barbara parker
Nov 5 · 2 min read

We were able to stop the Vietnam war but it cost us our visionaries, statesmen and progressive thinkers and leaders. We started a women’s movement and a sexual revolution but it left us with a pornographic rape culture and a religious crusade against women. We passed the civil rights legislation but it left us with the permission for police violence. We voted into office a person of color and it gave us a revitalization of white nationalism and a backlash of racism that gave us a corrupt, criminal, hate filled President.

I know as an activist that action is required. Real cultural change that includes the shifting of power and insists on balancing agency with sustainability, brings up primal fear. The attempt at real cultural change, a shift in priorities and visible power in the 60s and 70s shook things up, put new possibilities in the collective mindset. And it also caused an unimaginable backlash in the minds of many whose fear was awakened but forced underground. We should not be surprised that the fear turned to hate when those threatened conspired socially and politically, across economic boundaries. The Christian cult got together with the corporate bosses and the disenfranchised labor class (who were disenfranchised by that same corporate power clan) and, kaboom, the fear-turned-hatred volcano erupted.

This has all been happening at the same time that the nameless, faceless communication network became available. Hot lava could now be hurled by anyone to anyone. And the President gave name calling permission to become a norm.

I don’t know how we will be able to accomplish reorganizing this chaos into a more secure culture of equity and mutual support but it must Collectively accomplished in order for us, this western culture, to remain a culture.

    barbara parker

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    Always curious, always learning, writing about what’s possible if we choose to Know.