"common," the basics

The following is adapted from my original intention, "common" the handmade zine. While I did, in fact, create the first edition of the zine and had a great time doing it, I basically gave up on it.

As you read, keep in mind that the text reflects the work I was interested in about a year ago (when I made the zine). While the concept of a common good socialism is still very much my jam and my emphasis on dignity will be very much present in my writings here on this internet site, I intend to expand my obsessions here to include a lot more. For example, one of my current fixations is on A.I., neo-Luddism, labor, and human dignity.

Anyway, here ya go.

We struggle with fundamentalism(s), having been nursed at its poisoned breast.

Its taste anywhere, even among our comrades and ideological kin, triggers The Gag. Yet we do have a SOCIALIST, RADICAL, LIBERATORY ethos. We reject milquetoast liberalism and of course the abusive, "demonic" systems which aways sprout up to deprive the human (and non-human) of their dignity and material well-being.

Still, we seek a socialism rooted in something more than just (mere) dialectical materialism. We seek to join many others throughout history in advocating a liberatory ideology that has roots in both a material analysis of class and capital as wel as a spiritual emphasis on fundamental dignity--inherent to all humans without exception.

We believe one doesn't have to believe be religious to have this "spiritual emphasis." Non-religious "spirituality" (even one that rejects any metaphysics) is possible given a sense of profound connection, transcendance, and a profound journey both inward and outward.

This is key to both religious spirituality and what you could call a materiality spirituality--the recognition of the inherent dignity of the Person (which is inviolable) and that the Human finds its fullest self within a society that values and promotes said dignity.

Of course, from this point of agreement numerous flow numerous lines of both agreement and disagreement. Let us agree to the basic premise.

"common" aims to draw inspiration from many traditions, but the origination of this zine is primary influenced by Dorothy Day, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Martin Luther King Jr., Pope Francis, Cornel West, Peter Maurin, bell hooks, Noam Chomsky (bit more complicated now...?), Amartya Sen, Emmanuel Levinas, and a bunch of other critics and theologians.

In short: The Person-as-ontologically-imbued-with-DIGNITY deserves to live in a SOCIETY designed to promote the flourishing of said dignity in a way that encourages the well-being and justice of the WHOLE.