White Leftists Need More Imagination

One facet of political theory that fascinates me is the inability of Western leftists to consider that their own critiques are fundamentally lacking in imagination. They've re-hashed the same 'working-class' economics and unionization that is wildly inadequate to the hyper capitalist hegemony we live under today. The sheer size, scale, and scope of consolidation of material wealth is so expansive that even Karl Marx himself would've been in awe.

But to continue to think in the manner of 19th century English/American "tycoon" types that are readily identifiable by their monocle and mustache and can be defeated with pure unionization is ridiculous. The capitalist system has moved on from this and even moved on from the advent of the Fordist assembly line itself. The advent of American neoliberalism morphing into hyper-capitalist hegemony was accelerated in the 1980s and morphed again by the late-2000s. Even if the 'old guard' of unionization could meet the demands of today, its political 'bite' has been de-fanged to death at least three generations ago.

Now, the imagination and framework is still under Western relations of "exploitation and extraction" of resources, namely land itself. This one-sided business deal with nature has always been human-centric and cannot be reconciled simply by slapping a far-left economic stamp on a framework still using capitalist logic. When we say that we are not seperate from nature, this is not a liberal rallying cry to "save the trees" or whatever. Nor is it the self-defeating leftist framework of seizing the means of production only to reproduce a more progressive capitalist exploitation.

To truly fathom the degree of lost direction from nature and life in the West, you must reconsider even more than these things. You must shed the arrogance that has been beaten into every generation of White settlers since their inception. We are not the main character nor unresponsible for the damage wrought by colonialism and imperialism onto nature itself. This means to understand the world around you on a deep level and listen to the natural world as you go about your life. Re-imagine what it means to have a symbiotic relationship with nature, rather than an exploitative one based on what you can extract from it.

We, white settlers, have lost whatever humanity was to be had when we came here. We lost the plot a long time ago. I don't have all the answers but it's long overdue to seek out and internalize indigenous perspectives, philosophies, economics, and other means of thinking. Because that's the bare minimum right now.