Just finished reading the will to change by bell hooks as part of my long overdue introduction to #feminism.
Oh boy, if that book was written today I would regard it as an optimistic call to action. But is has been published 20 years ago, and with the manosphere in mind, and politics of strongmen ahead, it sure seems like we stagnated.
The book was a bit difficult to get into, the first part feels a bit evangelical, with its emphasis on Love, without further definition. A theme I really appreciated was the 'wilderness of spirit', this trope of the need of man to distance oneself into a form of primal self-reliance.
Though the audience of the book is, I think, other feminist theorists that are not yet sold on dealing with the issues of men, it helped me more than book of Grayson Perry.
One take-away is that modern life is (still) benefits from keeping human capital productive by enforcing a culture where open communication of fears and feelings is discouraged.
The individualism that capitalism cultivates however, is not inherently the same as made possible by (philosophical) liberalism. Or at least, I hope, because I struggle with the notion that a more open, honest, communal society would mean giving up on an individual self.
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