Rebranding Socialism
We need to talk about the functions of socialism in the society that we would like to see.
We have to start building prototype alternatives and ideating government models that serve the actual interest of the people.
The big rebrand of socialism is the controlling the means of production and the means of production is our bodies.
Nothing is going to happen until we reverse the curse of white patriarchal capitalism’s violence.
When I say a rebrand I mean we really need to lay something out for people because socialism, like capitalism, is very misunderstood.
First, the definition of socialism needs to be clear: a system of governance that serves the basic needs of all citizens and others.
Now we need to take this through all avenues of our human existence and this is were individuals need to do the work. We, as a collective, need explore these different, needs-meeting, community care forward ways of governing people.
With that said, here’s a framework anyone can begin to build in terms of socialism.
A person would have to apply socialism using the definition from above, a system of governance that serves the basic needs of all citizens and others, to the following seven areas that make up a human civilization:
Economics, social, education, medical, political, art & religion.
Under those are nine areas of human activity:
Economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, war & sex.
If people begin to imagine what those areas would be like under socialism, using the provided definition or another one, it doesn’t really matter as long as the main outcome
is basic needs being met, then we get new ideas and ways to discourse rather than debate.
We will, naturally, find people who have more energy for some areas than others and that’s where we build intellectual trust with each with other, meaning we are doing our duty of staying educated and aware of the areas we’d like to help and support be less terriorized by white patriarchal violence while relying on others who are contributing to other areas so when help is needed or large acts of violence happen or there needs to be a mutual aid campaign, there’s a cohesion among people which creates a system where victims of patriarchal violence get taken care of.
That’s the goal, taking care of people. As men, we need to shake off patriarchal society conditioning by not just being vulnerable, but being honest about things that our heart is
leading us to do because that’s what we care about the most.
We men, as a collective, need to stop internalizing white patriarchal capitalist male expression as the standard we need to achieve. It’s probably likely that it will never go
away, so instead of debating about whether their whack ass beliefs and stupid flags and arm bands, we can, like we’ve been doing all along, create a language that works for us to get these fools to agree they don’t care about the dignity of all humans and let that be our exit from their space or the conversation, whatever the case may be.
Socialism becomes a main player within this work because now, as men, we are seeking a different type of political protection, we are looking at different ways tax dollars can be shifted to cover therapy, a medical marijuana card, a service animal, non- traditional and holistic healing options, all things that would serve a lot of men in a great way.
This is the issue with the USA white patriarchal capitalist society, relative to women, too, and this issue is that our society cannot function if people slow down and live life at a slower pace, detach themselves from the capitalist calendar and surrender their body to the changing of the seasons.
This is how socialism changes us on the inside, we start to become aware and along with our analysis of white patriarchal capitalist society, we are moved to a different type of action, one that is now concerned for the well-being of others as a practice of life.
And, basically, socialism is that, changing what needs to be changed in order for government to be used to ensure all citizens and others have their basic needs met.
People deserve their basic needs met.
Fragile Equilbrium
I did not come up with the phrase ‘fragile equilbrium’ I read it in this British Journal that I lost, but the cover was yellow and a lot of the articles talked about violence in society.
One article talked about how taking mushrooms could be a potential treatment for healing and addressing PTSD.
Why I bring it up goes back to the line I used earlier: From the inside out, we can bring change about.
I believe if we apply the concept of fragile equilibrium, the near-perfect balance of two things, we can strive as individuals to be the person we think we can be without
restrictions while who we are as humans, knowing our limitations, and challenging ourselves to resist white patriarchal capitalist comfort that seeks to suppress
communities of color to promote a modern society.
Slavery was and is always a backward system. The desire for a socialist society, a society that prioritizes meeting the basic needs of citizens and others, releases us from the slavery of labor which includes being paid below living wages, being underemployed, being forced into unemployment, being overpoliced and incarcerated as part of a scheme to force involuntary servitude on
mostly the Black population.
Socialism neutralizes these systems of oppression through collective action and the question that faces us all and forces us to consider this notion of ‘fragile equilibrium’
because if socialism is successful, meaning if the system is course-corrected and altered in ways that makes us become less of a war society and more of a society of
industry, relying less on corporate and more on regional manufacturing, serving our citizens then finding fair ways to trade with others.
Socialism as a society is not a war society. White patriarchal capitalism is a war society. Fragile Equilibrium challenges us to answer how much war do we need to see until we speak out in ways that are meaningful?
This notion is constructed to challenge artists to be honest about their solidarity with white patriarchal capitalism and know there are pros and cons just like all things in life.
This notion also sets us up for discourse and not debate because there’s nothing to win, there’s no need for domination, discourse means that we meet people where they are and life gets busy, so if a person is not up to speed on what’s going on, discourse means if there’s times for a coffee or a meal, there’s time to be caught up to speed.
Being able to catch people up to speed is part of joining the struggle. White patriarchal capitalism needs characters to hoard information and curate it in ways
that only serves some of the masses and costs more money than necessary.
In white patriarchal capitalism there is a need to have ownership on things like facts, but in a society that prioritizes discourse, facts and truth are for everybody.
Fragile Equilibrium also needs to be understood as conflict.
Conflict is at the center of all this.
Think about it, we could do nothing.
We could say we were smart and rationalize doing the absolute bare minimum like posting one time throughout the year that women deserve respect, rounding up that
thirty-eight cents to end violence against women or to donate to that women’s shelter.
The bare minimum is us men’s for the taking and we would be handsomely rewarded for it by many, if not most women in our life because our litte effort would likely be the only effort they see.
There’s conflict in that with other men, but fuck other dudes, it’s 2025, if they are ignorant to the plight of women and they wanna argue about it, make them look dumb,
might have to fight. If they wanna get educated another time, that’s the best route.
Again, only within a white patriarchal capitalist mindset will the tought arise that there needs to be some relationship of domination because, in that case, one person simply
knew more than the other about the plight of women. The information needs to be passed along and exchanged, not withheld and weaponized.
The men to watch out for with this kind of behavior are men that people please. I used to be in that boat, mostly stemmed from childhood abandonment, but that’s only
important to this because in order to see if somebody is on the right kind of ‘fragile equilibrium’ they have to be able to speak to both sides of their self (there could very be
many others) one being how they are doing as a person within this society of white patriarchal capitalism and what their needs are and the other part is how they are
contributing to lessening, if possible, patriarchal violence imposed on by others.
Everyone’s ‘fragile equilibrium’ is different.
Everybody needs to understand that. This is also important in fostering discourse, we shoud have no expectations of anyone’s relationship to themselves and of them to the world until we are listening to them directly talk about their relationships to themselves and to the world.
The other reason the idea of ‘fragile equilibrium’ really resonated with me is because the abbreviation is FE or Fe which, on the periodic table, is iron. While I’m not a deeply
religious person, I did go to a Christian college and was a wrestler on their team (Northwestern College, NAIA, GPAC, 2002-2005). One year, I think my second, our
team motto was iron sharpens iron so as one man sharpens another.
That’s the goal with all of this, to sharpen each other into the best people so that when the oppressors wanna try us, we can cut them up with the truth and self-defense.