products he made and sold to himself.
The owner gets to collect profit for doing nothing.....and many call that 'earning' instead of 'taking'.
The way forward to a better society is to increase and maintain a strong minimum purchasing power of the end-consumer using the magic formula.
(Magic Formula: 'Your minimum Purchasing Power' = 'minimum wage' + 'Benefits payments' - 'Cost of dignified living from cradle to grave' - 'Taxes, fees, penalties')
Firms are no more "legal entities" than your back-up power generator is a "legal entity", and it does not matter if it runs on fossil fuels or if a bunch of humans must run on treadmills all day.
Save the minimum purchasing power of the human citizens instead of saving businesses/firms.
This video was so inspirational. Lockdown and doom scrolling has really been taking a toll on my mental health but you reminded me that I have agency and that I can still make tangible change in my community. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic!
I died when you mentioned how short our attention spans are and putting the video on 2x speed because that's literally what I've been doing all day because my attention span is so short I can't watch video essays on normal speed anymore 😅
"Dwell in that possibility, and get excited about that." YES!
❤️❤️❤️ thanks for contributing your voice!
Isn't she a brilliant blessing?! Just wow, on point as always.
omg, thank you 😭
One of the books that took me deeply was the Elisée Reclus "Evolution and Revolution", the path to get a revolution and the revolution itself is a process, it's not something of one day you wake up and tachan! no capitalism anymore.
Another nice idea from a Spanish old CNT militant that told me once is the theory of the frame (capitalism), now we have filled one corner of the frame with our ideas and organizations, and we have to fill all the frame with strong communities, unions, coops, educational associations, political groups, workers "newspapers"-media, etc that will grow with new/refresh creative thinking for the present and the future, and at the end to overflow the frame giving way to the new society that was being built in the process. ^^
How dare you try to get me excited and enthusiastic about leftist politics, Mexie!
Seriously, though, the discourse has been miserable lately and this outlook seems like a breath of fresh air. To even be told that you're not alone and that you have value means a lot. Thank you.
Incredible video Mexie!! You perfectly voiced something I've been trying to think through lately. And good luck with your move 🌄
thank you so much!
@@Mexie what are you hearing about the Georgia law that allows election boards to overturn the election results that they do not like?
@@SigmaRho2922 Arizona is working on the same law. I think it's one of the worst things this country has done to itself in a very long time. Republicans can NEVER claim to love the constitution nor can they claim to love this country. Not after this. Not after COVID. Not after any of the BS they have pulled.
I always fall back on this: never underestimate the great power of small acts done consistently and with conviction.
Yeah, people need to wrap their heads around _scale_. Our work is one person's worth, in one lifetime. The job is one civilization's worth. We're not each of us on the hook for the whole job. We're on the hook for one person's share of it - no more, no less.
@Shimmy Shai On the one hand, thorough can be helped. We can be more thorough, usually. On the other hand, it's cool to not solve all the problems, and you definitely shouldn't do crimes that hurt people, animals, or yourself.
@Shimmy Shai It's not a trick, though. At the point of saturation we're in where exploitation is concerned, you do what you can with what you have where you are.
There's no frictionless environment or perfect vacuum in physics, but we still get engineers trying.
@Shimmy Shai You can only know whether you're being reasonable or making excuses if you know your limits. Generally other people help with that. Organizing can be helpful. Comparing is mostly wasted energy, unless the project being undertaken has specific pass/fail criteria (surgery, building bridges). For the most part it's human to muddle through.
Sorry, I'm not an expert or anything. This is more a 'because you asked' thing. I think I'm receiving your replies, yes.
@Shimmy Shai Well, talk to folks you know. Explain where you're coming from. Or join the IWW or a local union. You don't have to go far to find comrades, in my experience. I'm off in Alabama of all places and I've got steel worker friends who read theory.
This is probably the most useful leftist video in all of RUclips.
Finally, something other then just reading groups.
This was incredibly refreshing, and a reminder I sorely needed. I loved this, I loved your social ecology interview, and I sure do hope I get to see more in that vein. Subscribed.
Glad you enjoyed them both! Thank you
Wow mexie this is a fucking fantastic video, really opening my eyes up to things I hadn’t really considered before
I just read through the comments. I found zero name-calling trolls. :)
Mexie, I think this is my favourite video of yours yet! Love the call for self-reflection/actualisation, reclaiming imagination/dreaming the future, setting tangible achievable goals, doing the internal work, critiquing the patriarchal posturing. This video motivated and inspired me a lot!
ah amazing, thanks love! I'm so glad
>Leftism
>Self-actualization
Choose one, lol.
Mexie, you always know what the weary need to hear. Thank you for the thought exercise and compassionate input. This is something my anxieties and anger tend to make me forget to do myself. Looking forward to putting some energy into small, tangible things. 🌻
some comrades and i are starting a communal garden this spring!
i´m so excited
This is my first video since subscribing to you from We’re in Hell’s association and I was stunned at how encouraging and relevant this is especially in such a socially draining time as compiling horrors work towards withering our energy each and every day. Thank you for this one, Mexie! Hope the move goes well and much solidarity to everyone in the comments and to you and your partner.
Your positivity always boosts morale. A thousand thanks!
drive.google.com/folderview?id=1YP_-yqhS3_exi6Kfo8Gq82qIyMlJy6_V
I've experienced a lot of that patriarchal takedown for talking about solidarity economies and coops with socialists. I feel like it's perfectly fine to say that there are limitations with cooperatives in and of themselves. Just like trade unionism there are different forms cooperativism and mutual aid can take, bottom up or top down. Of course we want to build a bottom-up cooperativism, that seeks to be socially transformative. But it has to exist within a movement ecology. Radical trade unions and coops can absolutely be symbiotic, growing towards the post capitalist system through different functions of worker democracy. But also we just have to try things - learning to live democratically is so bloody hard, it's only by actually attempting imperfect things that we can learn. Really powerful video Mexie, thank you x
Also I relate a lot to what you're saying about losing the energy to be constantly be engaging with hot take critiques. I've found going back to ecology and botany genuinely really useful to get some perspective on how we organise and what values we're living for.
It shouldn't be surprising that any single component of rebuilding civilization is limited and inadequate. That's not a problem of the component - that's the part/whole relationship.
Awesome video! Thank you for this! Much needed!
Move to Haldimand, Ontario. It's a Conservative hellscape and we need comrades to organize with!
haha, will consider!
Me looking at all my subscriptions posts ." ....Yeah theres a lot of stuff here" Mexi notification. "Yeah Mexi first. Based af!"
The bell notification for Mexie does not happen every 9 1/2 seconds like with some other channels, so I always check it out right away.
This is my new favorite RUclips video ever! You put words to so many things I’ve been thinking about during the past year. 💜
drive.google.com/folderview?id=1YP_-yqhS3_exi6Kfo8Gq82qIyMlJy6_V
I have to say thanks to Beau for introducing us.
Damn, this channel is so critically underrated. This is an amazing video.
Thank you .
I am isolated, I have no close relationships with people who are aligned with my goals and I struggle to make those connections online. I don't know what to do to change that. I can do the work, I just need people to point me in a direction and support me while we do the work.
Hey I have solar power and i am planning to build a little dragon biodigester . I have a nerve sheath tumor in my back and I can't work so I am operating on very low income. I went without any power for over two years because I can't afford it. The only way I could survive was eliminate expenses.
As a sorely burnt-out leftist with invisible illness and also at the point where I can't even glance at depressing leftist content - I really needed this video. Or rather, this is the video I've been waiting for. There are so many comrades I want to share it with already. I could write so much more about what I appreciate about it, but I'll just say this for now. Thank you
drive.google.com/folderview?id=1YP_-yqhS3_exi6Kfo8Gq82qIyMlJy6_V
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." -- Democratic Socialist and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
drive.google.com/folderview?id=1YP_-yqhS3_exi6Kfo8Gq82qIyMlJy6_V
Excellent video Mexie! The only suggestion I'll offer is concerning the joke about timestamps and attention spans. Many neurodivergent people need accommodation with this and it's perfectly valid, rather than just a result of people getting lazy or something.
absolutely, that's fair!
i find it useful to process points, being able to go back to other chapters instead of guessing how far back something was. though mostly I use it to watch relevant points of a massive livestream vod, 50+mins
@@Mexie
Having time stamps is always a good Idea. Thank you. It provides structure. However your solutions suck, as they always do for all Marxists, since the days of Marx himself. Wolff's solutions suck too i.e. they are as unsustainable as the 'competition' on the free market is. Your idea of 'cooperation' is unsustainable too because it takes only one participant who seeks 'competition' to ruin it for all.
There are two fundamental topologies that govern our society i.e. Wealth distribution among the citizens and Power distribution among the citizens.
The real UBI helps with the Wealth distribution, a good voting system helps with Power distribution.
All models indicate that perpetual bell-like curves of wealth distribution and Power distribution achieved through appropriate laws and policies does ensure the most moral, happy and resilient society.
We need an engineering solution solving a distributive problem for Wealth and Power distribution, achieved through appropriate laws and policies, which to govern a bunch of greedy, backstabbing, selfish, treacherous, irrational, illogical, etc. entities called humans.
There is the owner and the employee. Firms are just property to own.
Ultimately, the 'Employee' makes the products, takes those products to the market, sells the same products, he made, to himself and finally he pays a fee known as Profit to some 'Owner' for a permission to own the same products he made and sold to himself.
The owner gets to collect profit for doing nothing.....and many call that 'earning' instead of 'taking'.
The way forward to a better society is to increase and maintain a strong minimum purchasing power of the end-consumer using the magic formula.
(Magic Formula: 'Your minimum Purchasing Power' = 'minimum wage' + 'Benefits payments' - 'Cost of dignified living from cradle to grave' - 'Taxes, fees, penalties')
Firms are no more "legal entities" than your back-up power generator is a "legal entity", and it does not matter if it runs on fossil fuels or if a bunch of humans must run on treadmills all day.
Save the minimum purchasing power of the human citizens instead of saving businesses/firms.
We just need new way of thinking, new politicians who are not afraid to say,
1) Businesses are just property and should be treated as such by the laws we make. (Businesses are not National Heritage therefore do not need help or saving.)
2) Businesses do not create jobs, the minimum purchasing power of the people creates the demand for jobs.
3) We must constantly increase the minimum purchasing power of the people.
4) The basic necessities of the modern life must be free for all , paid by taxes on the most Wealthy in our society.
5) Pooling resources (a.k.a. Nationalisation) is only useful if it reduces the cost and increases the quality for the most citizens.
etc.
To win we must say to the voter:
1) We will triple the minimum purchasing power of every citizen by using the magic formula.
2) We will make a law to pay every voter just for casting a vote.
(one week worth of Minimum wage for casting a vote in an election)
3) We will ensure that more wealth enters the country than the wealth that leaves and then we will tax the Wealth to pay for a real UBI i.e. a direct share of the Wealth deposited in the hands of every citizen in sufficient amount to guarantee dignity of existence suitable for an organised society.
4) We will eliminate the exploitation of the employee by restructuring the job's market with the introduction of one new piece of legislation which ensures the human on the job market is 'a purchaser of an Employer' instead of 'a seller of labour'.
5) All businesses are just property and will be treated as such by the laws.
Ma'am, as a broke Okie let me say, thank you. I've found a small leftist community in my hometown in middle America, but thanks to working nights for low pay its been heard to stay plugged-in, or invested. Doomerism is real and pervasive. Your video has honestly given me a dose of positive energy, and between you and some other fine leftist creators I now know what I'm feeling called to do: get more plugged in, read the theory my crew is reading, and believe in a future beyond the next month's rent. Keep it up, and I hope y'all find the affordable, greener place you're looking for!
Thank you so much, this is what I needed to hear today and thank you for the information!
Cooperatives operate on a whole different level. They often enable each other to compete with one another rather than be aggressive. There would be no point in acquiring other firms once they get a certain size because of the diseconomy of scale. While many cooperatives still operate on the level of "profit", they often act on the community level.
We watched this on LucidFoxx's Twitch Stream the other day. FANTASTIC Video.
We've been talking about doing "small communisms" everyday in BadBunny's streams lately, and it reminded me of this video. This remains one of topics that needs active attention imo. Thank you for the wisdom.
awesome video
thank you!!
Oooof this is really how I've been feeling the past few months as well, thanks for this!
Hi Mexie, hope you read this. Great video and great messages. Here in Germany the critical feminist philosopher Eva von Redecker recently published a book called "Revolution for Life" which basically is a longer version of what you said, with more emphasis on the current relations of production (property rights eg.). Great to see that the basic message of actually living the revolution instead of fantasizing on seizing power (very masculine idea when you think about it) is gaining traction!
"We must begin to understand that a revolution entails not only the willingness to lay our lives on the firing line and get killed. In some ways, this is an easy commitment to make. To die for the revolution is a one-shot deal; to live for the revolution means taking on the more difficult commit- ment of changing our day-to-day life patterns." - Fran Beal, 1968
one of the best youtube videos I’ve seen. thank you Mexie, so much great insight and things to act on
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Yes! So much yes! THIS is what I've been missing on "breadtube" for a while! Building actual communes! More of this, please!
@Shimmy Shai I'd ask why you need such detailed instructions, but more importantly, that's an impossible request. Building communes can take a wide variety of shapes depending on circumstances.
How you fund it, how you run it, how you find the people to do it with, if you legally own the place, or squad, what kind of economy you run, etc. all are different questions with a wide variety of possible answers.
Generally I'd advocate giving the state as few excuses as possible to fuck up your project, so try to own the place, don't flaunt drug usage, that kind of thing. For funding, you might be able to appeal existing communal networks if you can find them, though they probably won't be able to pay for the whole thing outright.
@Shimmy Shai I'm dirt poor myself. Personally I'm gonna join a commune that already exists, but in a pinch I'd squat.
@Shimmy Shai That's a shame. Still there are even international networks of anarcho communists. You may be able to appeal to them for funding, or even reach out to communes in other countries.
Find some people in your area / country who would be interested in founding something. If you have some skills that could help the commune, great, if not learn some. Hopefully everyone who wants to found the place with you can contribute as well. Starting capital, income for the commune when it's active, whatever.
Especially in the beginning you'll probably still have to work for capitalists, but over time you'll be able to outfit some "businesses" of your own. Don't expect complete autonomy, even if you can achieve it, it would probably take decades. Focus on keeping your little corner of paradise stable first, and growing the movement second. Everything else after that.
I loved this!! This past year has given me major anxiety so I need to start thinking in this way!
Wow, Peter Joseph; haven't heard that name in a long time. Yeah, some of the Zietgiest movie (first one) is fairly full of bullocks, but the whole resource based economy is, I think, the only feasible way forward as a species. Awesome video.
Oh, and so good to see you back. We need your voice. Let's stop all that online bullying.
I quit social media entirely a few years back and I'm constantly reminded that it was a great move. All I have is YT and it mostly just runs in the background, though I have noticed that almost all my comments have gotten more critical and negative cause the content on most of these channels are feeling extremely pointless, petty, and counterproductive despite not really changing much. I'm just sick of the do-nothing types, the all talk (rarely even worthwhile talk) and no action internet radicals and social media revolutionaries.
That's why channels like this are so nice to have.
Indeed. Revolution isn't this cataclysmic event some wanna make it out to be. It never has been and ever will be. It's a process of evolution, reform, duel power formation, education, revolt and many other things. It always requires groundwork to be laid and rigid plans will never hold up because spontaneity and unforeseen circumstances will always be a factor too.
I've long been huge on prefigurative, "live the change", build now kinda approaches. But I also think it's a fine line between lifestylism and meaningful acts. I know that all the books for prisoners, migrants defense, feeds, coat drives, bail and legal defense funds, community gardens, squats, local co-ops, rent parties/ concerts/fundraisers, IWW actions, demos, workshops, bookfairs, my vegan diet, buying most everything second hand, organizing renters, eviction resistance, hours of volunteering, youth programs, addiction assistance, mutual aid, concrete laid, boards nailed and walls painted, community self-defense, etc, etc, etc, aren't gonna bring capitalism and it's pet states crumbling to the ground and from it spring forward a culture of solidarity and mutual aid. I completely understand it and so does everyone I know. But we do it anyway because it matters and even if our species never knows anything like liberation we were able to do what we could with what we had. But many people seem convinced that it will as will their shopping habits and individualistic actions (or lack thereof) while they neglect ever really thinking about these social relations and power structures beyond how they directly effect them and thinking that droppin out or altering a few things here and there is "resistance". We all have different abilities and skills and may all contribute differently but we all have a role we can play. I just really think it's important to make a distinction between that "propaganda by the deed" and "building the new world in the shell of the old" that comes from reimagining social relations to do away with power structures and bogus liberal individualism and it's lifestylism with a radical face.
Never been big on the quoting people like anyone should care barring they're just saying something that I wanna convey better than I can cause I don't think it wise to view individuals as above or better than in some way and feel that kinda cult-like thinking has been horribly detrimental to a lotta people who treat Marx and later self-described Marxists as almost infallible prophets instead of the flawed humans that they were/are. But, Malatesta did say "It is not right for us, to say the least, to fall into strife over mere hypotheses", Max Nettlau said "we cannot foresee the economic development of the future", and I can't remember who said it or find it rn but someone said something like "We cannot imagine what a liberated humanity might look like" with the point being that it's not even for us to say, but build towards, and that we aren't capable of even pretending to know because we're such projects of our current environments. I've always loved those 3.
I personally enjoy knowing that I'm not the smartest person in the room. Gives me opportunities to learn. I love the way it feels to think back and say "I can't believe I used to think that!" 😂 I wish more people understood how good it feels.
Means and ends are not sperate. They are one and the same. If we are students of history that much should be painfully obvious. The means you use are the ends you'll be left with. The things you want to see are the things you must use. Emphasis equality of power, reciprocity, and solidarity and that's what you'll get, use brutality, terror, and oppression and that's all you'll have. Some theories seem to rely heavily on things functioning far differently than they ever have or they have any evidence for and I think that's their main flaws and one that needs to be accounted for.
The Zeitgeist movement does seem a lil culty in some ways and I've heard plenty of criticisms but most of what I've heard has been decent. I mostly hate that Peter Joseph is the face and seems to wield undue influence over the movement. But I could be misreading things.
Even if what you do is perfectly legal if it's revolutionary, effects power or wealth, challenges the state or capitalism, they will be comin for ya. That's a given. All ya can do is understand that goin in, account for it the best ya can, and remember what Fred Hampton said: "If you dare to struggle you dare to win. If you don't dare to struggle you don't deserve to win!".
Loved this video, and I don't say that often lol Great contribution, family! Glad to hear ya have some positive changes comin too!
✊👊🖤☮️🥀🏴🌐A///E
Mexie this is so good! I feel like I've been lying awake at night, thinking about wanting to live the revolution in a different way. I don't really know how, it all feels like a lot of movement and I feel a bit trapped with covid. This video was refreshing, and it's empowering to think about the reclamation of joy and solidarity, even on the tiniest scale, as contributing towards our emancipation from capitalism/ making the state irrelevant. I want to check out that interview with Peter Joseph! Anyway, thank you so much as always for your work. I LOVE YOU
I love you too!! thank you so much, agree with all of this
This is a great video with not enough views! lets share it!
Thank you
The thought experiment about competing coops made me think in software development (I'm a programmer). We have a lot of languages (sometimes used for the same purposes), and even more libraries (reusable pieces of code) that sometimes solve the same or similar problems in different ways. And it's a example of healthy competition: most of them are open source, freely usable, and people discuss their merits, learn how to improve them, learn from each other, and in the end there's bigger adoption for the best options, or new solutions that take the best from each other. So, yeah, I can see how that can be done. Although I confess you were literally reading my mind when explaining your knee-jerk reaction!!! Amazing content!
Permaculture Communes, that's the revolution.
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Competition between cooperatives does not need to be destructive. In capitalism, out competing another business means their destruction, but if information was shared instead of horded then it can be mutually beneficial. So, think of two fighters. They can talk all day about what technique is better, but they have to fight to figure it out. Once the fights are over, they will both know which techniques are better, and can use them to better themselves.
Mexie you got the best videos
buy houses together. as investments but with the profit goal of the group owning more and more properties. worker coops. start businesses. then no matter what money you spend its in the community. even if you work for regular capitalists. eventually there will be the network of social businesses to meet the basic needs for the community. we can create our own communties.
Onward to a stateless, classless, moneyless, Twitterless society! ✊
Twitterless is key!
This is such a great conversation.
I would supplement the conversation by adding that this sudden seizure of power is exactly how NOT to ensure a just transition to a better future, and is probably the best way to make this revolution a backsliding event rather than a forward pressing one. The military is not a democratic institution, maybe someday there will be another system for keeping us safe, or maybe we won't need it, but using the military almost always means that the people who get into power aren't held accountable. There's no reason that post-capitalism is guaranteed to be a better system.
Also fetishizing anger and toxic masculinity is a real thing.
Elinor Olstrom points toward a very complex multiformation of paths and systems and collaborations.
Great resource. Also Peter Linebaugh's "Many Headed Hydra: A Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic", describes how we lost the commons she talks about, and the long and amazing lineage of rebels who have struggled to win it back.
This is the video I've been needing. Yes, we all get the problems. Focusing on the "now what?" Is hard but necessary. Thank you!
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I’m only a bit into the video, but thank you so much for talking about the importance of building up parallel systems. The work I do that I’m passionate about is about doing just that. I’m part of a project called Curbside Farms, we’re trying to create a non-commercial urban home-grower cooperative. Basically, reducing barriers to having a flourishing home garden, all towards creating a self-governing local food system. This is just one system of other systems that we hope to build and integrate into the same system. Building an associated cooperative bank, and associated cooperative energy grid, etc. We believe that using new technologies that enable fractal distribution will be the path towards transcending capitalism. I’ve done a very brief and scarce overview, but I love for this stuff. Hmu if you’re interested (I’m easy to find online with my name) 😊
I should also note, we intend on sharing our digital infrastructure and helping other communities create collaborative sister organizations. Among the local and spreading it into an integrated system 😊
In the UK Universities used to be, and to some small extent, still are, centres of technical excellence. Sadly, the Capitalist World has nudged in rather aggressively in the last few decades
I just want to say that you are glowing! Absolutely gorgeous!
thank you!
@@Mexie you're welcome.
Dual-power?,,, yeah 😎
I appreciate your videos a lot! I appreciate the examples and suggestions of how to try and build from the bottom up the kind of world we wanna see. Though I will say my social anxiety has made it so I don't really feel positivity or excitement for many types of community organizing, even though I see them as neccessary and try to participate. Hopefully that'll change in the future though.
Are you a gardener? imo, gardening is perfect for people who work best mostly alone, but can have room for some collaboration in a community if desired. I'd say more, but gotta go harvest dinner :)
@@c2farr I've thought about it before and can definitely appreciate it but its not something thats possible with my current living situation. Though that does give me some ideas like maybe cooking for others? But yeah thanks for the comment, I hope your dinner goes well.
I've been spamming this video everywhere. You put into words so much of what Ive been feeling and working towards especially in the past year.
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thank you for this video, mexie. revolution is something you do not something that happens.
No words for how amazing and in touch this is
Revolution: Better than doomscrolling
This video made me feel a lot. I have had a chronic illness since I was 14, and have always been terrified of living in america without health insurance - I've spent a lot of my life making sure I'm safe, and I always feel like I'm not doing enough to change the world around me.
It means a lot to hear that I don't have to prove anything. And it inspires me to keep dedicating the energy I do have. I actually had to reach out and share this with some friends who I felt really inspired me in my thoughts on how to fight capital, and I hope they get strength from this too.
Thanks!
This video ultimately represents my mood
Solidarity from russia ❤️🖤
Thank you so much Mexie! I love this video. We must stop bullying others online and start living the revolution. This channel is underrated.
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We're gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning! And you'll say please, please it's too much winning, we can't take it anymore! It's too much! And I'll say no it isn't! We have to keep winning, we have to win more! We're gonna win more! We're gonna win so much!
Thank you!!! I'm crying, I've been feeling exactly this way, but never feel fully able to forgive myself for taking breaks from the internet, but thank you for being so kind and open.
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Good video, good speak. There were so much stuff, that I forgot what I was going to say or comment. So, now I just have general thanks.
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A video about Lithium would be great
Completely agreed, Twitter is counter revolutionary. I really only go there to network with folks.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Read _The Dispossessed_ by Ursula K. Le Guin. "You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere."
Twin Oaks Community was established by hippies in 1967 and has had a fairly steady population of about 100 for quite some time. It is one of the few communes aka intentional communities from the communal movement of that time, to still exist today. It is in Virginia and is easy to find online. Their early enterprise was hammocks, which were sold through Pier 1.
Now their primary enterprise is processing soybeans, grown by area farmers, into tofu and other soy products. The income produced within Twin Oaks is communal, except for a fairly small allowance, which is equally distributed to members. They had a court case against the IRS that they won, defining the income as communal for tax purposes, and only the allowances taxable as personal income.
The information I am sharing here may be dated, so please check for current updates. The problems with Twin Oaks, from my perspective, are 1) that they are not very culturally diverse (great majority American by birth, and white, tho they claim to be addressing that), and 2) they are not a vegan community, tho some members are.
Twin Oaks is part of a network of intentional communities.
Thanks for the positivity and reinforcement.
I feel very fortunate to have a job (unionized) in which "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs" is the guiding principle of what I do on a day-to-day basis. I work in a group home with folks who have various disabilities but are generally happy. Also, the pay and benefits are reasonable. This is the foundation of my current version of "Living the Revolution" since I have no social life these days.
I'm only watching this video now because I felt like I needed some time off of online politics. I was in a bad place exactly like you described at the beginning. To be honest I've always been pretty much alone in my political journey. I live in a conservative town that's completely devoid of culture and community. I have a few great friends who understand that this world suck but they're all pretty much "apolitical" and mostly apathetic towards trying to make things better. In the past few years I've been evolving my political consciousness and talking about it to my family and friends, but I've always wanted to DO something, not just talk, as my family really likes to remark whenever I bring up such topics. But I still don't know where to start, I don't know the right people. The only way forward I see is to move out of this shithole I'm living in, which is not going to happen soon cause I have no money and no decent job. I'm kind of lost.
Despite all of that, this video gave me hope. I will watch it again and take notes because I feel there's so much I can get out of it. Thank you so much Mexie!
It’s interesting because here a large number of social services are provided by NGOs. The NGO’s exist within a competitive model for government funding. This means they don’t share resources, experiences or ideas particularly well. This is an intentional neoliberal model, where neoliberals believe making social services providers compete yields good results in terms of service and budget. Interestingly though things have started to change, with the heightened contradictions brought on by covid a whole lot of these NGOs linked up and started working together. Therefore I think an artificially competitive model will always eventually breakdown.
This is the youtube content I've been looking for! Great video.
Im certainly feeling the "doomerism" lately. Is humanity this dumb? 3rd wave on the horizon in the US 😳🤦🏽♀️😭
"Healthy and healthful competition" is discrete event competition managed in controlled, contrived, limited fields of play: in short games. The human animal evolved w a competitive impulse. It has to be managed for a modern, civilian-centric society. Just like all our other physiologically primed tendencies, we need to train ourselves to sequester and engage these aspects of ourselves in harmless ways that exorcise them from the critical institutions that should support well being for beings.
I cannot stand leftist groups at all anymore for many of the reasons listed in this video. They're subcultural and have this eschatology like they're going to be waging a guerrilla war in a climate apocalypse scenario as a retirement plan which is just embarrassing. The only possibility I see anymore is building unions and workplace democracy but consequently that is one of the hardest tasks because it requires real organization with working people who don't identity as leftist. I've had some leftists even tell me that unions are reactionary and that was a solid reminder why I avoid talking to anyone with an anime profile picture. Come on, we got leftists who are in and out of jail for stupid shit like smashing windows yet we can't talk to our coworkers? That is bad.
The past decade was spent cannibalizing ourselves over ideological purity and it really impaired any real sense of political momentum we could have had. I'm guilty of this and painfully regret being so vindictive over individuals past wrongs in order to be consistent. I focus more now on making good relations with my coworkers and trying to keep my head afloat in this clown world although the chances of ever owning property seem non existent at this point.
also, Zeitgeist isn't problematic per say but that dude really made some shit conspiracy theory films. I really hate how that and the Venus Project just apes the core ideas from communalism and repackages it. There's definitely better people out there on that topic who aren't crackpots.
Late to the party here but have just got into your content and am loving what you have to say, and can't agree more with the approach of doing what you can in parallel to the systems already in place. I definitely identify with the communal preppers lol and fall into that category at times.
I wanted to say that it is totally possible to build from conversation, currently my partner and I are living in a very small network by homesteading through our tiny house. We have an arrangement with lovely property owners who need farm hands, and trade labour/provisions internally. Having everyone on board understanding how these setups are mutually beneficial is so crucial to gaining more attention. The scale of our operation is very much in early stages, and one of the biggest challenges we found was going against the grain when it comes to living accommodations. Lots of places we went to check out were into what we were proposing but the bylaws and legal liability was enough to spook them from taking us on.
While we have our situation better settled now, I'm curious as to what your take would be on starting up a parallel system when current building/zoning bylaws seem to disallow or discourage people working together in startup communities. Especially so in the city, right now we're fortunate enough to get by with rural living. Is this something you feel can be achieved with stronger lobbying? Or is it better to stay under the radar until reaching a critical mass where the benefits are impossible to ignore?
Also to anyone else out there trying a similar approach, keep at it and stay open as the opportunity comes! You will be an outlier for some time but it's worth the effort and the connections you make will run so much deeper than the purely capitalist transactions we've come to expect
Also, it's not that attention spans are short (although probably that too), it's that there is now so much Leftist content and so much of it is like 90minutes+ long that you can't keep up with all of it in down time unless all you do is watch. I have you on at work and am enjoying, but often I have to really focus and can't have anything more complicated than postrock going on. I'll put stuff on while doing dishes and chore around the house, but that only goes so far after an 8 hour work day before I just need a damned break to exercise, cook dinner, and go to bed.
This preconfiguring theory of change is 😙👌
Mexie, I have engineered a way for us to rid capitalism, that even by-passes many of the issues you bring up in this video. My question to you is, who do I speak with, in order to get heard? Is there a leftist group out there, that would like to hear me out on my idea?
Maybe please include in one of your future videos, a way forward to help people with ideas get heard? If someone like myself, has a great idea to help us get out of capitalism. I think the left needs to become better coordinated somehow.
The only place I like on Twitter is with the climate scientists. Politically, Twitter is ugly.
I have always believed that with time, humanity will make its way to betterment. Watching this video has made me feel like it is not as far away as I thought. Thank-you Mexie.
Ya this is what the online left should be focusing on. The internet can help us decommodify our social relations of production as well via block chain and distributed ledger technology. It's a matter of creativity in meeting the social needs of others without using the price mechanism. Find the cracks of capitalism in the dirt and plant the *seeds* that will bring about our new social relationships with each other.
Good vid. I know exactly what you mean. I'm trolling and disrupting the right all the time but we need to take things forward.