find your place on deck
another world is possible-- but we must start living into it today
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Last week, I wrote a bit about the dangers posed by Project 2025 and a possible second Trump administration.
If you haven't seen Agenda 47, I urge you very strongly to do so. It's Trump's condensed version of Project 2025 and it's much the same, but worse, driving home more clearly how many lives are at stake here. Please read it later, and spread the word.
And this week– well, I keep writing these posts and then Big News Drops happen the day before, not sure what that's about, but – honestly once again, it doesn't really change anything, ultimately.
I still want to make this next part clear:
The election is a necessary– an essential – crucial– but not sufficient, part of this larger project of fighting for everyone's safety, rights and freedom, now.
(And remember, if everything was actually hopeless, various forces in power wouldn't be working so hard to make you believe that everything was hopeless now. Ahem. With the election or beyond.)
To, uh, state the obvious:
So much has been broken for a long, long time, now.
It's beyond time for wide-ranging systemic transformation.
We have big, big work to do.
On everything, pretty much. Because it's all connected. Our education systems are tangled up with punitive notions of justice and systemic racism, the carceral pipeline, economic injustice (which is always intertwined with systemic racism!)
You can literally pick any part of the tapestry and pull: Reproductive Justice has always been a racial justice issue, and certainly abortion bans hit Global Majority communities hardest; it's a Disability Justice issue not only in terms of the disproportionate impact that bans have on disabled people but also given the fact that Buck v. Bell– eugenic permission to forcibly sterilize disabled people– is still on the books. Reproductive Justice and environmental justice are intertwined; the right to have children or not have children, and raise children in a safe and healthy environment includes access to clean drinking water. Full stop.
We could keep going with any issue, any starting place, and the answer would keep coming up the same:
Our harms are interlinked.
Our struggles are interlinked.
Because that’s what kyriarchy is.
That’s what it does.
"Kyriarchy” was coined by feminist theologian Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in 1992 to describe her theory of interconnected, interacting, and self-extending systems of domination and submission—from “kyros,” master.
Kyriarchy encompasses sexism, racism, ableism, ageism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, classism, xenophobia, economic injustice, the prison-industrial complex, colonialism, militarism, and other dominating hierarchies.
They all play out in different ways, of course. What happens at the intersection of fatphobia and classism is different than what happens if sexism and/or racism are brought into the mix, for example. That's when we start talking about intersectionality.
But the whole larger enchilada of all the interlocking systems of power?
Kyriarchy.
We're all impacted by this stuff and trapped in this unjust system that doesn't benefit ANYONE– because even those who are ostensibly “winning” in a game of domination and oppression have lost what really matters most. You know that.
No "winner" retains their humanity.
There are people who are most harmed and impacted by the most oppressive intersections of this kyriarchy, but all of us are harmed, and we are all intertwined.
What is now is not good for anyone.
All the systems of oppression are woven together and our work to get free will only succeed when we are woven together.
We are already all in this together.
And the only way we will get out of this is together.
Solidarity must start to be a different kind of a discipline.
This is real.
All our issues are intertwined.
On the one hand, that might sound kind of overwhelming, right?
There's so much to do.
But here's the secret:
That means that the work that is desperately needed is everywhere.
Which means: You can start almost anywhere.
I say this a lot, but imma say it in really big font, today:
We need all hands on deck.
And there's a lot of deck that needs to be covered.
Your assignment isn't to fix everything. You can't! You can't.
This is a "we" gig.
Your assignment is to show up and do your part.
We'll talk a little bit more about that in a second.
Please, please remember:
Another world is possible.
and your actions can help bring it into being.
We need you.
Where do you feel called to show up? Which of the houses on fire is yours to answer?
There are already many people who have been working for a long time on every single thread in the kyriarchal tangle.
They are the experts. Your job is to figure out how to be of use.
Do you have access to philanthropic resources? Can you train activists to make their case more convincingly to the media? Are you the type to slice and dice raw data so that we can better understand what's really going on? Do you have a skill you can offer those most impacted by harmful policy today? Do you have time to do canvassing or text banking? Do you have access to people with power or platforms whose support could be brought to bear in needful ways?
What other skills, talents, resources, capacities, interests might you have that could be exercised in this moment?
We need all hands on deck and there's a lot of deck.
Just as a ship with a captain but no food isn't going to make it long on its voyage, or where everyone gets sick because nobody's keeping things clean, or that breaks out in mutiny because interpersonal care is absent (or– etc.)–
There are so many ways to be of use, and we need all of them. And not a single one is more important than another one. We need them all. Everybody has a role.
I know that we're all exhausted. That we all feel ground down in the wake of– national, global, communal, personal, and other kinds of traumas. And candidly, some of us do have more capacity than others: Someone dealing with chronic illness or working two jobs as a single parent simply will have less to be able to offer into this stretch moment than someone with fewer burdens or responsibilities.
And for some people with multiple marginalized identities: just getting through the day is as much as you can do. You matter. That counts as doing something. Guarding your precious self is your work now. We see you. (1)
So take realistic stock of your capacities– and privileges– and, as needed and/or as able, alternate the high-level self-care with getting back into it.
The forces of evil depend on our overwhelm, our exhaustion, our feeling that there's too much to even begin to address so really, we can't possibly help.
What you do matters.
Your work matters. Your efforts matter. It may feel sometimes like just an insignificant drop, but a lot of drops together can be a hell of a storm.
Take that pain and overwhelm you're feeling right now and figure out how to transform it into resolve to fight. We need you now.
Every time we alleviate or delay suffering, every time we frustrate the plans of those who would do harm, every time we expand the space out just a little bit wider– it all matters.
And sometimes your showing up can be the thing that makes all the difference.
Can you see the world that we're trying to bring into being?
“We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice;...more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures....” (Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, “What does Labor Want?” 1893)
“We want to live in a world where every person (and we mean every single person) is treated with respect, directs their own lives, and reaches their full potential....” —Vision statement, Everyday Feminism
Never forget that your capacity to fight for justice and your capacity to love must stay intertwined.
Hold them both, together, as one.
There is another world that is possible that we can only get to when we begin to live into it now.
Like— we can’t get there by continuing to act into the world of domination and hierarchy in any place where we have a choice not to.
We must cultivate relationships of care and respect that actually honor the humanity of those involved.
We have become dehumanized, because that is how we are able to manage the day-to-day necessary for us to live in, participate in, kyriarchy.
There are real implications for stepping out of a domination mentality, for choosing to treat ourselves and others with our full humanity.
Here are some questions and provocations, invitations to do better– reminders about all the ways we can find and re-find our own and each others' humanity. Remember that doing better, being more connected, is a continuum, a project, not a binary.
- How often do I ignore the still small voice of my intuition? What are the truths that I do not speak? What would change if I lived more wholly in my own integrity?
- How can I take responsibility for harm I have caused? How can we (as any given members of an institution, a community, a collective) do so?
- Whose voice isn’t getting heard, and what might we have to– want to– change if we really actually listened this time?
- In what other ways should I, could I, listen to– reach out to– care for– make myself better known to– people around me?
It's a daily battle for us all; we are all trapped in these dehumanizing systems.
To swim upstream demands much.
So we must flex these muscles– these muscles in which we fight for our own, and others', humanity– as often as we can.
And as we do, they grow stronger, and stronger still, until each time they ask less of us, become easier to tap.
That's the way home.
We must live into the world that we are trying to bring into being by becoming those people now. Imperfectly—there’s a reason it’s called spiritual practice, ok? Not spiritual perfect. But imperfectly, nonetheless, we will get there by trying to center every person’s humanity.
And also:
WE MUST BE BUILDING MORE RELATIONSHIPS ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE.
ALL OF THEM.
WE NEED EACH OTHER.
ALL OF OUR STRUGGLES ARE INTERCONNECTED.
THERE IS ONLY COLLECTIVE LIBERATION.
On a practical level: the only way out politically now is a grassroots mobilization across coalitions. Everyone. All together*.
On a philosophical level: the only way out now is a connection across types of humanity. Everyone. All together.*
*White supremacists are not invited to this party.(2)
So this means, yeah, figuring out how to build those bridges– which might mean mending some bridges, too– and cultivating connections. Deepening trust. Finding points of commonality even if there are also points of difference. Figuring out where we can work together even if sometimes we might not be aligned.
So to the questions above, perhaps we might add:
- To what communities could I, should I – and my community–reach out and build bridges? Who should I approach to get to know better? What preconceived ideas might I be holding that ought be examined?
All the systems of oppression are woven together and our work to get free will only succeed when we are woven together.
Rav Kook, the late 19th-early 20th c. Kabbalist and mystic, wrote,
“Everyone must know that within them burns a candle– and that no one’s candle is identical with the candle of another, and that there is no human being without a candle. One is obligated to work hard to reveal the light of one’s candle in the public realm for the benefit of the many. One needs to ignite one’s candle and make of it a great torch to enlighten the whole world.”
We need to do everything in our power to keep those candles lit.
Everything we can do to fight towards the light– everything we do matters.
Every small victory matters, and may have real impact on human beings' lives.
Every impact we have matters.
It's collective liberation or bust. 💥
And how we get there is by living that world as much as we can now, today, here.
With each other.
And also: by mobilizing our tushes off.
Both.
The Low Road, by Marge Piercy
What can they do
to you? Whatever they want.
They can set you up, they can
bust you, they can break
your fingers, they can
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can't walk, can't remember, they can
take your child, wall up
your lover. They can do anything
you can't stop them
from doing. How can you stop
them? Alone, you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.
But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.
Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.
It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again and they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean,
and each day you mean one more.
And, needless to say: This post is lighter on traditional text sources, but if you read Life is a Sacred Text, like, ever, you should know that the ideas in here are all part of the same memo we've been talking about all along.
For example:
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
(And so on, and so forth, and etc.)
FOOTNOTES
(1) Thanks to the wonderful EmFish for this addition, and other notes that manifest elsewhere.
(2) We don't have to actively exclude anyone willing to engage respectfully, sure. But sometimes people's idea of, "We must respect differences!" involves an idea in which "differences!" are "You wish to see me dead!!" and that's NOT the same as, "Our communities haven't been close," or, "Old stereotypes linger." There are enough of everybody else that we don't need folks who aren't willing to respect others' essential humanity. The emergency is about getting everybody else aligned.
As the journalist and activist Molly Conger, best known for chronicling government meetings in Charlottesville, Virginia after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017, put it,
“Deradicalization [away from extremist viewpoints] is possible, but it is a slow, difficult, and personal process . . . On a societal level, focusing on derad[icalization] as the primary tool to fight hate is like bailing out a flooded basement with a teacup while the storm still rages outside."
For a great book on the fact that deep repentance work can be done by anyone, see Derek Black's The Klansman's Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism.
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
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