Jo’s Reviews > Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World > Status Update

"When our actions begin to integrate with our beliefs, when we are doing some of the work that we know needs to be done, we have less need for the various doubles our culture offers up disguised as a good life."

"This is th pwer of collective organizng: it expands th sense of th possible by expandng th possible 'we'. It persuades participants tht, contrary2what they hav been told, their pain is not th result of a failure of character or insufficient hard wrk. Rather, it is th consequence of economic&social systems precisely designed2produce cruel outcomes, systems tht can b changed only if ppl drop th shame&unite2 shard goal

Citing Keeanga-Yamahtta: "Struggle helps us see each other. It helps us break from our individualism & th particularities of our identities." When individuals organize toward a goal, they discover not only tht they share interests with ppl who might look (& vote) very differently from them but also tht a new sense of power flows from this alliance."

"...time2loosen th grip on various forms of proprietary pain & selfhood & reach toward many different forms of possible connection & kin, toward anyone who shares a desire to confront th forces of annihilation & extermination & their mindsets of purity & perfection... It will not be enough to protect 'our' ppl; we will need2 have th stamina of true solidarity, which defines 'our ppl' as 'all ppl'."

Citing Arielle Angel, EiC of Jewish Currents: "But what is clear is this: We are going to need each other. This means staying attuned to the possibility of a collective power, instead of attached to a proprietary pain."

"...as individuals & groups: we want separation & distinctness, & we want unity & community. Th tension is fruitful & does not need to be resolved. Th problem lies in the fact tht our culture is so biased toward one tendency over th other. It's th scramble4separateness tht is richly rewarded & encouraged in our zero-sum economy, while th urge to act in solidarity & mutual aid with others is discounted & disappeared"

"But th truth is tht nothing of much consequence in th face of rigged systems can b accomplished on our own. Change requires collaboration & coalition, even (especially) uncomfortable coalition. Mariame Kaba, a longtime prison abolitionist [says]...'Everything worthwhile is done with other people'."

"Th shift2confronting& reimagining structures requires something else: a recognition tht this work is not something we can do on our own, as individuals, with a charity donation or an equity & diversity training, or a performance of virtue on soc media...we live in a culture tht tells us to fix massive crises on our own, through self-improvement."

"We can be hard and critical on structures, but soft on people," says the civil rights scholarship john a. powell. That is the opposite of the discourse that dominates today, the one that is so very hard on people and far too soft on structures."

"...'the ppl who are th exploiters of this planet are ppl who put themselves first'...th climate crisis can be understood as a surplus of heat-trapping gases in th atmosphere; it can also be understood as a surplus of self."