I was looking at a couple of posts that express feelings of exhaustion and isolation that are extremely prevalent in modern life. And in the comments are people talking about how they’re able to deal with those pressures. I don’t think that’s a real solution to the stated problems. The real solution is replacing the system that demands an exhausting and isolating existence for so many in order to maintain itself.
When someone says he feels alone, it’s not helpful to recommend social clubs because the real problem is all the ways modern society inhibits community building and a lot of minor social interaction. When someone says he doesn’t feel like he has time to take care of her physical health, it’s not helpful to show your schedule to fit it into the busy day because the real solution is having more time available which is only possible if we change modern work culture.
Yes, it’s possible for individuals within almost any system to find a stasis where you’re able to fulfill your basic mental, social, and physical needs. It’s even possible for individuals to thrive. But your solutions only work for you and maybe those with similar material conditions AND cognitive predispositions. Otherwise you’re just making excuses for the level of harm modern capitalism places on people everyday.
Take care of yourself and resist where you can.
Magically replacing capitalism with something that isn’t much worse is also not a realistic solution to such stated problems. If someone says they feel alone or exhausted it seems much more unhelpful to say I told you so because that’s capitalism for you 🤷♀️
Especially when you can in fact still do small and real things to improve your mental/physical/social health, even under capitalism.
How are people gonna resist capitalism if they already can’t do simple coping strategies for daily life?
Capitalism ends up acting as an excuse for people. An end to capitalism doesn’t make college easier or remove all of life’s problems.
I don’t think you give capitalism enough credit. Especially using college as your example.
Depends on what parts of college you’re referring to. Most of the people here who have been complaining about college tend to focus more on being forced to fit into a collegiate system while living on campus and being unable to. That isn’t capitalism causing failure.
I think a strong factor that shaped the problems you describe are a result of capitalist need to make a profit on colleges, as well as the type of education system with standards that were set by lobbyists wanting to create productive workers that will advance capital. I think socialist college would look very different and be a lot less dehumanizing
I think it works both ways. Capitalism is absolutely responsible for virtually all facets of life being awful.
But it’s also used as an excuse that reaffirms hopeless narratives and prevents people from doing helpful things too. You yourself said social groups are not good because capitalism has ruined those too.
I can assure you that if we stay inside and don’t meet anybody there will be 0 resistance.
I don’t think you responded to the right comment.
Looking back at the post, I definitely made some poor word choices. I do think social groups are good, but they don’t change the fundamentally isolating aspects of our modern society like cars. They’re also not a solution when a person doesn’t have time for them which is mostly a problem of capitalism.
I want the hopeful narrative that society will be better when we have a successful socialist revolution, we just need to get people on board.
I don’t totally agree with what you started saying but you do get to some good points. I will say what I’ve said elsewhere that I’m talking more about advice on meme posts about large trend issues more than specific issues a singular person deals with.
I guess I would like to see fewer coping strategies that help you do capitalism better and more that work by subverting the powers that entrench capitalism. Also I do think frequently acknowledging that the cause is capitalism is important in the building of consciousness.