What is YOUR life going to be about? Carve a little bit of happiness for yourself out of this cancerous system or live to liberate all of humanity?
June 25, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Right now, living in this parasitic imperialist-capitalist system, with technological advances, which has made global production possible, we are at a critical juncture.
Two worlds intersect and one will win—in the name of humanity, we must win.
So what are you going to live for and for whom? This system trains us to care only about ourselves. Think about it. In today’s society, the “self,” individualism, is constantly pumped at people. You gotta do better for “yourself,” take care of “yourself,” and all the self-help resources that point to the fact that there is something wrong with you. If you don’t have the latest gadget, if you don’t have the dream job, if you are not in a happy relationship, if you live in the ghettos, or if you don’t finish college, it is “your fault.” Of course, this is bullshit! This ideology helps keep this capitalist system functioning. If people are consumed with themselves, they don’t look to the outer world, and can’t see beyond their own experience. People get stuck in a quest to fulfill their own happiness at any cost.
Moreover, people internalize their own oppression. I wasn’t taught to think critically and wasn’t encouraged to ask questions as a child. I remember having some curiosity, such as where the food came from. At the supermarket or restaurants, I wondered how they got their supplies. There is complexity and simplicity to this question, and this system keeps people ignorant. This is a contradiction of this system that things are individually owned but socially produced, which, as Bob Avakian has shown us, gives rise to making revolution.
Anyways, coming back to myself (hehehe). Throughout my twenties, my journey was to “fix” myself. Through this process, I came to understand that millions of women internalize their oppression, especially after being abused but, also, in all the ways females are told they are not good enough and are less than human. So after working through the guilt of my childhood abuse, I felt the need to help others because I realized it was a systemic problem. The oppression of women is systemic. I saw this oppression from not only sexual abuse but, moreover, self-inflicted abuse. Females starving to lose weight, cutting to feel alive, sexualizing themselves to feel worthy, etc. So in one sense, I wasn’t just thinking about myself. But it was still from a narrow framework of first needing to take care of myself. The old idiotic mantra: how can you help others if you can’t help yourself, or how can you help others if YOU are not OK? This message is constantly pumped at people. But I also wasn’t coming from getting rid of the oppression of women or the oppression of people altogether since I had no idea that was possible. I wasn’t even aware of the root of the problem—patriarchy and capitalism. Additionally, I thought the only contribution I could make was through education.
I had the love of the people, particularly people who had been sexually assaulted. I had the love of people oppressed worldwide in sweatshops, and in the many other ways people are oppressed. But I didn’t know how I could help. I think there are many people, maybe more so now than ever because of the Trump/Pence fascism regime, who see, at least, some of the horrors of society but don’t know what to do about it. It can be daunting. Some even ask, “I’m just one person, what can I do?” Many others turn to the narrow horizon of working within the system! People can’t imagine a world free of exploitation and domination. This is one of the many crimes of this system where people are taught that capitalism is the best and only way to live.
It took me a while to envision a communist world. However, the deeper I dug into BA’s writings, the more I began understanding the workings of the system, the more I came to realize that this is NOT the only way to live, and that a better way society runs, in the interest of all of humanity, is possible. At the same time, the more scientific my approach is, the less I internalize oppression. Through a lot of work, studying theory and ideological struggle, I’ve come to understand the root of the problem. How people think, relate to each other, their lifestyle, the culture, and how people come to understand things is a product of a system, in this case, a capitalist system. So instead of getting mad at people or myself, I righteously turn that anger at the system that creates all this shit. People need to be inspired, to envision a whole better way to live, based on the material bases in society, and then fight for that world!
My previous understanding about making revolution was having the courage to put my life on the line and fight. I was ready to fight the power. But through a process, which continues to today, which is also a lifelong process, I understand the need and importance of ideological struggle. I’ve come to understand that in order to fight for a world without exploitation and oppression, we have to change the ways we relate to each other right now, under this system. We must strive to represent the six Points of Attention for the Revolution. People need to see these principles in action to give them a vision of the world we fight for and inspire them to fight for, as well.
Skybreak writes about her experience early-on participating in group discussion where she said, “It was wonderful.” She referred to a wide variety of people, with different nationalities and different backgrounds. This provided her a taste of how future society could be like, because social divisions were worked on and people worked together to figure out how to make an actual revolution. This is what we should strive toward. This is the six Points of Attention we must strive to uphold.
This is what we ask of others. This is what we ask of our youth in Chicago, to change their whole life around for the betterment of humanity. So this is what WE must do as well. It’s fuckin’ hard. The pulls of this system are vicious. This system is a muthafucker! But we have to come back to—who are we fighting for (seven billion people) and, what are we fighting for (emancipation of humanity)? We must constantly come back to this question! What is your life going to be about?
When I get sucked into the “self,” I imagine floating in the air with the view of the Earth. This gives me a different perspective. What and why the fuck am I fussing, fighting, arguing or whatever petty shit I have been caught up in and instead I see the masses of people suffering. When I have this image, the “self” no longer matters! If there were a hell, this would be it. So it is a constant struggle to be consistently scientific—to consistently represent the six Points of Attention! Making revolution is hard! True. But living under this system is intolerable!
Once you understand the problem and the solution, there is a moral question. What is your life going to be about and are you ready to dig into the work?
The work is hard! But the tools are there! Bob Avakian has done the hardest work than anyone else to provide the masses the opportunity to become emancipators of themselves and humanity. What is needed is YOU!
How many more Philando Castiles; how many more women have to be raped and beaten; how many more women, children, and men have to die crossing the border; how many more of our children have to die by pigs; how many more have to die in inflatable boats fleeing for their lives before you live and fight for a better world? How many? How many?
The horrors of this system are many! How about women who are constantly raped, humiliated, degraded, treated as sexual objects, incubators, and little girls sold into sex slavery? How about the children wasting their lives away working to make our merchandise and electronic gadgets? How about the millions of people driven from their homes migrating to the U.S. or another imperialist country just to be humiliated, discriminated, and treated as less than human? How about the destruction of the planet? How about the wars of empire? How about the Trump/Pence fascism regime working non-stop to consolidate power? Any one of these is enough to make revolution!
In Chicago, thousands dread the summer. Every weekend there is a death toll. What runs through my head is—how many will die this weekend? This past weekend, similar to other weekends: eight dead, 49 wounded in Chicago weekend shootings.
How about the children in Yemen starving to death due to the wars of empire? How about the thousands of Black, Brown, and Native people killed by pigs who get away with it? Philando Castile was a beautiful human being with a job, a partner, and a beautiful young daughter. He was assassinated in front of his little girl who tried to console her mother as Castile took his last breath! And the list of horrors goes on, and on, and on, and on.
But we don’t have to continue to live under this horror of a capitalist system. There is a way out of this nightmare. If your blood boils with rage, if any of the above makes you wanna scream your lungs out, if your darkest nightmare is brighter than real life, you have a human responsibility to learn about Bob Avakian. He is the architect of the New Synthesis of Communism. He became a revolutionary in the ’60s and NEVER gave up on the people. He has a visceral love for the people.
I was excited to speak to a woman who has met Bob Avakian. And I asked her to share her experience meeting him. Her face immediately lit up and it sparked with beauty and a big smile. She likes that he keeps it real, which we often hear from the masses. Of course she said more but, although I don’t remember every word, I do remember my experience listening to her. I felt the deep love she expressed. I too feel a huge sense of appreciation for Bob Avakian for his lifelong dedication and love for the masses when I listen, read, and watch his over 50 years of work.
Bob Avakian is the leader of the people. Now, think about any other leader of this imperialist system that cares about humanity? You will have a hard time because the truth is there isn’t one! There hasn’t been a better time in history than today to liberate all of humanity because we have Bob Avakian, his work, and the material bases. We have the way out, a cure to the horrors of this system.
The time to act is NOW! The time to step into the revolution is NOW!
We are alive in worse times than the time during Hitler in Germany! When I was young and learning about the Holocaust, I wondered why people allowed millions of people to die. Now we are in a similar situation. I refuse to be that good German who didn’t speak out, who went along to stay alive, who saw people being rounded up, or people who decided to turn off the news and pretend nothing was happening. I refuse to be a murderer of our people. The time is now to decide what your life is going to be about. There is a role for you in this movement. The world cries out. The time is now.
So, knowing that the world can’t wait any longer and that we have the leadership in Bob Avakian with the answer to emancipate all of humanity, what is YOUR life going to be about? Carving a little bit of happiness out of this cancerous system? Or making your life mean something more than about yourself, and instead living to liberate all of humanity? Who are you going to live for? What are you going to live for?
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