What the Fuck is Going On
A primer on the state of the world, in case you’ve been confused lately.
There’s a phrase you’ll often hear in radical community organizing spaces: “You can’t use the master’s tools to tear down the master’s house.” It’s a reminder to not commit the repetitive folly of thinking you can change unjust institutions from within them. The idea is that, in order to build something qualitatively different from the systems we currently have, you have to think and act and build in ways that are qualitatively different. If there is one thing this era is trying to teach us, it’s how to think qualitatively differently than we have been.
I am not opposed to reform outright; I think strategic reform focused on steadily shifting the balance of power towards a truly democratic society is one of the best tools we have. What I believe is essential about learning not to “use the master’s tools” is the call to prioritize thinking outside the box about the world we live in. We also need to think outside the box about the end of the world we live in.
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. The systems we’ve built to enshrine hierarchies in society are collapsing. The lines between ruler and ruled are blurred. The line between creators and consumers, between personal and political, between comfort and…
