Ethan_Sargent Posted June 2, 2014 Posted June 2, 2014 Hi everyone, As the topic title indicates, I'm a student at a public high school. When I first discovered anarchism and voluntarism, I was so excited to share my enthusiasm with my classmates! I was met with some pretty harsh resistance. Nobody wanted to talk with me on an intellectual level; they were much more concerned with trying to provoke me emotionally, through name calling or insulting dismissal. But this is what depresses me: Whenever I do engage intellectually with someone, I invest my time and energy into tearing down their arguments for the state, until finally, they have nothing left and it's just me staring at them and them staring back, and they still accept the state as a moral institution and hate me for arguing my position effectively. It depresses me that in a student body a few thousand strong, nobody cares about the evil that's being inflicted on them. If I ask my classmates a question like, "Are morals objective?" a wave of contemptuous ridicule explodes in my face. It depresses me to watch the real-time brainwashing of my classmates as it is repeatedly drilled into their head in every humanities class that "capitalism is unstable." Anything resembling a spine has long since been extracted from them and they offer no resistance to even the most outrageously false bits of propaganda. This environment of total apathy is slowly sapping my fighting spirit. When I think about the soul destruction of my classmates, I alternate between anger and total apathy. When it comes right down to it, there's just not much I can do but watch. How can I possibly have hope for the future when I'm surrounded by it, and it looks pretty fucking grim from right here?
dsayers Posted June 2, 2014 Posted June 2, 2014 I'm no expert, but I'm guessing the depression you speak of is rooted in unrealistic expectations. If you haven't already, I'd strongly recommend based on your post that you check out Stef's Bomb in the Brain series. It's important to understand how and why people think what they think before trying to change that. I've taken to trying to determine if somebody is of integrity (values truth above falsehood) up front. If they indicate that it's not the truth that they seek but rather bias confirmation, then I move along. I won't let them taint me or waste my time. It's triage. You have to leave the lost ones behind in order to help those who are curious. Then, before long, there will be so many people that see through the propaganda that it will be uncomfortable for those who support the institutionalized initiation of the use of force. And never forget that the lost souls you're dealing with are victims of their parents. I hope this is of some help to you.
Recommended Posts