Is now a good time to tell you that people like me romanticize lichen as mutuality incarnate but at least some scientists are like mmmm actually that’s some controlled parasitism??
There is a true debate on this point; the fungal partner of a lichen is definitely getting fed sugar and losing nothing, so it boils down to whether the algal partner also benefits (=mutualism), or doesn’t but is still basically fine (=controlled parasitism/commensualism), or is harmed (=parasitism). What I want to say today is that since we are not lichens but appreciating lichen as a metaphor, I don’t mind that we don’t know this and that it may not sound as cute as 100% pure mutuality.
Sometimes we are eating the sweet things that someone else makes, or we are providing some sugar. Sometimes someone is offering us a place to be that we couldn’t otherwise access, or we are offering that. Sometimes, maybe always, it takes something from us or our people to offer that sugar or that access. Hopefully that doesn’t mean harm; sometimes it probably does, because most of us aren’t great at boundaries because we’ve been taught not to be.
A few sources I’ve learned about harm and accountability from recently: Daria, a generative somatics practitioner, via his accountability mapping course (and, on instagram, lots of excerpts). An image (below) from Kai Cheng Thom. The Vision for Black Lives. Building Accountable Communities. Abolitionist.tools. Yesterday George Floyd’s murderer was convicted; I wept with relief to read the headline, and M4BL also wrote: “our communities need and demand more than a guilty verdict delivered through an unjust and racist system. We require real accountability for police and real safety for our communities.”
In my own life: In the Anne Braden program I’m in March-June, we learn through the lens of racism but are clear that we have to be working to destroy white supremacy and heteropatriarchy and capitalism, or whichever system we left will just grow. So when we recently spent a week learning about class, it was specifically about how classism weakens our movements for revolutionary change. And I realized that whatever class analysis I have walked around with previously hadn’t yet translated into my day to day conversations in some key ways. I have probably caused harm to individuals and made myself less effective in organizing white people for racial justice. Here is a cross-class capacity tool from SURJ on what this looks like (the harm and some antidotes). Also this article on class-based differences in language in movement is amazing. It’s all too much to lay out here but I am really down to talk about it, so be in touch if you’d like to.
Controlled Parasitism" is a fascinating concept, especially relevant in the healthcare studies covered in NURS FPX 4060. This approach, often discussed within the context of population health, involves managing parasitic relationships in a way that mitigates harm and enhances community health outcomes. In NURS FPX 4060: Practicing in the Community to Improve Population Health, students learn how interventions in parasitic dynamics can contribute positively to population health initiatives. This course offers practical tools for addressing such unique healthcare challenges in community settings.
more info : https://coursefpx.com/category/bsn-class-help/nurs-fpx-4060/
Thanks for more tools to help me reflect on my own personality and how I am unwitting and weaponized, add a dash of intention sigh...I do want to destroy white supremacy and all forms of "elitism" and heteropatriarchy and capitalism. I would add war/militarization to that list. I am wondering how to describe/ (envision)/hope for the utopia which could follow. Something I read, Sapiens, I believe, attributed the fostering war and aggression to pastoral economy which created targets.