In an age of political polarization, what use is there in comparing Socialism with psychedelics? Surprisingly, a lot. The same concept drives both of them: returning an alienated individual or an alienated society back to an authentic form of living. If a class-based hierarchy is also reflected in the psyche of its populace, then the ego-death and rebirth of the classic psychedelic trip can be read as potentially political.

Yet the Socialist and counter-culture world have been separated by the very class divisions that they envision overcoming. What might the psychedelic experience have to teach socialism, and vice versa? Will ego-dissolution be covered under Medicare-for-all? Or will psychedelic experience forever remain something only the bourgeois can enjoy?

Join Brooklyn Psychedelic Society president Colin Pugh in a conversation with Nicholas Powers, Ph. D, discussing the ways in which psychedelics and socialism can inform one another - and perhaps give us some clues as to what the future might hold for our country.

Nicholas Powers is a poet, journalist and associate professor of literature. His book The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street was published by Upset Press. His writings have appeared in Truth Out, Huffington Post, Raw Story, The Indypendent and the Village Voice.