Make Emancipation Enjoyable Again

There are two types of politics: the politics of the Enemy, and the politics of Emancipation.

The politics of the Enemy is paper-thin close to our base instincts: emotional intensities, fight/flight reactions, dis-inhibited controls. It’s immediately accessible. It’s easily engaged. It’s biological. It’s undeveloped frontal lobe. It’s in us all. And, worst of all, it’s enjoyable.

The politics of Emancipation is almost completely the inverse. Emancipation is hard. It’s neocortex. It’s taxing on the the ability to sustain rationality and compassion. It's impulse-control. And, disappointingly, it’s mostly unenjoyable.

Emancipation takes bravery and imagination and faith. It demands love, heartbreak, decolonization of your own mind, self-discipline, self-sacrifice, self-honesty, persistent collaboration, and personal growth. It’s basically project management in its initiative and implementation. It's ever subject to not only failure but also regression to the politics of the Enemy!

So, knowing this, which direction do you think generally wins-out? Which current supplies daily cheap fixes of catharsis and thrill? Which current leads to mental illness and institutional terror and gas chambers?

This is why racism continues. This is why you can go bankrupt if a police officer with qualified immunity kicks you down the stairs for wearing the wrong skin. It’s why the struggle to advance basic human rights is often a nightmare struggling to dream. It’s why you have to slave at TPS Incorporated just so you don’t lose food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, and dignity. It’s why 99.9% of your jour life-journey is a detour into death-marches of the soul. It’s why the objects of your childhood desires have been broken like eggs and replaced with unsatisfiable trinkets and freak shows.

Today's Enemy-centric motor has ripped us away from Emancipation's joy.

Anyway, what I’m saying is: work against the politics of the Enemy by working for Emancipation. Make it enjoyable again. Reverse the motor's flow from the negative to the positive terminal. Pour love into spaces lacking in love - especially when it hurts. Keep your eyes on the prize by shifting your aim and drive from Enemy to Emancipation. Start from small acts of self-Emancipation and work outwards.

Emancipation must be universal because emancipation for some and not others is the formula of oppression.

Subscribe to Phil Baumann's Constructive Views for Destructive Times

Sign up now to get access to the library of members-only issues.
Jamie Larson
Subscribe