By Allison Su

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Reflections on capitalism, campus protests, Octavia Butler, and the 2024 election

With the election coming up this year, systemic change is needed more than ever. To define the system is a difficult task because it is pervasive, sinking into everything we know, think, and feel. Built on social constructs and ideologies, the system is nearly impossible to escape.

Systemic change can start small, however, and is already happening. On a larger scale, something like ranked choice voting in our national elections might begin to improve things and break us out of the chains of the two-party system in the United States that traps us into choosing the “lesser of two evils.” While other parties do exist, the chances that these candidates can win is slim. Voters might veer away from these candidates as well, in an attempt to not split the vote between mainstream party and third party candidates. Of course, ranked choice voting won’t solve everything, but systemic changes like these are needed to move beyond repeated history and into transformation.

At the same time that the political system traps us, the economic system of capitalism traps us. Capitalism also ensnares politics, as any policy that is passed in the United States is within the framework of capitalism. Every institution then operates under this framework or is left to absorb the consequences that capitalism creates.

To understand these consequences further, capitalism must be understood as a system that displaces externalities, such as supply chain labor and environmental damages, so that corporations don’t have to pay for them, and neither do consumers who reap the benefits of cheap products. Thus, people in the Global North are able to enjoy riches at the expense of those in the Global South, where big companies exploit cheap labor and land. While those of us in the Global North don’t have to worry about this level of exploitation now, without system change, who’s to say that those of us not in the top 1% won’t be further exploited in the years to come?

I feel like I’m already seeing things get worse too. I was appalled to find out that, according to Forbes, there are thirteen people in the world whose net worth is over $100 billion, not to mention that all of these people are men. Based on the 2014 list of billionaires, no one had a net worth that high ten years ago. As the wealth gap increases, the room for the less wealthy in the Global North to be exploited increases. It should thus come as no surprise that it was incredibly difficult for people, especially young people like myself, to find employment this year. It should also come as no surprise that there were mass layoffs in tech earlier this year, with recent graduates having to compete against more experienced workers to no avail. It’s because big businesses are too focused on technology (read: AI) and not people. We are living an iteration of Aristotle’s warning, in which the reasons for our technology and products are becoming lost.

One could say that the reason we need so much innovation is for economic growth, but why do we need economic growth? Why do we accept growth as a paradigm when doing so exceeds the natural limits of our planet, bringing us closer to tipping points that can trigger irreversible feedback loops that make the worst impacts of climate change inevitable?

Instead, we need economic stability and equity, so that people can live freely and not as wage slaves, and those with the most money do not have the opportunity to abuse their power, as they have already done over and over again.

The administration of my college has also abused its power, most evidently in the campus protests that occurred last semester. I was in a unique position where I wasn’t on campus during the pro-Palestinian encampments that caught the attention of national media. From afar, I was worried about the safety of the student protestors and appalled to see how little the administration cared about its students. How could they send a whole army of police to take them down?

While any reasons for this decision are unjustifiable, the reasons for this abhorrent abuse of power are closely tied to capitalism. Billionaires and CEOs of big companies pressured the Adams administration to pour millions into police overtime so that the NYPD could storm campus after the protests escalated. The blocks around campus were barricaded, and it truly seemed like a surveilled police state, a trope all too common in dystopian fiction.

I also want to point out that the administration was trapped as well. Perhaps they were too focused on pleasing the university’s donors because losing this source of money would be incredibly damaging for students. But imagine if our educational system didn’t have to rely on the whims of the rich like this. Then, maybe, the administration would care a little more about its students. Students can blame the administration for being bootlickers all they want, but that won’t change things. What will change things is changing the system.

Having seen so many abuses of power all around, it becomes clear that power must be decentralized. This includes renewable energy, as one form of power. As a sustainability person, climate is a major issue for me, so I understand the necessity of a renewable energy transition. If we keep the system the same and allow big corporations to take over this transition, however, then we will run into the same problems of power dynamics threatening abuses of power. Even initiatives like ESG won’t really save us because companies will still prioritize profits and economic growth, which are antithetical to sustainability. History repeats itself because things don’t change enough.

Decentralizing power may sound radical and risky, but sticking to the status quo is dangerous. There is something wonderful about decentralized power, in which solar energy, for example, can power sunlit communities while all the benefits from that power stay within those communities. Grassroots organizations like WE ACT are already championing such community solar projects. Power to the people, and not to big business and big government.

For people to wield their power while respecting each other and the planet, they must be empowered. For this, I want to turn your attention to Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, who was an iconic Black science fiction writer. I recently finished reading this book, which provides a message of hope even in the darkest of times. It begins in 2024 in a United States that is much grimmer than the one we live in now, but we don’t want to slip into the future of the book: a world ravaged by barbarism–where murder, rape, and cannibalism are not uncommon–though the tax system somehow still functions and money is still accepted as legitimate.

The main character in Parable of the Sower, Lauren Olamina, is only a teenager during these dark times, but she is also a natural leader who believes wholeheartedly in the necessity of change and the work that comes with it. The end of the book is beautiful and was my favorite part to read because of the hope that Lauren turns into action, letting the future brim with possibility. There are a few quotes from the end of the book that I want to draw your attention to, which will not spoil the ending but may lead you to imagine what it is about:

1) Lauren, traveling with a band of people picked up along her northward journey, says, “I want her to love her own life and yours enough not to be careless. That’s what I want.” With a similar sentiment, I’ll tell you what I want: I want us to care enough about our lives such that we don’t resign ourselves into the clutches of capitalism. Most of us, unfortunately, must depend on capitalism to survive because we must buy almost everything we need. We don’t, however, need a system like this to live. In fact, capitalism takes life away from us, whether it’s by preventing those of us with less privilege from reaching our true callings or working us to death just so we can get by. If your situation is not as dire, then the least you can do is use your privilege to resist the system. The least privileged are the best at resisting the system, but it shouldn’t have to be this way.

2) “A community’s first responsibility is to protect its children–the ones we have now and the ones we will have.” Lauren, full of wise words, points out the obvious but forgotten. Caring for children is a universal value, and while interpretations of what it means to protect children vary widely, harming the planet clearly does not protect children now or in the future. It is essential to listen to the voices of children, who are the least corrupted by the system.

3) “I want to build something, too. I never had a chance to build anything before.” One of Lauren’s traveling mates says this, and her sentiment resonates strongly in the age of capitalism. People don’t have a chance to build things for themselves because their skills are robbed to help businesses make profits, or their skills aren’t enough to earn money to sustain themselves. Artisanship has also been picked away at by capitalism, which prefers the efficiency of assembly lines and specialization that splits complex processes into component parts that limit the skills of individuals. Everyone deserves a chance to exercise their creativity instead, to build things for themselves and their communities, rather than for endless streams of products to be sold.

4) “It seems almost criminal that you should be so young in these terrible times. I wish you could have known this country when it was still salvageable.” Clearly, we don’t want this to be said to future generations. We are at a point where things are still salvageable, so we must act on this inflection point in history and push for systemic change.

We need bottom-up grassroots approaches, to look to the Global South for answers, and a more truly democratic form of governance that empowers communities instead of merely consulting with or informing them. If you don’t have a background in or knowledge of this kind of work, it may all seem too abstract, so let me offer some action items that don’t require immediate in-depth research.

This fall, vote if you can, but don’t just vote. Political action outside of voting is necessary. Push leaders to keep their promises and go beyond the bare minimum. Accountability is essential to a functional democracy, so don’t settle when leaders don’t hold up their end of the bargain. It is also helpful to explore outside of formal U.S. politics by checking out grassroots organizations, community-based organizations, and other groups taking bottom-up approaches to address the major issues of today.

The least you can do, whether or not you can vote, is to be critical and think for yourself. It helps to keep asking “why” until you get to the root of a problem (or maybe even further into the “soil” of the problem, which is essentially the psychological factors beyond the root of a problem that influence it). Hopefully, through this practice of critical thinking, you will also be able to recognize the connections between the many issues facing us in the modern age. Climate change is one of them. It is an intersectional issue because it impacts everything we care about and will continue to do so, as it impacts agricultural systems, destabilizes social systems, and exacerbates inequities both globally and within the U.S.

Remember also to foster your imagination and educate yourself on what is possible. To imagine outside of the world we are currently living in is to see into the future and build towards a better world that is truly more just and sustainable.

Through this journey of change, you may find that it can be a lot to take in sometimes. My brain has definitely been overloaded more than once. When it gets to be too much, remember to rest. As Tricia Hersey says, rest is a form of radical resistance, especially in a system that is always pushing us to work. Don’t let yourself be worked by the system. Instead, work for yourself and your community, with people and the planet in mind. The future is a big question mark, and it’s waiting for us to shape it. To create something beautiful out of the future will take a lot of work from each and every one of us. That work must start now.

Sources

Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Grand Central Publishing, 1993.

“Forbes Real Time Billionaires List – the World’s Richest People.” Forbes, 2024,
www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#385578ef3d78.

Wikipedia Contributors. “The World’s Billionaires 2014.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7
Nov. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Billionaires_2014.

Process

A lot of my recent thinking around capitalism has come from a class I took while I was abroad in Copenhagen last semester. The class was called Sustainable Development in Northern Europe and focused on degrowth, colonialism, and renewable energy. I wrote a piece discussing this class (and my general experiences abroad) called “Reflections On A Semester Abroad in Copenhagen” for the Girls Write Now website, and the ideas in both of these pieces are closely related. I hope to write more pieces about these topics in the future, in addition to the many other creative projects I’m working on!