Distraction:
US culture asks us to universally sacrifice the old for the new- but the new is a body made of microplastics. It nuclearizes the pursuit of peace and prosperity with the aim to separate our time and energy from growing global atrocities, but the bliss of ignorance comes at great cost. It tells us there is always more we could and should be doing as long as it falls in line… or online where hostilities spread and corrode like a toxic slime.
Friction:
The land mass of “liberty” contains two party tectonic plates in a perpetual strike-slip grind, producing destructive shock waves with no creative purchase in mind.
A flag of fascism on the right, and a hard to swallow pill of still on the left.
It is laborious to hold hope when eruption feels inexorable, so I build strength to resist letting go- by getting ripped on weights and woes.
Division | Revision:
Activism is in part related to experience- some of us are compelled forward based on circumstance and history. At the core, it is an engaged mindset that seeks to dismantle internalized systems of oppression- independent of identity. You can be queer and prejudice, a woman and misogynistic. Proclamation against is only the first step towards transformation.
To live in this world is to be influenced in ways that will inevitably project harm. Our privileges and/or marginalizations do not automatically make us wrong or unquestionably right. These facts of life should be acknowledged and act as a point of reference for understanding ourselves and each other, not as a weapon to injure or slay.
Salvation is in our ability to challenge the demons that we shelter inside so that we may come together and defeat the few rich fucks that skeeve on the outside.
We need the fertile grounds of grief- to move beyond our festering anger, to see each other as peoples of this earth not defined by continental or state lines, to know that we are an intricate part of this planet so that we stop exploiting the great cook and provider. This requires acknowledging the horrors of history in order to course correct. What was then is also now, and what is now will be our future.
Collaboration
The only clear path towards a better tomorrow will depend on our ability to connect with one another across the divide. Realistically reaching- it is hard to imagine such a landscape, but I will try.
