I want to end this by giving perhaps a smidge of hope. I have written plenty about critical thinking and collaboration. A way for us to stimulate our brains, form connections and bonds. I had a conversation with my mother recently. She is a principal of an elementary school, and she got her doctorate recently in leadership in education. A central piece of her practice is moving away from traditional ways of learning and towards a decolonial, collaborative way of learning. To me, she is an example of critical thinking and collaboration in practice. She values play-based, experiential, land-based learning environments. I see her embody anti-capitalist ways of educating in her everyday life. But more importantly, through these methods of learning, she embodies an intersectional approach to education. By valuing and highlighting critical thinking and collaboration, she is simultaneously resisting colonial, patriarchal, capitalist ways of learning. Her value of critical thinking and collaboration has allowed her to grow and learn, and become conscious of the ways in which power is enacted. It is because of her critical thinking and collaboration that she has learned about these systems of oppression and how they inform the world around her. It is because of an intersectional lens that she is able to understand how these systems of power are related to one another. She is a walking example of why critical thinking and collaboration are so important and the resistance they bring about. To me, my mother represents people who are full of light and full of hope. My mother is very aware of the skills in her toolbelt.
The aim of these pieces of writing was to reveal the inner workings of capitalism and its sneaky ways of infiltrating our lives. It is a system that profits from our complacency, and one that will continue to try to isolate us. It profits from the status quo, benefitting those with power, coming at the cost of the most vulnerable. I think that is the message I am most ardent about. Capitalism is not a system to maximize efficiency and allow people to make profit. It is a system that depends on the oppression of others, and it is not able to exist without that. It is inherently tied to colonization, racism, white supremacy, cis heteronormativity and patriarchy. It needs these systems of oppression to survive.
Capitalism thrives on complacency because it thrives on the status quo. We continue to live in a world that is founded on colonization, patriarchy, cisheteronormativity and white supremacy. That is the status quo and how capitalism manages to thrive.
Finally, I want to end by giving a huge thanks to Alifa Bandali for her guidance and support, as these posts would not have been possible without her. Dr. Bandali gives me hope in academia for her value of critical thinking and collaboration, which comes through in the way she leads her classes; it was a class taken with her that sparked many of these ideas.