It Takes Work

You cannot have social change or social justice, without changing the self in some way or a series of ways.

You cannot change yourself very far, without changing society in some way or a series of ways.

You cannot have freedom without justice.

You cannot have justice without healing.
Otherwise, we often re-create the dynamics that we want to change, but perhaps in new ways, sometimes unbeknownst to us.

Freedom is not a place we arrive, a place of rest.

It is struggle.

Domination and Resistance are interrelated, always present together.

In every case, both domination and resistance, are practiced through Factors of Memory.  Identity, culture, fragmentation, pain, trauma, forgetting, isolation, system changes through force, genocide and torture, obligations, aloofness, attachments and ignorance —they all work to form the products of resistance.

In the most civilized of nations, naiveté combined with arrogance and privilege, can become strong factors in disempowering social justice.

Social change through pre-formed ideas of how everything should be and how everyone should be, or some moral superiority through which one places oneself and sits, is not social justice.  That former type is colonizing mentality itself.  Metaphysics that are all-encompassing of others, is a large yet colonial enterprise.  Where is the room for difference that cannot be incorporated or manipulated?  Is there an “Other?”

Utopian ideas and ideals, are often colonizing.  Anything that does not match the utopian view must be eradicated or manipulated into what the dominant utopian ideals are.  Therefore, I do not believe in utopian ideals, perfections.

Ethics, accountability, compassion, wisdom, tactical thinking, knowledge, diversity, and commitment are the hallmarks of freedom.

What roles do we play in this?