Recovering Capitalist
A Mission Statement for Misfit Toys
What is a “recovering capitalist”? Well, frankly, we’re not sure either, but we are trying to figure it out as we go. We started this blog/vlog/podcast (and lifestyle brand, hi five! Just kidding) as a way to sort that out. What we know for certain is we don’t want what late capitalism is selling, literally and as a way of organizing our existence. Been there, done that, bought the shitty T-shirt. No thanks on seconds. We don’t need to perpetuate sweatshop labor.
While we both lean left on the political spectrum, this is not so much a political blog as it is an attempt to carve out a space for discussion of ideas, some of which will touch on politics, some that touch on spirituality, some philosophy, neurospiciness, and the general cosmic grab bag that is safe from the automatic responses those topics typically inspire. We want to avoid the reflexive obedience that our societally ingrained principles produce in us — aren’t we allowed to think through our most cherished ideas rather than just being their unquestioning slaves? Because the first step to wage-slavery is reflexive obedience – if you cannot talk about any idea, belief, etc. through some form of critical suspension that does not trigger immediate reflex responses, aren’t they just programming? Are they really even ours anymore then? Were they ever?
Trigger warning for those triggered by compassion and curse words: this is a no-judgment, inclusive, heart-and-soul centered “safe space” — if that makes you feel unsafe then it’s not for you. We are sure you can find someone or a whole gaggle of someones hateful to “rage it out” with in the social media multiverse; the algorithms are designed to make us hate each other after all, since our rage is grist for the consumer mill. However, we are not here for you to dump your hate. We’re pretty sick of that kind of foolishness. As a result, only subscribers will be able to comment on our posts. Abuse will get you blocked, and we are unmoved by any fascisty claims of intolerance by those whose primary motive is intolerance. Nice try, gaslighters. This platform wasn’t built for you. And we’ll remind you if we need to, okay, thanks, bye.
We’re not communists, not that that word has any meaning left in the common lexicon these days beyond “bad.” We’re not left-wing extremists — Americans you will have to travel outside our borders to find those in the wild since we don’t really grow them here (they are not an indigenous species on this stolen land). After some local bipartisan organizing for politics in ruby red flyover country, our politics are a little unconventional in these polarized times. A friend calls this the “radical middle,” and we like that quite a bit.
What we know for sure is that we are two people who burned out chasing, albeit reluctantly, the upward social mobility notions we were brow beaten with growing up in a late capitalist society. This was before that society had received its diagnosis from the oncologist. Sorry, Uncle Sam, Stage 4, buddy, seems you’re shit out of luck because you can’t afford healthcare. You should have been born when healthcare was cheaper or insurance was better or just born into a wealthier family; wrong zip code, no chemo for you. Before we could ask if this was the life we wanted, we were in the middle of it with an amount of debt about equal to our disenchantment. That’s not an accident, by the way. Student loan debt, mortgage, car payments, childcare, healthcare … we avoided some, but they are gonna get ya, one way or another as the song goes.
Rachel (who I will frequently call “The Boss”) is/was/ and is now “consciously uncoupling” from being a CPA. She is the more practical one of us. She sought a career in accounting because she believed it would lead to financial stability, which it did, but a certain poverty of the soul followed, as did depression and a kind of paralysis. Years of “busy seasons” chased by retail therapy, left her feeling, despite having stability and a loving marriage, like it was all pointless, purposeless “success” … well, not the marriage part. Definitely the career part.
I, (her husband and cosmic inferior) Chris Boehm, was broken on the wheel of graduate studies as higher education followed suit with the “corporatization” of all things in late capitalism. Aren’t they supposed to be mission-driven? Yeah, fuck that, we need to retain our administrators or they will take corporate gigs (well, go ahead, I thought, we’re not here to pad the portfolio). Spat out the other side of a PhD program with no real job prospects in my early 30’s, and some troubles with depression and self-medication, I found a similar disillusionment but just took a different path. I sought purpose rather than stability, and didn’t find much of either. That’s not an accident either. It’s not a glitch in the system. It is the system.
After a few days and nights at the Dark Night of the Soul Motor Lodge and Emotional Torture Spa, we decided that whatever programming we were given was defective and we had to figure out a different way. Fuck late capitalism. Fuck it in general and fuck it completely, not because we are communists or are pushing any other financial system. It is a flat “no.” No, not this way. It makes us want to die. It deliberately makes us feel broken to sell us insufficient solutions to problems it created in the first place like a mother with a mean case of Munchhausen. In any other part of our lives, we would call that abuse, but with capitalism, we are compelled and coerced to call it virtue. Nah, fuck that. Not anymore. Most of the virtues that get tied to our capitalist society are better when they are uncoupled from the rapacious greed it encourages.
We’re not looking to start a political or economic revolution. Our revolution, we suppose you’d say, will be indifferent to both with an acknowledgment that they matter but they are not central — we are, each one of us, central to ourselves. We want to “recover” the autonomy of the individual from a broken collective, connect it to its soul, and then send it back out into the world to do the same. Our revolution is that of the spirit and the liberation is of body and soul — we don’t need the proverbial “them” for that. We just need each other.
When you’ve started to connect with people who are in alignment with you, it will not matter anymore what “system” we decide provides the guidelines for our peaceful coexistence. Once enough folks recover their soul from the way our world consistently breaks people to fuel selfishness and greed, we will be in a position as a collective to not allow either to infect our peace and our purpose. We can’t build a better future without it, and late capitalism, in case you haven’t noticed, has gone off the fucking deep end. There is no good future in it. Call in hospice, if you can afford it, Uncle Sam.
Welcome to the Recovering Capitalist. We’re not your sponsors. We, all together, are inventing the steps along the way. There may be twelve, nine, forty, who knows? But the first is the same, admitting we got a real mean problem here and we need recovery. We each decide what, how, and when to follow our “higher power,” and as long as it recovers our souls and soul purpose, we will be free of the abuse we were raised with, we can’t do it wrong. We can’t fail.
Together, in this recovery, we rise.