Post-Capitalist Skills
Post-Capitalist Skills are the abilities, mindsets, and knowledge systems necessary to thrive in and actively shape a world that is no longer structured around capitalist exploitation, hierarchical control, and unsustainable economic systems. These skills are aimed at healing individuals, rebuilding communities, fostering ecological balance, and creating equitable, cooperative, conscious and healing societies.
Related LP Terms
Non-LP Related Terms
Notes
Post-Capitalist Skills
Cooperation & Collective Problem-Solving
From competition to collaboration, from the worship of individual achievement to embracing the raw power of the collective. Capitalism fetishizes the individual and enforces competition as the primary mode of interaction, pitting individuals against one another for resources, jobs, and survival. Post-capitalist societies must teach
- cooperation,
- mutual aid,
- collective problem-solving.
- authentic (not token) team work, consensus, and cooperative economic models.
Systems Thinking, Ecological Literacy, and reconnection
From rape and pillage economics to global utopian emergence. Capitalism isolates people from the larger systems they depend on—economic, ecological, and social—so much so that people will simply stand by and watch their environment destroyed. As a species, we need to understand and work with complex, interdependent systems. Post-capitalist education recognizes that capitalist models of production, consumption, and extraction create instability, damage, and destroy. Post-capitalist education crafts
- system thinkers, people who understand everything is connected.
- ecological warriors, people who grasp climate science, regenerative agriculture, and sustainable living practices.
- global integrators, people who teach local and global awareness.
- harmonious creators, people who practice regenerative, cooperative, and sustainable alternatives for social and economic organization.
Basic Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, Trauma Healing, and Leadership Skills
From trauma and disconnection to joyful reconnection. Capitalism creates and exploits trauma, undermines psychological theory and practice,[1] and uses ideology, fear, scarcity, and insecurity (Toxic Socialization) to drive obedience and consumption. Post-capitalist societies must be emotionally intelligent, healing-centered, and psychologically sophisticated and empowered. Post-capitalist education must teach and cultivate
- self-awareness
- resilience,
- emotional regulation
- conflict resolution
- basic psychological theory and basic healing practices
- the significance of Connection (to Self, family, society, nature, and the planet) and the healing and Connection Practices that can be used to achieve it.
- leaders who heal and empower rather than dominate and control.
Decentralized Leadership & Horizontal Governance
From hierarchical control to distributed power. Capitalist institutions rely on top-down control, corporate hierarchies, and state coercion. Post-capitalist governance requires. cooperative organization, direct democracy, and non-hierarchical leadership models. Post-capitalist education teaches and cultivates
- decentralization,
- horizontal leadership, and
- participatory decision-making. .
Critical Sociological & Creative Media Literacy
Recognizing power structures & resisting ideological manipulation. Capitalism controls narratives, shapes ideology, and conditions people to accept exploitation as "normal." The capitalist story is one of violence, hatred, and woe. Post-capitalist education must teach
- how systems of power operate,
- how capitalist narratives control thought and shape perception,
- how to identify and deconstruct propaganda.
- how to challenge power, dismantle oppressive expressive systems, and create systemic change.
Post-Capitalist Economic Skills.
From rape and pillage economies to sustainable, regenerative, and cooperative ones. Capitalist education focuses on extractive economic models, prioritizing individual achievement and reward, profit over people and planet. Post-capitalist education must
- prepared students for solidarity economies, worker cooperatives, commons-based resource management,
- explore and help implement alternative finance models (e.g., basic income, community currencies, mutual credit systems).
- build energy independence (solar, wind, decentralized power systems)
Embodied Knowledge & Practical Life Skills.
From abstract theory to hands-on mastery. Capitalism alienates people from their own survival skills, making them dependent on centralized supply chains and industrial systems for everything, including preparation of daily meals . Post-capitalist training
- reintegrates practical life skills into the curriculum,
- teaches "sustenance sovereignty" (gardening, permaculture, community agriculture, basic cooking skills)
- emphasizes regenerative construction (earth-based building, self-sufficient housing)
- welcomes alternative medicine & holistic health (healing traditions, mind-body, spirit integration)
Why These Skills Matter
Traditional education systems are failing because they are designed to sustain an unsustainable system. Post-capitalist skills ensure that students are not just prepared to survive within collapsing structures, but are fully equipped to build something new. Instead of producing passive workers, post-capitalist education produces conscious creators. Instead of reinforcing capitalist alienation.==Related LP Content and Courses==
Patreon Units
Lightning Path (2024). Parent/Teacher Training. LP 4.7. https://www.patreon.com/collection/640726
Footnotes
- ↑ David Elkins, “Why Humanistic Psychology Lost Its Power and Influence in American Psychology,” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 49, no. 1 (2009): 267–91, doi:https://www.lightningpath.org/readings/elkins-humanistic-murder.pdf.
