Morning Comrades.
Even though it feels months away already, Christmas was only a few weeks ago and it is the most fascinating period of the year for me. Usually, I disappear for a few days in a mist of self-indulgence but this year I did not and made several observations that we are going dissect here today.
Yes, I am purposely calling it Christmas rather than “the holidays” or the “festive period” as they are neither and I am specifically referring to this time as “Christmas” from the perspective of what “we” do over here in the so-called West, as socialized Christians, no matter your orientation and / or religious affiliation. No matter how you want to spin it for yourself, if you were born and socialized in the “west”, much of your internalized responses were nurtured by one form or other of capitalist christianity.
Generally speaking, I am referencing the majority of socialized traditions we feel that we have to adhere to but am using Christmas specifically as it is such a monumental clusterfuck of bullshit and that, thus, makes it more relatable for most, or so I hope in any case.
As an obvious disclaimer, or two rather: yes, there are people and communities out there in our world that can spend this time in utter harmony. They exist, I even know some of them but from my experience these people and communities represent a statistical anomaly, ones that always exist in any and all broad sweeping analysis’. Secondly, yes, Marxist philosophy at its core, calls for the total abolition of all family structures and traditions in addition to the abolition ( Aufhebung ) of all property and yes, I whole heartedly concur but that alone doesn’t have that much of an impact on these observations. In addition to the semi-superficial observations and subsequent questions / calls for action that will follow, there underlies a solid amount of theory, predominately from the seminal work of Engels, in his book: The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. ( 1884 ) - truthfully, equally as valuable as Das Kapital or the Manifesto, if not more so.
“The first class antagonism appearing in history coincides with the development of the antagonism of man and wife in monogamy, and the first class oppression with that of the female by the male sex.”
― Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
So, Christmas. The days leading up to that weekend were mostly spent with co-workers and friends and there was one dominant feeling throughout every meeting: one of dread and apprehension. Almost everyone I spoke with was not looking forward to the reality that they felt like they had to go home and spend time in their families. Granted, I can utterly relate to that feeling but have made a decision to cut all ties with my family, my gran and sis withstanding, and not ever see them again. Long story and I’ll make a note to explain that in my never to be published memoirs. Nevertheless, the communal feelings of dread of having to go back into the structures that nurtured them were predominately negative. Whilst the majority of explanations were superficial such as “I don’t like the small town where I am from” to “my family are racist pricks”, all entirely valid of course, everyone still went, came back drained, pissed off and reminded of what most of us aim to escape when we leave home.
Of course there are underlying reasons for this. Traditions, such as returning to the family fold for Christmas are basically just rituals of hierarchy, a hierarchy built to uphold the capitalist nucleus of capital accumulation by the means of the patriarchy. Uff, tough sentence that one I know, but let’s dissect it. What we perceive as traditions, such as Christmas, are institutional rituals that were enforced by the ruling classes to maintain order, an order that exists to accumulate capital and secure it from the revolting peasant classes.
Sure, one could argue that a lot of what passes as traditions here in the west precedes capitalism and christianity but if you seriously believe just one wikipedia article on European paganism, that was eradicated over a thousand years ago and believe that these rituals still have any impact at all on our lives today, well, just don’t. Whatever influence pre-capital / christian paganism had was not only entirely co-opted but perverted 100s of years ago to suit the ruling classes, nothing else.
Capitalism exists on two premises: infinite growth and hierarchies ( master and servant ) - and the capitalism that emerged during and after the Industrial Revolution, revolutionized the idea of hierarchies by positioning the nuclear family as the core unit of capital accumulation. Not only did this reduce the probability of class solidarity in opposition to the ruling class, something that has existed way before the Industrial Revolution primarily due to non-capitalistic family structures but fed on the Christian idea of Patriarchy. Once again, it all comes to down to violence.
“The word Familia did not originally signify the ideal of our modern philistine, which is a compound of sentimentality and domestic discord. Among the Romans, in the beginning, it did not even refer to the married couple and their children, but to the slaves alone. Famulus means a household slave and familia signifies the totality of slaves belonging to one individual. The expression was invented by the romans to describe a new social organism, the head of which had under him wife and children and a number of slaves, under Roman paternal power, with power of life and death over them all.”
― Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
So whilst my friends feelings of dread in regards to “going home” were and are utterly valid, my observation was that the underlying reality is that our traditions, that exist to uphold these patriarchal hierarchies are the root cause for this unease and it does not have to be this way.
It’s all fair and square to analyse all this, identifying root causes but it always raises the question, and what now? So much, particularly the academic marxist discourse, of what exists in our alternative narrative fails to offer any actual material help in regards to escaping this trap and it drives me mad. Predominately as I don’t have answers most of time, even for own personal reality let alone all of yous, but I will do my best - again, disclaimer, this is anything but holy writ.
One, I principally have nothing against the idea of traditions. There are heaps of examples of traditions, new and old, that have always co-existed in competition to the christian-capitalist ones. Mutual Aid is one such example, one that goes back to the 1800s. Kropotkin first developed his account of mutual aid in the late 19th century as a corrective to Darwinian evolutionists and has since then been practised effectively since then, from the smallest of units such as non-transactional relationships to much larger ones like the I.W.W.
In regards to traditions such as Christmas, no one is forcing anyone to spend time under duress for the sake of maintaining the patriarchal order. Yes, of course, the reactions to such actions exist and they can threatening and scary and shouldn’t be made lightly. Personally speaking and very true to my own nature, I burned down the whole house in a fit of rage and am still paying for that rash act, materially and emotionally, 20 years later. I won’t recommend that. However, when the next mandatory tradition around the corner asses the possibility to speak about them with your family units. Not necessarily about how you don’t want to be there at first, but possibly bringing the question of “why” into the group chat - and yeah, we all have them - why do we do this? What’s to gain from it and does a possibility exist to change these rituals to benefit everyone? You already know where I am going with this.
As with it all, it pays off to question everything we experience and more importantly realize that we can change it all. Even more vital is the understanding that the social and economic order we exist under is absolutely not natural, not written in stone and survives only by our compliance to their violence. All of this can be changed.
“The state, then, is by no means a power forced on society from outside; neither is it the "realization of the ethical idea," "the image and the realization of reason," as Hegel maintains. It is simply a product of society at a certain stage of evolution. It is the confession that this society has become hopelessly divided against itself, has entangled itself in irreconcilable contradictions which it is powerless to banish.”
― Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
Thank you for your time, attention and support.
Yours, warmly,
Steven.
P.S.: This is was one the usual dispatches for the patreons of this newsletter. These will remain free for all for the month of January as menioned earlier in the week. If you can, join the patreons here but wait till February, as I am reducing the monthly subscription free by half. Smooches.