Morning Comrades!
Normally, I would have liked to presented another dispatch in the Art In Service of the Revolution series but as I mentioned on Wednesday, I am pre-writing this week on Monday because of work.
Last week I wrote a piece for the patreons of this project on Utopias, some philosophical groundwork and approaches and how those tie into our reality with some specific cases against Nike, as an example.
I have edited this piece down a little for all of you to get into today as it remains relevant. If you enjoy these types of emails, plus the free prints and discount codes etc you get from becoming a patreon, and if it is feasible for you, I would greatly appreciate you hitting the button below.
On Utopias
Dreams, in the face of hardships become plans, plans can become reality through political power. That’s generally how our existence works, seeing that reality is mostly political will is just that. Utopias have existed as long as rulers have existed, someone exploits someone else out of greed and that someone dreams up something better, I’d amateurishly would argue that this notion is central to the human experience. Over the course of time we have gotten to two very distinct and important schools of thought in regards to utopias, specifically Utopian Socialism and Scientific Socialism - believe it or not, but the concept of utopia1 s at the core of the Communist & Marxist school of thought and to this day is still considered to be at the epicentre of modernity.
As mentioned in the beginning, I wanted to go through this, primarily, for two reasons, one being the subject of healthcare as mentioned yesterday, and secondly, more as an example in regards to Nike. Thirdly, and this is more of a side note in regards to my own academic and non academic work, but we’ll get to that shortly.
I think about a better tomorrow and a better world for everyone because this reality is anything but, it’s truly as simple as that. Of course, we live a life of abundance, even though that is also coming to a drastic halt, but the price as we have learned over the course of the last 20 years of neoliberalism and globalization is deathly, for everyone who wasn’t fortunate enough to be born white and in the Global North West, let alone the ecosphere that supports our version of the matrix. Coming from a working class perspective however, I have always felt that indescribable need, when arguing for a better material reality, to offer scientific solutions to the point of perfection, especially when arguing for a better tomorrow with anyone in power. It is an odd psychological side effect that I am too unlearned to explain properly, but it essentially explains most of driving force of anyone poor in academia. To be sure, this insistent need to have logically constructed arguments that are “right” within the context given by those in power has created the entire school of Marxism and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, on the contrary and in reference to this argument, have arrived at the distinction between Utopian and Scientific Socialism.
In short, the difference between the two was explained by Engels in form of a pamphlet that was meant serve as an introduction to Marx epoch “Das Kapital” and once that was meant to be understood by everyone. This pamphlet “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific”2 was published in 1880 and until this days remains of the key texts in understanding the entire school of thought. Essentially, the difference between the two is this: utopian socialism is idealist, reflecting the personal opinions of the authors and claims that society can be adapted based on these opinions, scientific socialism derives itself from reality. It focuses on the materialist conception of history 3, which is based on an analysis over history, and concludes that communism naturally follows capitalism.
Without wanting to be overdramatic, that is one of the core concepts behind Marxism and much of my PhD work revolved around this, again, more so at the core, rather than on the surface but in essence, I focused entirely on scientific utopianism, one, because that is the “accepted and correct” framework in which to argue for a better tomorrow within the Marxist framework and, unconsciously because I wanted my arguments to be bullet proof in the face of capitalist arguments and realities.
At this point in our existence however, I am considering this determination to play by the rules of the ruling classes to be a massive fuck-off problem, several in fact.
To put it clearly, we have to imagine, plan and build a better world. This one is on the brink of killing us all. It’s not a hobby of the idle-minded, believe me I would much rather grow and make food than this, but that’s that. Secondly, yes, our ideas of the future should, for a change be rooted in science, of course. However, who the fuck has access, let alone time to be solid in scientifically imagining possible futures, who gets to profit ( within our existing system ) from gatekeeping potential futures that are deemed too Utopian and Scientific enough4 and this last part is the most important and how we get to Nike, as an example: What is the point of being scientifically irrefutable when those in power, whose power is being challenged not only give zero fucks about your correct scientific method but exist within a system that doesn't even adhere to science but violence alone?
To make an example, Nike, via their advertising and communication sells itself as a brand that supports all “the good fights”, one remembers the ad campaign with Colin Kaepernick post taking the knee boowahoo, positioning itself against Trump and co. In the same breath, Nike as a company and Phil Knight personally, donate mountains of money to extremely right wing political organisations in the US, regularly.5 My point being this, when your political opponent, those in power, say one thing and do the opposite, why do we maintain the gruelling reality of feeling like we have to argue our wishes in the most scientific ways? They don't give a shit about anything other than profit and protecting said profit via politics / violence. I am not saying we should stoop to their level, even though that argument could be made, however, when it comes to coming up with new possible futures, it is far more effective to drop the underdog / imposter syndrome need to be scientifically irrefutable and just dream up exactly what you and your community needs. What you do afterwards is directly related to its possible positive outcome, of course, but at this point of this violent relationship between the ruling class and everything else, we can safely stop playing by their rules.
They never did.
As always, thank you for your time, attention and support,
Yours, not quietly going into the night,
V.
a perfect society in which people work well with each other and are happy: Cambridge Dictionary
If you are interested in what the fuck that is, click here.
The damn system of higher education, which, again, within the context of our existence, it could be argued are nothing but bastions of gatekeeping to maintain the power of the white, European-centric Bourgeoisie.
Popular Information just published a big story on this: