I’ve been languishing in my comfort zone. Continuing to do so will have terrible effects for me. To quote Marx, I “[have] become a monster, a huge mass of flesh and fat, and [am] barely capable of walking any more.” Ever since the pandemic started I’ve become a terminally online antisocial weirdo who barely ever leaves my room, let alone the house.
Of course, in addition to the damage this does to my personal life, it also makes me non - potentially even counter - revolutionary. As someone who wants to be a communist instead of just some internet poisoned middle class dilettante, I don’t know how I can be expected to jeopardize the comfort of my parasitic labor aristocratic class position when I can’t even get out of my comfort zone enough to go outside, eat real food, and do even the barest minimum of light exercise.
Disclaimer: This is in part something that I wish I had heard some time ago, so it might be too personal and miss the mark at points.
If you live with family, you might find leaving the house easier than just the room. Grab some headphones, put on an audiobook, podcast or just music and try to take small walks. If you’re not physically fit right now, you’ll probably not get very far, and that’s okay.
I don’t know what kind of food is generally sold in the US, but try to find a reasonably distant restaurant that sells some okay but still tasty food. My Brazilian analogue would be some rice-and-beans-based meal, you can probably find something similar to your taste, but as a rule of thumb prefer boiled to fried. You’ll also not be able to suddenly become a great healthy cook right away, and that’s okay.
An important part of doing unpleasant but healthy things, is that they’re usually only unpleasant in the beginning. They’ll eventually become comfortable too. Starting is usually the hardest bit.
But honestly the most important part is using your material conditions as a tool rather than a cudgel to beat yourself up. Frankly, if you’re not able to do revolutionary work right now you’ll probably not be able to do much counter-revolutionary work either, so that’s not something you should worry about. But also, if you have money to spare, use it on yourself to make yourself feel better. Therapy, counselling, non-free group classes are all things you can do to make your life actually better which are not “parasitic”. Make full use of the tools that have been given to you without shame, as if you had ever had that much of a choice in receiving them in the first place.
Also a small recommendation, have you listened to the “It’s not just in your head” podcast by Harriet Fraad? It talks a lot about the relation between activism and mental health. You can pick some specific episodes that talk about things you most immediately care about, be it material or mental, and see if it is worth it.
Mildly unrelated but it would be nice to do some rebuilding at [email protected], because I bet a lot of people here and on the Bear would have use for it.