For some time, I’ve been feeling adrift. I hoped focusing on the concept of “unflinching” might help me express my view of our current, multiple crises, which are ever deepening.  An accurate assessment is crucial to guide our work on solutions.

So, sorry for the repetitions and meanderings. Writing is a way I try to learn and process things.

What also frustrates me is how crucial I believe spirituality is in seeing the world as it was and is, and to guide us into the future. But to not have the language to convey that.

Since the European colonists arrived, the land was overrun by White settlers, who enforced the idea of individual  land ownership.  Which denied native people access to the land they had been living on.

The settlers brought the mindset and tools of colonialism with them to this country. The British Empire was in the midst of establishing colonies around the world at that time.

Colonial capitalism refers to the diverse and globally interconnected property structures, exchange systems, and labor regimes that constituted Britain’s imperial economy.

The capitalist economic system commodified everything involved in the production of goods and services, including human labor. The institution of slavery was the most horrible sign of that. But Black, Indigenous, other people of color, women, and White people of the lower economic class were all taken advantage of to provide cheap labor.

Natural resources were commodified as well. Fossil fuels, minerals, forests, water, everything. Mother Earth was raped for profit.

Colonialism is extremely violent. Armed conflict is used to obtain land and resources from other countries. The most terrible example today is the obliteration of Gaza and its people.

We are, now, in times of rapidly evolving, deepening environmental, social, political, and economic chaos. I do not believe we can begin to repair any of this until we acknowledge how we arrived here.

I don’t believe we can address injustice by making incremental adjustments to systems that are rooted in injustice. This is what the Spirit is telling me, too.

If we believe that, it follows that we must reject colonialism and capitalism. My experiences are that Mutual Aid is one framework that can do that.

If we believe that, our vision looks like Indigenous ways that existed here for thousands of years before the colonists. Who treated each other and Mother Earth with respect. I know this might look naïve, but we must decolonize ourselves. It is the colonial/Empire mindset that brought us to this point in this country. It’s that mindset that must be changed.