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"The devil, who would lead us into the blindness of the heart and to the deafness of the mind, should be crucified..." 
A thread on the importance of being willing to see evil in the world, decolonizing, and generally quoting Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. 1/https://twitter.com/weyodi/status/1139148368435793921
TL,DR? we must imperatively learn to assume evil is a dominant force in our politics, economies and societies, otherwise we will fail at fighting climate breakdown, ecocide and our key work of bringing as much life as possible to the other shore of this century. 2/
Yesterday, @ECMcLaughlin brought to light worsening abuses as the US border, which are designed to end in death & harm. There is a tendency to say "We are better than that!", as though, through appeals to a better nature, aberrant evil could be stopped. 3/ https://twitter.com/ECMcLaughlin/status/1139192178247266304
We design our thoughts to avoid the unpleasantness of seeing systemic evil and fighting it: this is our "blindness of the mind" according to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o [NwT for short]. @ECMcLaughlin does not make this mistake, she says "This is WHO we are." 4/ https://twitter.com/ECMcLaughlin/status/1139192183452344320
Don't get me wrong: humans are capable of both great good and great evil, both individually and collectively. The collective aspect is key here: depending on our cultures, laws, processes, principles, values, etc, we can channel individuals to good or evil actions. 5/
But this is not an "all things being equal" fight. It's a fight tilted towards evil. Good can win, but we are playing on evil's field. Because the default are evil structures, where "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." 6/ https://slate.com/culture/2009/10/donald-kagan-s-thucydides-the-reinvention-of-history.html
This is crucial: human goodness is not inherent or the norm. Our goodness is expressed purely in a fight against evil. Our goodness is measured in the progress we make in keeping the forces of harm at bay. Goodness is resistance. Goodness is struggle. Goodness is WORK. 7/
NwT writes in the context of decolonization: "Any blow against imperialism ... is a victory for all anti-imperialist elements ... The sum total of these blows not matter what their weight, size, scale, location in time and space makes the national heritage." 8/
I believe this is how we must see our work: our contribution to human (and other) survival is counted in the sum total of the blows we can bring to the forces of destruction which dominate our current societies. Our goodness is measured as the sum total of this fight. 9/
Why is evil the norm? Why is our constant work to put the devil on the cross? I don't know. Maybe anthropologists have an answer. I see it in a self-serving laziness of our minds: that we tend to associate might with right. We want to believe power is exerted with good reason.10/
This is the reason bullies are generally successful unless they are forcefully countered. We want to believe the perpetrator is acting with good reason, we want to believe the victim had it coming to them. Otherwise, we might have to fight the bully, and we might get hurt too.11/
Almost instinctively, we look for reasons to blame the victim - "Did you say anything bad to him?" - "What was she wearing?"
Siding with the bully is the side of comfort, of safety, of not being in the current line of fire. We need to train ourselves to side with the victims. 12/
Siding with the bully is the side of comfort, of safety, of not being in the current line of fire. We need to train ourselves to side with the victims. 12/
And the first step here is in expecting evil. In being willing to see it constantly at work in our societies. In being willing to see it course its steady way through our history. We cannot afford to be comfortably blind, then constantly surprised. 13/ https://medium.com/@JKSteinberger/learning-from-other-non-white-struggles-74cb5651099b?source=friends_link&sk=d537622c94220cad338daa21b88c1dc8
In the first tweet, I quoted @weyodi, a Comanche, exposing the continuity of Fort Sill being used as a location of US persecution of the Comanche, and now as a site of persecution of migrants at the border. This should not come as a surprise. 14/
https://twitter.com/weyodi/status/1139147552698146817
https://twitter.com/weyodi/status/1139147552698146817
Whenever people speak of our "brave soldiers" or our "brave policemen" they are taking the side of blind allegiance to power. They are insuring that actions as horrific as taking children away and branding mothers who try to protect them continue unpunished, forever. 15/
Individual policemen and soldiers are capable of good actions. My father and grandfather were soldiers. I take comfort in the fact they were (a) unwilling occupier (grandfather as German soldier in France in WW1) and (b) resisting racism within US army (father during WW2). 16/
Individuals *can* act with generosity or kindness or tolerance. But the TRUE measure of a society is the collective orientation of those actions: the prioritizing of values and professions of care, of oversight, of justice, of anti-abuse of power and corruption. 17/
Our measure of goodness is to be taken in the importance we give to teachers, nurses, librarians: the professions of care. Our measure of goodness is to be taken in the seriousness with which we condemn and fight back against harm, persecution, exploitation, corruption. 18/
These are systemic acts and feedback loops *for* good, as well as *against* harm (perhaps @bethsawin would approve of this perspective). We must build them, fortify them, weave their strengthening into our stories and purpose. This is our work. 19/ https://twitter.com/TonyBennQuotes/status/195181727545696257
Ok if you poor dears have read this far, it's probably because you were hoping for more NwT quotes. Here are some.
"Capitalism introduced a plenty and possibilities of the conquest of hunger: capitalism ensured poverty and mass starvation on a scale unknown before." 20/
"Capitalism introduced a plenty and possibilities of the conquest of hunger: capitalism ensured poverty and mass starvation on a scale unknown before." 20/
"Capitalism and the development of science and technology introduced the possibilities of the conquest of nature: capitalism by its uncontrolled use and exploitation of natural resources ensured the virtual dominance of nature over man by way of droughts and desertification." 21/
"Capitalism introduced a new medical science to conquer diseases: capitalism through its selective prescription of medical care, at least in the colonies [editor's note: and now everywhere] ensured a disease-ridden population ..." 22/
"... who now lacked help from the herbalists and psychiatrists whose practices had been condemned as devilry."
NwT critiquing colonial education: "Education, far from giving people the confidence in their ability and capacities to overcome obstacles or become masters ..." 23/
NwT critiquing colonial education: "Education, far from giving people the confidence in their ability and capacities to overcome obstacles or become masters ..." 23/
"... of the laws governing external nature as human beings tends to make them feel their inadequacies, their weaknesses and their incapacities in the fact of reality; and their inability to do anything about the conditions governing their lives." 24/
Enough! Time for breakfast. Conclusion? Fighting climate breakdown, ecocide and persecution of other people means realizing we are within evil-dominated systems, and we need to see ourselves as anti-colonial resistance whose work is to overthrow them and build livable futures. E/
