i just had an insane mind moment reading this post because literally yesterday i was posting on my instagram story about how americans are too comfortable—especially when we are so used to instant accessibility and gratification in so many ways. i was specifically correlating it to the lack of adaptation for example with COVID, and how even though long term, COVID damages the body, there's plenty of people ending up disabled and no longer able to be the person that they were anymore, most people don't care to *try* to consistently mask. because they don't see the instant comfort in it, nor do they think they're going to end up disabled. it's a thing that requires you to think past what you gain in the short term, and it's really fucking difficult. when you wear a mask in certain areas, you have to deal with the discomfort of people looking at you weirdly. people asking you, "why are you wearing that?" it provokes a weird sense of discomfort within them, because they don't want to acknowledge or refuse to acknowledge what is *still* happening. and most people aren't aware of how much the public health has failed us. if they at least tried to implement cleaner air, that would help ensure more health wise for people who may have certain health conditions and aren't able to mask/and or be vaccinated.
i am also so glad you brought up the points about protesting—that is so interesting and i never thought to correlate it to another form of high that we receive. but it makes sense. i feel like anything that provides that similar quick instant upboost of feelings or emotions can be considered similarly to the cycles that we experience with drugs. i know there's more work going on behind the scenes, but i also find myself wondering when are we going to find the energy to do *more*. more than voting, more than protesting. because you're right, they aren't necessarily scared of that because they're aware that there's so many factors in place that restrict us from consistently organizing as a whole and doing more. and it also doesn't help that they don't give a flying fuck about gassing people and damaging us for protesting anyway
i also wanted to add a perspective that i was thinking of last night regarding addiction. i realized that i deal and process with sooo much heavy grief in the world, i casually mention these things in conversations, and it makes so much people uncomfortable. i wondered why, and how could people not feel these things as deeply as i do? and then it clicked for me. that i do not feel as addicted to things that others are to help them escape within life. i'll try to talk to people about things, and they itch to downplay or minimize or change the conversation; then they go to smoke a joint, or consume a certain form of media, or go have sex, or go splurge on the next forms of items that the algorithms push on them to crave. i have my own addictions, as we all do. but they don't satisfy me enough to distract myself from grief and the realities of the world. my brain doesn't do well with weed, nicotine, alcohol, etc. and there are times where i wished badly i could be provided some form of an escape from the harsh cruelties of this world sometimes. sometimes all i can do is just close my eyes and be glued to my bed, unable to do anything else. i can't blame people for coping in other ways, no shame in that. and there's no way we as humans would be able to cope through this life completely sober. i would find that extremely difficult to believe. i haven't done enough research yet, but the fact that prescription meds are popped out like candy to help numb people of the cruelties of this world—because the problem is somehow being able to feel immensely and deeply and recognizing what's going on, instead of acknowledgment on how fucked the system is. it's intentional for sure
i would love for there to be a day where stigmatization against drugs cease. because there are so many benefits and useful things with drugs in so many different forms. the system tries to act like their drugs that they sell in tightly sealed orange bottles are somehow so much better than the ones that are passed within the streets, that only they somehow have the key to the "good type of drugs" that benefit people, whilst completely ignoring the cries of people who talked about how prescription drugs ended up damaging them in the long term. but instead, that's seen as a small marginal error—a casual slip-up. the fact that weed is still something that is illegal in a lot of places globally and yet, i know people where that was the main accessible drug that helps them with their disabilities. they try to market it as their own drugs being better when they refuse to acknowledge how most of them don't care to actually help people heal in the long term. they just want you hooked so you keep asking them for more and giving them more money. i don't know why the state be acting like they're not drug dealers themselves lmao
damn i wanted to go back to edit and add that you have inspired me more and more to cut down my screen time. that feeling of how you felt elated to wash the dishes, i LOOOOVE THAT. i know how that feels on random days when nothing is good on my phone and i'm just excited to do anything, i can't imagine how that would feel when i spend less time on my phone and more connected to reality. thank you for your words, it's always a joy to read everything you put out :)
i'm so glad you brought this point up because it made me realize something that i am also addicted to. and often times it is definitely cynicism. i find it hard to break out of that thought process when so much of capitalism requires people to be cynical and prioritize their own self interests in order to climb up the ladder
It's a tricky one, because like you said, we certainly have plenty of fodder to justify the cynicism. I'm constantly trying to fight this addiction myself. Some things I have in my toolkit of resistance are 1). Remembering that in general - humans recognize danger and threats more than peace and stability. So we have to ACTIVELY seek out what is working. We need to be in tune with what works so we can replace what doesn't.
2). There is nothing more punk rock or revolutionary than hope. When I dare to say I love humanity and love being alive I'm truly spitting in the face of all the systems of oppression that have tried to snuff me out. I refuse to let them beat me at this game.
3). Like Ismatu said, sometimes I GOT TO BE OFFLINE. I have got to protect my peace. If my garden dies my seeds can't spread on the wind.
4). Staying in touch with my community. Seeing how frequently 'unremarkable' good work is around us all. It really truly is. And we can get blinded to it.
I hope we both keep finding ways to dig ourselves out of the cynical ruts we find ourselves in. The world needs us to cheer each other on!!!
A tightrope I find difficult to walk (maybe there is no tightrope but it feels like a tightrope to me): on the one side, addiction to cynicism and strong grief and weeping and collapse. On the other, addiction to morally righteous outrage and "Hooray! We did a thing!" and effort that inundates and then vanishes (it is hard to build systems of mutual care we can rely upon when our input is so boom/bust).
Have been sitting w similar thoughts lately as I try AGAIN to quit smoking cigarettes and go back to just tobacco… who among us doesn’t self medicate??? But where does the medicine become a crutch. Can I walk the line of right relation with addictive substances? Maybe I’m not healed enough yet. Maybe healing comes with more of different medicines, such that none are a crutch and I know intimately where my boundaries are with others (like, CAN I stop drinking for a month if I want? Can I smoke an amount of tobacco that is enough to calm me but not enough to make me want another in two hours? Do I trust what coke shows me in one line about myself, enough that I don’t have to keep taking what’s offered to me just for the sake of doing it while i have it?). Bless you for sharing this sage and important piece.
I have struggled with the issues you raise here on "when does it become a crutch." While I was not raised with religion, I have found meaningful answers for myself in the Quran. Allow me to provide an excerpt - "They ask you ˹O Prophet˺ about intoxicants and gambling. Say, “There is great evil in both, as well as some benefit for people—but the evil outweighs the benefit.” They ˹also˺ ask you ˹O Prophet˺ what they should donate. Say, “Whatever you can spare.”" Al Baqarah 2:219
That these two pieces of advice regarding intoxicants and charity appear together seems significant and provokes the thought that one (which may be interpreted as individualist focus on comforting outselves and seeing our lives as existing in a vacuum where we must alleviate our personal discomforts) may come at the expense of the other (contributing to the life and well-being of the community). In fact, focusing our efforts outward on strengthening, building, and healing our communities may just be the answer to an environment which necessitates substance abuse to cope on the personal level. I have a hunch that self-care, when exercised properly, ultimately inspires and leads to community action. --Contd--
its ok to have a crutch and use things as a crutch when things are tough. but the purpose of a crutch is to keep you standing and moving when you’re weakened so you can better build up strength and walk again.
the thing with addiction and drugs, is that they’re a form of disavowal, that gives you relief by allowing you to avoid the weight of responsibilities you have to yourself.
we’re all burdened with its weight and theres nothing wrong finding relief and a crutch, but the comfort/rest we get from it should function to strengthen us to carry our weights better later on.
drugs and addiction our also a crutch, except instead of strengthening you, they debilitate you more, they sedate you and make the stress of your burdens greater, making the relief you find in them due to avoiding those burdens proportionally greater as well.
crutches are supposed to help you walk, not keep you crutched.
[Part 2 contd] I have had eye-opening experiences with substance which led to heavy dependency, but recently ceased my use of all but 1 and have spent the previous week sitting in the discomfort from which I previously ran. In this week I have felt an unfamiliar hope and a strengthened commitment to this earth and the people in it. Tonight I also run out of cigarettes and I couldn't feel happier to feel that pain too. I am young but many years of attempting sobriety in vain for personal reasons did not get me as far as becoming truly awakened to the collective suffering and need of the world did. It needs every one of us. Peace, L
this sudden motivation could be an act of compensation so be wary if u burn out, but i hope you’re able to prevail through your withdrawal pangs and are able to rewrite the circuits in your brain that habitually perpetuate these dependency’s.
dont view your years of attempting sobriety as vain. without it u wouldnt be able to appreciate how far this realization furthered you in relation to those experiences. appreciate them.
I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but this is among the most deeply impactful pieces of analysis I’ve listened to in my lifetime. Thank you for sharing this, especially with your voice 💕
Wow it’s really amazing to read this essay, as this is 100% what I have been thinking about a lot recently. As someone who’s just now finally starting therapy; who’s been thinking about but not yet getting involved in real community activism; who’s trying to think about what the future should look like (as I think we all are amidst this fucked global political climate)... but who certainly reaches for the pen more often than I really think should be necessary… and who’s MAD addicted to sugar.. It’s a lot to keep track of, and almost every time I need new carts I go “augh we all need to stop spending money and start building community and growing food at home and also I smoke so much grass I don’t get anything done” but of course who has the energy to do the first part? So I say “well mj will help me with my creative project.” Which, itself, is a utopia trying to imagine… what would a better world look like? How would it eventually be better for literally everyone? … to go down the political path of reconnecting and creating community and revaluing deescalation and mutual aid and rehabilitation. Because smaller, more trusting communities due to universal support networks would make living without oil pretty comfortable and workable, actually! You can make public transport rail lines and work from the bottom up.
Anyway the book idea has me looking through my everyday life through this lens now. Maybe enough people my age (and younger, to at least a bit older) might be even a little as radicalized as I feel by multiple publicized genocides on our dime… Or of course, radicalized by SOMETHING out of everything else (homelessness, poverty, climate catastrophe, etc.) How might a decolonized, essentially kinder world start to look to people if we walked outside then? If people saw what could really happen if we took away all barriers that said “you don’t qualify for benefits” and just gave people UBI? If those of us who are currently outraged by the end result of the violence said, “hey, rising right-wing fringe, you will not defeat our masses because we are absolutely DONE with the dominance of ideologies based on hatred. We WILL take action and volunteer somewhere; be in community somewhere…” A revolution can happen like a wildfire… grassroots. It doesn’t have to be toppling buildings and it starts with learning, and then talking to your neighbors and learning them too.
The revolution- visit https://native-land.ca/ & listen to the voices of the neighbors & stewards of the land. With the resources offered us by tribal members, we could learn about our surroundings by their indigenous names - doesn’t it seem appropriate to know what the names are? (I haven’t done this as much as I want to yet). But seriously - did you know, we’re lucky to be living (currently, like right now) in a time of great language revival of North American tribes’ languages - but it’s hard, slow work to revive hundreds of entire languages that were intentionally and brutally stamped out during colonization. When only the strongest wins, you only need one language, and only one way of SEEING THE WORLD.
The revolution- reading indigenous voices. The core of decolonist truth: There ARE these lifestyles that value the preservation of time immemorial. Many schools of indigenous thought do. It has been suppressed by colonialist ideals of eternal growth and expansion. We should be listening to the voices and teachings of neighbors and ancestors who strive for equality and fairness in the world, specifically in the interests of our grandchildren’s grandchildren. And it should not feel like a threat to what we already have! Simply… we MUST let ideals that promote ongoing eternal life with the land supplant the complete dominance of lifestyles valuing eternal growth (colonizing thought). And the thing is, we can look at what colonization has technically generated (after all most discovery happens in wartime) but it’s not the ‘gotcha’ people act like it is. I believe it should eventually be a requirement in all sectors of industry to receive a stamp of approval from land steward representatives of some kind for ANY development. That’s part of the utopian novel/Anyway haha.
I myself think that the anti-version of “drugged” is to be hydrated, have a convo with your neighbors, and alternate days between cleaning ur house and going downtown to help distribute blankets or help at a shelter or get to know various different sectors of your town so that ppl start to get connected too. But also smokin weed makes me a socialite so it’s still always both.
Thank you for this essay. Hope ya didn’t mind my second one, lol. You gave a lot of super important things to think abt and I appreciate your voice, thank you for calling in ! All these ideas I am reminded by you.
thank you for your words. i think it is interesting that while reading this it felt “sobering”. i relate with a feeling you spoke about in a recent video about having an unrequited relationship with the masses (loosely quoting). i think reading your words elicited a sobering feeling for me as I have come to understand I have an addiction to my hyper vigilance and hyper awareness. reading your words let me understand that one I’m not crazy for having similar thoughts, and two that I can continue being vigilant knowing there are people who are craving true, long term, and continuous collective action.
i'm trying to parse my thoughts so apologies in advance if this is written AWFULLY
this entire essay, the back half especially, has me feeling at once hopeful and pessimistic? i suppose just because it makes me confront my own pre-conceived notions of how my life works and why i go about it in the way i do
I loved reading this, thank you so much for making this free. Your most recent video was my final straw as ive realized ive been craving the satisfaction of learning from reading/researching on my own instead of just mindlessly scrolling. I decided to start with your works as your way of speaking is beautiful. I believe social media has made it hard to appreciate the true experience that life has to offer, which is just being ALIVE. Washing the dishes, folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, all mundane moments but part of life that should be appreciated just as much as any other moment.
All I can say is thank you. The drugs of media and influence around me have left my mind spiraling lately. Being able to listen to your words has helped me find roots in the values I have been trying to align my actions with. Your hard work is not unseen or unheard it is resonating deeply because it cannot be contained by the surface level. But those seeds you plant in short form will germinate. Thank you for sharing your work, light and voice with us
Wow, this was really such a powerful read. As I've been becoming aware of some addictions, and as other ones fester, I realize the real harm each of them do to my body. Especially the grief. Grief is so addicting, and it's always been something I clung to even though it did, and is, fucking with my body, mind, and spirit. It's easier to sit in grief than to actually mourn and keep moving. I don't know how yet, but I'm going to figure it out ❤️
I look forward to seeing you accomplish your dreams. Thank you for all that you are writing.
This is absolutely genius! Thank you for sharing. I will definitely be reflecting on this for a while.
i just had an insane mind moment reading this post because literally yesterday i was posting on my instagram story about how americans are too comfortable—especially when we are so used to instant accessibility and gratification in so many ways. i was specifically correlating it to the lack of adaptation for example with COVID, and how even though long term, COVID damages the body, there's plenty of people ending up disabled and no longer able to be the person that they were anymore, most people don't care to *try* to consistently mask. because they don't see the instant comfort in it, nor do they think they're going to end up disabled. it's a thing that requires you to think past what you gain in the short term, and it's really fucking difficult. when you wear a mask in certain areas, you have to deal with the discomfort of people looking at you weirdly. people asking you, "why are you wearing that?" it provokes a weird sense of discomfort within them, because they don't want to acknowledge or refuse to acknowledge what is *still* happening. and most people aren't aware of how much the public health has failed us. if they at least tried to implement cleaner air, that would help ensure more health wise for people who may have certain health conditions and aren't able to mask/and or be vaccinated.
i am also so glad you brought up the points about protesting—that is so interesting and i never thought to correlate it to another form of high that we receive. but it makes sense. i feel like anything that provides that similar quick instant upboost of feelings or emotions can be considered similarly to the cycles that we experience with drugs. i know there's more work going on behind the scenes, but i also find myself wondering when are we going to find the energy to do *more*. more than voting, more than protesting. because you're right, they aren't necessarily scared of that because they're aware that there's so many factors in place that restrict us from consistently organizing as a whole and doing more. and it also doesn't help that they don't give a flying fuck about gassing people and damaging us for protesting anyway
i also wanted to add a perspective that i was thinking of last night regarding addiction. i realized that i deal and process with sooo much heavy grief in the world, i casually mention these things in conversations, and it makes so much people uncomfortable. i wondered why, and how could people not feel these things as deeply as i do? and then it clicked for me. that i do not feel as addicted to things that others are to help them escape within life. i'll try to talk to people about things, and they itch to downplay or minimize or change the conversation; then they go to smoke a joint, or consume a certain form of media, or go have sex, or go splurge on the next forms of items that the algorithms push on them to crave. i have my own addictions, as we all do. but they don't satisfy me enough to distract myself from grief and the realities of the world. my brain doesn't do well with weed, nicotine, alcohol, etc. and there are times where i wished badly i could be provided some form of an escape from the harsh cruelties of this world sometimes. sometimes all i can do is just close my eyes and be glued to my bed, unable to do anything else. i can't blame people for coping in other ways, no shame in that. and there's no way we as humans would be able to cope through this life completely sober. i would find that extremely difficult to believe. i haven't done enough research yet, but the fact that prescription meds are popped out like candy to help numb people of the cruelties of this world—because the problem is somehow being able to feel immensely and deeply and recognizing what's going on, instead of acknowledgment on how fucked the system is. it's intentional for sure
i would love for there to be a day where stigmatization against drugs cease. because there are so many benefits and useful things with drugs in so many different forms. the system tries to act like their drugs that they sell in tightly sealed orange bottles are somehow so much better than the ones that are passed within the streets, that only they somehow have the key to the "good type of drugs" that benefit people, whilst completely ignoring the cries of people who talked about how prescription drugs ended up damaging them in the long term. but instead, that's seen as a small marginal error—a casual slip-up. the fact that weed is still something that is illegal in a lot of places globally and yet, i know people where that was the main accessible drug that helps them with their disabilities. they try to market it as their own drugs being better when they refuse to acknowledge how most of them don't care to actually help people heal in the long term. they just want you hooked so you keep asking them for more and giving them more money. i don't know why the state be acting like they're not drug dealers themselves lmao
damn i wanted to go back to edit and add that you have inspired me more and more to cut down my screen time. that feeling of how you felt elated to wash the dishes, i LOOOOVE THAT. i know how that feels on random days when nothing is good on my phone and i'm just excited to do anything, i can't imagine how that would feel when i spend less time on my phone and more connected to reality. thank you for your words, it's always a joy to read everything you put out :)
I also kinda think cynicism is a drug too. A powerful one that once we get into a pattern of - keeps us VERY docile.
i'm so glad you brought this point up because it made me realize something that i am also addicted to. and often times it is definitely cynicism. i find it hard to break out of that thought process when so much of capitalism requires people to be cynical and prioritize their own self interests in order to climb up the ladder
It's a tricky one, because like you said, we certainly have plenty of fodder to justify the cynicism. I'm constantly trying to fight this addiction myself. Some things I have in my toolkit of resistance are 1). Remembering that in general - humans recognize danger and threats more than peace and stability. So we have to ACTIVELY seek out what is working. We need to be in tune with what works so we can replace what doesn't.
2). There is nothing more punk rock or revolutionary than hope. When I dare to say I love humanity and love being alive I'm truly spitting in the face of all the systems of oppression that have tried to snuff me out. I refuse to let them beat me at this game.
3). Like Ismatu said, sometimes I GOT TO BE OFFLINE. I have got to protect my peace. If my garden dies my seeds can't spread on the wind.
4). Staying in touch with my community. Seeing how frequently 'unremarkable' good work is around us all. It really truly is. And we can get blinded to it.
I hope we both keep finding ways to dig ourselves out of the cynical ruts we find ourselves in. The world needs us to cheer each other on!!!
A tightrope I find difficult to walk (maybe there is no tightrope but it feels like a tightrope to me): on the one side, addiction to cynicism and strong grief and weeping and collapse. On the other, addiction to morally righteous outrage and "Hooray! We did a thing!" and effort that inundates and then vanishes (it is hard to build systems of mutual care we can rely upon when our input is so boom/bust).
Your words are all at once activating, grounding, and sobering for me during this confusing time - thank you.
Have been sitting w similar thoughts lately as I try AGAIN to quit smoking cigarettes and go back to just tobacco… who among us doesn’t self medicate??? But where does the medicine become a crutch. Can I walk the line of right relation with addictive substances? Maybe I’m not healed enough yet. Maybe healing comes with more of different medicines, such that none are a crutch and I know intimately where my boundaries are with others (like, CAN I stop drinking for a month if I want? Can I smoke an amount of tobacco that is enough to calm me but not enough to make me want another in two hours? Do I trust what coke shows me in one line about myself, enough that I don’t have to keep taking what’s offered to me just for the sake of doing it while i have it?). Bless you for sharing this sage and important piece.
I have struggled with the issues you raise here on "when does it become a crutch." While I was not raised with religion, I have found meaningful answers for myself in the Quran. Allow me to provide an excerpt - "They ask you ˹O Prophet˺ about intoxicants and gambling. Say, “There is great evil in both, as well as some benefit for people—but the evil outweighs the benefit.” They ˹also˺ ask you ˹O Prophet˺ what they should donate. Say, “Whatever you can spare.”" Al Baqarah 2:219
That these two pieces of advice regarding intoxicants and charity appear together seems significant and provokes the thought that one (which may be interpreted as individualist focus on comforting outselves and seeing our lives as existing in a vacuum where we must alleviate our personal discomforts) may come at the expense of the other (contributing to the life and well-being of the community). In fact, focusing our efforts outward on strengthening, building, and healing our communities may just be the answer to an environment which necessitates substance abuse to cope on the personal level. I have a hunch that self-care, when exercised properly, ultimately inspires and leads to community action. --Contd--
its ok to have a crutch and use things as a crutch when things are tough. but the purpose of a crutch is to keep you standing and moving when you’re weakened so you can better build up strength and walk again.
the thing with addiction and drugs, is that they’re a form of disavowal, that gives you relief by allowing you to avoid the weight of responsibilities you have to yourself.
we’re all burdened with its weight and theres nothing wrong finding relief and a crutch, but the comfort/rest we get from it should function to strengthen us to carry our weights better later on.
drugs and addiction our also a crutch, except instead of strengthening you, they debilitate you more, they sedate you and make the stress of your burdens greater, making the relief you find in them due to avoiding those burdens proportionally greater as well.
crutches are supposed to help you walk, not keep you crutched.
[Part 2 contd] I have had eye-opening experiences with substance which led to heavy dependency, but recently ceased my use of all but 1 and have spent the previous week sitting in the discomfort from which I previously ran. In this week I have felt an unfamiliar hope and a strengthened commitment to this earth and the people in it. Tonight I also run out of cigarettes and I couldn't feel happier to feel that pain too. I am young but many years of attempting sobriety in vain for personal reasons did not get me as far as becoming truly awakened to the collective suffering and need of the world did. It needs every one of us. Peace, L
this sudden motivation could be an act of compensation so be wary if u burn out, but i hope you’re able to prevail through your withdrawal pangs and are able to rewrite the circuits in your brain that habitually perpetuate these dependency’s.
dont view your years of attempting sobriety as vain. without it u wouldnt be able to appreciate how far this realization furthered you in relation to those experiences. appreciate them.
I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but this is among the most deeply impactful pieces of analysis I’ve listened to in my lifetime. Thank you for sharing this, especially with your voice 💕
Literally my EXACT thought. Absolutely brilliant, moving, perfect, unforgettable.
Wow it’s really amazing to read this essay, as this is 100% what I have been thinking about a lot recently. As someone who’s just now finally starting therapy; who’s been thinking about but not yet getting involved in real community activism; who’s trying to think about what the future should look like (as I think we all are amidst this fucked global political climate)... but who certainly reaches for the pen more often than I really think should be necessary… and who’s MAD addicted to sugar.. It’s a lot to keep track of, and almost every time I need new carts I go “augh we all need to stop spending money and start building community and growing food at home and also I smoke so much grass I don’t get anything done” but of course who has the energy to do the first part? So I say “well mj will help me with my creative project.” Which, itself, is a utopia trying to imagine… what would a better world look like? How would it eventually be better for literally everyone? … to go down the political path of reconnecting and creating community and revaluing deescalation and mutual aid and rehabilitation. Because smaller, more trusting communities due to universal support networks would make living without oil pretty comfortable and workable, actually! You can make public transport rail lines and work from the bottom up.
Anyway the book idea has me looking through my everyday life through this lens now. Maybe enough people my age (and younger, to at least a bit older) might be even a little as radicalized as I feel by multiple publicized genocides on our dime… Or of course, radicalized by SOMETHING out of everything else (homelessness, poverty, climate catastrophe, etc.) How might a decolonized, essentially kinder world start to look to people if we walked outside then? If people saw what could really happen if we took away all barriers that said “you don’t qualify for benefits” and just gave people UBI? If those of us who are currently outraged by the end result of the violence said, “hey, rising right-wing fringe, you will not defeat our masses because we are absolutely DONE with the dominance of ideologies based on hatred. We WILL take action and volunteer somewhere; be in community somewhere…” A revolution can happen like a wildfire… grassroots. It doesn’t have to be toppling buildings and it starts with learning, and then talking to your neighbors and learning them too.
The revolution- visit https://native-land.ca/ & listen to the voices of the neighbors & stewards of the land. With the resources offered us by tribal members, we could learn about our surroundings by their indigenous names - doesn’t it seem appropriate to know what the names are? (I haven’t done this as much as I want to yet). But seriously - did you know, we’re lucky to be living (currently, like right now) in a time of great language revival of North American tribes’ languages - but it’s hard, slow work to revive hundreds of entire languages that were intentionally and brutally stamped out during colonization. When only the strongest wins, you only need one language, and only one way of SEEING THE WORLD.
The revolution- reading indigenous voices. The core of decolonist truth: There ARE these lifestyles that value the preservation of time immemorial. Many schools of indigenous thought do. It has been suppressed by colonialist ideals of eternal growth and expansion. We should be listening to the voices and teachings of neighbors and ancestors who strive for equality and fairness in the world, specifically in the interests of our grandchildren’s grandchildren. And it should not feel like a threat to what we already have! Simply… we MUST let ideals that promote ongoing eternal life with the land supplant the complete dominance of lifestyles valuing eternal growth (colonizing thought). And the thing is, we can look at what colonization has technically generated (after all most discovery happens in wartime) but it’s not the ‘gotcha’ people act like it is. I believe it should eventually be a requirement in all sectors of industry to receive a stamp of approval from land steward representatives of some kind for ANY development. That’s part of the utopian novel/Anyway haha.
I myself think that the anti-version of “drugged” is to be hydrated, have a convo with your neighbors, and alternate days between cleaning ur house and going downtown to help distribute blankets or help at a shelter or get to know various different sectors of your town so that ppl start to get connected too. But also smokin weed makes me a socialite so it’s still always both.
Thank you for this essay. Hope ya didn’t mind my second one, lol. You gave a lot of super important things to think abt and I appreciate your voice, thank you for calling in ! All these ideas I am reminded by you.
This comment, or second essay as you say, rocks so hard. Cheers
Wow you have spoken to me- and brought an idea I've had for such a long time
thank you for your words. i think it is interesting that while reading this it felt “sobering”. i relate with a feeling you spoke about in a recent video about having an unrequited relationship with the masses (loosely quoting). i think reading your words elicited a sobering feeling for me as I have come to understand I have an addiction to my hyper vigilance and hyper awareness. reading your words let me understand that one I’m not crazy for having similar thoughts, and two that I can continue being vigilant knowing there are people who are craving true, long term, and continuous collective action.
thank you.
i'm trying to parse my thoughts so apologies in advance if this is written AWFULLY
this entire essay, the back half especially, has me feeling at once hopeful and pessimistic? i suppose just because it makes me confront my own pre-conceived notions of how my life works and why i go about it in the way i do
i suppose we all just don't think enough, huh?
I loved reading this, thank you so much for making this free. Your most recent video was my final straw as ive realized ive been craving the satisfaction of learning from reading/researching on my own instead of just mindlessly scrolling. I decided to start with your works as your way of speaking is beautiful. I believe social media has made it hard to appreciate the true experience that life has to offer, which is just being ALIVE. Washing the dishes, folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, all mundane moments but part of life that should be appreciated just as much as any other moment.
All I can say is thank you. The drugs of media and influence around me have left my mind spiraling lately. Being able to listen to your words has helped me find roots in the values I have been trying to align my actions with. Your hard work is not unseen or unheard it is resonating deeply because it cannot be contained by the surface level. But those seeds you plant in short form will germinate. Thank you for sharing your work, light and voice with us
Wow, this was really such a powerful read. As I've been becoming aware of some addictions, and as other ones fester, I realize the real harm each of them do to my body. Especially the grief. Grief is so addicting, and it's always been something I clung to even though it did, and is, fucking with my body, mind, and spirit. It's easier to sit in grief than to actually mourn and keep moving. I don't know how yet, but I'm going to figure it out ❤️
listening to this high was crazy.. no but seriously this is so good im obsessed with your words
fyi, adderall is very much illegal in Turkey, where I am from. yeah ❤️