Building the Future Now

Tag: #BuildTheFuture

  • Loneliness and Its Impact on Politics

    I was watching a video the other day discussing comedian Bill Burr’s comments on Elon Musk that got him banned from Twitter/X.The video, linked below, started as something humorous but turned into a serious discussion on a topic that deeply impacts many of us.

    You can check out the video here.

    This issue is loneliness in our society. In the video it is discussed as a male loneliness epidemic. The commenter in the video brought up the many different studies that show a link between right-wing ideology and loneliness in all ages and genders, not just in young men. And there are a great deal of these studies that show this link such as this one.

    So in reality, loneliness is an issue for everyone in our society. It’s not just men. A recent Surgeon General’s report titled Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation discusses how our communities are fraying and social connections are becoming weaker.

    This isn’t just due to modern society. Loneliness is a specific feature of our current economic system. A long-standing critique of capitalism is that it is alienating and causes the “atomization of the individual”. In short, this critique describes exactly what the Surgeon General’s report says is happening right now in the US.

    And as the multiple studies referenced above show, this loneliness manifests in our politics as far right ideology. We can’t fight loneliness. We can’t out argue it. We can’t protest it. The only way to counter it is through compassion. By building a new system where loneliness is not a key feature of it.

    The world around us is uncaring and selfish. So we need to be empathetic and selfless. The only way to counter all this is to be the counter argument ourselves. That is the only way that we win the game.

    Here is a good read on the atomization of the individual:

    All the Lonely People: The Atomized Generation

  • The Upcoming Consumer Boycott

    Tomorrow (Feb. 28) there is a call for a national consumer boycott to show displeasure with the alignment between the Trump Administration, billionaires such as Elon Musk, and large corporations. This is a great first step in pushing back on these forces.

    But it is an initiative that needs to be sustained. And it needs to be much deeper and broader than a consumer boycott. We need a larger shift. We need to exit the system.

    We can do that by using our purchasing power at local stores, cooperative businesses, and non-corporate stores as best we can. We can bank at credit unions instead of megabanks. We can establish mutual aid societies to help each other through difficult times. The more money we shift in these directions, the more these enterprises can flourish and diversify.

    The impacts of buying local are much larger than just the economic benefits and independence it brings. It makes our communities more resilient in the face of catastrophe or pandemics. This is especially true when it comes to our food sector. We need to be gardening, supporting local farms, canning, and taking care of our neighbors like people did back in the day. 

    This helps to lessen the effects of having a centralized food market. In the case of a catastrophic event or pandemic when supply lines could possibly be severed, local food systems and economies will be extremely important. It is better to have them built now than in the middle or aftermath of a pandemic.

    It’s important to remember, the most valuable thing about us isn’t our money, it’s our time and energy. Our communities are frayed, our social connections are frayed, and in general there is not a lot of trust in our society. Getting out and helping to build up your community is one way to re-establish the connection and trust that people used to have. We need to work with each other to build back up and heal our communities.

    Sometimes the best resistance is simply walking away and building something better. This is one of those times.