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   Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:21:48 JST Evan Prodromou

   • Marcus "MajorLinux" Summers

   Reminded of the Audrey Lord quote by @majorlinux: "For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house."

   This is a weird quote because it doesn't really follow within the logic of the metaphor. Why wouldn't his tools dismantle his house?

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:24:09 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     It'd make more sense if the person's profession was one that used vastly different tools than would be required by the dismantling process. "The printmaker's tools will never dismantle the printmaker's boat." "The stonemason's tools will never dismantle the stonemason's newsletter."

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:29:21 JST Evan Prodromou

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     But maybe there's something in here about a rich and dominant man that might make his tools inappropriate for house-dismantling.

     Let's consider a man who owns an estate, maybe a farm or ranch or something. If everything there belongs to him, does that include all the tools, too?

     On a big enough property, there'd have to be tools for demolition too, right? Sledgehammers and axes and various explosives or whatever?

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:33:47 JST Evan Prodromou

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     So maybe the quote isn't talking about the tools if the whole enterprise, but the master's *personal* tools; the ones he keeps neatly in a workshop in his home. Maybe these tools would not dismantle a house. Why not, though?

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:36:54 JST Evan Prodromou

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     One reason might be that he only does hobbyist rich guy things with these tools. Like he builds ships in a bottle, or paints birdhouses to look like the heads of American presidents. If you tried to dismantle a house with the long tweezers he uses for setting up the rigging on little bottle sloops, well, they're just not going to do the job.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:39:47 JST Evan Prodromou

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     Another reason might be that he doesn't buy tools to use them; he buys then to show off to his rich friends and selected underlings. So he might have a really high-end saw, but he's never bothered to take the factory edge off or sharpen it, so if you tried to use it to saw through a joist, it'd warp or just take ffe.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:41:23 JST Evan Prodromou

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     • Marcus "MajorLinux" Summers
     • bignose

     @bignose @majorlinux that doesn't explain the meaning inside the metaphor. If we're talking about a literal master, his literal tools and his literal house, why the fuck wouldn't the tools dismantle the house?

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     bignose (bignose@sw-development-is.social)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:41:24 JST bignose

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     • Marcus "MajorLinux" Summers

     The quote is taken from the title of an essay, so that's not a great surprise it's the only text people repeat.

     “Lorde’s message is clear: in order to create real change, we must reject the systems and structures that uphold power imbalances and instead create our own tools and methods for dismantling them. This requires a deep understanding of the ways in which power operates and a commitment to challenging and transforming it.”

     https://literarysum.com/deconstructing-power-analyzing-audre-lordes-the-masters-tools-will-never-dismantle-the-masters-house/

     @evan @majorlinux

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     bignose (bignose@sw-development-is.social)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:41:25 JST bignose

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     • Marcus "MajorLinux" Summers

     As so often, @evan, this historical quote taken out of its historical context does not completely encapsulate the meaning.

     A more complete quotation of Audre Lorde's words:

     “For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”

     @majorlinux

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:43:20 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     He might also buy a lot of dumb tools that he doesn't need for anything, just because they look bad ass. He might have an awesome post holer, really big with oak handles and brushed steel with his initials in it. It's no good for tearing down a house though.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:52:02 JST Evan Prodromou

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     But maybe the quote is about some kind of metaphysical incompatibility between the master's tools and the task of taking apart his house. Maybe the axe stops magically mid-stroke mere millimeters from the columns. Or maybe the tools themselves have a will of their own -- animated household objects like in a Disney film. "Nooooooooo," squeals the sledgehammer plaintively as you lift it. "That's my *owner's* house. I could never hurt his house! I wuuuuuvvvv him!!!"

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:54:13 JST Evan Prodromou

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     Or maybe it's just the nature of the game. After all, the white bishop can't capture the white queen in chess, no matter how well-positioned it is.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 11:56:51 JST Evan Prodromou

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     That might be the key to it -- the Zen riddle at the heart of Lorde's quote. The master's tools can never dismantle the master's house because by the time we get to the house-dismantling stage, they're not his tools any more. They're our tools, or nobody's tools -- a mob's tools, the crowd's collective tools.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 12:14:59 JST Evan Prodromou

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     Honestly, if you wanted to trick a mob, this quote would work really well. When that mob rolls up with all the liberated tools, ready to do some rapid dismantling, you could chuckle patronizingly. "Now, aren't those the *master's* tools? Well, you can't use *those* to dismantle *this* house. It's the master's house, himself! Those tools won't work for the task at hand -- everyone knows that!

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 12:18:59 JST Evan Prodromou

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     • Jessamyn

     @jessamyn it makes the most sense, really.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 12:19:00 JST Jessamyn

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     @evan I've always taken it that way. The master's tools can never dismantle the master's house by definition. He's not the master if you're at the house-dismantling stage with his former tools.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 12:20:28 JST Evan Prodromou

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     "Now, did you bring some other tools? Your own, or somebody else's? No? Well, sorry, everyone, but it seems like everyone's time has been wasted here. There's just not going to be any dismantling tonight. Wait! I had an idea! Why don't you go try dismantling some *other* houses with the master's tools? That should work! Go home and try it on your own houses. See if that works."

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 12:46:32 JST Evan Prodromou

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     • Marcus "MajorLinux" Summers

     @majorlinux I didn't want to reply to his thread because he was making a good and very different point. It just reminded me of the quote.

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     emergencydoc (emergencydoc@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 20:27:12 JST emergencydoc

     in reply to

     • Marcus "MajorLinux" Summers
     • bignose

     @evan @bignose @majorlinux The master’s tools (as opposed to the craftman’s tools) are the whip and the shackles, how are you going to use those to tear down a slavery based society and build something better?

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 21:29:53 JST Evan Prodromou

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     • Micke

     @micke this is a very good reading! The tools change us; we don't change them.

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     Micke (micke@camp.smolnet.org)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 21:29:54 JST Micke

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     @evan I think you need to think more like Tolkien here. The "master's tools" is the one ring that corrupts anyone trying to use them. Galadriel would become dark and terrible as the night, and would no longer be interested in dismantling Mordor, if she would try to use the ring against Sauron.

     That sort of thing.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 21:36:18 JST Evan Prodromou

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     • Marcus "MajorLinux" Summers
     • Dan Jones

     @danjones000 @majorlinux so, this is an interesting line of inquiry. The tools for making aren't usually the same as those for breaking. A shoe-making machine is bad for unmaking shoes.

     Construction tools are sometimes bad at demolition. Like a nail gun or a level. Not a lot, though -- so many, like hammers and wrenches, are dual use. And even a saw, for cutting, is used to get materials in the right shape for building.

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     Dan Jones (danjones000@microwords.goodevilgenius.org)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 21:36:21 JST Dan Jones

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     • Marcus "MajorLinux" Summers

     She doesn't say the tools can't dismantle the house, but that they won't.

     I think the point is that the master builds. Construction requires mastery, skill, and experience. But any brute can destroy. The master builds, but they don't destroy.

     @evan@cosocial.ca @majorlinux@toot.majorshouse.com

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 22:10:15 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     Another thing about this quote is that it sounds like something Jesus would say. But as far as I can tell, it really is an original image of Lorde's.

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     R × P (rxp@mastodon.online)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 22:25:11 JST R × P

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     @evan I think you’re taking the “tools” part too literally. The master’s tools aren’t axes and saws, they’re things like oppression, hierarchy, and a society that allows some people to be “masters” in the first place.

     Animal Farm is a good example of this - the pigs had a revolution, and ended up in charge, but they behaved the same way as the farmers. They used the master’s tools, and just ended up with new masters living in the master’s house.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 22:25:11 JST Evan Prodromou

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     • R × P

     @rxp A good metaphor maps a dynamic in the symbolic domain into the system being modeled.

     "Look before you leap" is a good metaphor because it is actually a good idea to look where you're going before you jump in. And that translates to, you know, deciding on a romantic relationship or taking a job.

     Lorde's metaphor is difficult because it's not like that. There's nothing intrinsic to the master's tools that make them unsuitable to dismantling his house.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 22:27:42 JST Evan Prodromou

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     • Marcus "MajorLinux" Summers
     • bignose
     • emergencydoc

     @emergencydoc @bignose @majorlinux this is a good one! Thank you!

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     Maj - 🇨🇦 (maj@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 29-May-2026 23:16:26 JST Maj - 🇨🇦

     in reply to

     @evan I started at the wrong end of your thread and was wondering which song it was from...

     #lorde #lorde