@frostedechoes Hey, sorry I missed this post! I'm so glad you're finding GW helpful.
@frostedechoes @ablaze I have to say I have some major issues with Mindfulness Politics. Many of today's political conflicts are not "little territorial battles". They are part of the long history of fighting for justice. They call for righteous anger.
@ablaze Some more thoughts on how I read your piece and why I find small-scale identity fights to be important too.
@Bruce But where are you getting the idea that by "small-scale identities" I mean people of color or women? I'm not. I'm saying, "On one end, there are threats to the fabric of the world, and on the other, there are people fighting tooth and nail to change the name of a park."
@Bruce Careful of extrapolating too far from political activity "[you] see." There's surely lots of energy in activist movements working on issues you name, but there are a lot more realities out there. [disclosure of my angles: I do some work on national campaigns in Georgia.]
@ablaze That is a good point: my view of politics is definitely shaped by the world I inhabit. But I'm still wary of judging where issues are on the scale. The mainstream has often shunted the concerns of the margins to the side by calling them small.
What do you think of the "Free The Nipple" movement, for example?
@Bruce Truthfully I was not aware of it as a movement, but I'm certainly in favor of it as an objective in the larger movement of dismantling the culture of objectifying and shaming female bodies. (Lark is a friend of mine, incidentally, so it's awesome that you're citing her.)
@ablaze Hey, I have a bit of an odd question: Any chance you could put me in touch with Rachel? I passed her music along to the Artistic Director of National Sawdust and Paola would like to talk about booking her, but hasn't been able to get in touch.