You also have me thinking about the role of vodouism in the Haitian Revolution and spirituality more broadly -- I think there's been a parallel drum beat of military tactic and spiritual retreat in a few (maybe even most? all?) movements in history, and I think even spirituality (the theory and the practice) has been co-opted to sound less like fuel for liberation and more like capitalism and isolation in the flavor of 'protecting your peace'. Makes me want to go down that rabbit hole a bit and see what I find.
Please do! I’ll be curious to see what you find. Funnily enough, I was also thinking about spirituality after I published this as the opposite of self-mechanisation: having to regiment your life leaves very little time for any kind of meditative spiritual practice.
Every hour that I get to dilly-dally feels revolutionary because I know that capitalism doesn't want me to do so. I sometimes feel guilt from two directions: one from the thought that I'm not 'working hard enough and should be scaling/doing/selling/hustling/building equity (wtf)' which is clearly capitalism; and the other source that shows up in the advocacy and organizing space when I'm not working hard enough and should be scaling/doing/strategizing/researching/knocking down the oppressors door at all hours or else my basic human rights will be stripped from right under me'. I often wonder if this is capitalism's sneakier cousin and boy, do they look alike!. As you said, "You either have to let capitalism instrumentalize you, or instrumentalize yourself in its image to get things done at scale".
Thank you for writing yet another piece that I resonate so strongly with and thank you for the time you put into so many good causes
Here’s to hoping that we all get to see that world we’re working towards
Watched this a bunch as a kid: Margot Fonteyn’s arms x Stravinsky x Ballet Russes x the Supernatural x weird power stuff =
✅✅✅✅✅
https://youtu.be/1z2TRhc4Cxg?si=Py9of_hh6kICNcde
You also have me thinking about the role of vodouism in the Haitian Revolution and spirituality more broadly -- I think there's been a parallel drum beat of military tactic and spiritual retreat in a few (maybe even most? all?) movements in history, and I think even spirituality (the theory and the practice) has been co-opted to sound less like fuel for liberation and more like capitalism and isolation in the flavor of 'protecting your peace'. Makes me want to go down that rabbit hole a bit and see what I find.
Please do! I’ll be curious to see what you find. Funnily enough, I was also thinking about spirituality after I published this as the opposite of self-mechanisation: having to regiment your life leaves very little time for any kind of meditative spiritual practice.
Every hour that I get to dilly-dally feels revolutionary because I know that capitalism doesn't want me to do so. I sometimes feel guilt from two directions: one from the thought that I'm not 'working hard enough and should be scaling/doing/selling/hustling/building equity (wtf)' which is clearly capitalism; and the other source that shows up in the advocacy and organizing space when I'm not working hard enough and should be scaling/doing/strategizing/researching/knocking down the oppressors door at all hours or else my basic human rights will be stripped from right under me'. I often wonder if this is capitalism's sneakier cousin and boy, do they look alike!. As you said, "You either have to let capitalism instrumentalize you, or instrumentalize yourself in its image to get things done at scale".