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How might the Left overcome self-defeating infighting & endless strategy disputes and instead start building the type of solidarity necessary to win a radically better world?

Left Solidarity in a Hostile World 1/30

There is little disagreement on both the importance & urgency of the systemic changes we desperately need.

We are facing grim challenges on multiple fronts:

Capitalism’s systemic ecological destruction, injustices & alienation


Pervasive institutional racism systematically under-develops & under-nurtures communities of color. From systemic underfunding of schools to environmental racism, from economic injustice to the racist criminal “justice” system.


Sexism, patriarchy, rape culture, toxic masculinity, homophobia, transphobia & gendered divisions of labor permeate every aspect of society. We are forced to contort our authentic selves into gendered boxes of what it means to be a ‘man’ or ‘woman.’


Imperialist wars of aggression, international economic warfare, “free-trade” agreements that have little to do with trade & everything to do with subverting democratic oversight over environmental & labor laws and undermining civil & indigenous rights. 5/30
****Rant incoming****
1/?

On Monday, the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) released a video on racism.

2.

Note - the CEEC is a distinctive evangelical pressure group within the C of E. It is independent of the Anglican hierarchy (although it has a couple of bishops among its members), so its actions and decisions have nothing to do with Welby.

3.

You can watch the video here:

https://t.co/5FwIpErBSM

My rant is not about the video itself; nor about the people who feature in it, who all seem perfectly decent.

Nonetheless, there are two rather large elephants in the room.

4.

This is the 1st:

To the best of my knowledge, CEEC said precisely nothing about racism when one specific form of racism - antisemitism - was a national issue for 5 years, and formed part of the backdrop to 2 successive General Elections.

Does racism against Jews not count?

5.
1/ Here's the case for making "Curate" the first step in my methodology for personal knowledge management, known as CODE. Instead of "Capture"

C – Curate
O – Organize
D – Distill
E – Express


2/ The word "Capture" comes from the first step of GTD, which described it as "the Capture Habit"

This was a novel idea at the time, that you could pluck bits of information out of your mind and the external world and save it in a place you trust and control

3/ When it comes to open loops (unfinished tasks), it's very important to capture them:

1) from your internal mind (where they cause stress)
2) immediately (before you forget them)
3) thoroughly (because even a single one slipping through the cracks can be catastrophic)

4/ But none of these apply to capturing non-actionable information. Most of it 1) comes from the outside world, 2) will come around again if it's any good, and 3) you have to be VERY selective about what you keep to avoid getting drowned in it

5/ And most clearly of all, you don't want the act of capturing content to be habitual and automatic. Habits are best for actions that require no active thought, and may actually suffer if you think about them too much
I think we have to allow for emerging identities. That's basically my thread. Traditionalists (the op) are important and necessary because they hold onto important knowledge.

But diaspora and urban Indigenous inevitably means emerging identity with combined medicine.


Corn provides a striking model for this. It is so central to some civilizations that it features in their creation stories. It is food and it is also medicine. And there are songs and ceremonies related to it that are different in different civilizations.

Who owns it?

Corn, maize, didn't always exist. We know that. It developed over centuries of hybridization and selecting for traits. It was such a complex process that for a while scientists didn't even think it was related to teosinte, but other scientists proved that it is.

It started in Mexico, went down to Peru where it developed more, came back to Mexico where it transformed that society and then travelled across the continent to the Hauds.

It is food and medicine and ceremony.

Who owns it?

We are corn.

We do not exist as we did thousands of years ago. We also have developed over centuries of hybridization and selecting for traits. We continue to develop and right now a new people is emerging. The Anishnaabe aren't the only ones with this prophecy btw.