In defense of dreaming
There is a lyric from the band Ashenspire that has resonated with me recently.It goes "When I couldn’t see the stars, I stopped dreaming of space". The band is absolutely fantastic and I would urge anyone who is into avant-garde black metal with anarchist themes to check them out. They wear their heart on their sleeve and their messaging is very much at the forefront of the music.
Anyway back to the lyrics. I think we as a society cannot see the stars, both literally and figuratively. As a fairly new anarchist I feel I keep running into the same brick wall when discussing me views of our current situation. To be clear I am also not one of those anarchists who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the literature of the ideology. I just want a better world for everyone and think anarchism offers a reasonable way for me to achieve that.
There in lies the brick wall. When I discuss my particular flavour of anarchism with people I always receive the same negative answers. I have also noticed this online when it pops up. Recently on Tildes I noticed it in a discussion. People seem to almost instinctively jump to the conclusion that whatever positive idea you give will be ruined by a perceived bad person.
I'm sure we have all had these conversations in the past few years where we discuss issues and how to solve them. Sure the world is complex and solving one problem won't necessarily solve another but is that really a reason to not at least try. I don't pretend to have all the answers but if you have engaged in this kind of conversation with me I am going to try and give answers to the worlds issues.
The usual responses are always "well that's not how people work", "people are inherently selfish so therefore that wouldn't work", "It's all good and well that people get everything for free but someone will show up and ruin it all". These sorts of answers are always the fall back. Ok well are you like this? Who is this person that will ruin it all for us? Sure when you look around the world seems full of these humans but I think in reality its an amplified effect.
Social media has most likely reinforced this idea as has the ruling class. Have we become so beaten down that the mere suggestion of something good doesn't warrant any thought? I rarely have conversations with people where the person suggests a positive change for the world. Whereas I try my hardest to always offer some sort of positive solution. The idea being to spread ideas that are positive and promote a different way of thinking. I don't want to convert you to anarchism, I want to convert you to a dreamer.
I want you to sit back and think of ways we can change the world for the better. A new tactic that I have been trying to implement when discussing worldly issues is having people explain why they think that way, and I want to take it a step further and ask them to explain to me how we could solve the issue so that all people benefit. When you can see the stars, you start dreaming of space!