In recent years, self-care has become a cultural touchstone, made viral especially in social media. It is hailed alternately as a remedy for burnout, a protest against capitalism, and a necessary practice in a world of chronic crisis. But as imperialist powers double down on exploitation and war, and as the world face ecological collapse, displacement, militarism, and deepening inequality, a critical question must be asked: Can care exist without community and can liberation be found in the individual alone?

Self-Care: Resistance or Co-optation?

The origins of self-care are radical. The Black Panther Party in the 70s organized health clinics as acts of self-determination. Expanding on this idea, Audre Lorde, writer and civil rights activists, wrote about self-care as “an act of political warfare” for Black women navigating a hostile world. In these contexts, self-care was never selfish—it was survival in the service of collective struggle. Today, however, self-care is largely individual pampering. It has become commodified. The wellness industry—worth over trillions—sells luxury over liberation. Rest becomes exclusionary, a privilege for the few. Healing becomes marketable. “Boundaries” become walls that sever us from mutual responsibility, from “pakikipag-kapwa tao” or concern for others especially the poor.

While rest and healing are essential, they are not ends in themselves. Self-care detached from community care risks becoming self-indulgence that leaves this oppressive and exploitative system unchanged.

The rise of Individualism as imperialist cultural offensive

Imperialism—capitalism’s most aggressive and inhumane phase—has successfully reshaped how we understand ourselves and our place in the world. As said by Juliet De Lima at the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS), “Its (imperialism’s) cultural themes, messages, and symbols are constantly produced and disseminated by the most technologically powerful media systems that the world has ever known: print, broadcast/cinema, and Internet/multimedia systems that encompass practically the whole world, 24/7 in real time, and with the capacity to manufacture so-called realities that fit the goals of imperialist domination.”

It sells us the illusion of personal responsibility over superstructure accountability. We are told we are free, that we are the architects of our own success or failure. If you’re poor, you’re lazy. If you’re tired, you need a better planner. If you’re burned out, just do more yoga.

This individualism isn’t accidental. It’s an imperialist cultural offensive that demands the dismantling of collective power. While bombs are dropped in Gaza, resource extraction accelerates and debt traps are tightened in the neocolonies through institutions like the IMF and World Bank, the people most affected are told to focus on themselves. Don’t listen or read news. The language of “self-improvement” has becomes a fender against solidarity.

The most debilitating long-term effect of this cultural offensive is in creating obstacles—big and small—towards the development of revolutionary or socialist class consciousness among the workers and other toiling masses, and towards a militant national and democratic consciousness among oppressed peoples.t If not countered and eventually defeated, such a cultural offensive will produce a slew of petty-bourgeois subcultures that will numb the masses of working people. —Juliet De Lima

Counterculture: Reclaiming Collective Responsibility

Community care or collective care is the counterweight to individual self-care, more so in the context of resistance and revolution. It asks: Who ensures no one is left behind? This kind of care is grounded in community support systems, solidarity, liberation, and a refusal to normalize individualist thinking.

We’ve seen its power in moments of crisis. In times of crises, when states failed to provide even the most basic support, grassroots networks and revolutionary movements, sprang up to deliver food, medicine, and emotional support. In war zones, occupied territories, and climate-ravaged regions, it is communities—not governments or corporations—that are keeping people alive.

Counterculture should be building a culture of kindness and resistance that challenges the systems that seek to isolate us. It means rejecting the idea that we must choose between caring for ourselves and serving others.

Toward a Revolutionary culture

From Filipino workers demanding just wages and decent working conditions to peasants asserting their right to land, and indigenous peoples defending their ancestral territories—the fight for collective survival rages on in the face of relentless repression and exploitation. Their courage reminds us that resistance is not a choice, but a necessity. And amid these struggles, we care for ourselves not to escape, but to endure—to keep rising, organizing, and fighting for a future where dignity, justice, and liberation are no longer dreams, but realities—a future we all deserve. (Mia Andres)