In order to change the system or advocate and build a better life for yourself, you need to understand not only the rules of your society’s social and political system but also its underlying principles. The rules that are set up in law or in customs, and even sometimes the popular sense of morality, are secondary to these principles and how aligned a rule is with this power shows you how strong or weak it is. Knowing this principles helps you to understand the cause of a political outcome completely outside of what would seem logical or within what the people’s will is. This is illustrated perfectly by the case of Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, a Supreme Court case where the Court ruled that a law allowing union organizers onto employer property is a “taking” of their property and hence not allowed without payment by the government.
So the first key principle is that the political system in the United States prioritizes Property. On a surface level, this is an affront to worker’s rights, which shows that the second principle is that the system prioritizes Worker Productivity, but see how paradoxically Property came first here. The last principle, which applies in the most burdensome way to people in need, is the system prioritizes Conformity. Those who are subject to the most oppressive forms of power in America are made to conform to a very specific image, but this doesn’t have to be the case. There are ways you can implement to work with or around the key principles to get better outcomes and build infrastructure for solidarity while we advocate for a systemic change in priorities.