Category: Archive

Written by Madelyn Mae

Voting Isn’t Enough

As I take up this new project, I think it is a great time to reflect on where I stand and acknowledge what some of my close friends would call contradictions – that voting legitimizes a profoundly racist and violent system, that the two parties are ultimately the same, that the Democrat Party expects the votes of working class and minority voters but rarely delivers on its promises to them. It is easy to empathize with this perspective because it is rooted in true events that most of us have experienced or observed, whether we vote or not.

Written by Madelyn Mae

Hannah and Gil

She was a compelling novelty and he loved novels, but the best part of reading about a character’s chaotic and dangerous life is when you can put the book back on the shelf and be grateful your own life is so gray and repetitive.

Written by Madelyn Mae

All I Want is Freedom and Love

6/24/2021 I don’t remember much about the teacher anymore. The contours of his face and the shape of his hands have blown away like top soil in a drought, non-native particles dispersed in some dust, deposited on a windshield far from their origin. What remains of him has been distilled into a simple question, filed […]

Written by Madelyn Mae

Trauma As a Metaphor

For what the ancients called “the sins of the fathers” we today call ‘intergenerational trauma’. For what the ancients called “sin” we today call ‘epigenetics’. History matters because it’s not about the past, it’s about us. — Pongadisorn Jamerbsin Trauma is real. Ask someone with a PTSD diagnosis what it feels like when they are […]

Written by Madelyn Mae

Meritocracy Is Liberalism’s Shadow

Meritocracy is one of the great fictions of late capitalism in the US, a shiny chrome paint job obscuring the gutted interior and rusted out chassis of society. Our collective allegiance to the myth that wealth and power are doled out on the basis of individual merit, rather than inheritance, nepotism, and structural advantages, keeps […]

Written by Madelyn Mae

Deprogramming Myself

1  I am breaking apart. I made the choice to break apart. To demolish these walls, this fortress of illusory safety  that exiled me from my own heart.  I am breaking apart. Breaking down. Breaking the ties that bound me to fear, throwing off the dark coat of  control pressing down, down, down.  I am […]

Written by Madelyn Mae

Tools for Your Healing Journey

I am writing this now, one day after I decided to go full no-contact with my family of origin, because I am still so close to the feeling of “before”, which I know will fade with time. Two days ago I anonymously published a short essay detailing some of the abuse I endured throughout my […]

Written by Madelyn Mae

Owning a Business Under a Democratic Economy

As someone who thinks that humans are capable of an economic system far more stable, equitable, and sustainable than capitalism, I haven’t spent that much time thinking about what a socialist economy would look like in my every day life. When I say socialism, I mean a democratically-managed economy, where the industries and services we […]

Written by Madelyn Mae

We Need Radical Self-Love For This Fight

As I write this conclusion in the little bedroom of the Covid-safe friend pod, Trump and his followers are waging yet another war on reality, denying the legitimacy of Biden’s election victory. More than 100,000 cases of Covid-19 are reported every day in every part of the US. The 24 hour cable news cycle is […]