In the wee hours of this morning, I had the chance to watch the final episode of Can't Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World. I mentioned it in my post on Friday.
While there was a little cognitive dissonance for me in some of what Adam Curtis talked about in the closing section of the docuseries, I'm willing to look into that further. I think elements may not stand up given further information that has come to light between the series being released to BBC iPlayer on 11 February and now.
However, I was (pleasantly) surprised that the docuseries ended on a hopeful note.
It was not so much Curtis providing a 'solution'. But he quoted an American anthropologist and anarchist activist, David Graeber, who I'd not previously heard of. Based on the quote and the title of his books, I will definitely have to read up more on him and read his books.
About this time last year, I first heard about Doughnut Economics. And in September last year, I wrote a rant titled Fuck capitalism! What's next? I spewed out ideas that had been whirling around my head since close to the beginning of the pandemic.
I haven't re-read my rant since I wrote it, so I'm not sure it's worth sharing, and it wasn't complete. But around the same time, I was having conversations with anyone who would listen about how we needed to take this opportunity to do things differently going forward.
Some people were open to what I had to say. But a lot - including many close to me - responded with statements like "That won't happen in my lifetime". Or "That's a pipedream". Or (in respect to discussions about Universal Basic Income) "But how would we pay for it?"
Graeber's quote from The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy neatly encapsulates my response to most of those naysayers:
The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.
At the time of these discussions, I didn't claim to have all of the answers. Or even any of them. And I still don't. But I didn't (and don't) see why we couldn't (and can't) be asking the questions and completely changing things up.
People before us came up with capitalism, communism, socialism, dictatorships, and on and on. Why can't we create something new that works for everyone? That may include the best elements of the above and/or completely new ideas?
And yes, I know I sound blindly optimistic about this. But why not? What is actually stopping us?
I have learned so much in the past year or so. Predominantly through listening to others and being more open-minded about how we could improve. And how we can move forward with greater equality as a global society.
Sure, there are likely to be few "quick wins", and there are plenty of right-wing folks scaremongering and creating division to protect "the old ways" that favour them.
But there is so much to gain if we can make the world differently.