Diversions
One of my favorite things in this world is the creative power of humans to flout tyranny and control.
The guy denied a permit to build a shade structure for his horses who instead makes a giant table and chairs which are large enough for horses to stand underneath.
The Japanese bus drivers who went on strike by driving their routes and simply not taking fares from passengers.
Bartleby the Scrivener, who tells his boss "I would prefer not to" each time he's asked to do something until the boss goes crazy.
Tyranny thrives because it convinces humans that there are two options—obey or rebel. Rebellion carries consequences for those under tyranny, but tyranny is durable to rebellion in ways delicate ecosystems are not.
When someone comes to me with a tyranny problem, it gets my creative juices flowing.
A friend of mine who works for a theater company told me about how "they" wouldn't let actors and production teams take breaks or flexible time off.
The first question I asked was "are 'they' in the room most days?"
No. "They" are not there.
My idea, given this, is that the production team simply break the rules without resisting them.
Do whatever you want and do not tell the tyrant, who is not even present in the room, that their tyranny is unfair or inconvenient. Produce the show in a way that aligns with the value system of those actually producing the show.
When tyranny has no hold, we simply do what is best for the parts and the whole.
Tyranny has no way to deal with a counterfeit yes or a refusal to say no. It has many, many ways to deal with every no, and all of them reinforce fear of the tyrant.
Tyranny remains because people believe in it enough to obey it or to resist it, but the third thing, which tyranny can discourage and punish but never prevent, is playfulness.
Tyranny must be upheld by the individuals in the here and now.
This is why I am teaching the Village Principles, because they do not obey or resist tyranny, but show us the way to free ourselves and those in our stewardship from systems of control whether those systems are present or not.
The Village Principles are principles of relationship which garner the opt-in of everyone who is right here right now, empowering us to transcend external control forces while retaining the most important resource of all—relationship.
Controlling a system of control is a control system. Energy into a control system goes to the most powerful system of control, like a tie goes to the dealer. This is why reactivism tends to make problems worse rather than better.
When activism is based in resistance, when it is a reaction to something "wrong" in the world, it endorses the tyranny it claims to oppose, simply by opposing it. This is how the war on drugs worked to increase drug use. This is why we got the presidential result we did in 2016. This is why race relations in the US remain an open, festering wound.
True activism directs resources, primarily attention, toward a positive (aka real, aka existent) outcome which does not in any way acknowledge or honor tyranny. Advocacy is FOR something—if advocacy appears to be against something, it is for the thing it is against.
Resistance is a preservative force. Resistance builds and stores potential energy, like the resistance on a bowstring builds and stores the energy required to launch an arrow.
Resistance is what keeps things where they are, like me sitting on this chair.
Things without resistance are slippery, like walking on ice.
Things negotiating resistance between them are in relationship.
If we want to exit tyranny, we must end the *relationship* aka end altogether the negotiation of the resistance between my desires and tyranny's control.
At the first sign of a power struggle, I start looking for play.
When there is a tug of war over this or that, what can I notice which is neither this nor that?
How can I creatively highlight what is neither this nor that?
Rather than being a yes or a no to a force attempting control, how can I be an overwhelming yes to something outside of the control?
Play diffuses energy.
Play is the diversion of energy from a system of control which disempowers the control system without attacking it. Plus, it's fun in the moment.
The Village Principles Masterclass is TODAY at 10am PST. Whose favorite minute is the last minute?
