Artemis
Sometimes I worry I'm "not doing enough," but I think I actually am doing the work I need to at the moment. I do think some day I may be called on to "do more" (or keep doing the same stuff, but at a greater level of difficulty & personal danger).
My abilities lie in the area of finding, reading, synthesizing, & sharing information. I often feel ashamed of how otherwise "useless" I feel, but I'm pretty confident that the best way to be "useful" is to do what you are good at.
Artemis
You fear radical equality, because you fear it means someone stepping on you.
But the main reason someone is able to step on you is that they are above you.
You can let go of the need to be "better" & "more important". This compulsion doesn't protect you (there's always a bigger fish), but it does encourage you to harm & suppress others.
Artemis
Radical equality is fucking freeing. To be an equal with everyone else—a true equal—can be a scary thought, but those fears of insignificance & being trampled are coming from the hierarchies you are used to.
In societies with hierarchical power, you HAVE to be a rung above someone else on the status ladder to be treated as significant, so it is terrifying to us to not designate groups of people who are less important—less "equal"—than us.
Artemis
The only way forward I see for us is to stop creating hierarchies of "important" tasks & people & "unimportant" tasks & people.
If a task has value, then the person who does it is making a valuable contribution.
Stop with the competition to be the best & most important & stop belittling other people for not being as "important" as you. It has no place in our better future.
Artemis
How are you going to motivate people to take on tasks that you have TOLD them are pointlessly insignificant?
You know they need doing! If you're feeding people, someone has to *literally* do the dishes & take out the trash, etc.
So if it's necessary work, why the fuck would we belittle the people who do it? Why the fuck would we EVER let them get the idea that what they are doing is anything less than vital?
Artemis
The example case, "doing the dishes" is a fairly easy task for most people. A lot of people who want to make change in the world would happily "do the dishes," but they've been told that that is not the *real* work.
Doing the dishes—they have been told—is the lowly work that people who aren't able or willing to do dangerous & impressive things do instead. They've been told that they should be ashamed if that is "all" they are doing.
Artemis
One way we keep ourselves from achieving more is that we don't believe that everything that needs to be done is "important".
I've often heard the saying, "everybody wants to save the world, but nobody wants to do the dishes," meaning "people want to do the stuff that seems cool & important & don't want to do the practical things that need to be done."
But here's the thing: there are plenty of people who would "do the dishes."
Artemis
I feel such gratitude to know that there are things I am good at & enjoy that serve an important purpose. It doesn't need to be the *most* important. There is no "most important".
There are just things that need doing & people to do them. They say "if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing well," & that's true enough, but we can start with: if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing.
Find useful shit to do & do it. It does not need to be the most "important" & world-shaking.
Artemis
Some of my insecurity about the value of my own gifts is that I have seen other people with similar gifts fucking abuse the hell out of them (or just simply waste them on pointless things).
I discount their value sometimes, because I've seen what it looks like when they are over-valued or wasted, & it's ugly to me. I have no desire to participate in that.
But it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to use whatever you're gifted at to be arrogant & controlling. That's a fucking choice.
Artemis
These things are good & important, but they are not more important than other people's gifts.
I hope I can do the work of gathering & sharing collective knowledge. It's such important work. It has to be done, & I hope other people with other gifts will respect its importance.
But lots of things are important. That's the beauty of a collective: we divide up the tasks & then share the benefit.
Knowledge does not convey authority. Knowledge is just something to share.
Artemis
Beware anyone who thinks their knowledge entitles them to authority or power over you, but understand that knowledge of history & of the stories our predecessors have left us with is an essential part of creating the future we want.
I will fucking fight any "intelligent" or "educated" people who think those things make them superior to others.
They are just gifts some of us have that are meant to be shared freely, like everything else. I benefit immensely from other people's gifts, after all.
Artemis
We have to learn from each other & from the past.
The way we learn enemy tactics & how to counter them (while avoiding certain mistakes) is by gathering up the things other people have learned & figuring out how to apply them to our present & our future.
We don't just look to the past to find what DOES work. There is also a whole treasure trove of information from people who tried things that DIDN'T work, especially if they have gained insight into WHY they didn't work.
Artemis
This does mean I need to get back to more rigorous study. Whatever knowledge I have mostly isn't mine really. Generations of people have shared their experiences of resisting oppression & building alternatives. What I try to do is to take that in, evaluate it, analyze it, & bring it together.
It's what I'm good at, so I should put real effort into it. It's ok to decide to focus on doing the work you are good at, but once you have found it, you do have to actually do it.
Artemis
It's funny that I never developed respect for "authority," given that I grew up in an authoritarian religious sect.
Or maybe that is the reason for it.
Artemis
It's not about being a doormat either: if someone is harming people, then I should do what I would want other people to do for me: fucking fight the assholes doing the harm.
That's "doing unto others as you would have them do to you."
I'm not religious anymore, but I do find the teachings of Jesus still have a lot of relevance to me. The man was preaching about revolutionary change & creating a world where no one is lowly & oppressed.
Artemis
I don't respect the "authority" of the people "above" me, which also means I have no fucking right to demand that anyone else should defer to me because of rank, status, or ability.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" doesn't mean "defer to certain people so that other people will defer to you."
"As you would have THEM do to you." It's an equalizing statement. Treat everyone with the respect, kindness, & consideration that you expect them to give you.
Artemis
I think it comes from a place of deep fear.
You have been harmed over & over & over again in your life by those who are more powerful than you. It makes sense that you would try to make sure you're more powerful than at least *some* other people. You don't want to be harmed!
But it makes you a participant in a fucking power struggle that keeps us all stepping on each other. Continuing to participate in it continues the cycle.
The only way out is to fucking quit trying to clamber to the top.
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