I am travelling on a train from London Liverpool Street to my childhood home in the outskirts of East London. I pass the mega-complex of Stratford City – home of the London 2012 Olympics and, as a result, new casinos, designer stores and plush restaurants insisting on “al fresco” dining options in spite of the unpredictable London weather. Bright lights sell self-expression via the Autumn-clothing collection range, personality in charms, sex-appeal, liberation or health through the multitude of unnecessary goods. Piercing the glow of homogenized consumer culture, I am heartened by the “Social Housing not Social Cleansing” leaflet a passenger carries onto the train: resistance to the gentrification taking place here (inevitable shadows of all future-past international tournaments).
Rolling only half a mile, we are at Maryland station and the New White Fence emerges. New White Fences to make it more difficult for people to throw themselves in front of the fast-commuter trains travelling between London and Essex. New White Fences interspersed with signs stating “whatever you’ve done, whatever life’s done to you, call the Samaritans”. We roll away but the fence re-appears at every stop; Forest Gate, Manor Park, Ilford, Seven Kings, and so on. I get off at Goodmayes, and spot more than five Samaritans placards, one almost every 20 yards.
There is a loneliness epidemic here in the UK. Market “woes” have introduced a flurry of measures linked with growing mental health anxieties and social phobias. Suicides have risen starkly in Britain and the U.S. Those with low incomes, the unemployed, disabled, refugees and other migrants are vilified by the corporate media, and politicians respond by introducing waves of austerity measures that cause the vulnerable to suffer. Mothers forego meals so that their children might eat. Wage stagnation and government reductions in social spending squeeze those with low and middle incomes, while the super-rich get richer.
Those that caused the financial crisis are celebrated in our media, for “creating opportunities”, as billions of dollars slosh around the London Stock Exchange. Bank bonuses sore but inequality rises. Opportunities of what, for whom? Profit incentives leave ripples of destruction and information continues to surface about the extent f fraud and manipulation the largest international banks have engaged in to boost profits by billions, causing local authorities in the U.S. to loose $10 billion and homeowners to pay higher mortgage rates.
Local authorities, the poor and middle class are encouraged to tighten their belts in an age of “austerity”, at the same time that wages stagnate and public services are cut. Company profits rise as corporations avoid making fair tax contributions, and exploit workers some of whom respond by engaging in protest suicides, for example at the Chinese factories where Apple goods are produced. More than two billion people experience hunger every day. Wars that increase our insecurity are fought in our name. Racialized policing spirals, and more than 36 women report that they have been raped every day.
In this quagmire of social decay, we’re encouraged to “think positively”, “be accountable”, “be creative” engage in “entrepreneurship”. For nearly one hundred years, businesses have recruited psychologists to advise them on how to keep us preoccupied with self-gratification through the pursuit of goods and luxury services, rather than engage in social questions that affect us all. Thatcher learned from business and famously said “there is no society”; only self-interested individuals. The market was supposed to replace politics; with its promises of freedom and efficiency. Yet, the environment is degraded, manipulation, exploitation, and depression abound.
On March 2nd, 1967 at a Marietta College talk, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called on those attending never to be at peace with a troubled world. He said: “I never intend to adjust myself to racial segregation and discrimination, I never intend to adjust myself to religious bigotry, I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from many to give luxuries to the few, leave millions of God’s children smothering in an air tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.” Instead, King advocated for all to be “mal-adjusted to these things until the good society is realized.” A call that remains relevant today.
Mal-adjustment to a sick society should be considered “normal” therefore – and not a symbol of shame. How can we accommodate mal-adjustment to a flailing society with attempts to live in peace within a troubled world? I recently asked radical wellness coach, Jardana Peacock, this question. She said: “the violence of injustice is painful and we must also find ways to take action to change that violence, whether that is through writing, participating in demonstrations, creating art for social change, education, organizing or healing – so many actions are needed to eradicate these injustices.” (Coming Alive, Jardana Peacock, ZNet here) Self-help guides convince us we can – on our own – affirm our way into a more peaceful life. Instead, Jardana says:
“We must resist the temptations and dominant messages that tell us to figure it out on our own. We need each other. Healing is not something that happens in isolation. There is such a thing as self-healing, however it is still an active and interactive journey; it takes bold action to create collective liberation. We must live the way we want the world to be, in our relationships to others and with ourselves, in our practices, and in our day-to-day. There is not a fix all cure or a magical pill. It is a process and we must be the process ourselves towards creating the world we want.”
Community revolutions taking place in Venezuela, Greece, Turkey, India, Mexico and beyond are powerful antidotes to the idea that there is no society – and that autonomy (or self-liberation) and community are mutually exclusive. Instead, promoting the idea that there can be no self-liberation without the freedom of all.
In highly atomised Anglo-Saxon cultures, it is imperative to build effective communities of support. Rather than regurgitate the alienation that exists in society. Movements must seek to build community and connection in how we work – in our diverse movements – towards a good society, and in how we live our lives. There is so much more room for healing, empowerment, and celebration in our struggles for a new society. As Emma Goldman said, “If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution”.
While individual acts of self-healing will not heal the world, it is important to make peace with the injustice that exudes from every corner of modern life. Jardana insists, having done this: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Now, take out a piece of paper. Answer this question: What is your greatest super power? Now start leading in the world from there.”