On strike

Shot of the television screen this morning. Young women (who obviously have something in common — can you spot it?) celebrating the announcement from the anti-majoritarian political party that calls itself a court.

Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy, we have all been programmed to respond to the human difference between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate. But we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. As a result, those differences have been misnamed and misused in the service of separation and confusion.

~ Audre Lorde

Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future.

~ more from Audre Lorde

I wonder if they really, truly know what it is they are celebrating. If not, I hope they don’t have to find out the hard way. If so… I don’t know what to say.

I’m finished with my participation in capitalism.  For several years now, I’ve been wondering what it would take for good people in this country to declare they’ve had enough.  I fear that day may never come.  It’s easier to stay silent, go about your own life, and hope for the best.  I get that.  I truly do.

Where the af were these guys on January 6???  (Screen shot from Twitter)

From here on out, I am on strike.  I am not spending so much as one thin dime on anything other than the necessities.  Even then, I will buy local as much as possible.  This will not be a huge shift in lifestyle for me, but there are still some areas where I can stop participating via the almighty dollar.  There is more that I can and will do.  I have to start somewhere and I’m starting with that.  I hope more people will join me.  There’s a lot of dark money tied up in the courts and politics.  I don’t want to contribute to it anymore.

It’s obvious that they are not going to stop with abortion.  It’s going to get worse.  I’d like to hope it won’t, but I’ve been telling myself that for too long.  If you read/heard the news and read/heard about even parts of the decision, you know that they’re coming after more.  Because this isn’t about babies.  If they cared about babies, we would have universal healthcare and they would be doing all they can to reduce the maternal mortality rate.  If they cared about children at all, they’d keep them safe in schools by passing decent gun laws that protect children.  This is about taking away rights, particularly privacy rights.

I realize that I am merely a molecule in the vast ocean that is this patriarchal and capitalist society.  Maybe what I do will make little difference.  But maybe it will, somewhere, somehow.

Some related posts (I’ll be adding to this list as I find them):

• Just When I Think There’s Hope
• what.in.the.actual.f*ck.