Slow Reading Group: The Restorative Rebel

Hi friends, I’m Michelle from Opting Out, based in Brighton, UK. Here I share regular posts on slow living, rest, and opting out of burnout culture, plus my weekly Weekend Mood Board of what’s currently inspiring me. Paid subscribers also get access to our asynchronous Slow Reading Group, yoga nidra audios and pre-recorded full-length restorative and yin yoga classes.

It’s my dream to create a community of misfits, questioners and resters. Are you in? ✨

I’m excited to start our new book for Slow Reading Group. This one is part memoir, part reflection and critique on how many of us have internalized capitalist ideals, and how to break free from them. The book is written from an American perspective, so I’ll try to add from my UK standpoint as we go along. As this is such a juicy read, we’re going to go super-slow with this one!

In the introduction, Dani Bicknell writes a break-up letter to capitalism, saying “its not me; it’s you".” She defines internalized capitalism as believing that our self-worth is measured by economic productivity and achievement, something that I’m super passionate about countering here on Opting Out.

She argues that capitalism thrives on manufactured scarcity, which I’d argue social media and the horrors of “influencer culture” feasts upon - we are constantly bombarded by a relentless feed of things we supposedly “need” to be more beautiful / happier / healthier / better human beings, all of which come at a price tag.

Dani Bicknell grew up in the liberal Bay Area of California, an area which has prided itself on being anti-racism, feminist, pro-LGBTQIA+ rights. However, after a period away, a veil lifted and she saw how the co-opting of progressive ideals by a capitalist system had created greater social inequalities and how tech start-ups had fractured society.

This book contains many phrases which could be our motto, here at Opting Out:

Whether you’ve read a hundred books on anti- or post-capitalism, or this is your first, Dani makes it super accessible by breaking down terms such as “disaster capitalism” and “welfare capitalism”, and explains how Adam Smith’s original notion of capitalism with its ethical foundations has been distorted.

The Introduction and Chapter 1, on which we will focus on this month, is all about dispelling some common myths we have all been sold about Western capitalism.

This first chapter is all about dispelling some of the myths we are fed and never question, such as “democracy good, communism bad”, the American Dream and notions of individualism and liberalism.

The pandemic was an eye-opener for many of us, in seeing how social inequalities widened, and whilst we initially saw the growth of things like mutual aid movements, they quickly receded once life began to have some semblance of normality. Here in the UK, the government showed that it prioritised economic growth over human life through schemes such as “Eat Out to Help Out”, which in August 2020 effectively bribed people with discount restaurant meals to bolster the economy whilst simultaneously putting themselves at risk of catching COVID.

Dani Bicknell argues that many of us growing up in the USA or UK were brought up to believe that our countries are the “greatest democracies on earth”. She unpacks this not being the case in the USA, in that when the Constitution was formed, voting rights were restricted to white, land-owning men.

Here in the UK, our situation is slightly different in that we still have a monarchy, and we have no Constitution. Whilst there have been historic shifts to change the seat of power from the monarch to parliament, in the early days of UK “democracy”, say the 18th century, similarly to the US, it was only wealthy property-owning males who were able to vote. All male householders could vote in 1837, but it was almost another hundred years until women could vote, and was still initially limited to older women who owned property.

The Declaration of Independence’s “pursuit of life, liberty and happiness” excluded freed Black slaves, Indigenous people and women, but rather favoured the while settler colonialists.

Dani explains that from a young age, Americans are told that if they simply work hard, they can achieve a better life. In the UK, we don’t have an direct equivalent to the notion of the ‘American Dream’, instead having notions of social mobility. In the pursuit of these dreams, our teens are undertaking expensive degrees and finding themselves saddled with enormous amounts of student debt at the start of their working lives. In the UK (in my lifetime), we used to have government grants that paid the university fees for students and gave them money to live on.

Dani Bicknell points out that capitalism blames individuals for failing to make a success of their lives, rather than addressing wider societal inequalities that prevent people from fulfilling their potential.

Thatcher famously said “there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families”, reinforcing the toxic individualism peddled by capitalism and neo-liberalism. In our separation, we have less power.

Dani offers some solutions for societies and businesses to challenge internalised capitalist beliefs, such as prioritising people over profit and favouring collaboration over competition. If our workplaces value empathy, collective action and creativity at a local level, we can begin to make meaningful change. She advocates for listening to those most affected by social inequalities and injustices.

Remember - these questions are not ‘homework’, rather an invitation to reflect and share thoughts on the reading.

Feel free to share in the comments below.

I'll share some yin yoga for paid subscribers once I've recovered from my seasonal cough and cold! My chesty cough isn’t very soothing to listen to right now!