Ethics and Actions: Empathy is the Revolution

By: Chris Pratt

Welcome, this is the third installment in the Ethics and Actions series. We started off in our first work asking two foundational questions for ourselves.

Does a free world include everyone?

This was the target question in our last installment. Theoretically, if we dig just past the surface, a free and liberated world should include everyone, regardless of ethnic, religious, sexual, or ability backgrounds. Now, we dive deep. This is where I still get hung up. The balance of recognizing someone’s humanity along with recognizing the conditioned oppressive forces at play.

How does a free world include everyone?

A free world for everyone, comes down to a very nuanced and deep series of choices. Recognizing humanity, recognizing oppression, recognizing the oppressed, and recognizing ourselves in the system of White Supremacy that is the American Culture. It is combination of choices that upholds oppression. From outright dehumanizing the people around you to feeling the need to climb the social ladder to gain access to resources. Through a series of highly complex and intertwined cognitive functions, we make the choice to collude in our own oppression. We see can this openly through modern day republican voters. Do they understand that there is a class separation that presses down on them? Yes, that was part of Donald Trump’s runs for presidency both times. “We need less government because the entire political system is bought out by the people treating you like shit.” This line of thought, is intersectional throughout the working class. Regardless of ethnic, sexuality, or religious background. This is how our modern system works. It creates several overlapping “bubbles” of oppression to keep the oppression going. Think, lower class working conservatives view any not a straight white male as “sinners” which in turn allows them the moral superiority to vote against their overall self interest through anti-union, anti-healthcare, and the roll back on state run food and housing assistance programs. Basically, cutting our arm off to remove a splinter in our finger. Because of the act of marginalizing the people around us, we allow ourselves to suffer while claiming the other is the one doing the oppressing through the legislative process.

Now, let’s dig ourselves in a little further, if a free and liberated world means “for everyone”, how can we include those how actively work against us into a liberated society? This is where empathy and basic compassion come into play. Collectively, we are all stuck, from the bottom up to the top. At what point is that “stuck” an active choice or is it an addiction to money and social pull? This is the question where I find myself struggling greatly. We need to defend our selves from harm, it is a survival necessity. If our lives are threatened, of course we’re going to act on that threat. Now, we need to ask ourselves if the threat that we’re seeing a cry for help or a cry for violence? Often times, from my experience, it is a cry for help. A cry coming from generations of self imposed trauma. This is where basic empathy builds solidarity into intersectionality. As we guide one person through their locked in trauma response, we begin to heal to a wider point of view. Obviously, this is going to come with physical risk. Some people are so ingrained into the trauma response that their only cry out is violence. We have to be prepared for that. We also have to be prepared that they will have an emotional crash and they are at a breaking point, looking for a way out. This leads to the native Cherokee story “Two Wolves” that we see constantly shared on social media. I know we’ve all we’ve all seen it. “Inside of you are two wolves fighting. Whichever one you feed is the one that wins the fight.” This proverb is NOT the original Cherokee story. The story we see today is a colonized version, assisting the colonizer in generating oppressors within native communities. The original ends very differently than the one we share.

Two Wolves

A young boy approaches his tribe elder, deep in thought and frustration. “Elder, I am struggling. It feels like there is a war in my head that I cannot win.”

The elder smiles at the young boy, radiant with wisdom. “I to feel that war. The struggle. Inside of us are two wolves. Fighting for control. One wolf is all of our anger, despair, fear, shame. The other wolf is all of our joy, love, compassion, and hope. These two wolves become stronger or weaker as we grow. Sometimes, in life, we find our selves struggling with both.”

The boy, shocked to hear his elder feel the same struggle. “How do we win that war? It feels like a constant struggle. I can’t control either one, no matter how much I give to it.”

The elder kneels to the boy, becoming his equal. “It is not about which you control or which you feed. It is which wolf needs to be present when. We all feel these emotions child. It is understanding the deeper purpose with each wolf. It is only through understanding that the wolves will no longer war on each other, but walk peacefully, side by side. Through their peace, you will find yours and walk peacefully into the world around you.”

The boy, now uncomfortable “Elder, how can I understand these wolves? They always seem to want to bite each other and I can’t stop it.”

The elder, beaming with warmth and love for the boy “We understand through sitting with each wolf, learning what pushes each to fight. Is hope scared of despair? Is despair scared of joy because when it reaches joy, something bad happens? Is shame afraid to bring anger into the world? Through sitting with them as one, you will learn balance.”

The boy, now confident “Thank you elder, I see these wolves come out in my mother and father, family, and the other children around me. Is this what makes our tribe strong? Trying to understand ourwolves and each others wolves?”

The elder stands and places his hands on the boys shoulders. “Not only is this what makes us strong, it also makes us connected with the earth around us. Knowing that struggle is a part of life brings us harmony and balance to the world. And through that connection, we become in tune with the spirit around us.”

End

This proverb that we find on social media goes very differently. Instead of understanding and balance. The meme ends with “whichever you feed”. That is the issue we face collectively. We do not seek balance with each other, we seek to win an internal war, projecting out through us onto the other people. If we seek balance, and understanding, we seek a just and liberated world. Learn each wolf inside, learn when that wolf needs to lead and when to follow and to walk in pace.

-TwoToneTrouble

Please, these articles are meant to generate conversation and understanding and I would love to see any challenges you my have. Leave a comment, follow me on tiktok @twotonetrouble, or email me at twotonetrouble1@gmail.com Let’s build a better world together.