Hi friends,
I’ve got a piece in The New York Times today about how collective joy — participatory, youthful, anti-corporate — can defeat Trumpism and transform our lives.
The basic argument is that politics used to be embedded in community: dances, sports leagues, union halls. As that infrastructure disappeared — and more of everyday life was atomized and privatized — politics became something broadcast at people rather than something they did together. NYC-DSA and Zohran provide another model, where socials and face-to-face organizing are tied to a fight vs the corporations that fenced off so much of the good life. Rebuilding that kind of collective fun, I argue, could help bring young people back into politics and, by redistributing America’s wealth, make our lives more joyful.
I would super appreciate it if you’d read the piece, share it, or post comments on it. Thank you!
p.s. FYI, Opinion writers don’t get any say over their headlines!
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Take action to support the fight of licensed deck officers at Alaska Tanker Company and Overseas Shipholding Group to win a first union contract. This is one of the most important, and underreported, unionization campaigns in America: these workers have a huge amount of power over domestic energy distribution and maritime supply chains, and they’re still without a contract two years after having voted overwhelmingly to unionize.
Please sign the public petition here, and if you’re an academic you can sign this support letter.
"As that infrastructure disappeared — and more of everyday life was atomized and privatized — politics became something broadcast at people rather than something they did together."
One design rule might be worth carrying into the rebuilding: coming should cost less than the relief. The old third places obeyed it without naming it — the union hall, the league night, the dance charged almost nothing at the door: no test to pass, no performance owed, often not even sustained eye contact, just a seat facing the same fire as everyone else. Broadcast politics beat the hall because the couch costs nothing; an organizing social wins only if its price of entry — travel, obligation, the fear of being cornered by the most committed person in the room — stays under the relief it delivers. That gives "fun" an engineering meaning you can inspect a calendar with: for each event, what does showing up cost a tired stranger, and what do they carry home? Congratulations on the Times piece — and the tanker officers' campaign at the end is the part I'm carrying with me; two years without a first contract is its own argument for everything above it.