Weezie Yancey-Siegel

The Possibility of Personal and Societal Transformation

A few nights ago, I was sitting in a friends room working on a final project that involved making a collage with pictures representing the current problems in our world such as oppression, poverty, environmental destruction, etc. My friend began talking about how she preferred to remain uninvolved with movements for large, revolutionary change, because she did not believe it could ever be effective. When I asked her to elaborate, she went on to explain that she preferred to help out in small ways that would provide immediate relief to people and things in need, and that she felt too discouraged by the problems of the world to believe that there was anything she could possibly do to put an end to injustice or destitution, and making an effort was not worth it. Her mindset jolted me, yet it was a moment in which I realized the impact that Healing Ourselves and Healing Our Communities has had on my way of thinking. Starting with my reading of The Better World Handbook at the beginning of the course, I have been on a mental journey of contemplating the cycle of hope and cycle of apathy, and how it affects our society in thinking about the problems apparent within it. Many times I myself, like my friend, have felt powerless in effecting change when I take into account factors such the culture of cynicism and

apathy, lack of values in our culture, the cycle of violence and hate, and the uneven distribution of power. One of my past reflections reads, When I look around and see many others plagued by the cycle of apathy, I wonder if there is any point to the effort I am making in creating a positive change, or if I should just give up and take the easy route of cynicism. Yet, as many readings iterated, domination (in this case the dominating force being apathy or cynicism) is a two-part process, instilled by the dominators or oppressors and accepted by the dominated. Without the ability or drive to question ones situation and place in the world, change will never come about. What we need in society is a paradigm shift in many realms of thinking, and one lesson I have gained from this course is that change starts small, with actions by ordinary citizens, and then permeates throughout the rest of society. If we keep hope alive, remain persistent in finding solutions, and act strategically, we can affect great change in society. As Margaret Mead said in one of my favorite quotes, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." What I keep returning to in my own mental reflections is how the title of our course rings so true, and encompasses many of the smaller lessons of the class. The first part, healing ourselves is the first step to creating a paradigm shift for change in our communities and the larger world. There is a need for a peace and healthiness of mind and body in

the individual before one can create sustainable peace and positive difference in the community. If one puts too much energy and time into their work for the community to the point that care for ones self and care for others is thrown off balance, and the efficacy of their work is negatively affected. Although time spent on our self tends to be seen as selfish, I now believe that it is a fundamental component to being selfless, as we need to ensure that our mindset, values, and beliefs are in the right place before helping others. The section of our course spent on mindfulness and expanded consciousness provided a lesson in how to ensure that our mind and body are prepared for creating greater, widespread change. In our modern, technological society we have numbed ourselves to the ability to feel emotion and to listen to what our body and minds are trying to communicate to us. If we are to engage in work that requires a shift in mindset, we must assess our own mindsets and reasons for why we are engaged in our work. As Consciousness in Action explains, those motivated by an oppressive sense of obligation are more likely to burn out, and effectiveness will suffer if self-interest is main motivation. Through meditation and other methods for cultivating awareness, we are able to reach the root of our intentions, and even shift our consciousness so that it aligns with certain values that will make ourselves more content and our work more effective. Through our experiential meditation exercises I have become more attuned to my

own feelings, beliefs, and emotions; many of which I keep suppressed and therefore leads to unhealthy states of being and increased anxiety in relations with other people. I have realized that if meditation becomes more of an accepted, everyday aspect of our society, we can unlock many abilities and ideas that are merely lying under our current levels of consciousness. As Jill Taylor describes in her experience with a stroke in her left hemisphere, we must train ourselves to have the ability to unlock the power of our right brain in order to increase our introspection and mindfulness of the big picture and interconnectedness of life. Relating to this heightened state of consciousness, our reconnection with nature as humans is fundamental to creating a more balanced, healed community. I have grown up viewing the concepts of conservation and environmental justice as passions, interests, or hobbies, a view shared by many members of western society. Our own education system is conducted indoors, viewing nature as a distraction to the learning process. This eventually gears us to see it as something to dominate and conquer. Yet indigenous societies, another key aspect to our educational journey in this course, recognize that protecting the land and biodiversity is a critical part of existence, and this value in itself makes us human. Our experiential exercise in the outback, in which we used our senses to create a deeper awareness of natural occurrences, generated an aha! moment, in which I discovered a world that had always been right in front of my eyes. We as humans

are members of this world, and if we begin to realize and reconnect with this aspect of our identity, we can begin to reverse the destruction that we are inflicting on it and in turn heal our larger global community. The term re-connecting with our roots can extend beyond a renewed sense of community with the natural world to a re-discovery of our own heritage and cultural background. As monocultures of the mind (a term coined by environmental and social activist Vandana Shiva) grows as a force tied to increasing globalization, we are losing touch with value systems and aspects of identity that have been with us for centuries. One of the reasons that indigenous communities, such as those in the Andes, survived the onslaught of colonization and modernity was their strong bonds to their culture, traditions, and land. I myself have taken an interest in finding out more about my heritage so that I can have a stronger sense of identity and values in this everchanging world. As a process of healing for those in the Western world, discovering this missing piece of identity which was lost in the shuffle of modernity and immigration is crucial to generating a new set of values emphasizing the maintenance of culture, land, and community. Our gene of compassion which I believe is inherent in all of us as humans can be nurtured through this bond with something that goes beyond our lives in the present. Speaking of a focus on the present, another lesson and idea I have found interesting in the cycle of hope versus apathy is the focus on the

future and the unleashing of the imagination, written about by Robin Kelley in Freedom Dreams. Great changemakers in the past such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Thoreau, have not been limited by the problems that they see around them, they instead keep a steady eye on the future and generate new, revolutionary ideas of what could be. My friend who I mentioned earlier (and my former mindset) looks around and sees everything that is wrong with society, yet if we look at our assets and use our time, energy, skills, and resources towards making change for future generations, it is worth a shot. You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result, as Gandhi said. Changemakers of the past, such as women and civil rights leaders may never have seen the result of their actions, but if we look around and realize that many values apparent in our society today didnt exist in their time, we will realize that it was worth the struggle, and change did eventually come about. Sixty years ago, if someone had not thought that black and whites could eventually attend school together, we would still be living that reality. This is why it is important to use the imagination and look ahead. However, this focus on the future in not to say that we the present is not important as well. Ideas for Action introduced me to the idea of Prefigurative Politics, in which we should act now as if we were living in the better world we are fighting for. I just began to learn about Howard Zinn, an American intellectual who recently died earlier this year. One of

his quotes relates to this theory, if we do act, in however small a way, we dont have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. By healing our own individual mindsets, whether it be in cultivating awareness, reconnecting with our roots, or breaking out of the cycle of cynicism, we are taking one step in the transformation of the society, which is in simple terms just a larger entity made up of individuals who have the ability to change themselves. If we continue to live under the belief that we have no power, we are simply accepting the position of dominance that being placed on us by a small group of decision-makers (whether thy be politicians, family members, school administrators, etc). Before we can begin to heal ourselves and our communities, it is important to know what to heal and how to heal. The traditional forms of healing and social change need to be questioned and re-created. The mainstream idea of philanthropy or social justice has many systems of dominance and unfairness built into it and perpetuated by it. For example, ego is manifested by individuals working in organizations and may not be addressed because it is considered to be doing good work and is therefore inherently good. These inequalities, discussed in depth by Leela Fernandes in Spiritualizing Feminist Practice are apparent both within the organization itself and in the work it is doing

with the greater community. Many times, we think that simply giving handouts to people in need is the right thing to do, yet it leads to dependence on the entity that is giving the resources out, and is also a band-aid solution to the larger problem. Instead, we must work with the community, leave our ego behind and decolonize our minds, to ensure that we are not perpetuating the systems we are fighting against. My experience in my internship this semester has taught me a lot about working with a community rather than for a community, even when it may seem more difficult than just doing things in the way you think is best. A sustainable, reciprocal, asset-based method for community development that targets the root of the problem (or the whole system of injustice for that matter) is a better alternative because what we may see as beneficial for another community is tainted with our own conceptions of the truth and what should be. Our society and education system uses a pedagogy based on Cartesian-Newtonian methods for finding truth, and other knowledge systems such as Indigenous Knowledge are seen as backward. Yet many aspects of Indigenous Knowledge, such as indigenous plants for healing, are valuable and in many respects use a more sustainable way of healing as well as progress. It has been eye-opening for me to read and talk with guest speakers about the entirely different way of seeing and learning about the world that comes along with Indigenous Knowledge. For example,

the indigenous mindset has a more interconnected and holistic way of seeing the world, whereas we in modern society tend to separate and compartmentalize things. Indigenous communities use their ways of knowing to generate harmony within their communities, maintaining balance in many areas of their society. If we are to shift the paradigm of values in Western society towards a more just world, I believe that it is important to incorporate aspects of IK in the transformation. One of the first steps in transforming our society is to focus on transforming our system of education The indigenous concept of education, discussed in Cultural Affirmation and Affirmation of Cultural Diversity in the Andes, emphasizes the cultivation of wisdom and values, as well as a reciprocal relationship between the learner and what is being learned. In order to help himself and the community thrive, a farmer listens to signs transmitted from the natural world in order to know how to best sow his crop. The potato raises the farmer as much as the farmer raises the potato. This attunement between beings is much more the goal in indigenous knowledge, rather than trying to know or dominate something. It awes me that the indigenous community is able to apply these modes of understanding the world (which I am still struggling to grasp) in order to live and survive in the modern world as well. A member of the indigenous community who happens to also be a mechanic in the modern world will apply his ways of knowing and

learning to how he relates to machinery. It is still difficult for me to fully wrap my head around these concepts and understand this way of thinking, as I have been programmed to go about things in an entirely different way. Our class itself is somewhat of a paradox, in which we used traditional western methods of learning and gaining knowledge typical within the academic world to examine knowledge systems that are quite the opposite of our methods. Another principle of education in IK is that the method emphasizes the passing on of values from the older generation to the younger generation. In passing on knowledge connected to morality instead of merely knowledge connected to economic utility, Western society could have the potential to transform into a more mindful, healed community. In learning about the Chagga people in What is Indigenous Knowledge? Voices from the Academy, it was fascinating to know that among land, cattle and water, proverbs were seen just as important in society. The challenge is cultivating this sense of spirituality within our own society, which, although filled with many religious followers, tends to separate belief and value from everyday actions and ways of life. Both Gandhi and Martin Luther King discuss the power of tying belief and faith to the movement for positive change in society. If we are to turn over a new leaf and begin on a new track of societal reform, we have to change the publics views, not just political or economic systems. This is the difference needed for an everlasting and

sustainable change. In Spiritualizing Feminist Politics, Leela Fernandes says, there is an essence of self that transcends differences and divisions and accessing this self so that it permeates throughout the rest of the community or society is a revolutionary idea. Needed for this change in mindset is the spiritualization of society. Our current society is filled with spiritual orphans, in the words of Willa Mankiller. Values and morals are not demonstrated to us by those who have power or people we see in the media. Therefore, we must build society with a moral compass to guide evolution and progress, and then nurture the growth of these values. This connects to many other topics discussed, including meditation, nature, and seeing life holistically. But from my own selftransformation through meditation, reading, discussion, and reflection, I really do believe that there are universal values of compassion and understanding that if nurtured correctly, could lead to a more just and equal world. My family has a long history of non-violence, peace, and justice work. Although I grew up being taught to turn the other cheek and treat others the way I would like to be treated, the idea of making large changes in the roots of society through nonviolence has always seemed very abstract. From my readings of Gandhi, MLK, and nonviolent movements I am beginning to understand the process, guidelines, and outcomes of nonviolent resistance and social change. The power of truth and justice is strong enough to overcome some of the toughest

oppressors in society. Nonviolence can be very effective in creating lasting change, rather than change that has been won through methods that will only create more hate and violence. Yet, I am still conscious of the fact that it is easy to believe in and follow the ideology of nonviolence when living in a safe, easy environment such as Claremont, California. If confronted with violence and hate, I may act in a way that does not adhere to my very own beliefs in nonviolence. Ensuring that I stick with these beliefs when faced with a difficult situation will be the greatest test. In order to strengthen my adherence to this belief, I hope to follow Martin Luther Kings words, Nonviolent action is born out of nonviolent living. In order to help my community in its path towards nonviolence, I myself as an individual need to restrain from violence to myself or to others around me. I hope to continue with my study of the methods and concept of nonviolence so that I can be an effective contributor to my local and global community. Through healing ourselves with changes in thought, feeling, mind, and action, we will be equipped with the tools to heal our wider communities. Yet it is a reciprocal, rotating relationship, in that with healthier communities, individuals will continue to be healed. I hope that the power of hope reveal itself to those who have surrendered to an apathetic state. I know of its effectiveness, as I myself have experienced a new outlook on the possibility of change, and know that it starts small and from the bottom up. I look forward to my continued

spiritual, academic, and personal journey that was catalyzed by many things I have learned this semester.