This has been an emotional week for me. First, my best friend, and some acquaintances were arrested on Burnaby mountain, then the lack of indictment in Ferguson. Resonating with that was the police killing of a deranged man in Vancouver, plus the number of pedestrians hit by drivers in the rain (which was blamed on the rain, not the engineering). All these things are tied together for me by the depth of their insulation. There are layers and layers of laws, regulations, bureaucracies, structures, habits, institutions, traditions, frames and worldviews—all standing between me and changing the cause of the problem. So, that is frustrating. The razor hidden in all these things is the justifications that get rolled out, not just on Fox News, or the Sun, but by thoughtful people on social media. And I hear myself in so much of this crap. I am not saying that I am pure, but I have grown over the years. I will be 44 next week, and I look back on my twenties with shame. I am smart and articulate, and I can fairly easily twist any argument to place the blame on anyone else but myself, and to justify why I should be able to continue just as I am. Even after years of therapy and couples communications work, I keep finding new ways that I do this in my life and to my loved ones. So, here are a bunch of links from this week. I wish these conversations had been happening this publicly twenty years ago—maybe I would have been less of an ass in my thirties, instead of it taking this long to get even to where I am today. Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person (replace white privilege with Male Privilege and this can cut you twice. I feel a lot of regret about how I have treated my girlfriends over the years.) huffingtonpost/gina-crosleycorcoran/explaining-white-privilege-to-a-broke-white-person_b_5269255.html On Ferguson, Riots, and Human Limits Jay Smooth, with a video that fits right in with my research on behaviour and Compassionate Systems. So much of the hate-blather comes from a fundamentally hateful view of human nature, not a compassionate view. illdoctrine/2014/11/on_ferguson_riots_and_human_li.html On Ferguson Protests, the Destruction of Things, and What Violence Really Is (And Isn’t) Mia McKenzie (Black Girl Dangerous) is very good for my health. blackgirldangerous.org/2014/11/ferguson-destruction-violence-really-isnt/ Slightly off-topic reflections One of my favourite thinkers, Charles Marohn, takes a sensitive look. It sounds like the queries of a slightly hapless white guy who has no idea what it feels like to be black...and that is how I feel. strongtowns.org/journal/2014/11/26/slightly-off-topic-reflections Sometimes Unfortunate Things Happen In The Heat Of A 400-Year-Old Legacy Of Racism Even more than Jon Stewart, the Onion makes me want to cry. They so effortlessly articulate the searing truth of the situation. theonion/articles/sometimes-unfortunate-things-happen-in-the-heat-of,36690/ Nation Doesn’t Know If It Can Take Another Bullshit Speech About Healing Ditto. theonion/articles/nation-doesnt-know-if-it-can-take-another-bullshit,37541/
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 19:25:46 +0000
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