Zainab Amadahy's Blog - Posts Tagged "community"
Excerpt from Wielding the Force: The Science of Social Justice
Have you ever been involved in one of those discussions where someone challenges whether compassion is an appropriate response to human suffering? They may allege that compassion is a contrived emotion that you call up because of the social payback you get from people who recognize you as a caring person. Or worse, they may claim that people “choose” situations that cause them suffering, that it’s part of their growth process, and, therefore, although you may feel sorry for them, the best help you can give is to allow people in pain find their own way out of self-created suffering.
I’ve had such depressing discussions. Compassion is one component of the socially just world I’m struggling to co-create. Cooperation is another keystone in my vision and I’ve also had several arguments over the years, sometimes with people in my own family, who believe that competition is what drives social and economic development. In their way of thinking, competition is a healthy and natural part of being human while cooperation, especially in the realm of economics, just doesn’t work. Cooperatives and collectives are unfair in their very design because people who work hard are rewarded in the same way as people who work less, they argue.
If you’re an activist for social justice you’ve probably had such conversations too. Like me, you might struggle with the underlying feeling that there may be a shred of truth to these arguments and that the vision you want to create, a world full of compassionate, cooperative people contributing to each other’s wellbeing, is an impossible dream.
Well, what if hard science was on your side? What if there were biologists, geneticists and neuroscientists who say that cooperation and compassion are not only healthy for us but that they are wired into our biology? That cooperation and compassion are integral to our survival as well as our social and physical evolution?
New and emerging science seems to be making a strong argument in favour of social justice. Social science, sometimes referred to as “soft” science, has always told us that how we choose to structure our communities and allocate resources not only impacts social and economic progress but also our individual health. Now, the so-called “hard” sciences are saying the same thing. Furthermore, this new information suggests that much of what we believe about how the world functions is not entirely accurate and a paradigm shift is in order.
In this book I’d like to review some recent scientific discoveries and see what the implications are for building healthy, sustainable communities. This includes activist communities because this new information has implications for how social change advocates can be more effective in their work, including role modeling the alternatives we aspire to create.
More here: http://www.swallowsongs.com/wielding-...
I’ve had such depressing discussions. Compassion is one component of the socially just world I’m struggling to co-create. Cooperation is another keystone in my vision and I’ve also had several arguments over the years, sometimes with people in my own family, who believe that competition is what drives social and economic development. In their way of thinking, competition is a healthy and natural part of being human while cooperation, especially in the realm of economics, just doesn’t work. Cooperatives and collectives are unfair in their very design because people who work hard are rewarded in the same way as people who work less, they argue.
If you’re an activist for social justice you’ve probably had such conversations too. Like me, you might struggle with the underlying feeling that there may be a shred of truth to these arguments and that the vision you want to create, a world full of compassionate, cooperative people contributing to each other’s wellbeing, is an impossible dream.
Well, what if hard science was on your side? What if there were biologists, geneticists and neuroscientists who say that cooperation and compassion are not only healthy for us but that they are wired into our biology? That cooperation and compassion are integral to our survival as well as our social and physical evolution?
New and emerging science seems to be making a strong argument in favour of social justice. Social science, sometimes referred to as “soft” science, has always told us that how we choose to structure our communities and allocate resources not only impacts social and economic progress but also our individual health. Now, the so-called “hard” sciences are saying the same thing. Furthermore, this new information suggests that much of what we believe about how the world functions is not entirely accurate and a paradigm shift is in order.
In this book I’d like to review some recent scientific discoveries and see what the implications are for building healthy, sustainable communities. This includes activist communities because this new information has implications for how social change advocates can be more effective in their work, including role modeling the alternatives we aspire to create.
More here: http://www.swallowsongs.com/wielding-...
