@starwall I was talking with someone and they said something that struck me. They said that we don't have the misery today that sparked revolutions in previous years.
Except we do. People today are miserable. Miserable in their jobs, their cities, in the lives they lead.
The difference is that our modern misery is abstracted away as an immutable facet of living life in society. People are prevented from believing change is possible by being convinced that the system is unchangeable.
@starwall That's another part of the abstraction of power. We've been conditioned to believe that the power to make change resides in other people. That we need to put our trust in other people to make the decisions that affect our lives.
Some people make fun of anarchists for being against voting, but the reality is that voting is a subversion of personal responsibility. Anarchists abhor it because it is a relief valve for radical thought and change. 1/2
@starwall Even as we're told all about how the people of the past made radical change, the idea of actually doing it is elevated conceptually to be beyond our ability. But it's not beyond our ability. We all have the ability to make a change in our own environment. We just have to cast off the conditioning that tells us it's pointless or taboo.
3/3
@starwall But all it does is make us feel like we accomplished something, when the reality is that any one election is likely already decided. We're told we have the power to make change, but only through the "allowed" outlets, through voting, and maybe if you're *really* crazy, through holding a sign with a few dozen other people holding a sign.
But past that, it's not considered acceptable to take control over your own space and environment in the face of corrupt or hostile systems 2/3