Place reflections: Tuesday 19th May
‘Let’s lean on each other and do’
In this conversation we reflected on the simple questions ‘what is happening?’ and ‘what do we need?’
We began by checking in — ‘how are you?’. There was a sense of:
- Dissonance between the message that we are moving out of the emergency phase that the COVID-19 crisis brought with it (‘the worst is over’) and high rates of infection, especially in the North East ‘The emergency phase at an end? Well, no, not really, not in Gateshead…’
- A rush to get back to normal, the sense that things that have been paused are beginning again (but not necessarily in a good way) and that doors that had been open are beginning to close
- Being left with a sense of confusion and of feeling unanchored, a powerful desire make the most of things and a simultaneous sense of things slipping away, a ticking clock
- Collective busyness but uncertainty about being useful, effective or purposeful
- Fears that the issues we care about are being overlooked (‘homelessness is just a line at the bottom of the page’) or that the most marginalised are again being excluded (for example the people who have been evicted from hotels used to house rough sleepers)
- A need for reassurance and connection and spaces where we can be honest about feeling confused and overwhelmed — ‘nobody knows what to do with the full force of the gale blowing in your face’
- A reality check — the pain and hurt has always been there, we just haven’t seen it before or perhaps ‘our people’ have not been the ones it touched.
Themes and patterns from the conversation that followed:
Polarity #1 — Despair v. hope, energy and even excitement: It is true that poisonous narratives of victim-blaming are reasserting themselves and that political change (desired by some) may be a long way off. There is fear (‘I am actually really scared that this is going to make the space for neo liberalism to attack like never before’) but there is also much to be hopeful about and draw energy from. There is also holding the big stuff in mind while thinking ‘this is the bit I can do’. Nevertheless, it is difficult to hold hope and fear in balance.
Polarity #2 — Wanting to reach out/not wanting to reach out: ‘I feel like I’m being gaslit all the time, I just can’t see the world how other people do’. Some of us struggle to feel compassion and even friendliness towards our fellow citizens, especially those telling a different story to the one we understand to be true. At the same time we know this is called for in our work. How can we work through this?
Polarity #3 — Admitting our uncertainty/shouting what we know from the rooftops: There was a challenge to the pessimistic turn of the conversation.We may experience confusion but we do know things! (See decentralisation below) We should be less modest. We don’t need to wait until we understand everything, we should ‘lean on each other and do!’ We should ‘shout from the rooftops!’
Foreshadowing: Our sustenance comes from where we can see people are already living and working in ways which embody a different future.
Mutual aid as a learning experience: ‘There are about 30 people who have never volunteered before and quite a lot were judgmental about people on benefits and this whole experience has completely transformed their perceptions.’ Many people are connecting with people facing extreme disadvantage in respectful reciprocal ways at the moment. This is leading to more nuanced and compassionate understandings. People won’t forget these experiences.
Decentralisation: Will a change of government really change things? Maybe not, perhaps our national psyche needs to change. Look at what happens when we abandon obedience and deference — the actions of the devolved administrations, local authorities in the North East (‘your rules don’t apply here’), ‘radical autonomy’ among frontline workers and Lankelly Chase’s ambitions to devolve decision making. ‘I think one of the good things we’re seeing is the challenging/explosion of assumptions about professional hierarchies, autonomy and decision making’.
We know devolution and decentralisation are good things. Let’s do more, let’s lead by example.
Role fluidity: The problems happen when people assert power with certainty, within rigid roles and without the room to express confusion or other difficult feelings. How can people with positional authority be invited into spaces where role fluidity, lack of certainty and experimentation are possible? Amidst all the different initiatives and ideas, maybe the bit I can do is to work to change these dynamics…
Drawing strength from theory: What would the systems theorists say about all this? Being able to connect my lived experience and difficult emotions to what they tell us about the nature of reality is reassuring, it helps me — ‘I know I’m not going crazy’.
Some of the things we referred to:
Graph showing the usual stages of a crisis, eg honeymoon, disillusionment, reconstruction etc https://twitter.com/alexevansuk/status/1249242990520029186
Andy Crosbie’s podcast ‘Hope is Elephant Fuel’ https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/theassistpod/episodes/2020-05-18T05_47_12-07_00
