Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions

Socialism would feel like having a future.

A new generation is rejecting the old equation, long common in radical circles, holding that group discipline is a form of domination, that losing is a sign of political purity, and that change can only come from outside—even if we also know socialism will never be won solely at the voting booth.

Second, the central political and social challenges we now face stem not from the fabled “tyranny of the majority”—the wayward passions of the masses—but from the impunity of a greedy and blinkered minority.

I tried to dispel two stubborn misconceptions about today’s socialist revival. First, its adherents do not criticize liberal democracy because they discount its vaunted rights and freedoms, but because they seek to create the conditions under which such principles might at last be fully enacted and ideally expanded.

Indeed, the growing popularity of socialism may spring at least in part from the longer-term failures of this negative-branding campaign: tell enough people struggling to make ends meet that socialism will allow them to consult a doctor without fear of bankruptcy and perhaps to enjoy a restorative paid vacation now and then, and some are bound to t

What if, instead of believing the myth that we are guilty debtors, we saw ourselves also as creditors—as human beings entitled to a dignified, secure, and flourishing life? What if our societies really do owe us all an equal living?

Debt bridges the personal and political, binding individuals to a broader set of economic circumstances, and as such presents a powerful opportunity to unite otherwise divided populations.

Activism requires a kind of willed hopefulness, a readiness to bash your head against a wall so that it may crumble or crack, even if you know all the arguments about why what you’re doing is probably doomed and all the reasons the wall is unlikely to budge.