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Fabio G.'s avatar

Thank you. This was beautiful and inspiring.

The one thing that stops me today from doing community work is the fear of violence. I live in a country where lethal violence from state and non-state actors alike is normal and expected, and community organizers are especially targeted. I don't know what my strategy should be in an environment like this.

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Felícite's avatar

thank you for wording this wisdom. this piece reminds me of the words shared by some indigenous elders like Pat McCabe. the belief of individualism as the true way of living comes from centering the human consciousness (mind-thinking as an individual practice). we've inherited this notion that human consciousness is the commander of the world, as least in europe, from the war-centered empire-building world vision of the greeks and romans, just to name one of many ancient examples.

i believe this period was a deep economic-political-cultural shift happening in europe, and probably happening in other parts of the world due to the development of commerce, right after the agricultural revolution(s.) this shift, which i will name here with modern terms like a gender-imposing coup d'etat (also can be named as a patriarchal social structure), probably preludes what we now call private property, which led us to superimpose the mind and the individual over the body and the many.

another profound thing your piece ignites me to think is that unlearning individualism also means remembering our relationship with other living beings-consciousnesses (the earth, the creatures who live on the realm of air, land and water, the rivers, etc). to be in relationship with them is to recognize we are not above them and need their support to survive, to care for the land that nourishes us to live and grow.

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