Resilience

One typical exhortation from a conservative political mentality is to both acknowledge the reality of social ills, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, while at the same time suggesting that the best way to deal with these social ills is not through government investment in institutions that promote cultural reform (e.g. affirmative action at universities, funding indigenous media, etc.), but rather through a promotion of individual resilience.

More cynically and simply put,
"Life sucks. Get over it."

On the other end, a more "progressive" or left wing response tends to push for cultural and social reform, rather than individual heroism, in the response to and eradication of these very social ills (e.g. racism/sexism/homophobia). One unfortunate tendency of this, however, may be that, in order to maintain this very sort of response as it is chained to the whims of American-hegemony and global capitalism, is to unwittingly search for the very ills that we stand against, so that we can galvanise, legislate, or fund the appropriate response.

In both these extremes, I present my cynicism as a reaction to the excesses and blindspots of either approach. To encourage only resilience without social reform is to subtly bully those who are more vulnerable, who are not "tough enough" to weather the storms of everyday life; not to mention that this can well give full license to the bullies, who are never held accountable by this politik. At the same time, to encourage only social reform without an occasional nudge toward a "realpolitik" of encouraging one another to recognise our very strengths, our resilient tendencies, may be to unwittingly mire those of us who are oppressed in the very terms of our victimisation. That we may never "get over it" until someone else, or something external to us changes.

That is a lot of power to give away.

As a middle path, I am interested in the model of social groups and peer support in which both political forms are explored, where people can role model resilience for one another, while collectively agitating for political and social change. Where, aside from role modeling, this agitation for political change is itself an expression of that very resilience, because it is contingent on a scaffolding of collective support and coalition, not only on individual heroism.