Dear Fellow Steemians,
I'm writing this post following a conversation that I had with a brother of mine...
I was in the middle of an another post, but following the exchange we had, I realized that this was the most important thing I had to write about...
I would just like to preface this post with some words of wisdom that my father passed down to me... He came from a poor family background and is one of those examples of a self-made man... Unlike me, he grew up in the ghettos of Philadelphia and Chicago in the 1950s and 60s, the child of European economically-devasted immigrants after WW2... And having never been given a helping hand from anybody, he built a successful life for himself, and offered me everything that he ever could, just to ensure that I could have a head-start in life...
But these are the words he always spoke to me anytime he gave me anything...
Son... To whom much is given... Much is expected...
As a teenager, I was never fully aware or conscious of the sacrifices my father made for me... I never really showed much gratitude except in the moment of receiving something I wanted from him... But those words stuck with me, and ended up becoming a defining part of my character as I mature into a Man...
If you're reading this Dad, thank you.
I'm a privileged, white, cisgender male.
I'm also a dreamer, a lover, a hip hop and rap addict, a prettie-boy flirt, a philosopher, a reader, a ''conspiracy theorist'', an anarchist, a revolutionary, a healer, and probably most importantly...
I Am a Multidimensional Astral Traveler from the Sun on a Mission to Shift Mine and Mankind's Consciousness to a Higher State of Love and Light
After A Bad Day Just Lie Down on My Bed Close My Eyes: I'm like Peace Mao-fuhk-ahzzz. I'm Outchaa!
Just to name but a few of the things I actually actively identify as.
The need to write this post came about following a long argument...
The argument started, like most of our arguments start, while him and I we're discussing our future plans to bring about the destruction of the corrupt system that has enslaved mankind... (We always argue about how to do this...)
There was a powder keg beneath our opposing thoughts, but the actual spark that set off the fuse of the argument actually began when my friend pointed out to me that sometimes, within the collective struggle of mankind to emancipate itself from itself, that different identity groups can and should meet exclusively amongst themselves to organize their own politics and economics...
For example, people of color should meet just among themselves to discuss tactics, women should meet among themselves to discuss tactics, gays among gays, poor among poor, etc...
Having already encountered this notion before, I went on to express that I thought this made perfect sense, and that I had no problem with it. I fully support any initiative for people to meet together and discuss emancipatory strategies and flesh out action plans.
I then went on to take it a step further. I expressed the idea that I thought that within any emancipatory movement, say Black Nationalism for African Americans, Feminism for Women, Marxism for the Working-Poor, that those members should get together and get their shit together, and I wouldn't get in their way...
As a strong anarchist, I believe people who feel the need to exclusively get together and discuss tactics to fight and counter their oppressors should do so, and that if they feel the need to exclude me (on the grounds of what they perceive me to be), should feel free to go on and do so, while I'll continue fighting the oppressor with whomever is excluded from those identitarian movements that I do not belong to (because I'm not black, female, or poor)...
My Oppressor Happens to be the Bankster-Plutocrat-Eugenecist-Technocrat Who Wants to Enslave Mankind Through Tricknology and Transhumanism.
And I intend to expend any and all resources in my control to achieve this end against my oppressor.
As I said, if women need to band together in solidarity among themselves to dis-empower misogynistic men, or if blacks need to unite together to fight white supremacy, or if poor people need to cooperate together to level the playing field with rich people:I have no qualms...
But being a man, being white, and coming from a well-off background; if women, people of color, and lower-class people don't want me to attend their Feminist/Black-Nationalist/Marxist meetings, and partake in their discussions, and dilute their cause with my own struggle against the Rothschild/Slave Master; I couldn't see what I can be of a assistance of, if they are too busy organizing against those who resemble me on the exterior (as well as myself I suppose) to be able to organize against my (our ) aforementioned oppressor.
And this is where my friend got upset with me.
He said:
Yeah but you can't go and fight the bankster-plutocrat-eugenecist-technocrats who wants to enslave mankind via trans-humanism all alone bro.
And this took me aback... I was like: Dude, what do you mean? I'm not stopping anybody else from fighting their oppressor, why are you trying to stop me from fighting mine (who is also everybody else's...)?
To this he replied:
Dude... You are a privileged, white, cisgender, male... To billions of people around the world, you are the oppressor.
To which I started to get a little bit offended...
I'm not denying that I'm a privileged, white, cisgender male... But I'm so much more than that!
I continued:
Man... I'm an anarchist by belief... I'm also aware of past-lives that I lived... I'm well read and well-versed in the history of mankind and the roles that various groups of people have played and how the sins of the father visit the children... But I'm trying to fight for my freedom as well as the freedom and emancipation of every human on Earth!
What do you mean I'm the oppressor?...
Well, this conversation continued for quite some time, and it got pretty emotional...
I asked him: ''is this about white guilt?''
He was like no.
I tried to understand.
Are you saying that everything we do because we are privileged, because we are white, because we are straight, and because we're both guys, is bad?
He was like no.
I was like well what the fuck are you trying to say bro?
It took a while for us to get to the bottom of the point. There was a lot of exchanges, and to be fair, there could have been more listening to each other without trying to butt in our points every 20 seconds... (I always argue with this guy; it's healthy LOL)
He was trying to get somewhere, but it wasn't making much sense to me, and he wasn't being particularly understanding of my valid points either... But fear not, we love and respect each other very much, and it's always all love in the end...
Here are the points he was trying to impress on me to try and get me to understand what he meant
He was being really ardent about the fact that as being of white European descent, that a lot of my economic actions (striking out social actions because he knows I'm really not a dick in terms of being racist) might have unintended consequences. That the money I earned, and the resources I used, were most likely a benefit that I derived from a hereditary privilege, itself the product of a world that was built on the back of racist exploitation of people. That the lead in my 1$ pencil most likely, in some part of the production process, involved some form of modern slave labor of a black person in Africa.
I know, I concede to it, even my own research and understanding of the global economy leads me to being aware this is most often likely the case.
He didn't stop there. That because I was a man, there were times where I or a fellow man would be able to out compete a woman, gain some kind of advantage at her own expense, because she could be dominated, either intellectually, verbally, physically....
Looking back at my own experience and the world I've observed around me, I did not disagree with that.
That because I was straight, people wouldn't look at me funny, that I wouldn't have to suffer certain kinds of abuse and social pressures, that my mental health would in some measure be protected whereas 'different' people's would not. They would be lashed out on much more than me. Again, having some kind of modicum of awareness of what it's like being gay (especially for a young boy) and the fear of coming out, and having read up on it, and talked about it with gay and lesbian and trans friends and strangers, I could not disagree with such a notion without being arrogant and betraying my personal value system and beliefs... In essence, I agreed with everything he was saying. (I really do love arguing with this guy. We never disagree with each other and we fight like Hell!)
But Something Wasn't Sitting Right With Me... I Know All This...
Take the following statement for what it's worth, but compared to many people who are also privileged, white, cisgender and male (Take the guys I went to Private School with in my teens); it's really not like I've lacked exposure to POCs, women, gender non-conforming and poor people, and I've spent as much time as my bro listening to their stories and their experiences, when they felt inclined to share them with me and educate me, and I duly sat still, quietly listening with the open heart of an empath and the willingness to learn and grow as a human being..., only interrupting when it was appropriate to ask a question...
Many of my social 'kin', my 'peers' have not done so... That's why they vote conservative, with return on investment in mind, with little care for how their opinions and actions will affect their fellow citizens, who they consider to be 'divergent' anyway... Special interests that should be dealt with as a secondary ancillary objective to governing for their own dominant interests first and foremost...
That's why I vowed to never vote in my life... That's why I became an anarchist... That's why I dropped out of University to pursue my goals of undoing the status quo and bringing about a wholistic, global, human revolution.
It's precisely because I've taken so much time in the last few years to listen to people of color educate me about white supremacy... Spent so many hours listening to women share with me their experiences dealing with misogyny... That I've gone out of my way to learn from my gender non-conforming friends the extent of the bullying and trauma of being LGBTQ in our homophobic cultures... Because I've painfully sat there and listened to poor people explain to me the sheer grueling conditions they experienced in their upbringing, and the indignity that they've suffered trying to get started in life, never having the chance to experience the leisure and comfort of having someone behind them taking care of their needs so they can grow and mature at their own pace...
In a not so ironic twist of events, I've really come to identify most strongly with the world's underprivileged... None of my allegiance and loyalty lies in the hands of people who have as much as me... Who are as fortunate as me...
These days, I find that virtually all of my time is spent with non-whites... Here in China, I don't even have a white friend. All of them are either Chinese, Asian, or African.
This has become such a norm for me now (very different to my teen years) that I hardly notice color anymore...
The longer I live, the more color-blind I become...
So I was having a hard time understanding where my bro was trying to take me... He who really is the only privileged, white, cisgender male close to my heart, who is my oldest friend and who knows me inside and out... (My very first real friend, from the same Private School... The man whom I literally spent my formative years smoking all of that weed with, day in day out, getting up to all our shenanigans together, supporting and loving each other, deconditioning and healing together, pondering and discussing the slave-uprising we would one day lead...)
I had to interject at this point.
I mentioned the notion of the Kyriarchy.
Kyriarchy is a social system or set of connecting social systems built around domination, oppression, and submission. The word was coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in 1992 to describe her theory of interconnected, interacting, and self-extending systems of domination and submission, in which a single individual might be oppressed in some relationships and privileged in others. It is an intersectional extension of the idea of patriarchy beyond gender. Kyriarchy encompasses sexism, racism, speciesism, homophobia, classism, economic injustice, colonialism, militarism, ethnocentrism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of dominating hierarchies in which the subordination of one person or group to another is internalized and institutionalized.
He wasn't familiar with the concept, and asked me to elaborate...
I explained that being white didn't necessarily result in being better off than the fellow black person. Maybe whole groups of black people had a community and support system around them to elevate them and help them grow and develop, whereas whole groups of white people could be living in destitute conditions, addicted to meth and living in abject poverty and conditions comparable to underdeveloped third world nations.
That some men might be incredibly vulnerable and weak, susceptible to suicide and self-harm as mental illness and a society that is reluctant and even outright opposed to dialogues about men's issues wreaks mayhem upon their health and well being...
''Hey guys I feel really depressed...'' Suck it pussy, stop being a bitch. Blows brains out - How many men...
I wanted to make the point that nothing in this world is black and white.
Just because some people who all fall under the same category share certain privileges doesn't mean they aren't also very underprivileged in other areas...
To which he completely agreed, but he said I still wasn't getting his point...
I was starting to lose hope...
I was beginning to feel really vulnerable...
I was thinking to myself... If no matter how hard I fight for freedom and emancipation for my friends, family and everybody I'll ever meet and reach out to... If no matter how hard I try to be a good person and be a part of the solution instead of the problem... If no matter all this effort and vulnerability and sacrifice I have gone through, and am prepared to go through... If at the end of the day, it doesn't even make a dent into the problem...
What is it all worth? What is the point? What am I struggling for?
Steemit... I get it... For all Those Abused Women... Those Exploited Slaves... The Victims of Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, War, Poverty, and All the Other Forms of Institutionalized Inequality...
The Billions Of My Fellow Humans Who Will Never be Able to Fight the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, to Fight Transhumanism, to Fight the Banks, The Corpocrats, the Governments, the Armies and Militarized Police of the World's Most Powerful Countries...
Because They're Too Preoccupied Fighting for Their Very Survival...
The Victims Of Autonomous Killing Machine Drone Strikes in Yemen, and Somalia, and Afghanistan In This Bullshit And Senseless ''War on Terror''...
The Non-Violent Offenders Locked-Up Like Animals In This Horse Shit ''War on Drugs''...
The Victims of Police Brutality, Gangster Regimes, Genocidal Economic Policies, Weaponized Viruses, Environmental Pollution, Deliberate and Preventable Mass Starvation, Censorship...
What Can I Do What Can We Really Do?
I know I can't personally live with myself being completely selfish, and using all that has been given to me for my own self-centered and egotistical fantasies... The tens of thousands of hours and dollars, the immeasurable intention and attention, the unquantifiable amount of love, education, and nurturing that went into raising me from birth to a conscious, aware, thinking and sensitive man...
To live for my own personal interest with no consideration for my fellow man and his own well being and happiness and freedom... I know I can't do it... I know I'd be even more miserable than I may be from the pain and lack I feel from sacrificing time and effort trying to be a good person.
Note... I know I've failed miserably and missed the mark many times, but for those times when I was successful and did the right thing... I can't think of a greater source of joy in the present than knowing I have a Soul and it is not ugly...
But I am powerless to change those things that destroy my fellow man, just from me being who I am and the way society made me, and I also can't deny that.
The two of us both feeling very vulnerable and open...
I finally understood what his point was all along, although he himself had not been able to articulate it properly...
He Was 'Checking my Privilege'
No doubt because where he lives, London, and the people he chooses to surround himself with, he gets his privilege checked probably a bit excessively. But then again, is that really a bad thing?
It got so deep...
We we're both feeling the pain of the world so much... Feeling the billions of our fellow human's pain... A pain that the system that we came from tries desperately to hide from us and make us ignorant of...
We both fell silent...
I felt like I was choking... The ball in my throat was swelling as I fought to keep the tears in...
And then I realized what the point of this conversation was...
It was something that neither him nor I could have really put our finger on without bringing it all up to the surface...
We're Never Gonna Defeat the Bankster-Plutocrat-Eugenecist Technocrat Threat If We're Not All United As One Humanity...
We won't get there until we dismantle the kyriarchy...
We won't get there until men and women learn to respect each other and honor each other...
We won't get there until whites and blacks, and everyone in between, learn to work together and support each other, assist each other in the ways that we can...
We won't get there until hetero-normative and gender non-conforming people learn to accept and understand each other...
We won't get there until we learn to share our wealth, and allocate and channel our resources, power and influence towards NEED rather than GREED...
I want to believe that the free market, that anarcho-capitalism, would solve all the world's problems... That a handful of freedom-loving libertarians will solve everything... That if we just had enough decentralized crypto-currency, that we wouldn't Have to Change...
But that's not true.
We will have to change...
A deep change inside of ourselves and the way we all learn to treat each other is the only way we can save our species from certain and imminent doom...
That I have a Duty to my Fellow Human, Who is Just Another Expression of the Same Self That I Emanate From...
It's just different life circumstances, different geographies, different genetics, different blessings, different challenges, different battles...
But the Same Soul.
The Same Heart.
One Love...
My Brother Wasn't Trying to Put me Down...
He Wasn't Trying to Shut me Up, or Tell me Everything I do is Bad...
He Just Wanted to Keep me Humble, and to Remind Me Never to Forget That EVERY Human's Battle Against Oppression Is My Battle Too...
And That's Why I'll Always Love That Cat And Every Other Human Being I Come Across...
That's The Reason Why I'll Always Push Myself To Fight For What I Know To Be Right In My Heart, No Matter How Uncomfortable And Dangerous It Is...
Thank you everybody for taking the time to read this lengthy piece, and upvoting, following or resteeming if you found this article compelling and interesting. And thank you to my brother for caring enough about me and the truth to keep arguing with me until I get the point.
Peace and Love
Hae-Joo