If black lives mattered, then all lives would matter. If women’s lives mattered, then all lives would matter. If Jewish lives mattered, then all lives would matter. Black in the racialised sense of “not white”. Such that mattering would mean the abandonment of white supremacy.
Women in the gendered sense of “not men”. Such that mattering would mean the abandonment of patriarchy.
Jewish in a sense I don’t understand, but there it is (and I’m working on it). Antisemitism runs deep.
And if life itself mattered, such that human dominion would be abandoned, it would be the end of the world as we know it.
As we know it means governed by dissociation and domination – which is to say, divided and ruled.
To the extent that we are stupid about our own mortality, we are stupid about life entirely.
To the extent that we are stupid about our interrelatedness, which is the basis of ethics, we are stupid about the law and politics entirely.
To the extent that we live in fear of our own death, we are entirely stupid about love.
The political economy of Westernism, which esteems its self in terms of separation, hierarchy and dominion over the earth, runs on blood-and-soil nationalisms and us-and-them identities. It runs on desecration and humiliation. It generates extreme wealth, which is to say, obscene poverty and impoverishment. At any cost. At all costs.
It seems that this order may come to an end. With bangs and whimpers. Which means destruction and life. Life after all. The signs are around us, for anyone to see. May we fall to our knees in grief and wonder. And rise in purpose.
Right now, consciousness (class or human, take your pick) means knowing which side you are on. And who is with you. And what matters.