We Live in a Society

Circling back around to a topic I think about often, "community builder/building" is such an ambitious label.


I think it's super ok to not identify with that label or to reject it. I know what role I play in society. It's a personal role, where others potentially see themselves in me and then have the realization about themself. My friend Schreeck and I called this the Showmanic Clown but it's also a basic artist role. I've never held anything but the belief that that role has sacred value, beyond any existing economic system. Nothing to prove with it. If folx are signed on, great, if not, I get it too. We could be living in caves, the robocops could be kicking me, and it wouldn't make a difference. When you play this role, it's more like community congeals to witness themselves in you on occasion, and then goes home to think about it for a while. It may or may not change anyone's life and you may or may not ever have an impression of whether or not it was impactful. But you exist for a purpose, nonetheless.


I also feel that if you're white-aligned, "community builder" is more often than not probably an inappropriate title for you, unless you are doing work to actively divest from supremacy devices. To a degree I think anyone across the racial/ethnic & gender board can pitfall if they're not actively looking at the work but I can only primarily speak to white-appearingness.
 
Sometimes we can pull on our ethnic and/or PoC sides for tips on how to strengthen community. But sometimes the ancestors instruct us on how to navigate the bullshit. Sometimes they would've wanted us to assimilate and we need to push back. Who doesn't want to sleep a little more safely at night? Sometimes we're just too tired to fight so we float with the current for a bit.


Community and how to build it are confusing AF. Some days you wake up and don't know how to make any of it make sense, in an increasingly lonely world, filled with fake, stigmatizing pathology and excuses. Sometimes we just gotta press eject, or take a lot of space away.


So if you have any takeaways from this: a robot will never take away your purpose in life unless you didn't have much of one to begin with, your value has nothing to do with money paid for what you bring anywhere (though it'd be nice if that always correlated), and community building isn't for everyone. We are not all building-masons. 

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