Contributed by Sean Anthony Penn Lacorte (Class of 2024 Alumnus)

First thing in the morning, just as you sip your coffee before heading to class, you come across a social media post of a child in Gaza pleading for help to get a few loaves of bread for the day. You are then caught in this inner tension, whether to send money to this kid’s GoFundMe or to keep it in your wallet, as you barely have to get by. Just outside the coffee shop, you find yourself in a similar dilemma as a child asks for spare change to buy a meal for the day. Frustrated and in a rush to get to your next class, you can’t help but see the child as a nuisance. Every day, we face this contradiction, a struggle deep within ourselves, which is a fairly common experience in capitalist society. 

This contradiction, which you may or may not have experienced, is a symptom of the worsening crisis under global capitalism or what we call “imperialism.” Wherein the monopoly of capital and overproduction is given primacy, while the rest of the toiling masses are left on their own, scrambling for scraps, being recipients of pointless wars for profit.

Universities are not exempt from these. Inside universities, we are taught to focus on ourselves, being fed middle-class aspirations to become the so-called “1%” rich in society. We are told that in order to help the Palestinians or the Filipino poor, we have to become the President of the Philippines or to become rich, influential, and powerful.

As explained earlier, the deep desire to help is always there, but we just somehow don’t have the “means” to do it as of yet. But if you take a closer look at this statement, do the ones who only have the “means” have the right to help others? Do they only have the right to decide what’s best for them or what’s best for us? They, who were, in fact, the ones who brought us into this mess in the first place?

Al Jazeera revealed how Gaza has become a laboratory for the US war machine, testing precision bombs on Palestinian civilians. This, among many other stories, paints a clear picture that Israel’s occupation and genocide of Palestinians is a war for the profit of the ultra-rich of the world, especially of the United States. Beyond the things we see on television, what we are witnessing is the dehumanizing processes of imperialism penetrating deep into our inner psyche. Where apathy is perceived as “practical” and empathy is seen as “youthful idealism.” Witnessing the world crumbling in our eyes, from pointless wars, world hunger, and the climate crisis—we are forced to believe that no alternative is possible. That all alternatives have been “tried” but somehow “failed.” 

So what should we do? If there is anything we’ve learned so far about Palestine, it is the ability to love again. To care for our fellow men and women, no matter how far they are in the world. In a system where capital is given priority over human life, where to exploit and oppress others and to fight wars against fellow man are seen as “practical” deeds – to love is thus, radical.

We should thus fight for a system based on the love for our fellow men and women – a system where this is seen as practical. To do this we must also end the parasitic class, those who profit off the suffering of the working people and the common folk. This is at its utmost urgency as the crisis of imperialism worsens day by day; from pointless wars of aggression, the climate crisis, the economic crisis, and the rising trend of fascism, there is a dire need to unite as a people and fight back.

A new world is possible—and if not, humanity, along with ourselves, collapses with it. To become men and women for others is actually making that world possible and real.

Editor’s Note: This article was first issued in the April 2025 Newsletter of Atenews.