Dare dreaming: Beyond Jobs and Masters

The Capitalist Hounds and Market Jackals (or ‘The Extraction Pack’ as I like to call them) have done a great job branding socialism as a grey, grinding nightmare — all queues and quotas, no colour or creativity. But that’s never what socialism was meant to be.

Socialism was a starting point. A doorway. An early attempt to imagine a world that didn’t revolve around masters and workers — where power and dignity weren’t inherited, bought, or hoarded.

We live now in a time of extraordinary possibility. We don’t have to organise our world around capital anymore. We can centre wellbeing, biodiversity, connection, and play.

Imagine a society that doesn’t just redistribute labour, but abolishes soul-sucking jobs entirely — replacing them with time, tools, and trust for people to create, care, and explore.

Dare Dream with me:

No one forced to sell their time just to survive
Everyone with access to studios, soil, and spaces to imagine
Roles that shift with your seasons — farmer in the spring, filmmaker in the winter
Thriving ecosystems as a metric of national success
Local cooperatives and collectives replacing extractive giants (Like: not-for-profit real estate)
Beauty, not just utility, at the heart of policy

This isn’t utopian. It’s overdue.

It’s not about going backwards. It’s about stepping through socialism into something more alive, imaginative, generous and emancipatory.

We couldn’t possibly afford it. Right? Dead wrong. The happiest nation for 8 years running is Finland with a top tax rate (or as I like to call it, Social Gold) rate of 44.25%. They get Social Gold from churches, municipalities and capital gains. Once you’ve paid for education, healthcare, dental care, university, housing, water, public transport infrastructure - there is not much that a household needs to cover with their remaining 63% income. Just fine cheese, skiing holidays and nice electric vehicles?

We should find out how it feels to live so happily in Finland, and then do it even better.

Let’s not stop at dismantling capitalism. Let’s design something worth longing for.

My rule of thumb - if it is not a world that my kiddo feels excitement about growing up into, its not good enough. What is the dare dream that is burning a hole in your heart? Time to set it free. We need to show each-other our wildest imaginings, as these will become our coordinates for where to head when the dust from the collapse of capitalism and globalisation has settled.

x Megan

#DareDreaming #PreferableFutures #BigPictureThinking #daretodream

P.S. I really am serious. I want to know what wonderful ideas that have that ‘impossible’ feeling about them - the ones that have been thought by you, made your heart happy for a minute before getting dumped into the “Don’t want to look delusional” pile. I believe we need to start showing each other through these dumpsters in our hearts. I suspect these ideas have an energy to them, and I think they can help light the way through these dark times. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours ; )