I also value community and appreciate this focus on it, the lack of it and things to do to create the warmth and validation that comes with a sense of community.
Oof! I think about this a lot. As a healthcare worker I spend my whole day and long hours helping others and giving of myself... I love what I do. But, I am often exploited and I don’t make enough money to support myself. By the end of my shift I am exhausted and alone. What little free time I have I spend as much of it as I can volunteering, protesting...or advocating. I always feel like it isn’t enough. I am trying to take classes so that I can work differently and help more folks and with that it would be nice to form more connections. It’s such a balance and such a hard thing to parse out, our goals of service vs survival. Or how to combine the 2 in a nice way! I like how you have a few part time jobs, that is a nice goal.
Thank you as always for your brilliant words that make me think more....
I love this post, Joshua. As I’ve written (not as eloquently as you) in my own posts, I’ve been surrounded by people who make endless noise about the need for connection and belonging, especially at work, yet they either fight against organized labor or ignore it. Ridiculous.
Thank you for sharing this, and for outlining so plainly your path to organizing. That part feels huge; how to make the leap from no time/no community to organizing and community abundance. The more stories we can tell about our own paths there, the better.
Inspirational post, lots of practical advice for where to start. One of the biggest things I have felt a deep longing for lately is community--having recently moved to a new city where I know no one. Hard to know where to start.
You also had me musing over the fact that my master's proposal was to investigate how awful unions were, how they actually breed the right wing bigotry we see (I wouldn't have called it that back then). Oh how misguided I was! I didn't get into the program, thankfully.
This makes me think of something I read a while ago about "destituting" the state by removing the need for its functions. Obviously there are some things that are best done by the state, public transportation and utilities come to mind immediately, but I think a lot of the change we're looking for will only come after communities come together to provide the services they need and create the conditions for solidarity. I think that while state services can be powerful and helpful, institutionalizing services leads many people to disconnect from their community because they can tell themselves that an institution exists to take care of the problem, so why should they help their neighbor. Plus formalized systems of care are open to means testing which also divides people and weakens solidarity.
Lovely. It’s so easy in this society to get disconnected and we need one another
I also value community and appreciate this focus on it, the lack of it and things to do to create the warmth and validation that comes with a sense of community.
Oof! I think about this a lot. As a healthcare worker I spend my whole day and long hours helping others and giving of myself... I love what I do. But, I am often exploited and I don’t make enough money to support myself. By the end of my shift I am exhausted and alone. What little free time I have I spend as much of it as I can volunteering, protesting...or advocating. I always feel like it isn’t enough. I am trying to take classes so that I can work differently and help more folks and with that it would be nice to form more connections. It’s such a balance and such a hard thing to parse out, our goals of service vs survival. Or how to combine the 2 in a nice way! I like how you have a few part time jobs, that is a nice goal.
Thank you as always for your brilliant words that make me think more....
Rest is also revolutionary :)
I’m working on allowing myself this. Without guilt. ❣️✨❣️✨ thank you
I love this post, Joshua. As I’ve written (not as eloquently as you) in my own posts, I’ve been surrounded by people who make endless noise about the need for connection and belonging, especially at work, yet they either fight against organized labor or ignore it. Ridiculous.
Thank you for sharing this, and for outlining so plainly your path to organizing. That part feels huge; how to make the leap from no time/no community to organizing and community abundance. The more stories we can tell about our own paths there, the better.
Inspirational post, lots of practical advice for where to start. One of the biggest things I have felt a deep longing for lately is community--having recently moved to a new city where I know no one. Hard to know where to start.
You also had me musing over the fact that my master's proposal was to investigate how awful unions were, how they actually breed the right wing bigotry we see (I wouldn't have called it that back then). Oh how misguided I was! I didn't get into the program, thankfully.
Good subject
But indeed I am alone
This makes me think of something I read a while ago about "destituting" the state by removing the need for its functions. Obviously there are some things that are best done by the state, public transportation and utilities come to mind immediately, but I think a lot of the change we're looking for will only come after communities come together to provide the services they need and create the conditions for solidarity. I think that while state services can be powerful and helpful, institutionalizing services leads many people to disconnect from their community because they can tell themselves that an institution exists to take care of the problem, so why should they help their neighbor. Plus formalized systems of care are open to means testing which also divides people and weakens solidarity.
Definitely agree.
I wrote something similar a few years ago:
https://alexwhite.org/2019/12/are-unions-the-cure-to-the-rise-of-right-wing-political-ideology/