The Colonialist Shadow

Many people realize that there is something wrong with our society, whether they are concerned with social injustice or ecological destruction, but many forces prevent us from making change.  If everyone woke up tomorrow and decided to do whatever it took to change this system, it would change.  Unfortunately, many of us are also plugged into the system in a way that makes challenging it uncomfortable and risky, so we find safe ways to express our discontent without posing an actual threat to the status quo.

The colonialist shadow is a feature of the civilized psyche in which we unconsciously perpetuate a system that we consciously disavow.  Horizontal aggression, hypocrisy, political withdrawal, and spiritual escapism are all features of the colonialist shadow at work in our activist circles.  Recognizing this pattern and doing our personal work to understand and address it directly can help prevent it from sabotaging our efforts. 

It is important to recognize that if change was easy, we would have done it already.  Exposing our individual and collective blocks to recovery may be a critical part of our success.  To launch a cultural change on a mass scale, we will need to unpack and dissolve these obstacles publicly so that the power of a determined movement can be unleashed.