i wonder when, as a society, we are going to take seriously that environment has a lot to do with individual states of mind/body/spirit and that individuals states have a lot to do with collective environments. most human behavior is condit...ioned through external feedback loops of information that either reinforce our behavior, cue us to shut it down, or land us somewhere between those two. this is why being around people who can see and affirm one's particularity is so unbelievably powerful and liberating when you've been negatively stereotyped all your life. i remember the first person (martha) who told me she found my masculinity sexy. prior to her comment other women had always shamed me for acting "like a dude." martha might as well have given me water in a desert, you know? anyway...when people receive any kind of negative feedback about who they are (whether it's subtle, verbal, or overt), it's obvious that such environmental feedback would throw one's sense of self into disarray. this isn't to say that some ppl don't need to get their sense of self thrown into question from time to time. most of us should, i think, more than once in our lifetimes. where i sense such a disconnect in terms of where/how feedback loops make people crazy is in the arena of identity. when hostile environments and feedback loops of prejudice get concretized through (unjust) power dynamics, the thing that gets stereotyped negatively is often just the "feared" variable in a system built on a mythology of supremacy. meaning: things like race, gender, ability, age are often arbitrarily constructed as the thing to "pre-judge" because some power group's sense of (supremacist) self is reliant upon the supposed inferiority of the other. no one is supreme; no one is inferior--not according to identity markers anyway--i think at bottom we all know this is true, intellectually at least, whether or not we want to admit it. so of course, it makes sense that when someone experiences her environment oppositional to her inherent and perceived sense of worth, it'd make her crazy. that's why it's so important for lovers of all people to affirm, touch, and celebrate those things outside of supremacist ideology. such celebration can set up an alternative feedback loop that produces gratitude, self-worth and love. we are not helpless in systems of domination; when we find alternative communities of loving support we can make the choice to stay put, hopefully giving and receiving the affirmation/celebration we all deserve. those are the places where craziness can subside in the wake of lasting peace.
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i wonder when, as a society, we are going to take seriously that environment has a lot to do with individual states of mind/body/spirit and that individuals states have a lot to do with collective environments. most human behavior is condit...ioned through external feedback loops of information that either reinforce our behavior, cue us to shut it down, or land us somewhere between those two. this is why being around people who can see and affirm one's particularity is so unbelievably powerful and liberating when you've been negatively stereotyped all your life. i remember the first person (martha) who told me she found my masculinity sexy. prior to her comment other women had always shamed me for acting "like a dude." martha might as well have given me water in a desert, you know? anyway...when people receive any kind of negative feedback about who they are (whether it's subtle, verbal, or overt), it's obvious that such environmental feedback would throw one's sense of self into disarray. this isn't to say that some ppl don't need to get their sense of self thrown into question from time to time. most of us should, i think, more than once in our lifetimes. where i sense such a disconnect in terms of where/how feedback loops make people crazy is in the arena of identity. when hostile environments and feedback loops of prejudice get concretized through (unjust) power dynamics, the thing that gets stereotyped negatively is often just the "feared" variable in a system built on a mythology of supremacy. meaning: things like race, gender, ability, age are often arbitrarily constructed as the thing to "pre-judge" because some power group's sense of (supremacist) self is reliant upon the supposed inferiority of the other. no one is supreme; no one is inferior--not according to identity markers anyway--i think at bottom we all know this is true, intellectually at least, whether or not we want to admit it. so of course, it makes sense that when someone experiences her environment oppositional to her inherent and perceived sense of worth, it'd make her crazy. that's why it's so important for lovers of all people to affirm, touch, and celebrate those things outside of supremacist ideology. such celebration can set up an alternative feedback loop that produces gratitude, self-worth and love. we are not helpless in systems of domination; when we find alternative communities of loving support we can make the choice to stay put, hopefully giving and receiving the affirmation/celebration we all deserve. those are the places where craziness can subside in the wake of lasting peace.
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