It was only last year, in Danni, my first real climate occupation (in Hambi I was only as eviction tourist to annoy CO2ps) where I realized that the devil is in the very logic our capitalist society is built on – Babylon, how I like to call it, is built on dominance, on concurrence, on competition. In one way or the other, there’s always othering, there’s always a circle somewhere. That’s the place where stuff is hidden and everything is privatized. I just recently learned that the word “private” comes from lat. privare – (to) deprive. Danni was the third community in my life that shared a different philosophy. Where cooperation, solidarity and encouragement were the key logic: in a youth choir project called TEN SING, I first had this feeling. Looking back, there were lots of hierarchies, though, but well hidden, I suppose. The second one was a Rainbow Gathering I attended in the northern-swedish part of Sàpmi. This was my first touch with a societal concept truly based on solidarity, put into practice. I needed one more attempt, the chance to also reflect the damage society made on me, to understand that it’s a matter of inherent logic. It’s arguably the most basic law of interhuman interaction; the mode of interaction is directly connected to where I see my opponent on the friend–enemy spectrum. In most cases my brain just background-checks this parameter for sufficiency, because intuition is again a pretty good driver, but I guess I can not put enough value on the logic of the way I’m thinking about “other people” – which is obviously extremely biased by our surrounding hegemony.
So I learned to understand the concept of “solidarity”. I understood it before, cognitively, but I experienced it enough to sense it. I needed the practical experience of what happens if all of these competing factors are removed and everything is shared, because suddenly it’s not myself anymore I’m spinning around. I believe that’s also what the concept of ubuntu is basically trying to grasp. It is an basic alchemical truth that theory is worthless if it’s not connected to experiment. Experiment means experience. Experiencing solidarity in purity is bliss. I’m certain that everybody who made the experience agrees. The crazy thing is that the hegemony is favors solidarity only as long as it’s for my personal benefit. True, unconditional solidarity in Babylon is only seen when individuals follow their gut, not standard-protocol.
Okay, it took me a while for this lesson, it’s also not the most surprising one, but I guess it’s helpful, if not necessary – at least for me – to have it that clear: Solidarity beats concurrence in the “how I want to live” competition – so it’s probably both, right? Solidarity with a healthy amount of consensual competition? Sounds fair, I guess.
It’s always good to know where one wants to be. How to get there is another topic, though. In this specific case, rewriting the logic of my interhuman connection from concurrence to solidarity, as well as making it a collective thing, needs a solid plan. The plan I met in the climate occupations, is impressively simple: it’s called “awareness” and – as I understand it – basically asks me to compassionately listen to other people, especially when it comes to needs and impairments. In other words: let’s try to be nice. I think, the basic trick to master the “awareness” class (CN: Babylonian logic) is to think it radically. You tell me how you want me to treat you, I’ll do my very best to just do so. Because that’s maybe what we should focus on as a whole – the way we treat each other. By taking this seriously and really listen to what people want to tell me, I learned also to understand (a.k.a. to empathize with) structural oppressions – as in: I understood the part that makes them structural.
In Danni, we developed the awareness concept a bit further, of course based on the situation at place, and realized a specialized awareness concept, the ADAPTA concept. ADAPTA stands for Anti-Dominant/Anti-Patriarchal Triggersensitive Awareness. The basic idea is: We intend to build a safer space for individuals who are triggered by dominant and/or (especially, but not exclusively) patriarchal behavior, be it because they’re more sensitive than others or have a certain history with (patriarchal) dominance. Looking back, there are only two reasons to chose patriarchal dominance over classist, racist, ableist or any other form of fascistoid dominance: first is, based on the composition of the people in Danni, sexist behavior was probably the most prevalent form of structural dominance (although I really have to stress how aware, conscious and inclusive especially in terms of gender identity the Danni structures were, but the density of white academics was simply quite high), and second, the acronym ADAPTA is just so beautiful. And beauty is definitely a prerequisite for a good revolution. However, there is no beauty in the interdependence of structural power imbalances. So let’s please not forget the other dimensions where structural dominance exists.
In any case, I feel like I have no alternative than to oppose the very logic of dominance and insist in solidarity as the fundamental guide of social interaction. And that is basically how I interpret antifascism. As a radical opposition against fascistoid logic, which I – in my current position – can not differentiate from dominant logic. Just don’t be a jerk.