Ok so this isn’t a very kind post as it’s intended to draw highlight the realtionship between mental and emotional health and activists. That sometimes activism stems from trauma. It also is why much of my adult I’ve argued for in-action rather than direct action. What within us fuels us to take action and why.?
I had no idea when I posed this blog title that I would be sitting at Jazz Farm at the center of the Cannabis liberation movement in South Africa when I wrote this. I really couldn’t have been sititng anywhere better to write this. It’s rare that I get the opportunity to test out my theories on trauma and activism. So it’s been a real delight to be able to sit down and discuss them.
Globally as we face the 6th mass extinction there is plenty of work to do around any form of environmentlism. Nevermind the idea that we might actually have to advocate for the human soul. That within the collective consciousness militant actvism keeps many people out of the loop of what is really going on here on planet Earth.
This morning what has been blown my mind is my new very real understanding of legal geographies. How who writes the law benefits often from it. That the law is not automatically fair, just or even informed by the right of the people. Further more what’s been really fascintating is hearing about the volume of ongoing unlawful arrests and prosecutions of cannibis user in South Africa post Cannabis decriminalisation. As well as the trauma that unlawful arrest and prosecustion causes in the wider community. Also drugs laws pose huge questions about who gets to decide what we get to put into our bodies. I’m not sure why that is anybodies business other than our own? How can the consumption of any green plant be deemed illegal for whatever ends?
Anways what has been great (even though I am writing about trauma) is that my new activist friends would agree that much of their call into activism has been fuelled by trauma. In fact for many the journey into activism was a journey out of the systemic trauma of corporate life. That activism offered a more meaningful and fulfilling life path.
It’s clear from the the converstation this morning that trauma has a lot to do with activism. That going by group conscencis that trauma transference in inherent with activism. That truama healing should be central to activist approaches. What’s been really heartening sitting here is listening to community approaches to trauma. That trauma aware activist communities certainly have a role to play in large scale trauma healing. That if we develop the skills to heal each other there is not much that can’t be healed in the world.
I started this year (you know the one 2020) getting involved with Extinction Rebellion and their sign off really engagaged my with the honouring of the collective shadow. With Love & Rage – what a beautiful sign off for today.