Hey comrades, I hope you're doing good! I was thinking about how all of us have hobbies and sometimes they can be on more reactionary side of things, while inherently nothing is reactionary but somethings fit that mold better than others so I was thinking how we can practice our hobbies while participating in the multi generational project of Communism. Here are things I have thought about and how they can apply to certain hobbies.
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Make the essence of the hobby neutral or actively revolutionary
As Marx himself has said many times, everything has a form and an essence, so what we can do is make it so that our hobbies have a neutral essence which can be channeled towards revolutionary ends or has an actively revolutionary essence. This can manifest like this, these in the hobbies I thought about when creating this process
Gym
Gym instead of being a place you go to so you can improve your performance in workplace or dominate others better you go there either to improve your health or for people who like to participate in body building competitions, they can do it to achieve a certain aesthetic for their essentially sporty nature and that can be a goal too, training for your favourite sport since even F1 requires you to practice in gym, here no one body type or aesthetic is considered above others, everyone does what they want for their own sport or health
Knitting
Knitting instead of being a conservative's realm can be our own, where learn to knit not only for ourselves but for our community, as capitalism will spiral out of control, it'll be harder and harder to buy good blankets and sweaters especially in harsh winters of eastern North America and a lot of western and northern Europe so knitting has potential of amazing amounts of solidarity with most marginalized people of the world
Cooking
Cooking instead of being something you practice just for yourself can be a communal experience, invite a friend who is constantly exhausted if you have leftover food distribute it amoung the homeless, there are many many many ways to practice solidarity with cooking. Even just making food in a learning hall is the best that can happen for a potential vanguard organization where we not only provide education to people but provide them with basic necessities of life like a hot meal.
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Make entertainment a place of education, empathy, and enrolment
While I know this is a communist place I ant to quote an anarchist thinker Emma Goldman for something that is important, Emma Goldman said in a quote "I don't want to be part of a revolution if I can't dance" to a comrade who came upto to her and said it wouldn't be proper for a revolutionary to dance so what i want to say is that entertainment, recreation, and relaxation can be a moment of radicalization and community building where we can create a point where people can enjoy themselves and they can realize that relaxation and recreation isn't just for the 'deserving' it is for everyone, everyone has a right to beautiful things in this world and the beauty of the world shouldn't be confined to a few at the top. There are many hobbies I have thought this can apply but I will give example of two for now which I think will be most effective.
Card Games
We know cards are something that we often play in person and that's why this works so well, with a face to face conversation it is far easier to get your point across but even more than that be engaged, if you play let's a game of pokemon or yugioh online it won't be engaging but if you go to play those games in person or just play any game in person it is more engaging you're more in the moment and you're far more likely to get your point across.
Any type of sports game
Most sports games have been heavily privatized clubs being only real places you can play being a very expensive club so you can organize a game which will not only be a grounding experience but help you spread a radical message that we all deserve to play not just the ones who can pay
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Hobbies shall revolve around engaging with them and experiencing them as a community not consumerism
Often times whenever we start a hobby we often fall into its consumerist side where instead of actually engaging in the hobby we just spend time looking at the supplies used to engage in it or just watching people on youtube engage with them so it is important we actually practice our hobbies actively and not become passive consumers. There are five hobbies I think this applies to the most and they'll be listed below.
Gaming
Gaming is of course filled to the rim with consumerism with starting point being having a gaming device and then actually buying the games you want to play but the hobby itself has become even more consumption intensive with introduction of "who has the more swag" the more "swag" you have the more dedicated you are apparently so it becomes just consumption and consumption instead of actually engaging with the art that is a video game
Reading
Of course even when we don't consider buying books, this hobby can be very consumption intensive with owning multiple editions of one book being the trend on social media, I don't think I need to say how we can make it radical do i?
Fashion
I don't need to say anything, fashion and clothing is the most consumption intensive hobby on the planet earth, but even this can be radicalized with use of actually wearing the clothes more than once and stitching your clothes, even just buying less and buying used. Fashion can be incredibly radical if we try to channel it towards revolutionary goals.
Tech
Tech is like fashion, maybe second most consumption intensive hobby, but it is very easy to turn tech in radicalism, just look into cyber socialism and there's a breath of literature already available about how tech can be used towards revolutionary ends.
Films
Watching a movie can become passive consumption easily but just as easily become something radical, with not only changing what film you're watching but how you're watching it. Watching a film can be communal, just set up a projector in a room with a relatively cheap white screen and you have a community cinema house, you can watch to learn art of cinema and use it to spread propaganda about our cause as well.
So yes that's my post comrades, let me know what you think and what I messed up. Solidarity
