From my latest newsletter 8/12/2021:
I’m hoping this email finds you well and that your summer has been fruitful. I’ve been enjoying an abundance of time outdoors, teaching often in the mornings, leaving afternoons for training, reading and writing. At this moment I am sitting on a favorite bench in Wissahickon Park (a woodsy part of Philadelphia), smiling at passersby and doing a dance with a carpenter bee who has seemed curious and confused by my presence this past week. It has been incredibly beautiful and awesomely lonely. Creating a sense of normalcy in a world that often seems in chaos hasn’t been an easy feat; my mood (as I assume many of yours) often being a mixture of blasé exasperation. I’ve thought a lot about the understandably multiple mental health crises that plague our society and seem poised to increase as long as fears are aroused, narratives ossify and individuality stifled. Some say the pandemic is winding down, others preach that we are only in the eye of the storm. We are repeatedly propagandized about the dangers of those who are not taking the present threat seriously; but then I ask which threat? I have been somewhat surprised how my use of the word propaganda can often upset those around me, but I’ll remind you that “propaganda” can be used with an intention to “help or harm.” I have found myself in conversations that deviate from the disavowing of disinformation to positions that promote limiting information.
The summer before the pandemic a student expressed their opinion that “Yoga teachers shouldn’t make their politics public.” This person had felt alienated at a previous Yoga studio due to conflicting political views and ultimately left that community. As I tend to take views of this sort to heart, I struggled knowing that I had vocalized my support of a particular candidate for President of the USA while this student was actively campaigning for someone I had a vocally negative attitude toward. Prior to this encounter I had attempted to distance my teacher persona from the spiritual connotations of “yoga teacher;” leaning heavily into the “movement teacher” role that sustained my business for the past decade. I believed this would free me from both the problems and constraints of being connected to teaching a spiritual practice. In recent years (particularly as the “meaning crises” seems to intensify) I have acknowledged that one can not, and perhaps should not, uncouple the sacred and the secular. Politics and religion were once “separated” (sort of…) in the USA for the good intention of creating a philosophical meeting place for people of diverse faiths; But as I point to, they where never actually uncoupled. Christianity has dominated US politics for the country’s entire history, while the dividing line between sacred and secular had a superficial alignment with specific parties pandering to their constituents. In recent years I have perceived the secular culture as exhibiting their own version of religiosity, with the most ardently “rational” atheist often exhibiting the most fundamentalist attitudes of any secular sect.
All fundamentalists, seem to have their version of priests: ordained to speak on subjects of importance, while the uninitiated are relegated to follow their lead. Experts in all fields exist, and I find it very useful to listen closely to expertise but I resent the idea of “deferring to experts.” This approach is willing to dismiss human fallibility, corruption and personal interest. It embraces an infantile existence outsourced to “authorities” that allow much of its community/citizenry to suffer once the spotlight isn’t on the “experts” previously deferred to. Even when the experts are of the highest quality, a policy of deference forgets that the area of expertise that any one human can lay claim is dramatically limited by the complexity of an interconnected universe; And in groups of humans who look at singular data on solitary threats, this tendency to ignore other concerns is equally pernicious.
Among my discussions on information and censorship in the past few weeks, I’ve been alarmed to find calls for suppression of information from counter political ideologues. Where these individuals wanted protection was in divergent areas, but they both were eager to advocate for a world I hoped the modern human race was growing past: A world where a minority of powerful individuals would decide which information was suitable for the masses. Fear can lead people to do irrational things. One of my greatest fears right now is censorship, not just the top down kind, or even big tech deciding which information is misinformation, (though I find both of these unacceptable). The censorship I fear most is where we self censor to protect ourselves from the blowback of an unpopular opinion. The fear of blowback (losing my ability to work primarily) allows me to stay quiet and to diminish; To acquiesce to behavior and policy I find horrifying. I’ve been told my fears are irresponsible in regard to whatever threat the other person finds most pressing: pathogenic, economic, domestic terror, etc… When we are not able to discuss our concerns, there is no space for collective problem solving and we are doomed to allow suspect authorities and dubious experts to decide our fate; which feels little different than the devastating systems of societies past.
Silence is not only a tacit agreement to policies one finds unacceptable, it is also a cancer that eats at the relationships that make up a society: We fear each other, growing increasingly distrustful and resentful of the limits our fellow humans place upon our own freedoms and autonomy. Much of the messaging from the pandemic, is a ratcheting up of the very tools the powerful have used to stop groups from building coalitions throughout history: workers unions and alternative political parties being two examples that have been actively suppressed by the powerful. When the pandemic began, citizens were encouraged to report on their neighbors; rather than personally dealing with difficult situations and having challenging conversations that express empathy and share personal concerns we were told to find authorities to get rid of the undesirables. As we have seen understandably frustrated calls to “abolish police” I hope this idea of overthrowing abusive authorities can be coupled with compassionate displays of discourse and negotiation; one can not exist without the other. Name calling and othering is not the path out of the storm. I am the “other” on many issues you may feel strongly about, I hope we can work through this together because if we can’t: we hand over our power to people who seem to thrive on keeping us divided.
🙏❤️