A Better World Is Always Possible
Bernie Sanders is no longer running for president. How the one time front runner ended up losing to Joe “I have no empathy for millenials” Biden for the Democratic nomination, I’ll never know for sure. Was it the corporate media’s bias against him? Was it the latent antisemitism in our society? Was it his refusal to kiss the butts of wealthy donors who want corporate friendly candidates (aka “having principles”)? It was probably a combination of all these factors and more: a deadly alchemy that one wonders if it was ever possible to avoid. Regardless of the exact percentages of how much each factor mattered, however, one thing is clear: the outcome hurts. One can almost hear the sound of a future that once seemed so possible — one where healthcare was guaranteed for all, where workers had a living wage and democratic rights in the workplace, and where a Green New Deal saved both the environment and millions from poverty — shatter like a window that’s been smashed by a brick. And like those who throw bricks, those who fought so hard to stop Bernie have a similar message for us: stay in your place, and don’t you dare try to keep us from getting what we want. In the face of such malevolent, powerful, and violent forces, it is easy to give into despair. Bernie lost, the feeling goes, and a better world is no longer possible.
But that is not true.
Bernie Sanders will not be the president of the United States. That sucks, but Bernie Sanders is just one man. To say that because one man, at one time, could not be president means that we must give up all hope for the world, all desire to make things better for the living and for those yet to be alive, is to fall into a nihilism that is not worth considering. We cannot allow ourselves to believe that “nothing matters.” The very fact that we are hurt by Bernie’s loss proves that things do matter: that the world can be better and that it can be worse and that we want it to get better. Instead of allowing a nihilistic attitude to take over, I propose we embrace its opposite. Instead of believing that nothing is possible, we have to believe that anything, including and especially the world we want to live in, is possible. This means embracing our freedom to do anything, including changing our world.
The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote extensively on this topic. For Sartre, it was the height of folly to believe that one is powerless to change oneself or one’s society. Humans are existentially free to do and be whatever we choose to do and be because we were not born with any determination; we lack an engrained “essence” that mandates we have to be certain things. Furthermore, though our societies can shape us and force certain viewpoints on us, we always have the power to reject what we have been told.
Humans have eyes that see, ears that hear, and minds that think. We can perceive the world around us and decide “This is not ok. Things can be better, and I will work to make sure that they get better.” We don’t have to accept that millions will go without healthcare, as both Biden and Trump have suggested will always be the case. We don’t have to accept capitalism and the profit motive as the be-all, end-all of human development and allow private greed to override our concerns for our environment and one another. We can work with our fellow person to fight for the things we need (and overwhelmingly want), and we can persuade those who don’t currently agree with us that what we are fighting for is just. Universal, guaranteed healthcare, a living wage, democracy at work, and a clean, healthy environment are not “niceties;” they are the requirements for a moral society where all can flourish. If Joe Biden doesn’t want to fight for any or all of those things, that’s too damn bad. We can and must force his hand if he’s elected president, and we can and must force the hands of all politicians, at every level of office, to support such efforts as well. We can and must refuse to give up and let up. We have to organize our neighbors, organize our coworkers, and organize our communities around the principles of a just and democratic society. These are the principles that Bernie Sanders fought for all of his life, but he did not invent them; people have been fighting for such principles for centuries, and we can continue to do so. Fighting to make things better will take hard work and it will face relentless opposition, but that is the price that must be paid when going up against wealthy interests and apocalyptic forces.
I don’t know how a better world can be built. I don’t know if it’s by joining the DSA, starting mutual aid projects, organizing a general strike, or continuing electoral work. Maybe it’s a combination of some or all of those things, or maybe it’s a rejection of some or all of them. No matter how it must be done, however, we must never forget that a better world can be built. And we must never give up hope for the future or forget the freedom that each one of us has to transform ourselves and our society. We must never give into nihilism, or condemn our fellow person as a “lost cause.” Every person, no matter what views they’ve held or actions they’ve committed, is equally free to change. Maybe even Joe Biden will see the error of his ways. I doubt it, and, as someone who may very well have committed rape, enormous concessions and contrition would be necessary before he could be welcomed into the fold. But most people are not Joe Biden, and all persons, whatever they have done, are human beings and are subject to the same wants and needs as the rest of us. We all feel hunger and fear, we all crave love and safety, and we all deserve to have a roof over our heads and have our health needs met. A society predicated on meeting the needs of all must be built on the recognition of the needs of all.
Bernie Sanders has spent decades working to build the kind of society where everyone has a democratic say and where everyone has their basic needs met so that they can contribute to society in turn. That such a kind (and one of a kind) politician won’t be president is deeply saddening, but it is no reason to give up hope in the future that he and we want to see. We can still enact Medicare for All, get a Green New Deal, and establish workplace democracy. Without Bernie as president, it will be harder, but it will be by no means impossible. As Bernie is the first to point out, he was always interested in helping to facilitate a movement for change, not bring about change single-handedly.
We must never give up on the power we hold collectively, and we must never forget the freedom we have individually. Things are not ok, and we can always recognize them as such and fight for a better tomorrow. Reactionaries and fascists, like Donald Trump and the Republican Party, will try to stop us. Ardent supporters of the neoliberal status quo, like Joe Biden and much of the elite in the Democratic Party, will try to stop us. Capitalists who want to maintain their power, like Jeff Bezos, will try to stop us. We cannot let them, and most importantly we can not let them. We will always be free to say “no” to a cruel society and organize for the kind we’d like to live in.
A better world is always possible.
