What Can We Do?

In the first post of a new newsletter “about how to fight individualism and build collective power”, Blakeley laments that “the pandemic did not, as Indian novelist Arundhati Roy hoped, provide a ‘portal’ to a new world – it allowed imperialist states and big tech companies to consolidate control over our lives, while increasing support for far-right extremists.” She reflects on how “the idea that we have to fight to survive seems to have become commonplace”, and that by being encouraged to believe that “we are entirely on our own, and that interdependence and cooperation are signs of weakness”, hope is denied. But she sees a “contagious” sense of “collective empowerment” emerging among communities like Blaenau Ffestiniog in Wales, who are resisting this imposed zero-sum individualism to transform their communities. Blakeley goes on to realise that transformation “was only going to come from people trusting each other, supporting each other, and learning to work together.