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Desire for liberation has been a repeated theme in human history. In these times, it would be easy to say, “Here we go again!” However, past liberating events in leaderships, cultures, and civilizations occurred under different circumstances. What is happening now is intimately related to the nature of our present conditions, perhaps most notably our global connections influenced by advances in technologies.
Nonetheless, individual or collective traumas in our past, if left unresolved, can unconsciously continue to drive our actions in an ongoing effort to seek a peaceful resolution. We are very far from the times of an imaginary tribesman running down a dirt path to retrieve his crops from yesterday’s thief. The specific conditions now are very different, though the general intent for justice may be similar. It is time to be fully present in our contemporary circumstances and look at our context with a fresh perspective.
What I sense as a popular liberation movement is not a named group but rather a “community” in the meaning of encompassing subgroups based on different characteristics: gender, skin color, sexual preference, physical/sensory disabilities, age, ethnicity, and religion, to name a few. The underlying theme seems to be that such people are outliers from a set of physical/behavioral standards. I don’t know who set such standards in the first place. From my personal perspective, it was likely more than one person/group who gained power/status by finding reasons to demean others different from themselves.
Is there something in common that the community of groups want to be liberated from? Prejudice, slavery, oppression, injustice, lack of rights, exclusion? Maybe all of these reasons reduce into just one, namely fear. Fear of being openly insulted, of being physically attacked, of not having a job, of being falsely accused of a crime, of exclusion from access to needs, or of being homeless and alone. Fear is one form of a metaphoric cage in which one is not allowed to contribute the best they have to offer. It is like the real cage that prevents a bird from expressing its wondrous ability to fly. The full potential of the individual is obstructed and from that arises the yearning for liberation.
Why are many groups of people within a short span of time speaking out for equal acceptance, though most not for the first time? School shootings may have been a tipping point, or George Floyd’s murder, or assaults on women, or the mistreatment of immigrants. Maybe all of these and others, taken together, made it imperative to speak out so the breadth of voices of the abused might be heard with greater intensity.
In the midst of this, there are others who want to stir dissent for malicious purposes. Peaceful protests can be overtaken by those who see an opportunity to loot or destroy property. Some may want a confrontation to distract attention from the reality of the true issues and blame the peaceful protestors as evildoers.
Enter, center stage, a new threat: the global pandemic. It is a threat not only to our physical lives but also our economies, cultural structures, and international relationships. The virus is challenging us to recognize why deep moral values are so important and what is needed to become a cooperative community.
Have our modern communication tools given us a distorted sense of connection to other people? Has our addiction to tech novelties made us believe we have the right to whatever we want immediately? Have we ignored our responsibilities to our mother Earth? How can our list of misconceptions have gotten so long? The pandemic yells, “Wake up!”
We are in a precarious time. It can no longer be flippantly denied, excuses made up, or blame dished out. It’s time to go deeper than we ever may have dared to reach that place that says “no more.” We must overcome our confusions and fears and that horrible feeling of not being me anymore. Yes, there can be anger, depression, emptiness, confusion, and other symptoms of the psychological morass we are immersed in by events. We must resist being pawns in a game designed by liars for the destruction of those who seek liberation.
So what can we start doing right now? How do we connect with each other as a community of humanity, as children of Earth, and designers of a liberated future? We must do something or the new traumas we may undergo could become embedded in our children to face in their futures. We must learn to recognize the reality of the truth as opposed to the rantings of irresponsible attention-getters. Liberation is about responsible action, responsible feelings, responsible decisions, responsible kindness and compassion. It’s not about doing whatever you want and ignoring everyone else and their needs. For me, freedom is only true if it is also responsible freedom.
Some of us are reluctant to resist, to say “no” to malevolence disguised in forms that seduce our fears. We must first ask ourselves questions to which we reply with our most honest answers. What is it that person really wants of me? Do I myself have a genuine, steadfast moral foundation? Listen to both your heart and mind and reflect on what is true for you and what you may want to change within yourself for the sake of all of us.
As for myself, the current suffering of so many people breaks my heart every day; my confusions stir my need for rationality in the midst of irrationality every day; I alternate between hope and despair every day; and every day, I keep taking the next step forward as best I can. I know love is present in the “between” spaces of hardship and I trust it will hold us through an uncertain future for our country and our global humanity. Are we not all participants in the community that longs for liberation from all forms of cages? It is time to find the courage to open those cage doors… together.
© Betty Luceigh, August 2020
