We can't delete those we disagree with / A.J. Hendry
The only path forward is together...
What are we trying to achieve?
If you're someone devoted to Justice, someone who is committed to making this world a better place, than this is the question I encourage you to ask yourself.
When we're engaging in activism, planning protests, lobbying government, getting into the nitty gritty of those important conversations, online or elsewhere, what are we trying to achieve?
My assumption is that we want a better world, a more Just, inclusive, loving world. A world where people don't struggle to survive, where all our whānau have access to their basic human rights. A world where healthy food, and stable housing isn't a privilege, but just the way things are. A world where we embrace each other's uniqueness, while also recognizing our shared humanity.
For me, this is a world where we see each other.
Where we acknowledge each other's humanity.
When we refuse to give into the binaries.
Where Love is the Way.
If this is the world we want, than the question remains, how do we get there?
Recently, I've noticed individuals I know to be committed to the cause of Justice and Liberation being criticized for being willing to sit down and attempt to build bridges with others who hold opposing political views. I myself have had my own share of criticism for this.
We seem to be creating this culture where we believe that if we don't agree with one aspect of someone's ideology, opinion, or perspective, than that person should be written off and dissociated from.
Here's the thing though, we won't make progress that way.
Here's the reality, if we look at the way New Zealand votes, and how our major political parties behave and who they respond to, we get a pretty clear indication that the majority of New Zealanders are centrists (leaning either left or right).
Radical social transformation, the sort that many in left leaning, progressive, justice orientated circles long for, won't come from any Government, unless we first change and mobilize ourselves.
But, for many people, the sort of transformation we're talking about would cost something. The letting go of ideas held sacred, the giving up of narratives embedded into our psyche, the reality that the way we do things will need to change.
Many New Zealanders like the idea of progress, but aren't all that ready for it in practice.
So the question is, how do we move people along on the journey. How do we bring people with us?
It is through relationships.
It is through building solidarity, helping people to see one another, through getting beneath the divisive narratives and caricatures, and revealing the people our politics affect.
Positive change won't come through bullying, harassing, and canceling people.
We make change by sitting down with one another, by embracing one another, by reaching across the divide.
That is how we move the conversation along.
The world isn't as simple as good vs evil.
There is so much complexity.
In the past I've written about my own journey from a very conservative political and theological framework, to where I find myself now.
And yet, despite the stereotypes about people with conservative beliefs, I cared about people and had devoted my life to serving others.
And it was in that service to others that my own perspectives were challenged, and my politics were questioned. Because as I met with people, as I built relationships with people outside my social networks, I began to understand how my belief system was sustaining the status quo and impacting on the people that I cared for.
Relationship and proximity brought change.
However, when I was attacked or spoken down to, instead of being willing to examine myself, I felt the need defend myself. I would feel undersiege and my views were entrenched.
We talk about Love a lot here on When Lambs Are Silent, and some times we're rubbished for it due to a weak and watered down understanding of what Love is.
But, when we talk about Love being the Way, we're talking about a Way that is much more difficult than the path of outrage and hate.
To choose to Love those who name themselves our enemies, to choose to embrace those who appear other, to choose to see the humanity of those who have forgotten their own, this is not an easy road.
But, we hold to Love, because everyone matters.
Because if we want true, lasting change, if we care about ending the suffering of our people, and the poisoning of our planet, if we long to scrub out the lines that marginalize, if we hunger for Justice, and are searching for Liberation, we will find both when we are prepared to step over the line.
We hold to Love, because we are only getting out of this mess together
We hold to Love, because we need each other.
We hold to Love, because at the end of the day, it is up to us to resist The Lie that any are other.
A.J. Hendry is a Laidlaw College graduate, and a Youth Development Worker and housing advocate, working in the Youth Housing and Homelessness space. He leads a service supporting rangatahi experiencing homelessness and is also an advocate working collectively to end youth homelessness in Aotearoa. He is also the curator and creator of When Lambs Are Silent.
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