Me and Reddy sat down for our fifth and final conversation on the 24th of February 2022, when Russia made their move on Ukraine. With that backdrop, perhaps you will not be surprised that our conversation circled around the concept of violence. But, not necessarily in the way you might think.
We assume that we’re good human beings if we are not violent. And we assume that if we are violent, then we are bad human beings. The simplicity of that statement makes it all the more violent, because we are immediately classifying and splitting people apart, creating more room for violence, more likelihood of violence. ~Reddy
I’ve been giving violence quite a lot of thoughts lately, even going into therapy a few months ago with the statement Maybe violence isn’t all that bad as the starting point. Made for an interesting therapy session for sure. This conversation in no less interesting to me, and we touch on so many interesting aspects of violence. Of aggression. On who wants war, and who doesn’t. On the non-violence movement of Gandhi, and how aggressive his ‘turn the other cheek’-practice was. Bring in a few kittens, the harvest of sweetgrass and playing rock-paper-scissor over Ukraine, and you have the range of this conversation!
And regardless if you agree with what pops out of the mouth of me and/or Reddy in this meandering conversation of ours, I hope you pick up on something that was very apparent to me as we were talking: we dare have this conversation. With each other. (And you, because it’s published now too.)
This is most definitely a sticky topic, or a potentially sticky topic at least. But we dance with it and each other, in a way that for me is respectful with a lot of curiosity and openness. And laughter, a vital ingredient in life, and definitely in sticky conversations. So, dive in, and play with us, in a respectful and curious way, where agreement isn’t the purpose. We don’t HAVE to agree. We don’t HAVE to come to any one conclusion. Bouncing from tankespjärn to tankespjärn, we are simply playing in the space between Violence is bad and Maybe violence isn’t all that bad. Join us?
Links:
Reddy on Twitter (and me on Twitter)
Buddhas by the Roadside, a podcast with me, Dominic and Caspian
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, followed by The Story of B and My Ishmael
@DHH from Basecamp
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Korean movie Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin