Candice Estranero
Recently, I have been thinking about the divisive violence that may result from sociopolitical polarization. Recurring in contemporary news, we observe polarization in the resurgence of xenophobia and discrimination of LGBTQ2S+ folks by the political Right as they police and displace bodies. We also hear about calls for gun law reform while gun lobbyists continue to utilize their monopoly in wealth to maintain the status quo. All of these divisive instances have common denominators: each function under overarching oppressive systems including ethnocentrism, classism, and patriarchy, and each have led to physical and psychological violence with long-term implications. A major long-term implication is the cyclical pattern of escalating violence after resistance. In my examples, escalation manifested in death, police brutality, high suicide rates, and utter dehumanization. While all of these examples are different, oppression and violence remain constant. History shows us that oppression and violence reproduces across eras of polarizing discourse, thus selling the idea that harm is the norm in the face of difference. This harm can proliferate trauma into our communities, generations of life, and our physical bodies. It feels like we are stuck in this cycle, however, it is imperative to me that we work to carve a new path – – to liberate. In a world shaped by repetitious violence, I reflect on liberation work through the lens of trauma psychology.
A Trauma-Informed Lens on Systems
Trauma is not just a mental health buzzword. It can be a way of viewing how our sociopolitical systems are structured today and the traditions or cultural norms we accept. Generations of communities from the beginning of time have faced violence, betrayal, and destruction in spaces intended to be safe. Such traumatic experiences often evoke feelings of fear, hurt, and betrayal. Affected communities that usurp power may then create rigid rules to control, stifle, and oppress those who could threaten safety once more. Take the American Revolution where violence was the path towards sovereignty. It is arguable that the USA continues today to impress its sovereignty internationally as it conducts imperialistic operations, and domestically as it glorifies the Second Amendment. Today, the USA is criticized for its masked hand in the death of innocent lives in the Middle East and on school campuses. The fear of subjugation that drove the American Revolution still seems to be apparent today despite the country’s immense power. The country was born from violence and continues to use violence to evade any slight threat to autonomy once more. With the attainment of power, these patterns of violence appear to recycle and reinforce themselves.
How Can We Liberate From These Systems and Cycles of Violence?
I do not have a concrete answer. What I do know as a social worker practicing in a micro psychotherapy setting, is that it is crucial we apply liberation principles to ourselves in the process of ascertaining liberation for everyone. The personal is political and vice versa (thank you feminist theory!), ergo liberation occurs at an individual level as well and is a component of the societal level. To me, liberation at its core means radical love, wholeness, and belongingness in the body, the family, the community, and the systems of the world. At an individual level, I am inspired to draw from parts work modalities as I analyze the relationship between violent polarization, our psychology, and liberation.
We all have parts of us- materialized through emotions, thoughts, and behaviors- that may oppose one another in a polarized manner. For example, we may have parts of us that desire retaliation and another part of us that desires the comfort of fawning during interpersonal conflict. Each has value in different ways despite their apparent contrast. It is possible to create a safe space for both parts to convene constructively through a posture of compassionate curiosity. I see compassionate curiosity as listening gently- as a bridge to facilitate wholeness in our inner psyche. Without compassionate curiosity for both parts, one might tend to take lead and neglect the hopes of the other, which ultimately creates discord inside of us.
How we bring compassionate curiosity to all parts of us, whether that is retaliatory or fawning, gives us the perspective to engage meaningfully with whom we label as retaliatory or fawning in the world around us. Engaging with folks through compassionate curiosity can directly abate polarization, enhance interpersonal connection, and build a sense of safety in the gray space for polarized groups of people. Safety in the gray space does not mean there is no objective goodness. Rather, it shows us that sustainable internalizations of goodness are constructed in the connections developed between polar entities. This is one of the ways we liberate the self and support liberation work in a polarized world. Connection to all parts of the self and others is necessary for sustained wellness grounded in wholeness and togetherness.
Retreat and Rest as Liberation
Of note, extending compassionate curiosity to all parts of us means caring for the part of us that is unable to engage with those who wish us ill. Power and privilege is important when considering where safety in the gray space lands for those with less socially constructed power. Sometimes it is life-saving to disengage and have a small gray space. Notably, retreating is essential when we struggle to follow the principles of liberation and/or honour our overall wellbeing in the work. We can honor the parts of us that feel triggered, hurt, and attacked because retreat is a vital part of liberation work.
Indubitably, rest, alongside fun and joy, is key to the work. There will be parts of us that need to retreat, not because we are deficient or have conceded, but because compassionate curiosity towards the parts of us that need to retreat will equip us with the tools and community care required for liberation work. In fact, rest, fun, and joy show us that we can live in a world where life can be independent of the polar violence that provokes and harms us. It helps us imagine and practice living in a world where fear can transform into collaboration instead of violence. We do not need to earn that world. We can just have it and it is important to take it. These truths are important in the process of building a world where the trauma from violence is reconcilable rather than replicated.
We are All Parts of One Body
As black rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer famously stated: “Nobody is free until everybody’s free”. We all have a responsibility to advocate for the liberty of the oppressed, global majority, and the structurally marginalized because our liberation is tied to one another like a system. This call is most pronounced for the oppressors and the complicit in the white, heteronormative, patriarchal, and wealthy monopolies that disproportionately use violence to rid of a fear so extreme that it thinks it must suppress the desires of others. I invite us all to listen to what polarization and divisive violence says in our bodies, communities, and land. I invite us to listen to what it cries out for and mobilizes us to do, otherwise the cycle may repeat. Nobody is truly free until we replace systems of oppression and violence with those of radical love and belongingness- within ourselves and in the world.
Extreme polarization keeps people disconnected from working together to make change, and consequent violence is used to traumatize bodies so that we are limited in our capacity to do the work. We can all make change by starting with the microcosmic relationships we have with the polarized parts of ourselves when our body is activated. The more we connect to our parts, the stronger our blueprint for connecting to a fragmented world. The more we connect with the fragmented world, the more we can collaborate on liberation for all.
These reflections are not necessarily complete or neat- nor do I write them thinking liberation can happen in my lifetime, however, the way we pursue it will define the outcome. I encourage those interested to read more liberation work, decolonization work, and parts work pieces. To move past solely intellectualizing, I also encourage us to listen to the stories of our Indigenous, Black, LGBTQ2S+, etc. leaders and creatives, where much wisdom lies.
