Today I invite you to take a first small step and join me in ‘Operation Vital Reality’ (aka ‘You can stick AI up your arse’). I’m sick of watching the world turn to shit while people stare blankly into screens. From now on my life is about growing food, making art, fighting bullies (especially corporate and state bullies), and looking out for those I love.

I will be ditching social media in favour of engaging directly with real human beings. I highly recommend that you join me in dumping the virtual reality which is making everyone sad and engage with the vital reality of nature, food growing, art, culture and human companionship.

I sometimes say to people, “If you’re an anti-capitalist, you should probably stop living in capitalism.” Yes, I know that this feels like a near impossibility in a system which has encroached upon every aspect of your life; including your education, your culture, your emotions, your socialisation, and your attention span. But hear me out.

Despite its macho posturing, the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism doesn’t survive because it is strong, it is actually incredibly fragile and it takes many billions of financial investment (paid for with both the money saved from not paying you a living wage and the taxes taken from what little they do pay you) simply to maintain the illusion that neoliberalism is the only game in town.

Neoliberalism relies on both the state and the corporations (who now blatantly control the states anyway) to bury itself ever deeper into the psyche of each new generation (we’ve now reached Thatcher’s grandchildren and the mind-forged manacles of neoliberal values are alarmingly evident even amongst those who claim to fight neoliberalism). The state initially conditions you through its stress-inducing ‘education’ (but only giving you, as they say in the military, “JEEP, Just Enough Education to Perform”), and then, if you haven’t already had the artistry and autonomy kicked out of you, it threatens you through its judiciary and military institutions. The soft power of the corporate wing, a carrot to the state stick, uses every psychological trick in the book to lure you into buying shit you don’t need in a vain attempt to fill the hole which this anxiety-based culture leaves in your heart. Shopping isn’t therapy, it is a symptom of a highly destructive combination of addiction and dissatisfaction.

Despite the best attempts of neoliberalism to control and own everything, hope, love, wildness and wonder still survives in the cracks. Once you take the time to look, you will find pockets of inspiration and defiance everywhere, especially amongst those who are most marginalised by the system itself. From the amazing country-sized experiments in direct-democracy that was Rojava in North-East Syria, to the woman on the mobility scooter who ignores all the signs telling her not to feed the pigeons and spreads seeds on the pavement wherever she goes, the world is full of creative refusal to the death-cult. The late, great Colin Ward knew this, and most of his work, such as Anarchy In Action (Freedom Press, 2008), simply signposts the anarchism which already exists in everyday life.

The greatest compliment I get regarding our own little crack in the system, Bentley Urban Farm, is when people say “I wish I could live like this.” I inevitably tell them that they can, they just can’t live the life that capitalism demands of them at the same time. This takes me back to my original statement, “If you’re an anti-capitalist, you should probably stop living in capitalism.”

In our daily lives we make constant choices which can either underpin or undermine the system we claim to oppose. I know that you’re not likely to be in a position to create an autonomous zone free from the beast (although there’s really nothing to stop you trying!.. we certainly are at A Commune in the North), but even small acts of rejection, repeated multiple times, can inspire fellow freedom-seekers while snubbing the purveyors of the rentier economy.

So throw away your television. Keep your phone in your pocket and only take it out when it notifies you that there is a real human being who wants to connect.

Stop playing computer games (it is a passivity, not an activity, designed to keep you in an adolescent state). If you are too addicted to screens to give them up (that’s exactly what they’re designed for), do me one little favour. Don’t look at them after 6pm, they steal your dreams. And a lack of dreams is probably the saddest thing about modern life.

Go visit your loved ones. They’re not here forever. We are but farts upon a breeze.