Our most intimate, personal selves are inevitably in part determined collectively by society as a whole. What kinds of people we are and want to be is thus an inescapable part of any political struggle to transform society. 

We’ve all been shaped by injustice – by capitalism, patriarchy, imperialism, etc. Living in societies distorted by such injustices has a formative influence on the kinds of people we are – what we care about and how we think, act and feel. For example, capitalist society fosters greed and individualism, and sexism makes people value men more than women. 

This means that the left itself and those it seeks to win over have been shaped by values that are incompatible with our socialist values and goals. 

We need to work out how to relate to and work to transform ourselves and people in general. However, it can seem intrusive and authoritarian to openly seek to change people’s values and characters. And talking about how we’ve been shaped by injustice can slip into individualistic moral condemnation and guilt. This is unhelpful because the issue is not personal failings but how our personalities are collectively shaped through social life.