Infinite Crisis on a Finite Earth

In the modern day, some people experience something called “crisis fatigue.” Where they constantly are being fed information about multiple crises happening all over the world. This creates a paralysis of the mind and body and instills a sense of hopelessness. This hopelessness is very easy to exploit. If everyone is sad that bad things are happening and are too depressed to do anything about it then nothing gets done. If nothing gets done, everything either gets worse or stays as it is.

This only perpetuates the crisis of depression. The nihilism inherent to the people that the crisis depression impacts is very sad. Having so many oppressive systems being active at the same time can be quite defeating. However, that is what the people in power want. It is easier to economically oppress and exploit people that believe that a better tomorrow is impossible. Liberation from the many oppressions is possible.

A Better Tomorrow

A better tomorrow is possible, no matter how many oppressive systems are actively oppressing people. They can all be destroyed, and replaced with systems that encourage humanities better traits like cooperation. Active and sustained resistance is much better than just lasting down to die. Even if all the greatest activists in history were killed, there were more that came before and after them. The activists of the modern day stand upon the shoulders of giants, and the activists of the next generation will stand upon the shoulders of this one.

No matter how hard it is, all of humanity must try to overcome this great hurdle in history. Humanity has survived so far based on cooperation and communication. Humanity must liberate itself from the oppressions of the day. That is easier said than done. However, humanity has done it before. Before the modern capitalist-imperialist era there was the era of feudalism. Feudalism’s corruption was everywhere, no one had ever thought the era of kings and queens would ever end. Yet it did, it ended in a blaze of glory and people even romanticize it to this very day. The current world order can be replaced by a new one.

Revolutionary Optimism

Imagine a world where no one starved, where the skies are clear of smog, and a person can walk to a grocery store in the community in five minutes. Wouldn’t that be something? Isn’t that worth fighting for? This world is beautiful and is worth saving. Humanity is worth saving, despite popular narratives. The infinite crisis of the modern world can be defeated with mass work and cooperation. It may take millions of people working together to defeat the infinite crisis but it is still possible. Do not let the darkness of the world destroy the hope for liberation because that is the one thing that humanity has left.

This article isn’t asking people to blindly be optimistic against cataclysmic possibilities, rather it is asking that people see them, acknowledge them, and know that a better future is possible. The human race can be saved from climate change. America has the resources to end homelessness. A better world is possible, but a better world is not profitable. Therefore, under the capitalist profit motive system, it shall not exist.

Finite Time To Fix an Infinite Crisis

Furthermore, humanity is on a clock. The infinite crisis could destroy everything humanity has managed to build. Humanity doesn’t have infinite time to solve these systemic issues. However, what humanity does have is the ultimate power of cooperation. Anything can be defeated if enough people are involved. An example is world war two, the Soviets and the Americans were enemies before and after but they worked together to defeat the Nazis.

Finally, the point of all this is simple. Humanity has been through worse than this. Fascism, extinction events, and so much more. Humanity isn’t done surviving yet. Survival is etched into the DNA of every human being and is the one thing most people can agree on. Survival is necessary for everything else to follow. Humanity must survive the infinite crisis because this is a finite world.

Written by Kenneth Mazerat

Source:

Powershift: Choosing revolutionary optimism in the face of doom by Jasmine Butler

auscp: REVOLUTIONARY OPTIMISM AND PROLETARIAN SPIRIT by Nick Harper

StruggleSessions: Revolutionary Optimism

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Daniel Baudouin Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image Courtesy of Roo Pitt’s  Flickr Page – Creative Commons License