Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Challenge of Envisioning Something Other Than Capitalism

Naomi Klein is dead right about our suspicion that we can never imagine our way outside of capitalism since we have been ideologically inscribed in it unconsciously for time immemorial it would seem - so much so that we have thorougly "naturalized" it as a given way of life. We are all cradle capitalists.

Tabatha Southey once told me everything is economics. She might have really meant capitalism. For Capitalism is indeed everything, and it involves of course much more than an economic system: capitalism informs and structures our political, social, psychological, biological, and economic daily lives. There is no facet of our existence that is not inside capitalism. Is it any wonder then we have difficulty trying to think outside it since we really aren't even aware that we're inside it? We've known nothing else. This is our reality. We are all prisoners of capitalism, and most of us, sad to say, are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

And a simple reform or tweaking of capaitalism is not really the answer - such quick remedies as regulating investment banks, for example. For the occupy movement at its root is about system change, not reform, even if that change can't be either envisioned or articulated at this particular early moment. This is indeed the beginning of a shift or full disruption, as Thomas L. Freidman suggests, but that full change will not happen overnight. It may take years. I call it sloppy democracy. and the important point is patient perseverance in small and big ways everywhere.



Naomi Klein Interview at Occupy Wall St. Grounded News, video report 7

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