The thing is.
If you don't do and keep doing the liberatory self-work, the oppressive tendencies and the demons still inside you are live landmines.
If you enter movement without deactivating and/or dismantling, you put everyone in that space in danger.
Including yourself.
If you don't do and keep doing the liberatory self-work, the oppressive tendencies and the demons still inside you are live landmines.
If you enter movement without deactivating and/or dismantling, you put everyone in that space in danger.
Including yourself.
Literally every time I have seen liberatory work fail, it was because one of those landmines exploded inside a group.
Effective movement work is stressful.
The path to victory is stressful.
Our usual triggers become hair triggers as a campaign escalates.
Effective movement work is stressful.
The path to victory is stressful.
Our usual triggers become hair triggers as a campaign escalates.
Those triggers will likely always exist, but it makes a big difference whether or not they're attached to something explosive.
If you haven't done the work of deactivating those landmines, you can blow up everyone's hard work.
If you haven't done the work of deactivating those landmines, you can blow up everyone's hard work.
AND, for oppressed people, trauma has often made it almost impossible for some of those landmines to be fully disengaged, but part of the work is understanding that and not going merrily skipping through that particular field for the hell of it.
Maps of that terrain exist and are easily accessible.
Learning those maps is part of the self-work, too, especially for privileged people.
Learning those maps is part of the self-work, too, especially for privileged people.
Oppression and the death-cult of capitalism put these bombs inside all of us, with or without our consent.
Self-work is locating them, de-activating them when possible, and learning to respect the fact that some of us have been more violated by this intrusion than others.
Self-work is locating them, de-activating them when possible, and learning to respect the fact that some of us have been more violated by this intrusion than others.
If we don't do and continue that self-work before entering movement work, we're effectively scheduling a demolition of that liberatory space.
Self-work isn't a guarantee shit won't blow up anyway.
It's always game of Minesweeper, and sometimes you just don't have the information you need to realize you're about to click a box with a deadly payload.
It's always game of Minesweeper, and sometimes you just don't have the information you need to realize you're about to click a box with a deadly payload.
If everyone in a liberatory space is doing that self-work consistently and intentionally, though, the chances that things are going to blow up in our faces drops dramatically.
That's why self-work matters in movement.
Not because we're enamoured of fluffy pop psych bullshit, but because organizers have long, long known that leaving those landmines buried spells doom for bigger picture liberatory work.
Not because we're enamoured of fluffy pop psych bullshit, but because organizers have long, long known that leaving those landmines buried spells doom for bigger picture liberatory work.
*That's* why effective organizers emphasize the importance of self-work.
Not because we are indulgent, but because it is necessary.
Not because we are indulgent, but because it is necessary.
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