You, reading this. The you who has spent all their time doing everything “right” just to be spat out the other end. Or maybe the you who has been at a disadvantage from the start. The you who sells their time (and probably body, as more of us become physically disabled due to stress and physical strain) to pay for food that nourishes, clean water, and shelter, things people have been able to acquire for themselves historically. The you who looks in the mirror and asks why you are doing this another day.
You need to live. Your life is all that you have – this one long trip on this beautiful floating rock. You need to learn how to fight for your life. And then learn how to fight for others. It doesn’t need to be some grand gesture. If money is what stands in the way of a dignified life for all, you need to learn how to do without it. We’re a long way from there, and there’s absolutely no easy way around or through it. It’s a long way, but not impossible, since money isn’t such a permanent structure as we have been made to believe it is, and has only existed for a small portion of our history. In a perfect world, we simply do the work that needs to be done, instead of waiting around for rich assholes to tell us what work to do. To tell us what work is worth investing in. They will fight tirelessly to make sure a world without money isn’t possible – they will incarcerate us, vilify us, strip us of every right until we comply. Then there lies the work of taking away their prisons. The work of organizing; whether its your building co-habitants or other renters in your neighborhood to move towards a strike; deconstructing the laws that make houselessness illegal and threaten us with violence if we do not comply with the school-work-consume cycle; or providing essential services like education, construction, car repairs, housing, medical and mental health services, childcare and so many more totally free.
We could very well be living in the collapse of an empire. Commodification and exploitation of fellow humans can be erradicated in our lifetimes. No more jobs that rely on the contimuum of suffering. No more giving a cut to the people who say they will fix all of our problems instead of fixing them ourselves. There is no one coming to save us, but ourselves, and each other. Consider starting the path to quitting your job forever.