There is a piece of this web that I would like to return to for a moment. A lot of what I have written gives an impression of hopelessness. Capitalism has seeped into everything, normalized and invisible-ized, unable to be dismantled without dismantling all other forms of oppression. This is not a realistic task. I have provided the reality of capitalism as sneaky and as a system that gains power from our current institutions. As a GRSJ major, I am all too familiar with this feeling of hopelessness, and thus I want to return to the role of critical thinking and collaboration that I touched on. I have claimed that social media is capitalism’s dream. A black hole that sucks its consumers in, making us complacent. If that is capitalism’s dream, then critical thinking and collaboration are its ruin. It has all the tenets of what capitalism detests. It will allow us to forge bonds and ruin our complacency. It uses up our time in ways that do not involve production. This solution may seem obvious. It may seem silly and unspecific. But it is a way of resisting that I must consider.
Critical thinking is the opposite of complacency. It is questioning the status quo and the power systems in place. It is unravelling and making visible all the systems of oppression that seek to be invisible. It is understanding intersectionality and the ways in which our realities are not two-dimensional. Our world loves binaries. If one thing is considered to be right, all else must be wrong. But more than one thing can be true at the same time. Knowledge is not definitive or absolute. Taking away critical thinking is exactly what capitalism wants. If we have a clear understanding of what is right and what is wrong, we waste no time imagining or being creative. If one thing is right and everything else is wrong, our current system will not be questioned. Capitalism has been so normalized that we perceive it as the only right way of living. We must be complacent in the current system to attain a good life. There is a correct way to live, determined by the salary we make, thus making other paths unnatural, abnormal, or wrong. By categorizing things as right and wrong, capitalism will not be questioned. Critical thinking allows for this questioning to take place. It allows for the complexities and nuances to come into view.
Collaboration is the opposite of isolation. When we collaborate, we create networks of support. We no longer have to rely solely on ourselves, but we are able to trust those around us and rely on them for help. Capitalism wants us to be isolated. When we are isolated and individualized, we become selfish. It is this selfishness that pushes us to accumulate and consume. The wealth that we so greedily seek is driven by our selfishness and individualism. When we are placed in competition with others, everything that someone else gains seems to be directly taken from us. Our individualism drives one another to continue to consume and accumulate. Collaboration and connections dismantle this. It encourages community and sharing of the commons. The effects of collaboration were present in family systems before the nuclear family. Intergenerational and extended family homes were networks of support and resiliency. They were places of shared learning from one another (Brooks, 2020). Collaboration allows for community.
What is interesting (but not coincidental) is how critical thinking and collaboration often happen together. Critical thinking does not push for isolation but conversing and collaborating. Critical thinking promotes allyship and solidarity. Collaboration promotes critical thinking. Conversing with others is often what leads to meaningful conversations, differing opinions and raising consciousness. Critical thinking and collaboration provide space to relate to one another. It provides space to move away from binary ways of thinking and instead reveals the complexities and nuances that exist and shape the world. Critical thinking and collaboration allow us to see the multitude of different perspectives and experiences that exist, all of which are right and can happen simultaneously. It is no coincidence that critical thinking and collaboration have been pushed aside. Thinking becomes dangerous when it holds power accountable (Giroux, 2020).
Critical thinking and collaboration are more important than ever as we live through the emergence of AI. It has infiltrated so many aspects of our lives in such a short time. It is a tool of maximum efficiency, making it so we no longer have to work for anything. I see it taking place in education in frightening ways. It is no longer being used as a tool. Students use it to write their assignments, to summarize their readings, and to do any basic task rather than using their brains to do it themselves. It is making us more impatient than ever. Why use any brain power when you could have a computer do things for you? I am afraid of the takeover AI has had. A new tool that embodies capitalist values, one that allows us to trade in our skills for complacency. AI is a tool that disintegrates our critical thinking skills.
I am afraid of the collaboration we will miss when we can turn to AI for conversing and for answers to our questions. Critical thinking and collaboration are more important than ever. They are tools of resistance at a time when we seek efficiency in everything. Even better, they are tools that everyone has access to. Critical thinking and collaboration are so threatening to capitalism because everyone is able to hold critical conversations with one another at no cost. It is a free method of resistance, and thus, I urge you not to forget what exists in your toolbelt.
References
Bohrer, A. (2018). Intersectionality and marxism: A critical historiography. Historical Materialism : Research in Critical Marxist Theory, 26(2), 46-74. https://doi.org/10.1163/1569206X-00001617
Giroux, H. (2015, October 22). Where is the Outrage? Critical Pedagogy in Dark Times. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAxj87RRtsc&t=1740s