I don’t know if any of you are familiar with Gabor Maté’s work, he’s a well-respected Canadian psychologist and medical doctor. But I feel like some of the things he has to say could definitely support your cause. For one he says that the economy runs on people’s traumas, meaning he believes that trauma, which is common these days (but still not a well-known fact), creates addictions in people. And the reason why people consume so much is because of their addictions. He also points out that it’s the system we live in, which he describes as ‘toxic’, that causes traumas in people (he also says that our system is not at all supportive of mothers).
I can answer questions on trauma if anyone is interested, I’m no expert but somewhat well-informed on the subject or I can at least cover the basics. Or I would recommend reading the book Healing Trauma by Peter Levine which is short and easy, it also comes with exercises you can do from home to heal your own traumas. The documentary The Wisdom of Trauma is also very good.
And this is all science-based information, although I’m not entirely sure what is his own opinion and what is backed by science. But trauma is well-known amongst therapists. The good news is that there’s some relatively easy way for people to heal their traumas or to at least improve their symptoms (trauma can cause all sorts of symptoms). I used a method called Somatic Experiencing and got amazing results. I’m just thinking that this really supports your cause, if people start to become more aware of their traumas and are able to heal them, it could mean that people will have less addictions and therefore will start consuming less and this would affect the economy negatively (or you could say positively). Which creates more incentive to change the system… Also, I think if people become more aware of the fact that the system they live in is toxic to their health in many ways AND even traumatizes their children, I can’t imagine that anyone would want that to continue.
Something else he said is that he thinks that people from the Right are ‘emotionally shut down’. Which means that if someone experiences too much pain they can shut down emotionally, and no longer feel things as a normal, healthy person would. So the question is whether someone who’s in a position of power should be unable to feel empathy? Is this something that should be allowed in our society?
I honestly don’t know much about politics, but want to learn, but I know a little about psychology and I often wonder how what we know about psychology could be applied to politics or how it could be applied to change society in general. I might be wrong, but I’m seeing some huge potential in this type of information.
How this is also very powerful is that people can see more of how their society affects them personally. If it’s affecting your own health and your own children, you’re much more likely to take action and want change than if you’re talking about society and politics. I think for a lot of people that can seem a little more remote or out of reach…
Also if anyone here is struggling with their own addictions, I would encourage you to try Somatic Experiencing to see if it helps. Medical doctors are not trained in emotional trauma, so there’s a chance they would diagnose someone with a medical illness when they’re actually experiencing symptoms caused by trauma.
I wouldn’t mind hearing people’s thoughts on this… I know this information can be somewhat ‘shocking’ when you first hear it. But you’re better off knowing than not knowing, at least you can do something about it. I would suggest looking up Gabor Maté and Peter Levine’s YouTube videos for more information.
I didn’t know his son was also Marxist, good to hear. I love the childcare idea! Thanks for sharing. What he also says is that parents should really avoid childcare for at least the first 3-4 years of the life of children. Children really need their parents. It’s part of what causes trauma, a child needs a strong sense of safety and they’re not really getting enough of that in the current system.
I don’t know if he’s Marxist, and I don’t know if it’s positive or negative for him to be on that podcast. Of course, we shouldn’t be ripping kids from their parents, but it takes a village to raise a child. In a society that doesn’t give parental leave, profit motive free childcare is still a positive.
Why wouldn’t it be positive? It brings more awareness to the movement. You’re right, it does take a whole village to raise a child, that’s the problem… people are too isolated nowadays.
It might not be positive because the podcast (probably cancelled) is TERF and they’ve platformed anti-vaxxers and LaRoucheites. PC pod also spends way more time being anti-liberal than pro-Marxist which is often a red flag (I’m reminded of the Lemmygradder who got banned not long ago for being Muslim-sectarian and calling for an alliance with fascism against liberalism).
“Sir you have been accused of going on a podcast, how do you plead?”
The Great Podcast Purges
His son Aaron, is a writer/journalist with Greyzone, which has some good anti-imperialist takes.
He’s based. Daniel is the other son. He helped write the latest book with his father.