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siavahda 's review for:
Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072
by Eman Abdelhadi, M.E. O'Brien
HIGHLIGHTS
~sex workers start the revolution
~DJs keep it going
~think communism like ‘commune’ not ‘communist’
~a detailed breakdown of breaking down the system
~a future I can believe in
This is a book I need everyone to know about.
The ‘conceit’ is this: after decades of climate disaster, war, and economic collapse, capitalism was torn down, and the way of the commune took its place. No two communes anywhere in the world are identical, but they broadly share the same philosophy: everything for everyone. The world is not perfect, but it’s pretty close in a lot of ways, making it more important than ever that new generations not repeat the mistakes of the past – and understand how their present was made.
Thus, in 2072, O’Brien and Abdelhadi put together a collection of interviews, comprised of the stories of those who were there to burn the old world down, those who were a part of building the new world, and those who reflect on how far they’ve all come and where humanity might yet go.
I don’t use the word inspiring very often, but no other term can do Everything For Everyone justice: reading this book was like coming up for air, a fresh and undiluted draught of bright and bittersweet hope brought to parched lips. And it’s not (just) because the future O’Brien and Abdelhadi envision is so utopic; it’s the fact that they take a real, hard look at what it might take to get us there.
No fiction I’ve ever read has really broken down and examined what The Revolution looks like. Stories always seem to be set before or after the heroes go to war against the old system – sometimes just before, or just after, but the fight itself is always glossed over. And I do understand that! It’s much easier to imagine a better world than it is figuring out how to actually build one – but that’s exactly what makes Everything For Everyone so important.
It’s a detailed roadmap of what the path to one version of a better future might look like, and it’s the first one I’ve ever had.
This book is a real, working shield against despair.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
~sex workers start the revolution
~DJs keep it going
~think communism like ‘commune’ not ‘communist’
~a detailed breakdown of breaking down the system
~a future I can believe in
This is a book I need everyone to know about.
The ‘conceit’ is this: after decades of climate disaster, war, and economic collapse, capitalism was torn down, and the way of the commune took its place. No two communes anywhere in the world are identical, but they broadly share the same philosophy: everything for everyone. The world is not perfect, but it’s pretty close in a lot of ways, making it more important than ever that new generations not repeat the mistakes of the past – and understand how their present was made.
Thus, in 2072, O’Brien and Abdelhadi put together a collection of interviews, comprised of the stories of those who were there to burn the old world down, those who were a part of building the new world, and those who reflect on how far they’ve all come and where humanity might yet go.
I don’t use the word inspiring very often, but no other term can do Everything For Everyone justice: reading this book was like coming up for air, a fresh and undiluted draught of bright and bittersweet hope brought to parched lips. And it’s not (just) because the future O’Brien and Abdelhadi envision is so utopic; it’s the fact that they take a real, hard look at what it might take to get us there.
No fiction I’ve ever read has really broken down and examined what The Revolution looks like. Stories always seem to be set before or after the heroes go to war against the old system – sometimes just before, or just after, but the fight itself is always glossed over. And I do understand that! It’s much easier to imagine a better world than it is figuring out how to actually build one – but that’s exactly what makes Everything For Everyone so important.
It’s a detailed roadmap of what the path to one version of a better future might look like, and it’s the first one I’ve ever had.
This book is a real, working shield against despair.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!