Unlearning capitalism

In the last few years I’ve been learning from my brother Aaron Levine about oppression, how to talk about it, how to help people understand their own systemic amnesia, and unlearning capitalism.

Lately I’ve been telling people, I am in the process of unlearning.

What does unlearning capitalism look like?

I feel like a lot of what I’ve been talking about in the last few years- for example

– resisting work,
– how your nonprofit might be the villain,
– how to spot a virtue hoarder,
– why we should question mindfulness,
– how work won’t love you back, and
– why addressing racism is so important is the process of unlearning capitalism.

Unlearning is a process, but as I keep reflecting, going to therapy, and talking about post-capitalist futures with folks (most recently in Madison, WI at my keynote) I feel like this unlearning is happening, this awakening is happening all over the world.

Mazarine Treyz Nonprofit Keynote Speaker, talking about unlearning capitalism, picture of a woman in a red dress speaking to audience with a wooden podium.

What can we unlearn, together?

– UNLEARNING blaming yourself for poverty.
– UNLEARNING patriarchy
– UNLEARNING misogyny
– UNLEARNING racism
– UNLEARNING trauma responses to a broken culture
– UNLEARNING overworking
– UNLEARNING feeling guilty about resting.
– UNLEARNING the need to be the one who solves the world’s problems. Let the world go hang! As they say in old fashioned books.

What would the NP sector look like if we could collectively unlearn these things?

Even better, what would our lives look like if we could unlearn these things?

That’s what radical imagination is.

PART of unlearning has to happen in community.

And that is what I want to offer you.

A Community of UNLEARNING.

unlearning capitalism by looking at a meme with bart simpson and all of the things that are affecting us, the many stresses such as COVID, omnicron variant, deadlines,

We can be UNLEARNING that we are the ones who have to be the teacher, the helper, the leader, the one who needs to be right.

We can also be UNLEARNING what we were taught about our own worth as people. How we have to be a helper or we have no value, which, let’s face it, is pretty codependent.

UNLEARNING the constant grind. What would that even LOOK LIKE?

That’s what I encouraged people to dream about at AFP Fundraising Day in Madison. Here’s a question to kickstart your radical imagination.

If all your needs were taken care of, what would you do?

I asked, if all of your needs were taken care of, you could have free food and shelter, and not worry about bills, and if this could be true for EVERYONE in your town, what would you do? How would you live? What laws would you see passed?

And we had some pretty incredible answers!

But some folks came back with, but HOW? HOW WOULD WE MAKE IT HAPPEN?

mazarine treyz keynote speaker on post-capitalist futures, unlearning capitalism, in madison, wisconsin

And then I got to tell them,

HERE’S THE COOL THING. It’s ALREADY HAPPENING.

And it already happened here in North America.

Pandemic stimulus, free money, already happened in the US and Canada in 2020 and 2021. We’ve proven we can do UBI for everyone.

Eviction moratoriums, rent freezes already happened, here in the US and Canada, in 2020 and 2021.

Free money? Universal Basic Income? ALREADY HAPPENING.

According to Business Insider, we have Universal Basic Income happening in multiple cities in the US, as well as in different cities and towns around the globe according to the Basic Income Network.

And it’s WORKING. And we have research to prove that it works.

Instead of people outsourcing their retirement to owning a house, we have collective apartment ownership going on, collective trailer park ownership as well,

THAT IS ALREADY HAPPENING.

Countries with 6 weeks of vacation minimum in places like Cambodia and Sweden. And unlimited PTO/vacation at many US companies already.

Many businesses are putting menstrual vacation into policy, menopause vacation, and sabbaticals.

Nonprofits and businesses going to a 4 hour work day, and a 4 day work week.

We have studies that show that if we all stopped commuting 1 day a week it would cut our carbon emissions by 15%! Proof? We reduced carbon emissions by 11% in 2020. Many of us actually don’t have to work in an office, or take a faraway vacation. And this is proof that we can do it again.

You see? We have the evidence we need for the world we want. The world we want is being built all around us.

It has to start with questions. WHY do I feel like this? WHO taught me to feel this way or think this way? WHAT is another way to think or feel or be?

AND THERE IS a world beyond capitalism.

If human history were 24 hours, capitalism would only be the last 2 minutes of it. We know there was a time before capitalism, and there will be a time after it. It is a race to the bottom, it is actively killing our planet, and we can start moving beyond it.

HOW?

We already are! We are already starting to move beyond it.

Did you know that there are more co-ops in the world than there are businesses? (add link here)

What’s your part?

Your part is to stretch your radical imagination. Deprogram and educate yourself. Get to know your neighbors. Start to participate in mutual aid networks.

If capitalism is based on extraction, what is the opposite of extraction or extractive economies?

Restorative economies

Restorative economies mean community ownership, and community governance. Under a restorative economy, imagine that we could give the land time to breathe between growing cycles. We can also think of restorative economies mean that we are always thinking of the best way to treat our workers, our animals, plants, and soil, and we treat them that way. What if the dominant culture could look to the leadership of indigenous people who want to show us how they manage the land, and take the best lessons from that, and apply it, culminating in #LandBack for Indigenous people? (LandBack is already happening! See wins here)

UNLEARN binary and black and white thinking

As Alnoor Ladha says, “We take the best parts of socialism, and synthesize them. We take the best parts of localism and synthesize them. We take the best parts of capitalism, and synthesize them.” It’s not all or nothing, black or white. It’s thinking about how we can be free, together. And part of free, the really interesting part, is that the word freedom is linked to friendship.

We can’t do this alone. And so if you think of individual solutions, or feel like you have to come up with solutions by yourself, you don’t have to. It’s about coming up with solutions in community. That’s the power of unlearning. Learning to trust that there will be a world beyond capitalism, and indeed, there ALREADY IS. We can reach for it together and make a brighter future for everyone.