The social contract is not written on paper. It is written in our bodies as behaviors, beliefs, reactions, habits and rituals. The social contract is written in the body and it is in the body that we will begin to rewrite it.
I teach a handful of bones along the axial line, part of the myofascial synergy called the deep core by Thomas Myers. It’s our postural center. The bones are central, prominent coordination centers facilitating interoception, stability and balance. They are shaped like grips and levers and are practically speaking bony servomechanisms for co-operating or conscious participation in our deeper postural core. Simple attention to these bony servomechanisms, meaning gentle neurological activation, helps to balance the system but also brings us into that deep core postural animal we all possess. You would get it very quickly I think because of your movement practice.
They’ve been applying psychology to marketing and propaganda since Edward Bernays and Goebbels. Interesting we haven’t centered it as the cure as well.
Yes. The word “complicit” does such heavy work for such a nebulous term. We are all born into social systems we did not design and can do virtually nothing about. As
humans, we have a historic record of predation, cooperative killing, mass irrational delusions, along with comforting nostrums of “sustainability” and “justice.” Are we to hold ourselves legally responsible (“complicit”?) in some undefined universal court for the institutional corruption and destruction that others with power have perpetrated? Should we keep believing in individualist, triumphalist fairy tales that the religion-based educational system has specialized in?
Well said. I particularly liked your description of the heavy work a word can do. No, I do not hold myself nor other folks responsible for the crimes you mentioned. But let’s use a simple metaphor. If you observe a woman in your neighborhood being physically beaten or raped, do you feel any moral imperative to intervene? Or is simply watching such crimes with the shrug of the shoulders fine? I’m aware of stories where people abused are perfectly fine to watch as others around them are abused. One particular story a man just continued eating his sandwich. He wrote about this in hindsight and asked the question what conditions made that okay for him? It’s normalization of the violence and compartmentalization that allows us to sit and eat our sandwich while someone around us is plummeted by the very abusers who abuse us too.
It’s not about holding ourselves accountable to all the abuser’s crimes. It’s about our accountability to react in solidarity, mutual aid and self-defense.
“Get busy living or get busy dying.” -Brooks was here.
Obviously you write very well, and should be commended for entering in a substack thread with basically a naysayer (it's hard to see how the optimistic side ever can win these things).
Using your metaphor, of course in that situation I, or any other sentient being, feels a "moral imperative to intervene." However, to extend the metaphor, that's not what humans do. We/They are ultrasocial beings, and if we/they feel outranked or subject to danger themselves, we/they will not intervene.
And what if that rape, or that beating, is a normal, everyday occurrence? Everything we have, do, own, or pursue in the west comes from the death and destruction of those born to the Third World resource curse - with the only "moral" avoidance possible to live under a rock, and that still will not have undone in any way the pure and complete harm.
That is what "fighting" the corporate supersystem has been like for the last 50 years, and it will only get worse. "Get busy living" sounds good, but you'll have to delude yourself if you want to think living within this social reality avoids any "moral" association with the forces of death and destruction. As you imagine, I have no idea what the word "solidarity" could possibly mean as a form of action in this context. Clinton's "I feel your pain"?
Martin, you are one of the voices in my own head, so I don’t mind the dialogue whatsoever. :-) You make excellent points and they are tough to dismiss. Human society, I believe, is only truly functional at low numbers. We have become like the Borg. We are all assimilated. It is what it is.
But here is what I believe. Perfection isn’t the goal. Perfection is an unrealistic response to any situation. You are right, we will always be guilty of something. In my book, that isn’t the goal. Perfectionism is a form of denialism, and perhaps even an excuse. In psychology, it is known as an avoidance measure. Like addiction it is a form of escapism or numbing.
To live, we have to sit with all the feelings, the good and the bad. We can’t selectively numb them. So we must embrace the imperfect and the unpredictable. In that space, we can create a culture, even if just among a few of us, that resists the abuse of the system. We can’t know if it will ever succeed. But what we can know is the fulfillment of living as Thoreau put it, “deliberately.”.
Whatever that means for you or anyone else, I’m nothing but compassionate for. Like you said, ain’t none of us free of guilt. So I must figure out a way to forgive you and everyone else, or how could I live with myself?
I’m going to write another post soon about this sort of willingness to expose ourselves to reality and what that can mean for us. It may be the end of times, but there is a life to live even so.
Hi Justin. You wrote good... I am not at all interested in American politics, as in taking sides, making speculations but without resistance (and resilience) you guys are deep trouble now. Stay strong!
Thank you. It verges on hopeless here. I do imagine that the same hesitation to confrontation, and the same embracing of technology, incrementalism and conscious consumerism as solutions are common core beliefs around the globe.
Hi Justin… You are right about the “incrementalism, conscious consumerism…” We have to organize, we have to provide mutual aid (non-political) and collective resistance (ecological) a chance. It might as well be our last chance.
Thanks for this excellent article, Justin! This brings up so much for me.
First of all, our western governments' response (or non-response) to the genocide in Gaza. We should be looking long and hard at the values these governments represent, and consider non-alignment. In the USA, that would mean not supporting Democrats or Republicans, since both actively support genocide. In Canada, where I live, it would mean not supporting the Liberals or Conservatives for the same reason. This should be a red line for all of us, and a clear indication that these parties are OK with Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza. Time to vote for third parties!
Regarding money as a tool, it amazes me how so many middle class environmentalists do things like bank at regular banks which support the military/fossil fuel industrial complex. Why not move their money to a credit union which supports local community?
And how about boycotting Israel?
It also surprises me that people who are much more monied than I am don't buy organically grown food. This is good for the environment, and takes from the system that harms the environment while strengthening systems that heal the environment and are better for our health.
Regarding disruptive actions, I'd like to see actions that disrupt the wealthy and not ordinary people so much. We want ordinary people onside, not mad at us since we made them late for work or inconvenienced them in some other way.
And seeing actions through multiple race, class and gender lenses is a wonderful idea, I agree, and it would make activism welcoming to a more diverse group of people while making our actions more effective.
Anyways, thanks for the chance to rant about these things. Maybe this will result in my next post.
I am an environmentalist and am fully on board with the collapse caused mostly by the Global North at the expense of the South. However, direct action, like blocking roads, really really pisses me off so goodness knows what reaction it will have in those who think we're hypocrites.
Those people who believe that climate change is a hoax by the powers that be also speak of civil disobedience and disruption to upset the status quo. We would join them but want diametrically opposite outcomes. The powers that be would have to chose between who was making the most distruption as to whether they made more climate policies or less!
No civil disruption affects the rich or those in power. Only those dependent on the state like people with physcial or learning disabilities.
That just not true at all. The only thing that has ever changed anything has been direct action. I don’t think sitting in a road is what we are talking about btw. Read the book “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.”
The only thing that has ever changed anything is direct action! What utter bollocks. What about the rise and rise of compassion and the vegan movement until is was scuppered somewhat by 'covid'?
Yes the US blew up the Nord Stream Pipeline. That certainly changed things. Massive amounts of methane in the atmosphere, economic collapse from Germany deprived of affordable Russia gas and having to buy dirty LNG from the US shipped across the Atlantic at 4 times the price and cost to the environment.
The book isn’t actually about doing anything to pipelines. It’s just the title. It’s about the history of direct action. Bro, if you think veganism has made a difference, you’re delusional. Like I said in the article, you are disregarding basic information because it doesn’t align with your core beliefs. This is to be expected. We are witnessing planetary wide ecosystem collapse and you want to talk about it more and become vegan? Sorry, thats not enough. It’s been a massive failure.
On the other hand, decent- minded folks ought to understand the futility of these boilerplate recommendations. Did you not read of the sentences handed down to the Zoom attendees in Britain? The Cop City RICO case? Do you have any idea of the social power of the carceral state that you say should be “disrupted”?
No more excuses not to resist. We have nothing to lose as we will lose everything. Keep writing radically.
Yes! ✊
The social contract is not written on paper. It is written in our bodies as behaviors, beliefs, reactions, habits and rituals. The social contract is written in the body and it is in the body that we will begin to rewrite it.
You have my attention. Thanks for the comment.
I teach a handful of bones along the axial line, part of the myofascial synergy called the deep core by Thomas Myers. It’s our postural center. The bones are central, prominent coordination centers facilitating interoception, stability and balance. They are shaped like grips and levers and are practically speaking bony servomechanisms for co-operating or conscious participation in our deeper postural core. Simple attention to these bony servomechanisms, meaning gentle neurological activation, helps to balance the system but also brings us into that deep core postural animal we all possess. You would get it very quickly I think because of your movement practice.
Using CBT in a political context is quite interesting.
They’ve been applying psychology to marketing and propaganda since Edward Bernays and Goebbels. Interesting we haven’t centered it as the cure as well.
Excellent analysis Justin! Now I need specific steps and ongoing guidance.
Yes. The word “complicit” does such heavy work for such a nebulous term. We are all born into social systems we did not design and can do virtually nothing about. As
humans, we have a historic record of predation, cooperative killing, mass irrational delusions, along with comforting nostrums of “sustainability” and “justice.” Are we to hold ourselves legally responsible (“complicit”?) in some undefined universal court for the institutional corruption and destruction that others with power have perpetrated? Should we keep believing in individualist, triumphalist fairy tales that the religion-based educational system has specialized in?
Well said. I particularly liked your description of the heavy work a word can do. No, I do not hold myself nor other folks responsible for the crimes you mentioned. But let’s use a simple metaphor. If you observe a woman in your neighborhood being physically beaten or raped, do you feel any moral imperative to intervene? Or is simply watching such crimes with the shrug of the shoulders fine? I’m aware of stories where people abused are perfectly fine to watch as others around them are abused. One particular story a man just continued eating his sandwich. He wrote about this in hindsight and asked the question what conditions made that okay for him? It’s normalization of the violence and compartmentalization that allows us to sit and eat our sandwich while someone around us is plummeted by the very abusers who abuse us too.
It’s not about holding ourselves accountable to all the abuser’s crimes. It’s about our accountability to react in solidarity, mutual aid and self-defense.
“Get busy living or get busy dying.” -Brooks was here.
Obviously you write very well, and should be commended for entering in a substack thread with basically a naysayer (it's hard to see how the optimistic side ever can win these things).
Using your metaphor, of course in that situation I, or any other sentient being, feels a "moral imperative to intervene." However, to extend the metaphor, that's not what humans do. We/They are ultrasocial beings, and if we/they feel outranked or subject to danger themselves, we/they will not intervene.
And what if that rape, or that beating, is a normal, everyday occurrence? Everything we have, do, own, or pursue in the west comes from the death and destruction of those born to the Third World resource curse - with the only "moral" avoidance possible to live under a rock, and that still will not have undone in any way the pure and complete harm.
That is what "fighting" the corporate supersystem has been like for the last 50 years, and it will only get worse. "Get busy living" sounds good, but you'll have to delude yourself if you want to think living within this social reality avoids any "moral" association with the forces of death and destruction. As you imagine, I have no idea what the word "solidarity" could possibly mean as a form of action in this context. Clinton's "I feel your pain"?
Martin, you are one of the voices in my own head, so I don’t mind the dialogue whatsoever. :-) You make excellent points and they are tough to dismiss. Human society, I believe, is only truly functional at low numbers. We have become like the Borg. We are all assimilated. It is what it is.
But here is what I believe. Perfection isn’t the goal. Perfection is an unrealistic response to any situation. You are right, we will always be guilty of something. In my book, that isn’t the goal. Perfectionism is a form of denialism, and perhaps even an excuse. In psychology, it is known as an avoidance measure. Like addiction it is a form of escapism or numbing.
To live, we have to sit with all the feelings, the good and the bad. We can’t selectively numb them. So we must embrace the imperfect and the unpredictable. In that space, we can create a culture, even if just among a few of us, that resists the abuse of the system. We can’t know if it will ever succeed. But what we can know is the fulfillment of living as Thoreau put it, “deliberately.”.
Whatever that means for you or anyone else, I’m nothing but compassionate for. Like you said, ain’t none of us free of guilt. So I must figure out a way to forgive you and everyone else, or how could I live with myself?
I’m going to write another post soon about this sort of willingness to expose ourselves to reality and what that can mean for us. It may be the end of times, but there is a life to live even so.
Cheers
Had to laugh out loud too because I am the most doomerist/optimist there is.
Good luck, my man. Nothing wrong with keeping your head up in the struggle.
Hi Justin. You wrote good... I am not at all interested in American politics, as in taking sides, making speculations but without resistance (and resilience) you guys are deep trouble now. Stay strong!
Thank you. It verges on hopeless here. I do imagine that the same hesitation to confrontation, and the same embracing of technology, incrementalism and conscious consumerism as solutions are common core beliefs around the globe.
Hi Justin… You are right about the “incrementalism, conscious consumerism…” We have to organize, we have to provide mutual aid (non-political) and collective resistance (ecological) a chance. It might as well be our last chance.
Thanks for this excellent article, Justin! This brings up so much for me.
First of all, our western governments' response (or non-response) to the genocide in Gaza. We should be looking long and hard at the values these governments represent, and consider non-alignment. In the USA, that would mean not supporting Democrats or Republicans, since both actively support genocide. In Canada, where I live, it would mean not supporting the Liberals or Conservatives for the same reason. This should be a red line for all of us, and a clear indication that these parties are OK with Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza. Time to vote for third parties!
Regarding money as a tool, it amazes me how so many middle class environmentalists do things like bank at regular banks which support the military/fossil fuel industrial complex. Why not move their money to a credit union which supports local community?
And how about boycotting Israel?
It also surprises me that people who are much more monied than I am don't buy organically grown food. This is good for the environment, and takes from the system that harms the environment while strengthening systems that heal the environment and are better for our health.
Regarding disruptive actions, I'd like to see actions that disrupt the wealthy and not ordinary people so much. We want ordinary people onside, not mad at us since we made them late for work or inconvenienced them in some other way.
And seeing actions through multiple race, class and gender lenses is a wonderful idea, I agree, and it would make activism welcoming to a more diverse group of people while making our actions more effective.
Anyways, thanks for the chance to rant about these things. Maybe this will result in my next post.
Well said 👏👏👏
I am an environmentalist and am fully on board with the collapse caused mostly by the Global North at the expense of the South. However, direct action, like blocking roads, really really pisses me off so goodness knows what reaction it will have in those who think we're hypocrites.
I think direct action is more likely to have the opposite effect to that intended. https://jowaller.substack.com/p/i-knew-it-hugely-annoying-insulate?utm_source=publication-search
I disagree.
Those people who believe that climate change is a hoax by the powers that be also speak of civil disobedience and disruption to upset the status quo. We would join them but want diametrically opposite outcomes. The powers that be would have to chose between who was making the most distruption as to whether they made more climate policies or less!
No civil disruption affects the rich or those in power. Only those dependent on the state like people with physcial or learning disabilities.
That just not true at all. The only thing that has ever changed anything has been direct action. I don’t think sitting in a road is what we are talking about btw. Read the book “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.”
The only thing that has ever changed anything is direct action! What utter bollocks. What about the rise and rise of compassion and the vegan movement until is was scuppered somewhat by 'covid'?
Yes the US blew up the Nord Stream Pipeline. That certainly changed things. Massive amounts of methane in the atmosphere, economic collapse from Germany deprived of affordable Russia gas and having to buy dirty LNG from the US shipped across the Atlantic at 4 times the price and cost to the environment.
You're insane.
The book isn’t actually about doing anything to pipelines. It’s just the title. It’s about the history of direct action. Bro, if you think veganism has made a difference, you’re delusional. Like I said in the article, you are disregarding basic information because it doesn’t align with your core beliefs. This is to be expected. We are witnessing planetary wide ecosystem collapse and you want to talk about it more and become vegan? Sorry, thats not enough. It’s been a massive failure.
On the other hand, decent- minded folks ought to understand the futility of these boilerplate recommendations. Did you not read of the sentences handed down to the Zoom attendees in Britain? The Cop City RICO case? Do you have any idea of the social power of the carceral state that you say should be “disrupted”?
These are indeed lessons to be learned from. But tell us an alternative? Be complicit to such a system?
If being non-violent means being complicit then so be it.
I think you and RH have a martyr complex. By all means end up in jail for all the good it will do.