Today, I asked a friend for help, when I could've bought something instead. I had other options, as well, but I asked a friend for help, and the result of that was that I didn't rely on a market, I didn't participate in it, I rejected it.

I think there could and should be more of this. More of people just asking each other for help, of considering that other people might have more than they need and that they may be willing to give or lend their excess to one, such as yourself, that may need it. That's the fundamental principle of good human society, I suppose: to each according to their need, from each according to their ability; so to say, if you have too much, give to those that don't have enough. Or at least help!

Markets are interesting and cool, in a lot of ways. However, I do think that, if I really tried, if I spoke out, and if I had more developed social networks, I could remove myself from markets in many ways. Many things that I rely on I could borrow or get from others, simply because they don't care to keep them or they don't mind lending them.

Mutual aid, I think?

Anyway, I re-read Assim na terra como embaixo da terra by Ana Paula Maia, and it's really good. I feel like there's a lot to be discussed. My biggest thing is still this thing with the way the justice system results in such great violence without addressing the core of the issue, but there's other things there. I can feel it! There's also a feminist reading, I think, specifically in way only men are shown to perpetuate this violence, but the one woman character that acts actually does so to purchase violence from a man to kill another man. Interesting. Reminds me of what bell hooks said in The Will to Change and Andrea Dworkin in Right-Wing Women, about how women also participate in patriarchy, often by enforcing or demanding of men to behave in these patriarchal ways, and that even though it is damaging to them, they still cling to these systems of power that undermine them because they recognize the things it promises them (that they will have a man to protect them from other men), and they feel that that deal is better than the pipe dream of feminism and equality. Interesting little book!

I started O século dos imbecis by Valter Hugo Mãe, and it's OK. I only read the first chapter, and it was pretty good. Well-written if nothing else, but also interesting! Though I've only just started, so I can't really say much. The physical edition I have is truly gorgeous. I feel a sort of awe and reverence for it, it's that great. That actually makes me feel like I owe it to the book to read carefully and deliberately. I've been trying to focus more on my reading anyway, but this really helps.

And that's that. I wore jeans again today, and I'll likely wear jeans tomorrow as well.

Oh, yesterday I hung out with a friend! It was fun. I think many men don't see women as human beings like them; they see them as fundamentally different beings, more like goals, trophies, idols of sex and romance or vessels for procreation, it's weird. There are people that don't believe, truly just rule out the possibility that men and women could be friends. It's a framework where the role of the men is to get a woman; that's the sexual marketplace. It's such an absurd notion to me, but many people, men and women alike really, though I do think this is more prevalent or at least more consciously prevalent in men, do think of their relationships in this way.