Distillations/Constellations #6: igniting our humanity
I've been listening to the fantastic podcast, Green Dreamer. In their words, the podcast "explores our paths to collective healing, biocultural revitalization, and true abundance and wellness for all", and there's a dizzying back catalogue of over 400 episodes with a truly diverse set of thinkers, growers, dreamers, ecologists, and so much more.
One episode that I've been thinking about in particular is this one, with Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestinian Heirloom Seed Project. In it, she says:
"We are paying with our own bodies and if people can't see that and cannot stand against that and don't have it in them to really ignite their own humanity, then I feel very sorry for them because then I feel even in our death, we're more alive than a lot of people.
(My own emphasis.)
Sit with that for a second. How does seeing what's happening in Palestine right now, make you feel? Enraged? Fired up to take action? Or like you want to close your phone/laptop and do something else? (Or both?)
That framing of Palestine actually already being liberated, and the core problem being that the rest of the world is not – is a narrative that I really appreciate. I really believe it, too. It's those of us who are sitting back and watching what's happening in Gaza, yet not doing anything about it, who are colonised and controlled, as much as we might like to deny it.
Her words of wisdom, which I think we could all do with remembering:
Don't accept the mediocrity that is being shoved down our throats, whether it's in your thinking, in what you eat, in what you buy, and even in who you talk to.
So, what does it look like to ignite our humanity? For me, at the core of lots of the issues we have today is a lack of empathy. This week, I joined the hope-based comms Activist Book Club, to talk about my book, where I talked again about how, at the heart of many of the issues I talk about in my book, is the need for empathy. I believe that if everyone truly saw everyone else as an equal and worthy human being, we wouldn't have these systems of power and oppression. We wouldn't have discriminatory tech systems, we wouldn't have massive databases that collect data from some and not others, we wouldn't have such double standards in what's okay in some situations and not in others.
One of the best litmus tests I've found in assessing the ethics of a tech tool is asking those who design or implement them, whether they'd be comfortable with themselves or their family being included within them. Biometric data systems, for example. Almost always, I've heard a resounding no – no, I wouldn't want my data, or my family's data, to be included in this database. No, it's not for people like us, they've said. Asked to explain further, they rarely have an answer. That, in itself, is answer enough.
These days, I'm often reminded of abolitionist and educator Mariame Kaba's wise words, that hope is a discipline – that hope isn't an emotion or optimism, but rather a practice and a philosophy, a belief in the potential for transformation. Reading her book, We Do this 'Til We Free Us, was transformational for me in many ways. I almost feel like it gave me permission to stop listening to the quiet cynical voice inside me, and instead start behaving as though anything is possible. I hope you can, too.
Green Dreamer episode recommendations
- Jessica Hernandez: Healing with indigenous science and holistic thinking (ep352
- Karen Washington: Food security, justice, sovereignty (ep325)
- Alexis Shotwell: Purity politics in compromised times (ep322)
- AM Kanngieser: Enlivening our responsiveness to the world (ep421)
- Hilding Neilson: Astro-colonialism and honoring the stories of our dark skies (ep413)