Despite getting my Bachelor’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies, I have never really understood the inner workings of politics and economics. It was not until the first few weeks of my final semester at SUNY Oneonta that I befriended a political science major who would educate me and change my opinions on the world around me forever.
We discussed capitalism for hours at a time, discussing the
Soon after what I call my “radicalization,” I was faced with a seemingly neverending existential dilemna. It felt like everything I have worked for 20 years was useless in the face of markets, the elite 1%, and capitalism as a whole. By dedicating endless, tiring hours to getting A’s, I was reinforcing the system that trapped me.
Every day felt like I was making a decision: do I choose to appeal to my own happiness, neglect my homework a bit, and spend time with friends? Or do I choose to spend the rest of my senior year with my nose in a book, working on projects and readings? It may sound like a miniscule problem, but even as I reflect on it now and write about it, it absorbs me. I am nowhere close to solving this dilemna, and I have realized that it’s not just a problem I face; it’s generational-and I can see my peers suffering around me, too.
This dichotomy is what I have begun to call the “politics of success.” It is the constant dialogue found in the minds of young adults trapped in a capitalist society. It is the neverending decision making, split between valuing oneself and valuing . Even when we no longer want to value the system, it is hard to function from outside it. To gain the knowledge necessary to fight the system, we need to first see the trouble experienced within it- firsthand. We need to attend colleges and have productive conversations to learn new tactics to fight. We need to use the master’s tool to fill our own toolboxes, before we can replace them with our own.
- Politics can be described as the actions, practices, and competition between competing groups or individuals for power and leadership.
- Success can be described as the accomplishment of an aim or person.
We all feel the immense weight of academic capitalism, whether we recognize what it is or not, and we never feel good enough. We are always being asked for more and being given less support
Even when deciding whether or not we want to go to college, we are engaging with the “politics of success.” We are told we have two choices: to attend college, have tens of thousands of dollars of loans to pay for the rest of our lives, and thrive in a corporate setting, or work at McDonalds live in our parents basements. Not only does this shame people who may want to live their lives doing the latter, or those do not have the financial or physical ability to fit into the “traditional” narrative of success, it reduces the value of education and knowledge. If we are all getting our Bachelor’s Degree, does that not mean that we all have paid thousands of dollars to be virtually the same type of workers, any ways?
These politics of success also reinforce urbanization, corporatization, and other systems at work that uphold/support/aid capitalist strategies to keep the poor poor and the rich rich?
