Critical Consistency

Call me out on my shit because I’m going to call you out on yours-that’s what dialogue is. But if neither of us speak up, no one will ever learn anything.

If in the process of progress we leave behind folks because we allow ourselves to make sexist comments, compromise on racism or oppress the poor- we have not made progress we have just changed the oppression.

We cannot use tools of oppression in removing oppression or else all we have done is change the name of the dictator that rules us.

We cannot allow blame. We must work for the liberation of all, even those in power, because often they don’t KNOW that they are in power. The people enforcing power dynamics are ALL OF US. We are not exempt. We like to think that we are; but we consent to the exploitation of others by living in a system that perpetuates it. And we must recognize how we also contribute.

We’re all policing each other into compliance with a system of oppression and I don’t want to be a cop!

We have to critically look at ourselves and each other and from a place of love say “Are we being consistent?” and when the answer is NO, we have to work to change that.

Think of it as a road map to change: we’re all on the road, and almost no one ever gets there, if anyone, but we’re all moving towards it and that’s the point. We have to help each other-but we can’t leave anyone behind or else no one will reach the end of the road.

And guilt is just a road block. Suck it up, check yourself, learn something. No one is perfect and we’re all learning from each other.

But we have to be honest with ourselves.

Until we break out of our own power dynamics and work to abolish them for all we cannot have progress because we will still be moving in the same system.

We must try not to compromise. But, we must recognize how we can compromise less. And we have to hold each other accountable to a new standard of critical consistency with the ideals we expose about peace and change.

We need to seriosuly rethink what it means to “Be the change you wish to see in the  world” (Gandhi)

We’ve got some hard questions to ask ourselves. Are we willing to abolish the privileges that come with our society? Are we willing to give up the comforts of capitalism? We say that we are but we don’t know what we’re talking about! We have the privilege to not HAVE to know.

But this new thing…I have faith that it will be better than the mess we have now. IF we choose to make it equitable for everyone. If we don’t, if we allow power to continue in a changed world, we have not changed a damn thing- we’ll simply have restructured the old system of domination in which we currently find ourselves.