Confederation and meat consumption

[rva_jeremy]

Well, I do suppose we read the Q'uo quote a bit differently then - not that Q'uo is necessarily encouraging stridency, but saying that sometimes it is necessary, which is a part of the "remedial work of a fairly significant nature" that Q'uo is talking about.

Thank you, I think I needed you to call this out for me. I have a different concept of Q'uo's message now.

With respect to the issue of militancy I brought up earlier, I am referencing Eisenstein's "The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible", specifically this passage from this chapter which had a very significant impact on my activist thinking. And keep in mind--this is something I'm working with myself on, not necessarily something you were evincing as much as reflecting to me based on my own issues:

The activist Susan Livingston wrote me about a proposal she had written for an Occupy group at Caltech opposing its biofuels contract with BP. She said, “It came because I was troubled by the militant attitude of some of the folks at the teach-in. I didn’t see the care I’d like for the community of the conflict—the multitude of low-level bureaucrats, small stockholders, and franchise owners whose livelihoods depend on BP. What are they—collateral damage? And especially after seeing The Drilling Fields about the human and environmental devastation in Nigeria at the hands of Shell, I’m not real fond of singling out BP in response to the resentments of some privileged students who want to have their cake and eat it, too. But we’ve got to start somewhere, and with privilege comes the capacity to mount an effective campaign of resistance.”

In this comment, Susan is drawing a key connection between privilege and militancy. Militancy, the mentality of war, always involves collateral damage. Something must always be sacrificed for the Cause. The sacrifice of others (the “community of the conflict”) is also the defining mentality of elitism: for whatever reason, those others are less important than me, my class, my cause. The privileged are always sacrificing others for their (the others’) own good. If they sometimes sacrifice themselves too, that doesn’t mitigate their elitism.

This is not to say that the oil companies should be allowed to continue what they are doing in order to preserve the livelihoods of filling-station owners. It is just that everyone needs to be seen and considered, not written off. Militants think that giving up the fight means letting the bad guys have their way. If the world were indeed divided into good guys and bad guys, that might be true, but despite what the movies tell us, the world is not thus divided. Alternatives to fighting, then, can be more powerful and not less in creating change.

This undermines not one ounce of the point you and Q'uo are making, Jade. It simply looks at the issue from another angle. We are sophisticated beings, and we can hold to seemingly contradictory ideas in our head without melting down, can't we? It can at once be true that stridency/militancy is necessary, and at the same time, just because it is necessary doesn't mean that it's always appropriate, that it's the single solution to the problem.

Furthermore, and this is the point I was really trying to make, the stridency and militancy is going to happen and is happening. Just because it is necessary doesn't mean it's what we are required to contribute in any given setting (and that is not a reflection on you or anybody on this thread; please understand I'm trying to think expansively on this topic). Personally I don't see any need to create more conflict, and when I do I frequently find my own flaws at work.

However, I do see a need to provide the other elements that forceful advocacy does not bring to bear. This is because militancy incurs collateral damage, as the quote says, the same way that an antibiotic may be necessary to repair one's health but it doesn't work without killing a lot of good bacteria, too. And what we need is not to win so much as to achieve a new kind of balance.

The trick is to know when militancy IS necessary, because it's always going to take everybody out of their comfort zone. It is so incredibly difficult to suss out the distinction between something being uncomfortable and something not resonating. I still am working with that wisdom. And it is in that spirit of continuing to balance on this matter that your thoughts are genuinely appreciated, Jade, as bringing out truth within me that I was having trouble reconciling.