This is going to be a bittersweet thread. This is an answer I gave to a post, but more detailed. Right now, capitalism is the hegemonic force controlling everyone and everything, and if the batshit insane "great reset" thing somehow happens, it'll make what I'm going to say even more tempting.

For those of you who are out of the loop, the "Great Reset" is summed up by these words : you'll own nothing, and you'll be happy. I won't go into the details, but this is some gloomy shit, especially more so since several world leaders, including Joe Biden, Trudeau and Boris Johnson voiced their support for such ideas. Basically, advancing capitalism to its last stage, where enterprises are "heavily encouraged" to invest into renewables and welfare services, creating a "responsible capitalism". Except states are going to use this opportunity to flush out any kind of anti-capitalism, and are going to cooperate hand-in-hand with private entities for their mutual benefice. If it does ring a few bells, it's because corporations working hand-in-hand with states to ensure their rule in times of troubles is called fascism.

Anyway, I don't think it's going to work in the long run, capitalism is doomed to fail. I have seen countless posts on socialist subs, and chapo.chat mentioning the existential nightmare of living under capitalism today, and the fear of living like this for the foreseable future, or the rest of their lives. The solution lies in not playing their game, at all. And I'm not talking about launching a revolution, that is sure to come no matter what at this point. This is the plan B or C, as in, if everything else fails.

Last year, I went to Spain precisely because I wanted not to live a life under capitalism. That was it, but I didn't exactly want to return to monke and live in the woods. So I started looking for any kind of hope that a better world was possible. What I found amazed me. I travelled to a village of 2.5k inhabitants in Southern Spain named Marinaleda.

The village, while existing in a region struck by poverty, had not a single one of its inhabitants living a destitute life. The population, agrarian in nature, fought a drawn-out battle against a nobleman for their right to own the land they cultivate, and won. They now operate one agricultural coop which provide employment to much of the working folks, and grew over time. These are however not enough for total self-sufficiency, as they're still allocated regional funds, and use them to survive like all villages in Spain. However, they are making use of these funds far better than the rest of the country : while receiving 8% less than average, they manage to have their own school, high-school, swimming pool, stores, restaurants/cafés and so on. The streets are extremely clean, and everyone lives in a decent house, with a 100m² garden to spare; these houses were built free of charge with the help of the village, by the people, for the people. There's no crime at all, nor any poverty or unemployment. In a region that had a 30% rate unemployment in 2008, and still hasn't entirely recovered from 2008 either. The population is fiercely socialist, the mayor's office has the flags of Cuba, Venezuela and the Spanish Republic's, alongside the portrait of Chavez (IIRC) and Che. The walls of the village are painted with revolutionary art, depicting various figures and slogans known to any leftist, making its ideological differences with the rest of Spain even more clear.

And that was it, I wanted to stay there and build a life, university and jobs back in France be damned. But unfortunately, the housing was reserved to those who had a job in the village or were rich enough to sustain themselves, and the jobs at the coop were understandably reserved for the inhabitants first. I didn't have the necessary skillset for the few jobs that were there, nor enough cash to survive on the long run, so RIP for that lmao. I also learned that I wasn't the first one, there have been many, many socialists who came all the way down to Andalusia to look for an escape to capitalism. A few nationalities include Croats, Germans, Greeks, British and French. I came home without anything concrete, and yet, it gave me a sliver of hope. This is just a small village using agriculture and regional funds to provide for all of its members. It proves that a community, however small, can provide for its people, even if it's not easy.

Even if we fail to achieve a revolution, we won't be the only ones to seek a way-out of capitalism, and such a way out is possible. Building a small, independant town is probably possible, and so is the possibilty of a collapse-proof way of life. We aren't necessarily doomed to live as cogs in a system that wants to extract the life out of us, and beat us into submission. Furthermore, seeking to live outside of capitalism doesn't mean you have to remain isolated from a possible revolution, it is just an insurance in case things go horribly wrong, which they will at some point.