Bringing Down the Dictatorship

Today is going to be a link-fest - I've not been inspired to write a lot of original material over the weekend, and I don't know if this week will be any different.

I have, however, found a lot of really good stuff. Of it all, this is perhaps the best piece, one that I find myself agreeing with often.

Over at Feministing, someone named Nezua has a lot to say about the revolutionary nature of love.

And she's dead serious.

This excerpt reminds me of an ongoing discussion I'm in participating in at another blog:

There is a false dichotomy available in what I imagine is every person’s mind, one easy to buy into. Sort of a built-in downhill slope, path of least resistance that leads into imaginary constructs…that become traps. We become guided into these divisions, these paradigms, told these are the two options. We become “Pro-this” and “Anti-this,” “Democrat, “Republican,” “Left,” “Right,” etc—and that is the end of it. We fall fast upon one side or another…and there we grab tight. And we do this in so many areas. We hear a word or two or phrase from someone, imagine we have sussed out their angle on an issue, and/or know of their sex/ethnicity/background or party, and summarily slot them into the “opposite” camp.

I've finally learned how to avoid that trap, but recognizing that it existed was difficult. It's something I see a lot of people who are marginally involved in politics doing, or people who have just begun to talk about politics and are looking to get more deeply involved.

Where does this come from? Off the top of my head, the two-party system. Both major parties have an incentive to pretend there's only two positions on an issue, because each party think it will get the support of at least 50% of the people that way.

The reality is that there are never just two positions on an issue. Reality is far more complicated.

A second reason:

As far as much of our modern-day arguments, I have no idea when we decided we were all so simple, so easily bisected. It seems everything from our political party system to each and every political issue is cloven into two warring sides, arguments, paradigms. And if there is only one of two sides to fall on, what more choice does one have? Acting and thinking as if there are only two viable positions to take in any area curtails reasonable conversation, thought, and alliance. It necessitates division.

I would call it divide and conquer - the placing of everyone into two camps limits people to defending their camp or attacking the other camp. And neither camp ever, ever seeks to attempt true social change. As a result, the two-camp system also serves the white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy, since that's the underlying status quo (h/t bell hooks).

Anyway, go read the whole thing. It's involved, but it's good.