Wow. What a piece. I needed this, we all need this. Thank you.
I often struggle with the limitations I have to act on my ethics. When family or health or economics or whatever preclude taking more ‘active’ roles in organisations or protest or just helping where needed.
I guess there is a problem of locality, when it’s on your street- you’re life is upended anyway, and you act very differently as part of a group. People come together like during covid. When you feel like you’re the only person who cares enough to change what they are doing it’s so hard to do anything because you meet resistance everywhere and life in this wage slave exploitative culture is challenging enough as it is right!
So I don’t actually know what to do. I can try to create an island of calm sanity where I am and try to make it spread and support others, and maybe change some minds... and wow if we all did this, if EVERYONE went home and loved their children and neighbours (to quote mother Teresa) what a world that would be.. but it’s not. So it never feels like enough. Whilst I do have faith it is not a futile thing to do, I wish it were clearer what to do to help.
I guess you pick a cause you know and you fight for it...
Radical love to me includes really "opening your heart". Part of this is developing a direct physical awareness of your heart, or generally, the space within your chest (your heart is in there on the left). There are helpful guidelines for this at heartmath.com. In doing this what I have run into in that my heart area sensations are associated with intense memories, both positive and negative, from my past. These memories can launch me into thinking about those times, and re-exercising those feelings. The challege there is that my heart energy is then not available to apply to the present. That is, if I'm distracted with my personal past, I cannot feel sympathy, empathy and compassion for the suffering in the world today. Nor can I use my heart-mind intuition to gain penetrating insights into the causes of the suffering, in order to identify what I can do about it. Often the answer is that I can do little or nothing. Yet very often the answer is that I can =learn more= about the situations causing the suffering, including both the material and psychological aspects. To me that's part of the power of the heart-mind: it provides energy for compassion =and= love =and= work =and= learning. Opening my heart in this way is an ongoing challenge. It is sometimes disturbing, even disruptive. Yet I am determined, remembering that I was born with an open heart, that closing it came from my experiences in the world, and that opening it is a choice I can still make.
My name is Marie - I'm the manager and communications coordinator for NetworkWeaver.com. I've been subscribed to Planet Critical for a while and am a great admirer of your work.
I wasn't able to find an email address for you, so I am reaching out here to inquire if you would be interested in sharing this post and/or other posts with the Network Weaver community. NW offers free content to all – in support of equity, justice and transformation for all.
We would cross-post the publication as a blog. The content would be promoted in our weekly newsletter and social media avenues. Authorship and original place of publication would be cited.
Historically, authors/networks have found an increased interest in their work and traffic to their sites when their content is published at Network Weaver.
You can reach me at Network Weaver Manager @ gmail . com
Hey April, I wish I had the answer to this. I think there are examples of direct action which successfully shifted regimes, such as the ANC's use of sabotage in South Africa. I'm no expert, but I would guess violent regime changes directed by foreign hands rather than civic resistance result in continued violence. Revolutions led by citizens, though violent, do often result in some form of eventual statehood.
Violence begets violence, this is true. Violence must stop for things to be born anew. Have we ever lived in a non-violent time? Surely, in pockets of the world. But the violence of the modern industrial era has reached every community. History began long ago. Violence is perhaps both the response but not the answer.
Also, as Mahatma Gandhi propsed, Non-Violent Civic resistance which is actually radical love in action. His movement of boycott, Satyagraha, and non-violent resistance were literally about putting one's body on the line. No matter what.
Amongst all that I found valuable in this interview and piece, I really find the idea of ‘passive’ love that isn’t directly attributable to the situation that’s capturing everyone’s attention currently rather difficult and not really helpful, as if you’re not currently able to fight the big fight in the same way your acts of kindness don’t matter. I don’t think that is really the spirit of what was meant but I think it’s easy to simplify it to that.
There is a virtue signalling kind of passivity that abounds sure, stating how much you want peace is very different from actually making it happen in reality. But in reality we each have limited access to affect different areas. Often we are limited to immediate friends and family, some can make changes and be activist in work or community. But in any event if we are angry, and unhappy, and react within our rage... we risk endless cycles of violence of all kinds. So I do think it is essential to find a balance where you are at and respond to situations rather than react to them. I like the ‘violence as punctuation’ idea. But violence generally traumatises the violent. It by necessity others those who are struck.
Appropriate actions need not be always non-violent in order to seek the least possible harm, and I see the violence reached as a last resort for so many oppressed people. But perhaps the most powerful thing we can do is encourage each other to see everyone as truly equal. To actually care about all the babies, even just the damn babies, in war zones right now. But see my comment below about how lost I feel about what actually to do about it! But whatever else we do, whatever activism we take, I do think we all need to cultivate an island of calm where we are, and take it out into the world as an example, and be resourced to respond wisely and kindly.
Wow. What a piece. I needed this, we all need this. Thank you.
I often struggle with the limitations I have to act on my ethics. When family or health or economics or whatever preclude taking more ‘active’ roles in organisations or protest or just helping where needed.
I guess there is a problem of locality, when it’s on your street- you’re life is upended anyway, and you act very differently as part of a group. People come together like during covid. When you feel like you’re the only person who cares enough to change what they are doing it’s so hard to do anything because you meet resistance everywhere and life in this wage slave exploitative culture is challenging enough as it is right!
So I don’t actually know what to do. I can try to create an island of calm sanity where I am and try to make it spread and support others, and maybe change some minds... and wow if we all did this, if EVERYONE went home and loved their children and neighbours (to quote mother Teresa) what a world that would be.. but it’s not. So it never feels like enough. Whilst I do have faith it is not a futile thing to do, I wish it were clearer what to do to help.
I guess you pick a cause you know and you fight for it...
Radical love to me includes really "opening your heart". Part of this is developing a direct physical awareness of your heart, or generally, the space within your chest (your heart is in there on the left). There are helpful guidelines for this at heartmath.com. In doing this what I have run into in that my heart area sensations are associated with intense memories, both positive and negative, from my past. These memories can launch me into thinking about those times, and re-exercising those feelings. The challege there is that my heart energy is then not available to apply to the present. That is, if I'm distracted with my personal past, I cannot feel sympathy, empathy and compassion for the suffering in the world today. Nor can I use my heart-mind intuition to gain penetrating insights into the causes of the suffering, in order to identify what I can do about it. Often the answer is that I can do little or nothing. Yet very often the answer is that I can =learn more= about the situations causing the suffering, including both the material and psychological aspects. To me that's part of the power of the heart-mind: it provides energy for compassion =and= love =and= work =and= learning. Opening my heart in this way is an ongoing challenge. It is sometimes disturbing, even disruptive. Yet I am determined, remembering that I was born with an open heart, that closing it came from my experiences in the world, and that opening it is a choice I can still make.
Hi Rachel,
My name is Marie - I'm the manager and communications coordinator for NetworkWeaver.com. I've been subscribed to Planet Critical for a while and am a great admirer of your work.
I wasn't able to find an email address for you, so I am reaching out here to inquire if you would be interested in sharing this post and/or other posts with the Network Weaver community. NW offers free content to all – in support of equity, justice and transformation for all.
We would cross-post the publication as a blog. The content would be promoted in our weekly newsletter and social media avenues. Authorship and original place of publication would be cited.
Historically, authors/networks have found an increased interest in their work and traffic to their sites when their content is published at Network Weaver.
You can reach me at Network Weaver Manager @ gmail . com
Thanks for your consideration.
Yes, of course. Thank you, Marie!
Hi Rachel, we actually chose to publish Changing the System by Fire. Thank you for sharing your work with our community. Happy to make changes if you'd like. https://networkweaver.com/changing-the-system-by-fire/
best,
Marie
I know exactly what you mean about radical love. This is my way of saying the same thing:
https://jonathanfostersthecrow.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-crow
Hey April, I wish I had the answer to this. I think there are examples of direct action which successfully shifted regimes, such as the ANC's use of sabotage in South Africa. I'm no expert, but I would guess violent regime changes directed by foreign hands rather than civic resistance result in continued violence. Revolutions led by citizens, though violent, do often result in some form of eventual statehood.
Violence begets violence, this is true. Violence must stop for things to be born anew. Have we ever lived in a non-violent time? Surely, in pockets of the world. But the violence of the modern industrial era has reached every community. History began long ago. Violence is perhaps both the response but not the answer.
Also, as Mahatma Gandhi propsed, Non-Violent Civic resistance which is actually radical love in action. His movement of boycott, Satyagraha, and non-violent resistance were literally about putting one's body on the line. No matter what.
Amongst all that I found valuable in this interview and piece, I really find the idea of ‘passive’ love that isn’t directly attributable to the situation that’s capturing everyone’s attention currently rather difficult and not really helpful, as if you’re not currently able to fight the big fight in the same way your acts of kindness don’t matter. I don’t think that is really the spirit of what was meant but I think it’s easy to simplify it to that.
There is a virtue signalling kind of passivity that abounds sure, stating how much you want peace is very different from actually making it happen in reality. But in reality we each have limited access to affect different areas. Often we are limited to immediate friends and family, some can make changes and be activist in work or community. But in any event if we are angry, and unhappy, and react within our rage... we risk endless cycles of violence of all kinds. So I do think it is essential to find a balance where you are at and respond to situations rather than react to them. I like the ‘violence as punctuation’ idea. But violence generally traumatises the violent. It by necessity others those who are struck.
Appropriate actions need not be always non-violent in order to seek the least possible harm, and I see the violence reached as a last resort for so many oppressed people. But perhaps the most powerful thing we can do is encourage each other to see everyone as truly equal. To actually care about all the babies, even just the damn babies, in war zones right now. But see my comment below about how lost I feel about what actually to do about it! But whatever else we do, whatever activism we take, I do think we all need to cultivate an island of calm where we are, and take it out into the world as an example, and be resourced to respond wisely and kindly.