Whoa! You have truly kissed the proverbial nail on the head. And I have some theories around how we could make manifest what you are saying - evoking empathy.
If we could evoke empathy by telling the truth about what our trauma history has done to our brothers and sisters and their families for generations past, by showing the consequence…
Whoa! You have truly kissed the proverbial nail on the head. And I have some theories around how we could make manifest what you are saying - evoking empathy.
If we could evoke empathy by telling the truth about what our trauma history has done to our brothers and sisters and their families for generations past, by showing the consequences of it not, as in black maternal and infant morality, the high incidence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders — from three and four generations back — on reservations, perhaps we could jar some folks enough to feel a twinge of guilt and responsibility? Maybe?
We just keep rolling over the disasters, like so many layers of asphalt (each generation) laying down on top of the next, never going back to the original earth to lay the good foundation on top of truth. Instead just having layer on layer buckling and baking in the hotter and hotter sun.
Hamilton Nolan’s readers get this. I wish we, like the Red, Wine, and Blue folks could come together and infuse this deeper cut at truth into the vernacular. Maybe that’s something we could do, if it’s not already being done: see if the RW&Blue folks would also promote Hamilton Nolan as they do Heather Cox Richardson.
Guilt and responsibility need outlets—just those negative feelings without some actionable way to do something about them is, to the “fuck it” mentality, more of the same. Much easier to ignore the reaction or channel it into more fuck-itery.
I’m not saying “let’s preserve the bubble”, but rather that the bubble doesn’t really pop until it can be sensed in the living present. Not the weight of generations of oppression, the needle of “I have a choice, right now, with real consequences that I can understand.”
Honest conversations, with no agenda beyond honesty, offer a little window into this. Because every conversational move is a choice with immediate impact, that people are intimately familiar with and accustomed to thinking about. The “no agenda” part is key. Because “agenda” triggers the well-worn “fuck it” defenses.
It’s a fine line to walk, but the people who’ve made me realize this are the people who successfully walk that line by honestly presenting themselves: “Hi. I’m a person with an agenda, just like all people have agendas. This conversation doesn’t have to be about our agendas, but our agendas are a topic on the table, among many others, none of which are off limits, and any of which we can discuss with respect for each other”. That’s the vibe I try to aim for.
Whoa! You have truly kissed the proverbial nail on the head. And I have some theories around how we could make manifest what you are saying - evoking empathy.
If we could evoke empathy by telling the truth about what our trauma history has done to our brothers and sisters and their families for generations past, by showing the consequences of it not, as in black maternal and infant morality, the high incidence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders — from three and four generations back — on reservations, perhaps we could jar some folks enough to feel a twinge of guilt and responsibility? Maybe?
We just keep rolling over the disasters, like so many layers of asphalt (each generation) laying down on top of the next, never going back to the original earth to lay the good foundation on top of truth. Instead just having layer on layer buckling and baking in the hotter and hotter sun.
Hamilton Nolan’s readers get this. I wish we, like the Red, Wine, and Blue folks could come together and infuse this deeper cut at truth into the vernacular. Maybe that’s something we could do, if it’s not already being done: see if the RW&Blue folks would also promote Hamilton Nolan as they do Heather Cox Richardson.
Thanks for your evocative response.
Hope we can continue this conversation.
Guilt and responsibility need outlets—just those negative feelings without some actionable way to do something about them is, to the “fuck it” mentality, more of the same. Much easier to ignore the reaction or channel it into more fuck-itery.
I’m not saying “let’s preserve the bubble”, but rather that the bubble doesn’t really pop until it can be sensed in the living present. Not the weight of generations of oppression, the needle of “I have a choice, right now, with real consequences that I can understand.”
Honest conversations, with no agenda beyond honesty, offer a little window into this. Because every conversational move is a choice with immediate impact, that people are intimately familiar with and accustomed to thinking about. The “no agenda” part is key. Because “agenda” triggers the well-worn “fuck it” defenses.
It’s a fine line to walk, but the people who’ve made me realize this are the people who successfully walk that line by honestly presenting themselves: “Hi. I’m a person with an agenda, just like all people have agendas. This conversation doesn’t have to be about our agendas, but our agendas are a topic on the table, among many others, none of which are off limits, and any of which we can discuss with respect for each other”. That’s the vibe I try to aim for.