Thanksgiving. No Work and Pie Day. Every year I struggle with what to say about it, to my friends, on this blog, in my heart…because most of the time there are those that say it so much better than I do.
This year is no different.
The general answer to that question is simple, though often difficult to put into practice: We must keep speaking honestly, as often as possible, in as many venues as possible. We must resist the conventional wisdom. We must reject the cultural amnesia. We must refuse to be polite when politeness means capitulation to lies.
I have not always been strong enough to meet even these basic moral obligations. Most of us in positions of unearned privilege and power would be wise to avoid pontificating about our moral superiority and political courage, given our routine failures. Can any of us not point to moments when we went along to get along? Have any of us done enough to bring our lives in line with the values we claim to hold?
Still, we need to help each other tell the truth, even when the truth is not welcome.
Amen.
Gratitude is something I like to try to engage in the entire year ’round. If I need a special day to be thankful, I choose any one of the Harvest festivals of my religious faith, who have at their heart the celebration of life and the overwhelming gratitude I feel for the blessings of living on the Mama.
This day, I struggle. With owning the truths behind the country I live in, behind my own privilege and my own complicity, with telling the truth to myself, and seeking a way to hold my hands out around a table, seeking community and thankfulness and joy, still holding that truth, and making a promise in my heart every year to continue to struggle.
jonolan said,
November 23, 2007 at 5:36 pm
“Still, we need to help each other tell the truth, even when the truth is not welcome.”
Here’s an unwelcome truth – there is no reason for guilt over privilege. As you were given so shall you work with. This guiltism is nothing but self loathing and has been perpetrated upon you by those who would control you.
Be thankful for what you have been given, accept gratitude graciously from those you have given to, and do not accept any burden of debt that you yourself have not incurred.
Blessed Be.
Shakaarr said,
November 23, 2007 at 6:27 pm
There’s no reason for guilt over privilege? Do not accept any burden of debt that you yourself have not incurred? Are you kidding me with this?
To imply that feeling guilty about benefiting from the exploitation of people is somehow equated to “self loathing” is comical at best.
I acknowledge that people don’t like feeling guilty about their privilege. Hey, that would imply that there is something “wrong” with my privilege… that there is something “wrong” from benefiting from the exploitation of others… that genocide really wasn’t ‘that’ bad… I mean… it was so long ago, after all… why should I consider how my actions are affecting others? The world? So I’m not going to ask!!! I’m not going to feel guilty!!! I might have to give up my privilege if did, right? That would be hard. Privilege is easy.
So rather experiencing guilt (’cause, you know… I don’t like feeling bad), let’s develop complex psychological self defense mechanisms such as denial and sublimation to prevent us from experiencing the dissonance and feelings of helplessness associated with the realization that our “gifts” of privilege come at a horrific expense of others. Besides… no body matters but me.
Yeah, right… that’s the answer…
You’re damn right I feel guilty about benefiting from the exploitation, oppression and genocide of countless people. What type of person would I didn’t feel guilty?
P.S. Ever notice that the word ‘vile’ is in ‘privilege’. Interesting.
jonolan said,
November 23, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Nice, Shakaar. So how many of these people have you yourself exploited? Or does that matter? Does the guilt come attached to you at birth like the Catholics’ “original sin?”
Cathryn said,
November 23, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Shakaarr, right on target, as usual.
jonolan: “there is no reason for guilt over privilege” hmm, I think that Sara was talking about acknowledgment and ownership of one’s context. Guilt is a transitory state that allows us to engage conscience into action when we disagree with the ethical and moral foundations of a system. In this case it is the culture in which we live, and the worldview that is implicit in our cultural assumptions. I guess what I am saying is that, basically, Sara finds this aspect of our culture to be morally unacceptable and she has the right, due to her status as an autonomous being with values of her own, to state such and work against those things to help create a worldview which reflects her values. It isn’t about her needing to accept her privilege – it is about her examining her conscience to the discovery that the system that offers such privilege is not in line with her intrinsic moral values. Thus, she has the right, ahhh perhaps duty, to engage her world with integrity that reflects her own self – the inner and the outer expression of self align. That is the point in which we become fully individual and fully integrated, embracing that which is ostensibly opposite, but is actually not. The job of the mystic! I commend Sara for once again showing us her integrity as a scholar and a pagan mystic.
jonolan said,
November 23, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Cathryn,
Then we have a semantic dissonance
Acknowledging that that a societal or group model or dynamic is in opposition to our own personal views on ethics and morality does not equate to guilt. to feel guilty over the behaviors of others is not a path to integrity.
I may feel guilty about things I’ve done, but I cannot see a valid premise for my feeling any guilt over what other, completely unrelated people did generations ago just because I was born into the society they helped create.
Thalia said,
November 23, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Because you are still living in that society they helped create, and because you are still benefitting from what they did generations ago. That’s why.
Cathryn said,
November 23, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Its the system in which one lives and the actions one chooses to take within it, not the individual as in the Christian theological concept of original sin. I think we are talking about responsibility to self and community as opposed to ‘fundamental’ flaws – which assume the existence of an unchanging essence.
Cathryn said,
November 23, 2007 at 9:54 pm
jonolan, it is, in fact, the actions that we ourselves are taking that one is to feel guilty about – i.e., purchasing of clothing made by child /female slave labor, the support of the exploitation of immigrant work force, the consumption of products which are inextricably linked to extreme suffering, which, even in the context of a utilitarian analysis, would not win out. In short, what Thalia said!!!
Also, as I stated, guilt is a natural stage through which folks move in the realization of personal culpability. It is not where one is meant to stay, and it is not a real emotion. It does, however, require investigation and engagement so that we may find the root and address it. For many, it belies a emotional, intuitive awareness of a context which does not reflect our values. As a pagan, I would say that the culture of consumption and disposable living does not honor the Self or the Whole, and as a proponent of conscious-living I would say that ignorance is morally bereft. To refuse ownership of the past mistakes of human society and their current effects is an excuse for laziness, as well as a form of denial. If we want to avoid repetition of past patterns, we need to incorporate this shadow into ourselves so it does not become distorted and manifest. The point is self-examination, not to wallow in perpetual guilt where-in a person either moves into complacency or falls into a deep despair. The point is to move through it and into integrity and action that engages our power with emotional AND intellectual integrity.
gospelpagan said,
November 25, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Well.
I have been out of town, and thus missed this exchange. I don’t have much to add to the conversation, because I believe that others have obviously articulated much that I would have anyway, and with more vigor that I have at the moment.
However, I would like to at least make the point that no where in my original post did *I* use the word “guilt.”
Guilt is not necessarily a word I would use. I am complicit via my privilege. I am culpable. Taking ownership of that fact comes in many stages and expressions. As Cathryn states, the ultimate point is self-examination, integrity, action, ownership. These are things that I struggle with. If in my interpretation of that struggle, Jonolan, you perceive guilt, then that’s your projection, and it is not a word I used here. Guilt may be a healthy expression in the process of becoming aware (a process all activists are consistently engaged in – I make no claims to ultimate awareness…I’m working this shit out with myself all the time, with a lot of stupid-ass mistakes along the way), and I do acknowledge it as such and embrace everything that Shakaarr is saying, while also fervently agreeing with Cathryn that guilt is not the final answer – awareness that moves one to action that functions as a catalyst to further awareness and to further action (the perpetual motion machine of activist work), this is the ultimate goal. And within awareness lies the necessity of taking ownership of history.
I appreciate the thoughtful and engaged conversation here – thank you everyone for your comments.
-S