Will We Survive or Perish?

We have a traumatic global system that threatens our existence. What can we do about it?

How do people who wish to dismantle systemic oppression and people who are afraid of systemic changes exist in the context of a whole? The easy answer might be to say that oppressed people are demanding basic human rights and equity, while some segments of society are reacting with fear and a desire to hold on to power. But I believe that answer doesn’t get to the actual root of the problem and doesn’t address the deeper psychology involved in our divided society. And it doesn’t give us a way forward.

The truth is, we are all living in a global toxic system that traumatizes all of us. It is a system designed to exploit people and the earth in order to benefit the few.

The people who the system was designed to benefit — young, white, Christian, straight, able-bodied, neurotypical, thin, conventionally attractive, wealthy, standard-English speaking, cis-males who are citizens of “developed countries” — benefit from it in ways that people who are not some combo of all that don’t. Those who don’t have those identities are, historically and currently, denied resources, education, access, jobs, health and healthcare, opportunity, dignity, and even life. The more marginalized identities you have, the more you are deprived of these basic human rights you are.