‽istis ponders: being awake (weekending July 23rd
2022)
In a week when one of the voted-out-aspiring-Tory-party-leaders
seems to consider another still-in-aspiring-Tory-party-leader as ‘too woke’ to
be Prime Minister[i] (though the actual response to
what may be a leading question uses words perhaps chosen with double caution by
a lawyer-politician) and lauds another still-in-aspiring-Tory-party-leader as
someone who ‘knows what a woman is…er… I think, which is becoming worryingly rare
these days in political debate…’
In a week when ‘Quidditch’ is re-defined as ‘Quadball’…[ii]
In a week when the Church of England/General Synod is described
as: ‘a body where the rule of woke seems to be prevailing rather than the
enduring Word of God.’…[iii]
…‽istis has pondered woke-ness, wokery,
being ‘woke’ – whether self-defined or defined by others...
So, in no particular order (as streams of consciousness are
perhaps prone sometimes to appear) this week’s pre-occupying ponderings and
wonderings have included:
‽ being old
enough to remember a hey-day of ‘political correctness’ and headlines concerning
‘men at work’ and man-hole covers[iv];
blackboards or chalkboards or greenboards or whiteboards; which nursery rhymes
might be banned from the nation’s nurseries – all perhaps distracting through
hyperbole, or possibly design, from debates about: exclusion; minoritizing;
oppression; inequality; inequity; power and powerlessness; voice and
representation; space, safety, vacuums and their filling; constructs (personal,
cultural, social and political, ideological and probably others too) and their formation,
maintenance and perpetuation - and what they may support or give foundation to…[v]
‽ being old
enough to think that certain struggles were actually over - only to be
disappointed, shocked and dismayed
‽ early ideas-forming
reading: Marx, Engels, Booth, Freire, Gutiérrez, Orwell, Morrison, Greer,
Said and others… and their critics…
‽ thinking
about and reflecting on experiences and awareness relating to positionality,
power or bias (conscious, sub-conscious, unconscious)
‽ attending
‘anti-racism training’, ‘racism awareness training’, ‘anti-oppressive practice
training’ and other iterations since
‽ discussing
the possible implications of oppressions being or not being in hierarchies
‽ considering
the relative generation of heat – v - light and why there seems to be such apparent strongly-held views and beliefs, such entrenched positions, such fear and hatred
‽ rights,
responsibilities, duties and powers – complementary, equal or competing
‽ the power
of words, terms and different forms of definition[vi]:
self, legal, commonly-held, ‘common-sense’, shared, contested, new, changing –
and how any sort of consensus can possibly be built, forged or evolve
‽ the
possible limitations of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions and of ‘soundbites’
‽ whether
agreeing to disagree is a reasonable position
‽ when is
challenge acceptable and when might tolerance be intolerable; what place
compromise and at whose possible expense
‽ what
might be the limits of, and to, free speech and a potential process of
‘cancelling’, approval, permission given or denied
‽ diversity
and difference: a matter of fear and abuse - or celebration and pride, for whom
and why
‽ the common ratio of ears to mouth, and the related balance between listening and speaking
‽ that very
contrasting positions can be held with seeming equal sincerity, are heartfelt, may be
rooted in deeply painful discriminatory experiences or joyous celebratory ones,
may link to and resonate with the very existential core of who and what any ‘I’
is, or thinks or feels to ‘be’ and thus behave and live
‽ what would it take for there to be safety and safe spaces for everyone; what would it take for assault and rape and abuse, to whomsoever and by whomsoever, to be prosecuted successfully; what would it take for everyone to compete and for competition to be conducted (literally in some cases) on a level playing-field (if competition and losses and victories, maybe imposterous-both[vii], are what we really want to continue to participate in and watch, promote and fund)
‽ what
place ‘objectivity’ or the place of research, evidence[viii]
and expertise including expertise from experience
‽ what
might be any potential dynamic and relationship between thoughts, feelings and
actions[ix]
‽ what is
‘hate speech’, what is a hate crime
‽ whether prejudice plus power always means discrimination
‽ acknowledging fear and pain and trauma from whatever its source and for whoever experiences it, and that this might even provide a place of shared understanding and dialogue
‽ the place
of, and for: respect, empathy, kindness, understanding and compassion
…and perhaps echoes of several themes to be found in many of ‽istis’
ponderings and wonderings resonate…
So, after all this wondering and pondering (seeking to somehow tread lightly
across what for many can seem to be a current triggering minefield), an abiding hope
remains: that surely we might imagine and find principles and processes whereby
these seemingly so difficult, often divisive and very, very pain-full issues can be
discussed, leading to:
·
real
world, ‘for now’, dynamic conclusions and agreements that could form the practical
basis for current (but to-be-reviewed) policy, legislation and related structures and systemic, organisational
and institutional arrangements;
·
positive
ways forward together for community, social and personal relations;
· intentions and actions that might have at their heart the wish to achieve the ‘most best’ (again, a recurring notion over recent weeks) for as many as possible
‽istis, however, continues to be convinced that for progress to be made and for ‘next steps’ to be successful, they may need to:
·
acknowledge
past injustices;
·
be
reparative and restorative;
· re-balance acquired/taken/given/held/exercised/imposed power;
·
acknowledge
again and again the strength of feeling and depth of pain caused to individuals, groups
and communities and take their fears, hopes, 'problem'-analysis and proposed solutions seriously
·
be
set in a rights framework;
·
embrace
the most optimistic expression of the ‘golden rule’ (see previous blogs);
·
be
founded in kindness, compassion and an appreciation of the seemingly miraculous
and fragile nature of our common being and co-existence, here, now and together…
And, if
this has left you dozing; well, perhaps, possibly, maybe there might be enough time and energy to wonder what being awake might mean‽
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme
and past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t
necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
[i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S7Wsdg__9I
(respectively 7’47” and 3’24-30” into the interview on Times Radio 17.7.2022)
[ii]
References include: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/20/us/quidditch-name-change-quadball-cec/index.html
- though considerations of transgender rights and trademark ownership may conflate
in complex ways here?
[iii] https://anglican.ink/2021/07/22/rule-of-woke-replaces-gods-word-as-churchs-authority/
and an article by the unequivocally-though-maybe-typo-named Julian Mann
(comment made for gratuitous and perhaps dubious pun-based comedic purposes
only; with apologies!)
[iv]
…with euphemisms potentially abounding
[v]
References include:
·
https://reason.com/2021/12/13/the-second-great-age-of-political-correctness/
·
https://lithub.com/generation-grievance-how-the-political-correctness-myth-was-born/
·
Sally Kohn in The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-revealing-roots-of-political-correctness/415812/
which includes this statement: ‘Political correctness is a good thing—the idea
that we should treat our fellow human beings with equal respect, despite their
race or gender or sexual orientation, and the idea that we might all learn and
get better at doing so because of feedback and changing norms.’
[vi]
Including whether ‘political correctness’, being ‘woke’ and conscientization
are the same, similar or different, or a bit of each…
[vii] Imposterous… is this a word and would Rudyard Kipling (see
the poem ‘If’) approve of its use?
[viii]
..and this quotation attributed (though not apparently referenced) to Arthur
Conan Doyle popped up o social media as I was typing: “It is a capital mistake
to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgement.”
[ix] A
bit of a recurring theme across some of the blogs
