My question is related to this video.
I’m a first worlder living in the imperial core.
I’ve developed some internal theory to do some praxis for the movement, but I find it so hard to move forward due to intrusive thoughts on how complacent my useless coworkers are. They are the productive part of the company and joke about unionizing because they are noticing their increased exploitation, but they won’t do it. They also make fun of trans people and blame racial minorities for their criminalization in the “personal responsibility” kind of manner. Any means of trying to reason with them goes in one ear and out the other. I loathe being around them, but I have difficulty getting around thought spirals and ruminations around them. I’ve given up hope of doing anything meaningful with these losers than help each other collect a paycheck. I have no means of getting them fired, don’t want to give out too much info. I stick around because I can collect a paycheck with minimal oversight.
I’m disturbed by so many people’s use of the phrase “it is what it is” around the rot of the social services of this country that is clearly going against their own interest. It seems nonsensical to me that so many people laugh and are complacent in the destruction around them because they are temporarily isolated from it.
I want to do some praxis but I’m just too enraged and depressed being surrounded by these people that love their bigotry but would hate to do anything to liberate themselves. How would you suggest containing my rage filled ruminations appropriately so that I can perform my praxis?
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Being an organizer that is conscious of all that is wrong in the world requires adopting a dedicated persona for organizing. You will not be yourself, instead you are a dedicated organizer manipulating other people to either be organizers themselves or at least go along with the project. This is necessary unless your workplace is already cool. You will have to be in situations where you do nice things for chuds or listen to a liberal have the worst idea you’ve ever heard, get popular support for it, watch them fail, and still be the person that kindly advised against it and capitalizes on the failure by pushing in a good direction instead.
Organizing a union means organizing the people who are there, in other words. If you’re unable to do that, then I’d give up on the project entirely. I don’t mean this in a way that is dismissive towards you. Not everyone is in a place to bear that pain and frustration and fake complacency and it’s not your fault if you aren’t. It’s also not your fault that imperial core workers often suck so much to organize.
With that said, if you would like to give it another shot, then I would recommend practicing that persona as part of beginning the steps of a unionization drive, which is not just raising the U word with coworkers. You’d want to be strategic in your approach by orchestrating social situations in which to build ties and have conversations with everyone in the potential unit. Here are some tips/examples:
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Have a pizza party, go out for drinks, have a potluck. Use the opportunity to gauge what people care about (“if you could change one thing about this place, what would it be?”). Secretly take notes.
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Become the coworker everyone wants to dish to (i.e. feign interest in what they’re talking about) or find that coworker and get them on your side very early on.
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Gauge “seriousness” necessary to achieve unionization and compare it to what is currently there. Are any of your coworkers particularly precarious? e.g. undocumented immigrants? If so, you will need an extreme level of dedication to make it work, and be wholly committed. You’ll need a good mass of strong allies, complete solidarity, and a very coherent organizing committee.
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Speaking of organizing committee, you’ll need one. A good first step is to do a structure test by organizing your coworkers around a shared “one thing you’d change” (or similar). Something small. Maybe it’s free coffee in the break room. Maybe it’s getting a shitty manager fired. Maybe it’s getting safety equipment. Try to farm out organizing tasks to people and see if they follow through. As primary organizer, you’ll need to remind people and check in regularly. The people that do the work and speak up, etc, are the people you recruit for your organizing committee, which starts as a conversation outside of work among just those folks. Do not include anyone that you know is anti-union and make sure you’ve dog-whistled to get a sense of everyone’s take first.
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Once you have an organizing committee, you can develop a coherent and serious strategy for taking collective actions and jumping through the stupid legal hoops.
I think that listing this stuff out might be intimidating or discouraging, but I mean it to be the opposite: it’s a plan that can be followed and executed on and can help you get out of a headspace where you’d really like to unionize but kind of hate your coworkers.
PS I recommend blowing off steam in healthy ways and finding some people to commiserate with so that you can recharge with company rather than be drained with frustrating interactions. Any cool lefties or union organizers in your area?
I’ll look into union organizing, but I can’t lead it because I know my job is bullshit. Pretending to work just hurts my soul. My boss knows that I’ve been having mental breakdowns at work and keeps me around for reasons that I don’t understand.
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I need to point out that those people chanting “it is what it is” around the rot of the social services of this country are doing so to cope with their impotent rage. They aren’t just complacent because of their isolation, but because of their inability to do anything and cynical fear that things can only ever get worse.
That is not helpful to the central question, but thanks for the input. I suppose everyone here has unhealthy ways of coping with these contradictions. I’d like to have some healthy way of dealing with this, so that I can act knowing that I’m doing my best for the revolution.
Empathy helps me deal with impotent rage. I remember these cynical freaks are created by their material conditions, and realize the only reason I’m not the same is mostly down to luck.
Maybe I’ve never embraced my sense of powerlessness enough to be able to relate.
I read the Tao te Ching alot when I was really young and found it made more sense than the bible to me. My central understanding has always been that change is inevitable. Things only exist because they are harmonious with their surroundings until they are not.
Reading history taught me how things have changed due to technological and social changes in society.
I can’t empathise with those that think human nature is a static thing. They talk about human nature causing greed, but i inform them that even if true we clearly suppress certain behaviors in all societies like murder. All societies encourage certain behaviors and discourage other behaviors. There would be no need to suppress behaviors if they were not within this “human nature”.
I can’t get over how much it disgusts me that their conception of freedom is the freedom to direct who the government hurts instead of actual freedom for themselves. With freedom being ontologically impossible in their view, i guess these ghouls accept schadenfreude as a disgusting substitute.
I guess I’ll have to accept it is all just a cope thanks. These conservatives that refuse to take any responsibility for their society to pass on any freedom to their children are cowards that won’t meaningfully help or hurt most forms of revolution.
You don’t have to become like them to empathize! It’s hard, but I think it’s worth trying to understand the tragedy of their cynicism and to imagine their point of view. At the very least it makes fighting their cynicism easier. For example:
They choose to believe human nature is static because they hate themselves and everyone around them. It’s a cope.
Their conception of freedom is also a cope. They have to believe that the freedom to direct who the government hurts is freedom because that’s all they believe can ever be accomplished. They can not imagine actual freedom for themselves.
I think it’s sad.
Myopic. Misanthropic. Pathetic. Pitiable. All words I think fit this thought process well. Miseducation is a horrible tragedy, and it is a meaningful part of our work to combat it… tiring, exhausting, and often mind-boggling as it might be to do so.
They also make fun of trans people and blame racial minorities for their criminalization
Get them class conscious, and not only will you be able to get them organised but they will educate themselves out of this behaviour as well. None of that irrationality stands up to a higher level understanding of class conflict.
Don’t allow yourself to get hung up on homophobia, transphobia, xenophopia etc amongst your colleagues. There’s a reason liberal media appears to be on the same side as us with these issues but is never able to solve any of them, and never talks about the class conflict at the root of it all.
If you allow yourself to hate them because of their bigotry, you’re playing right into the capitalists’ divide and rule strategy.
