Spring newsletter: narrative oceans, withholding cooperation, moral injury
Welcome
Hi! This is my first mid-year newsletter. These updates are for anyone who wants to be a part of the transition from systems of domination and oppression to systems of collaboration and care.
I believe we can build a world where everyone belongs and everyone’s needs are met. Where all people enjoy lives free from violence. Where we live in right relationship with each other and the land. How do we get there? That’s what I want to figure out together and practice together.
3 ideas I’m sitting with
“To change the world, transform narrative oceans.” - an essay by Bridgit Antoinette Evans
“How can you fully connect with what you really need, attend to what you really need, and release the rest back into the flow?" - a podcast interview with Miki Kashtan. What would happen if everyone did this? If no one hoarded/accumulated more than what’s necessary to meet their needs?
“I withhold cooperation with this injustice.” - Third Harmony, a documentary about the practice of nonviolence. What would happen if everyone withheld their cooperation with the multitude of injustices that prop up our current coercive systems? If sheriffs’ deputies chose not to enforce evictions? If those deforesting the Amazon to make way for cattle chose not to pick up their chainsaws? If border patrol officers chose not to turn away migrants? Related: “Movements seldom win by overpowering the opposition; they win by shifting support out from under it.” - Beautiful Trouble
3 themes on my mind
The dissonance/moral injury of existing during climate collapse. The perceived impotence of individual action. The promise of collective action.
Short-term strategy vs. long-term strategy. Hospicing out the old world order vs. midwifing in the new. Horizon 2 work vs. Horizon 3 work.
Revolution (requires violence) vs. transformation (belief/culture/behavior change without violence).
1 burning question
For organizations and individuals working toward liberation/a just transition, what’s the theory of change you’re working from/with? How can we coordinate, collaborate, amplify, and accelerate each others’ efforts?
I don’t have a complete theory of change yet (does anyone?), but I believe it involves:
Healing individual, intergenerational, and collective trauma
Reparations
Imagining a new story
Narrative and culture change
Reindigenizing (? I’m not sure what the best verb is here) our ways of knowing and being
1 thing I’m doing
Facilitating Offers and Needs Markets, a way to practice meeting our needs outside of capitalism. OANM is a post-money paradigm. It's culture change.
1 quote
"Empowerment comes from ideas—our revolution is fought with concepts, not with guns, and it is fueled by vision. By focusing on what we want to happen we change the present. The healing images and narratives we imagine will eventually materialize." - Gloria Anzaldúa