So, much discussion in the blogsphere on whether certain branches of politics need to be about actions or just about understanding. After having thought about this I think it does matter how you behave.
Marx said
The point is not to understand the world the point is to change it
I would argue that to be able to change the world you have to understand it first but his main point is correct. After all It doesn’t matter how impeccable your critique of something is , if you don’t act on that critique nothing changes. Plenty of people I went to university with claim to understand the theorys of feminism, socialism, anti capitalism, but none of them are going to make a difference to how the world works because they don’t apply it in their lives.
In this society there are sacrifices I make to be able to survive and I live with that, there are other things I do though that I know the doing of them weakens my political position and waters down my political activism, every time I shop at a supermarket, every time I don’t challenge a racist comment, but I am actively working on getting to a point where my life is in line with my political philosophy
The reason I am a Radical rather than a liberal is because I do not believe in an anything goes philosophy, I do believe in absolutes, I do believe in personal responsibility and I do believe that to get to the root of the worlds problems we do have to act, and act on both macro and micro levels for the world to change we not only have to change, government, laws, institutions but we also have to change our behaviour, we have to fight for what we want what we and everybody else on the planet is due and we have to not buy into on any level at all if we can possibly help it any of the capitalist patriachal bullshit
This doesn’t mean I wont stand shoulder to shoulder with those who I think sell out in some ways on some levels, I think we all do that some of the time but i firmly beleive that if you are aware that you are doing something that is upholding the capitalist patriachal power structure and you have the option of not doing it you shouldn’t be doing it.
(this post is kind of unfinished because I'm not sure where I'm taking it and would like others opinions)
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About Me
- nectarine
- I'm writing these things because I think they matter, not because I think I can say them better than anyone else
5 comments:
I was surprised to see that the post isn't finished, because it's a great post! Really love your explanation for why you're a radical instead of a liberal. And yes, sometimes we do things that hurt us, but awareness is the first step to eliminating that stuff from our lives.
The place I get into trouble is the standing shoulder-to-shoulder with pro-prostitution feminists. The smaller things we do (personal appearance issues) are one thing, but I have a hard time reconciling the need to be allied with as many feminists as possible with the fact that liberal feminism does take an "anything goes" mentality. I should stop, because this idea has been rumbling around my brain and i can't quite get a handle on it.
PS I love the title of your blog.
Hey there, Nectarine, great post. :)
I completely agree with you that understanding is just the beginning, and that we have to resist beginning with the small things in our everyday lives, like the things you list there. What good is feminism if we can't apply what we learn? How depressing is that, even. What, we go to WalMart and as we walk the aisles, we say to ourselves, "This place sucks, it exploits its woman employees, it destroys communities and ruins local businesses, it exploits children and women in the Global South, as a feminist, it's wrong for me to be shopping here! But I'm going to do it anyway and it's fine because at least I truly get it that it's not feminist to do it." Then we might go home all depressed and think, "life sucks, there's nothing I can do about any of this, why bother, it's hopeless." And another promising feminist bites the dust. :(
Consciousness-raising, Marxist or feminist, is not ONLY about a raised consciousness; I mean, our consciousnesses might be raised all sorts of ways, including when we're all alone, by seeing some hideous commercial or reading horrendous blog posts or comments or witnessing some interaction on the street or something. But once our consciousnesses are raised-- then what? After the initial recognition of a problem or a conflict, we then need some way to move forward to address it. That's where we need to come together, not only to commiserate on our common aggravation and misery, but to actually help each other to translate our dissatisfaction and unhappiness *as* women into *class-consciousness* and subsequently into organizing, into action. That's what ends up missing in these discussions about the nuts and bolts of our oppression as women-- we don't get to the class-consciousness place, let alone the action place where we brainstorm challenging these oppressions and how we can support one another in doing that.
Well, anyway, great to meet you and I will add you to my blogroll!
Same here: the post hasn't got an 'air of unfinished' about it at all.
Macro- and micro-levels indeed. Different approaches needed for the two.
On a personal level, your post has inspired me to think of things I can put into action. Maybe write a list and do one a week, or something like that.
Spotted elephant,
I do agree with you that there are some people i wouldnt stand and fight with even if they wanted the same outcome in one paticular case because other aspects of their politics and lives are so adverse to what i am fighting for, but I think that if people are not yet aware of the implications of all their actions or trains of thought then that is different and I will unite with them.
Heart: that is a fantastic analysis thanks
Feminist first.
I think the idea of just starting of with one thing a week is really good because then it is nopt a compleate life change or shock to the system
Good post so far. Nice. Regarding other issues you might wish to consider, regarding "Comprehension v. change:"
A big problem I've noticed that is nearly UNIVERSAL to radical left movements of any kind is this: Oftentimes, we get so caught up in attempting to demonstrate our "street cred" that we spend more time accusing our peers of ideological impurity than we do of actual constructive dialogue. What can the movement do to clamp down on that?
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