Oh this so resonates just now... I'm just finishing off an article for a magazine of a feminist organisation the Association of Radical Feminists (ARM). The piece focuses on a recent publication 'How can universities promote academic freedom?' My title is 'In praise of debate: feminist consciousness and ARM'. One of the aspects I talk about that I see as specifically feminine, is the way women connect and share through story telling; we sit in circle and talk. In our case it is a midwifery and birthing women's group (primarily - but open to all), but it could be a knitting group, a book club, a health group or class, or support group, but the key factor tends to be women sharing experiences in a personal narrative to educate - antenatal groups are classic in the birthing world along with other mother's groups for this kind of story telling. Your words on 'naming' are pertinent in many debates - if we can't/don't or fear naming, things escalate. I quote Andrea Dworkin - “Ethical individualism needs a particular kind of culture – a culture of independence – in which to flourish. Its enemy is the opposite culture – the culture of conformity, of Khoumeni’s Iran, Torquemada’s Spain, and Joe McCarthy’s America – in which truth is collected not person by person, in acts of independent conviction, but is embedded in monolithic traditions or the fiats of priesthood or junta or majority vote, and dissent from that truth is treason. That totalitarian epistemology – searingly identified in the finally successful campaign of Orwell’s dictator to make his victim believe, through torture, that 2 and 2 is 5 – is tyranny’s most frightening feature.” (Dworkin 1996) I may well quote you Josh...? Great post - wish it was longer.
Very nice piece! Naming things is a divine act. By naming a set of patterns or events, we speak them into existence. For to name something one must first see and understand it. There’s so much mythology and stories around words, like the idea of having power over someone/something if you can name them (Rumpelstiltskin). Anyway good stuff!
Naming is an act of rebellion against all that which misguides human compassion. To exorcise the Devil we have to call it by its name! Another intellectually tantalising post. Thank you for sharing.
Very good post, thanks. Yes, wrote about this in several posts, most recently in how these factors may affect us through digital technology and “META”. Through our stories we invent and/or reinvent the world.
Oh this so resonates just now... I'm just finishing off an article for a magazine of a feminist organisation the Association of Radical Feminists (ARM). The piece focuses on a recent publication 'How can universities promote academic freedom?' My title is 'In praise of debate: feminist consciousness and ARM'. One of the aspects I talk about that I see as specifically feminine, is the way women connect and share through story telling; we sit in circle and talk. In our case it is a midwifery and birthing women's group (primarily - but open to all), but it could be a knitting group, a book club, a health group or class, or support group, but the key factor tends to be women sharing experiences in a personal narrative to educate - antenatal groups are classic in the birthing world along with other mother's groups for this kind of story telling. Your words on 'naming' are pertinent in many debates - if we can't/don't or fear naming, things escalate. I quote Andrea Dworkin - “Ethical individualism needs a particular kind of culture – a culture of independence – in which to flourish. Its enemy is the opposite culture – the culture of conformity, of Khoumeni’s Iran, Torquemada’s Spain, and Joe McCarthy’s America – in which truth is collected not person by person, in acts of independent conviction, but is embedded in monolithic traditions or the fiats of priesthood or junta or majority vote, and dissent from that truth is treason. That totalitarian epistemology – searingly identified in the finally successful campaign of Orwell’s dictator to make his victim believe, through torture, that 2 and 2 is 5 – is tyranny’s most frightening feature.” (Dworkin 1996) I may well quote you Josh...? Great post - wish it was longer.
Very nice piece! Naming things is a divine act. By naming a set of patterns or events, we speak them into existence. For to name something one must first see and understand it. There’s so much mythology and stories around words, like the idea of having power over someone/something if you can name them (Rumpelstiltskin). Anyway good stuff!
Naming is an act of rebellion against all that which misguides human compassion. To exorcise the Devil we have to call it by its name! Another intellectually tantalising post. Thank you for sharing.
Very good post, thanks. Yes, wrote about this in several posts, most recently in how these factors may affect us through digital technology and “META”. Through our stories we invent and/or reinvent the world.
https://kwnorton.substack.com/p/meta-instability?r=boqs0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web