Putting politics primary can be done in many ways, from cooking, writing, visiting, building friendships while discussing politics and organizing struggles. Those with less oppressive lives don't benefit from imperialism; it's no privilege to live in a racist, divisive society. Knowing people who do helps us know the world and surmount these barriers, but it's not easy.
Hi Karyn, It's true that we can do all manner of everyday life things in a conscious, movement-building way. That still may not entirely free us, or me--I should only speak for myself--from the pull to do more, especially to be more involved in the most severe crises we face.
Regarding the second part of your comment, I think we need to distinguish between having privilege v. internalized oppressor roles or patterns. I am not a fan of the term 'privilege,' because I think it emphasizes a superficial experience of superiority, benefit, or entitlement, obscuring our basic common relationship to the underlying sociopolitical structure; i.e., it is another way of dividing us. What I am saying here about imperialism is that regardless of how much or little material benefit we get from being denizens of empire, our minds and actions are nonetheless being conditioned and shaped by it, which is something I feel we need to understand and resist.
Juliana, you make excellent points. I don't have anything to add. I am trying to just keep organizing as best as I can so I am cutting back on all the things I receive to read. The most critical activity is recruiting more people to build a revolutionary movement.
That is a great article. You listing of your anti-imperialist actions was very useful to me in thinking about my work in this area as well. I am looking forward to you expanding on what it means to carry internalized imperialism in ourselves. As a young person, I could not conceive of being anything but an "American". I suspect that is part of poison that lurks in the recesses of my psyche.
Thanks, Judy. Yes, I think that nationalism is one of the most harmful aspects of identity. We are sucked into identifying with our nation, "America", which exists to maintain the structural divisions and oppressions we live with. To do this it must indoctrinate us relentlessly. How else can the nation, worse, this empire which considers itself superior to all other nations, maintain its dominance, convincing its people, i.e., us, to support its murderous actions around the world, including getting us to willingly kill and die to support its dominance? It seems clear to me that imperialism, this extreme form of nationalism, has to be seriously messing with all our psyches to get us to participate in such madness.
Thanks, Judy. Yes, I am hypothesizing that being born and raised here in the belly of the empire conditions our minds in a lot of problematic ways. I look foward--with some trepidation!--to delving farther into this.
Putting politics primary can be done in many ways, from cooking, writing, visiting, building friendships while discussing politics and organizing struggles. Those with less oppressive lives don't benefit from imperialism; it's no privilege to live in a racist, divisive society. Knowing people who do helps us know the world and surmount these barriers, but it's not easy.
Hi Karyn, It's true that we can do all manner of everyday life things in a conscious, movement-building way. That still may not entirely free us, or me--I should only speak for myself--from the pull to do more, especially to be more involved in the most severe crises we face.
Regarding the second part of your comment, I think we need to distinguish between having privilege v. internalized oppressor roles or patterns. I am not a fan of the term 'privilege,' because I think it emphasizes a superficial experience of superiority, benefit, or entitlement, obscuring our basic common relationship to the underlying sociopolitical structure; i.e., it is another way of dividing us. What I am saying here about imperialism is that regardless of how much or little material benefit we get from being denizens of empire, our minds and actions are nonetheless being conditioned and shaped by it, which is something I feel we need to understand and resist.
Juliana, you make excellent points. I don't have anything to add. I am trying to just keep organizing as best as I can so I am cutting back on all the things I receive to read. The most critical activity is recruiting more people to build a revolutionary movement.
That is a great article. You listing of your anti-imperialist actions was very useful to me in thinking about my work in this area as well. I am looking forward to you expanding on what it means to carry internalized imperialism in ourselves. As a young person, I could not conceive of being anything but an "American". I suspect that is part of poison that lurks in the recesses of my psyche.
Thanks, Judy. Yes, I think that nationalism is one of the most harmful aspects of identity. We are sucked into identifying with our nation, "America", which exists to maintain the structural divisions and oppressions we live with. To do this it must indoctrinate us relentlessly. How else can the nation, worse, this empire which considers itself superior to all other nations, maintain its dominance, convincing its people, i.e., us, to support its murderous actions around the world, including getting us to willingly kill and die to support its dominance? It seems clear to me that imperialism, this extreme form of nationalism, has to be seriously messing with all our psyches to get us to participate in such madness.
Thanks, Judy. Yes, I am hypothesizing that being born and raised here in the belly of the empire conditions our minds in a lot of problematic ways. I look foward--with some trepidation!--to delving farther into this.