A World Centered in Justice

When we view life through a social justice lens, what changes? What would life be like?

I have been an activist for many decades. In the 80’s as a feminist activist, I had a lot of rage. I could not understand why the systemic patriarchal oppression continued to exist. I still have a rage about that at times. This is wrong. We feel helpless to change systemic oppression. One way to have some influence is to get together with other people. We can also work with it internally.

The fatigue of fighting against

We were fighting against the patriarchy, against systemic oppression, sexism, violence against women and children.

We can get discouraged. There are all of these things that need to change. Some has certainly changed. Some has not, at least not as much as we would like. Not as much as we need to have a more just world. Systemic injustice is so intractable. Racism, sexism, patriarchy, capitalism, financial inequity. This is the difficult side, and here is the other question.

What kind of a world do we want to live in?

Why are you inspired to work for social justice? What does it feel like in your heart?

Waking up to privilege and oppression and the environment brings a lot of passion for change and also a lot of overwhelm. Why is this so bad? How did it get this way? What can we do?

The inquiry I offer here sets that aside for a while and moves toward visualization. What would our world be if it was centered in justice?

Be as specific as you can. Feel it in your body. Stop or take a break if it gets too intense.

Economic justice

If there was economic justice, what would your life be like? And what would life be for other people as well?

A lot of people, especially in the last few years, are working more than one job or working long hours just to try and put groceries on the table and make the rent. That might be your situation or you might have a bit more room. We care and a lot of us are angry at the concentration of wealth in the 1%.

Working that hard and feeling pressure and stress has a huge impact on our physical, mental and emotional health, and on our relationships. There is enough wealth in the world now for people to work a few days a week if we had economic justice.

What would your life be like if you were working two or three days a week at a job you enjoyed?

Some people would do more community service, volunteering because we would have more time. We would feel more connected. What would you use that time for?

In Ireland, they offer a guaranteed income to artists. What would it be like to have guaranteed income so you could create? Even if you do not consider yourself an artist, maybe you would explore music more, or paint, or dance.

If thoughts come into your mind about lazy people, let that go. It is cultural conditioning and it is not accurate. Most people, if we have physical, mental, and emotional health, want to work and contribute to something meaningful.

Notice your body and your breath. If you were not worried about money, didn’t have to work all the time, and were not stressed, what would open up for you?

People would not be so much in a survival response.

With economic injustice, people at lower and middle income levels scramble for the scraps. But the problem is the concentration of wealth at the top. Trickle-down economics never works. It just concentrates wealth at the top.

If we had enough for shelter and food and some fun, and we had leisure, what would that be like? This is possible. We have the resources for it. Notice if your body softens as your mind explores what you would do with your time?

Racial justice

If there was no racism, if people were not judged by the color of their skin, what would change for you and for people who are different than you?

I am a white settler. Without racism, I would feel the satisfaction of knowing there was equality. That people of color are not systemically oppressed and are not targets for violence. There would not be white guilt. There would not be guilt around colonization, Indigenous people, and slavery. A lot of this has to do with money and power.

When I am friends with somebody, I would be able to just be friends with someone and they could just be friends with me. Racism, the impact of racism, the damage of racism, the microaggressions, the conditioning - none of that would be here.

Take some time with this. A world without systemic injustice around race. Let yourself feel it in your body.

You might bring up a memory of a time when you felt awkward around something. A person of color was being harmed and you spoke up, or you did not speak up. So many of our social interactions are influenced by the color of our skin. The amount of privilege and our economic situation is highly influenced by race and intergenerational trauma due to racism..

Working with a variety of topics around justice, one thing we notice is the intersectionality of different forms of injustice. Racism, environment, how much we work, economic injustice, are all linked. They are all part of a system. Patriarchy, capitalism, domination.

Without racism, neighborhoods would be more integrated. There would be less segregation and more trust. Without all the cultural conditioning we carry, we would not have so much fear or anger toward people based on race.

Gender justice

If we talk about sexism and systemic oppression by gender, one of the things that comes to mind right away is violence against women and children. Another is economic oppression.

In the 80s, the statistic was that women earned 60% of what men make. That changed to about 70% by 1990, then progressed slowed. This gap means we are not as powerful and we do not have as many choices.

It would be interesting to see, if we all had enough economic security, would we stay in relationships that are abusive? That is not the only reason people stay, but it is one of them.

Whether you are male, female, non-binary, trans, however you identify, what would the world be like, and what would your world be like, if there was no oppression based on gender?

For someone in a woman's body, part of it is this. I would not be so scared. There is a fear that all women have. We do not know which men in particular are going to be violent toward us, but we know that some of them are, and are capable of that, and do that. We know that many women are beaten and killed.

If you are in a male body, you have a different experience. There are a lot of things you never have to think about. You walk to your car at night and most men do not give it a second thought. All women do.

What would it be like to live in a world where you were not scared of gendered violence? Just saying that, I can feel the activation in my body. Take a few breaths. Big inhale, release it out of your body, move around a little.

There are nuances to this. It is not all men and it is not only men. Overall though, that is the pattern we are living with.

If I was not scared to speak up, to be who I wanted to be, if I was not scared to walk outside at night, what would life be like? There would be more ease. If someone said something I disagreed with, I could just say, this is how I feel about that. And we would not be scared of the consequences.

With more economic justice based on gender, I would have more options. When we look at fawning, one of the survival responses, women generally fawn to men more than men fawn to women because men generally have more power. Fawning happens from the lowest status to the highest.

What would change? It might be the way you interact with people. Pick one thing. Maybe it is an image of you walking freely back to your car, not worrying. Feel it in your body for a moment.

Less stress, more ease

In a world without oppression, we would certainly be less stressed. We would have more comfort and more power. We would feel more connected. Maybe decisions about the world would be made by councils of people in the community who are most affected, not by the people with the most money.

I am not stressed anymore. I have enough time. I have enough money for my basic needs. I am not worried about being old and on the street.

We would have a healthcare system that took care of people physically and mentally. If people were not in a fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response so much, that would be wonderful! Whether it is ourselves or other people, if our nervous systems felt safer, everything would change.

Double inhale through the nose, long exhale like you are breathing out through a straw. Do that a couple of times.

Nothing is as permanent as it seems

When we are in a system, it feels like that is the only way it could ever be. In 1989, after years of organized activism, the Berlin Wall came down. To people in the West, it was shockingly sudden. Family from East Germany and West Germany who had been separated for decades were able to visit each other again. Something that seemed like it would be that way forever, suddenly was not.

When we envision a world with justice instead of injustice, so many things are going to be different. Our school systems, the way we interact in communities and the environment. We should not lose hope for this.

I believe there is so much good-heartedness and so much goodwill. I also know that so many folks are struggling with our nervous systems and struggling with our circumstances. These are real-life high-stakes situations we are in.

The truth is, we are not necessarily stuck in these unjust systems. They might be hard to work with. We might have to really band together. If you are in a democracy, you can vote. We have power as a whole. Working together, we have power that we do not have individually, and that we might lose touch with sometimes.

We can do more inquiry around different forms of oppression and injustice, and how we can support ourselves doing that kind of work. Acknowledging that we are not alone in this helpful as is visioning into a just world.

Be kind, be patient, and be strong. We do not have to limit ourselves to the world as it is. We can work toward something so much better.

Come back to this inquiry any time. Sometimes envisioning what is on the other side, what would happen if there was justice in that area, gives us the opportunity to be more inspired to work for it as well.

This relates directly to our series on nourishment and rest. Imagine!