Category: Social-emotional dynamics

Social-emotional dynamicsLeave a comment

A Framework for Integrity (and Beyond)

ianjolie

Honesty is easy when it’s convenient. That’s when your honesty is an act. Integrity — that is, honesty as a core identity — means fully accepting the consequences of one’s honesty. Always, no choice or conscious thought put into it. What do I mean by that? To be honest just *sometimes* is a “doing” that takes from people, since there’s a conscious choice whether to be honest based externally on a context. Honesty as a “doing” requires that context, and so necessarily the honesty acts as a way to seek an outcome from others. That’s manipulation. In contrast, to be … Continue reading A Framework for Integrity (and Beyond)

Social-emotional dynamicsLeave a comment

Self-Love Manifests to Behavior

ianjolie

A quick thought about inner confidence and self-esteem. There’s a lot of advice out there that tries to regulate and transform your inner world/emotions. Write daily affirmations. Meditate. Have gratitude, celebrate small wins throughout the day (however small). I think having a baseline level of self-acceptance is good, but my experience is that it’s super limited. If you stare at a mirror and tell yourself that you’re awesome, it’ll be true to an extent, but there is no real, material basis to point to. Over the last couple of months in particular I’ve been setting hard but achievable goals for … Continue reading Self-Love Manifests to Behavior

Social-emotional dynamics, TechniqueLeave a comment

A Theory for Organizing Conversations: Combining Authenticity with Relatability

ianjolie

In much of the grassroots radical Left, there is heavy focus on authenticity: telling your story, getting in touch with your emotions (complex and deep), and telling truth to power. The idea is that, sure, if you go to City Council and scream at them during public comment about how they are white supremacist settler-colonial supporters of the patriarchy, the members of City Council may not understand what you’re saying, but what you’re saying is True; it’s not that reform through the “proper channels” can get you the demands you want anyway, and so really what you’re doing is trying … Continue reading A Theory for Organizing Conversations: Combining Authenticity with Relatability

Mental health, Mindsets, Social-emotional dynamicsLeave a comment

In Defense of Positivity Culture

ianjolie

As the sort of meta-emotional-cultutal — idk, how to say — “vibe” sinks lower and lower, more and more people are turning to self-help, spirituality, and New Age ideas to cope. And with the rise of self-help, spirituality, New Age thought, etc., so too has risen criticism from the Left (and others), particularly around “positivity culture,” which is the idea that you should think positive and that by doing so you can improve your life through “the law of attraction” (similar internal thoughts/energies attract other similar thoughts/energies) and “manifestation” (internal thoughts can become your external reality). The criticisms of positivity … Continue reading In Defense of Positivity Culture

Mindsets, Philosophy, Social-emotional dynamicsLeave a comment

Union Organizing toward a Meditative Energy

ianjolie

I touched on this topic in a post a year ago, where I explored in detail how inner beliefs (such as self-love) affected one’s subtle behavior, and how putting effort into changing one’s inner beliefs could, thereby, actually create a massive improvement to one’s organizing results. I’m quite proud of the theory I proposed in that post. A year later, though, I want to expand on that topic, but this time, to go even further: to explain how the best union organizing requires a deep investigation of one’s emotional being and how complete presence (i.e., existing without much thought or … Continue reading Union Organizing toward a Meditative Energy

Mental health, Mindsets, Philosophy, Social-emotional dynamicsLeave a comment

An Exposition on Mental Health & Organizing, Part 2: The Subtle Ways Your Soul Makes a Profound Impact

ianjolie

A month ago, I posted this:  An Exposition on Organizing & Mental Health, Part 1: My Story. There’s a lot, a lot, a lot of stuff in that post to unpack, but for now, I want to expand on this central idea: if you are using Left organizing to bolster your sense of self-worth, you will necessarily create a co-dependent relationship with Left organizing, since there will always be more campaigns to win, it will never be enough, and you will always still feel perpetually incomplete (as I’d found through many years of personal experience). Instead, if you learn to … Continue reading An Exposition on Mental Health & Organizing, Part 2: The Subtle Ways Your Soul Makes a Profound Impact

Personal, Social-emotional dynamicsLeave a comment

In Support of Friendships with Racists

ianjolie

I had a great, deep, fun conversation with a racist/misogynist. What’s more? I want to see him again and become better friends. Let me tell you about it. Last Friday, I wanted to decompress after a long work week with lots of late nights. So I went to Corner Pocket Sports Bar, which is quickly becoming my favorite bar. There’s a lot of activities to do there (pool, darts, games), they play my favorite music, the beer and food selection is great, and it’s only 5 miles away from my apartment. I’m finding I always have so much fun. Anyway, … Continue reading In Support of Friendships with Racists

Social-emotional dynamics, The LeftLeave a comment

Seeing the “Left” as a Social Group

ianjolie

For the most part, many Leftists — including myself — spend a lot of time self-monitoring, and thinking about, how we come off to other Leftists; we don’t spend nearly as much time thinking about how we come off to most normal people. I use “normal” advisedly. Leftists are, let’s face it, a social group. Like most social groups: we are a small minority, we share a general set of values, and we judge/shame other (sometimes competing) social groups for having different values. In this way, much like any social group, Leftists become an insular bubble — that’s why we … Continue reading Seeing the “Left” as a Social Group

Praxis, Social-emotional dynamicsLeave a comment

Build a Base First, Build Coalitions Later

ianjolie

Many Leftists (and even liberal nonprofits) focus more on coalition building than organizing new people into the movement. I think this is un-strategic (it doesn’t change the landscape by getting those who are already on board to be on board), but a lot of the time the impulse to build coalitions may come from that it seems easier – you have all these people who supposedly care about The Issue, you just need to get them in a room, or at an event/action, etc. Coalition building is not easier. Coalition building is actually harder. When you’re organizing new people into … Continue reading Build a Base First, Build Coalitions Later

Mindsets, Philosophy, Praxis, Short, Social-emotional dynamics, Technique, The LeftLeave a comment

Golden Rule of Left Organizing

ianjolie

General rule of thumb: the more Left organizers want to talk with me about anything but politics and organizing, the more I trust them. They care about me as a person; naturally, that makes me care about them too. Yes, rapport building is important for organizing. But importantly, rapport building not for the sake of organizing. That’s the wrong frame. You give a shit about other people, period. Also then organic relationships help politics and organizing. The world is too dark for anything else. Continue reading Golden Rule of Left Organizing