Bullying caused the problems, and it has not gone away

 I have this one post that has over 5500 readers (or just hits) because it somehow went viral on FB. It was written in February 2020 which you will remember was just when the pandemic was beginning to be in the news a lot...so probably my title, Oh These Times, just makes people want to click when they see it. I mean, most of my posts get like 30 readers. If I post it on FB, sometimes a couple hundred. That was the only post that got even a thousand readers. It's a mystery of algorithms I guess.

It wasn't about the pandemic, which I was not aware of at the time. It was about me going to the OCF Board with a guideline change that tightened up the process of appointing a new Booth Rep for your privileged piece of the structure and mostly addressed the bullying that is regularly done by the power structure of the organization. It may not always be intentional, and I don't think it was meant to be by any Board members at that meeting, but that was also the beginning days of MAGIC and boy, did that turn out to be a bullying group, in my observation. Here's the link to the post https://divinetension.blogspot.com/2020/02/oh-these-times.html

 The particular meeting isn't all that significant at this point, or even the guideline change, because as we know the pandemic happened and we didn't occupy any booths in 2020, or 2021 either. And I stopped writing after someone who was bullying me excerpted that post and others to bully me with my words. I also stopped posting most of my links on FB, as I felt so vulnerable during the pandemic. It changed me to see how actually threatening we all are to each other. I pulled back in a lot of ways and don't think I've recovered much trust. The bullies just got more powerful and so much worse, despite the gifts we got of learning new ways to identify their tactics and band together to fight disinformation. There's been progress, but as far as movement at OCF, I would not say it has been progressive movement. We're still mostly in denial and obfuscation.

No one seems to be promoting an anti-bullying effort, except a whole bunch of people who are trying and then mostly drawing back as it continues. No one wants to be a target. No one feels like speaking their piece is actually limiting the power of the bullying group. The disinformation is churning out, all articulate and seemingly logical, and starting from way back with the early assumptions that are being held up as truth seems like a huge amount of emotional labor that few of the targeted are willing to continue to do. The bullies double down, as that is one thing they can be counted on to do. And they lie. And the fact that one or two of them comes from a place of deluded but well-meaning righteousness is not working to bring out any of the truth that has been long buried at this point. 

Multiple groups are working through the discussion process now and most of them are not getting anywhere. The whole existence of MAGIC has been to use strongarm tactics to force actions that are not progressive, not in the direction of more openness and transparency, just coming from a narrow agenda that lies underneath what's currently happening. It's white people wanting to be comfortable, and there's a toxic wrinkle of some people supporting a person I know as a criminal. 

Like many, I'm not really engaging. My views are perhaps known, and I have most definitely voted no on the removal action. I learned with my personal bully that engaging usually didn't help the situation. I saw them as having a PTSD reaction that they needed to navigate through when they sent angry messages, and felt that it was not my job or within my capabilities to help them with that. So I generally learned to disregard their words and messages and just operate as if they weren't in my life at all. 

Naturally my reactions made the problems worse, so my non-reactions did make the problem better, for me anyway, but the base issue of bullying within the membership has not been addressed at all. Some of us have just figured out who the main bullies are, and who are just their misled supporters. But they're very loud right now in their hope to ruin the career-long contributions of a Board member who is willing, as a white man, to make white people uncomfortable.

Hippies, while trying to free everyone, did come out of some of the liberation movements of the 60s but a lot of them stayed lost in the hippie delusions that wanting freedom was enough. The privileged among us got some freedom. For instance, back then there were lots of fixer-upper houses that could be bought for very little and many of us got them, fixed them up, and increased their value by factors of 10 and 20 times the investment. Lucky to have a Mom who advanced me the down payment I needed. Same for OCF spots. Back in the early 80s you could go carve a spot out of the brush and build a booth there. That added up to privilege. 

Lots of privilege comes from being in the right place at the right time, seizing some asset or position, and then holding onto it and increasing the value. Sure, hard work is applied, but being in that right place was key. That happened in the pandemic, too...people stepped into positions that opened up, and some people took advantage of the uncertainty and chaos of the pandemic to secure their "wealth." It was easy to rationalize and find excuses when we all felt like we could die from breathing. Still true, of course, but mostly not for the privileged. Or so they think anyway.

But hard things happen. My generation is dying off much more rapidly than it would have, and young people's apocalyptic future got immeasurably more horrific. I've said "I'm glad I'm old" way too many times. All this energy wasted on dividing people and domination games is just wrong. It's ruining what so many people have worked for all of their lives. Generations back, as well.

I don't have a good solution, either. Just figure it out, people. Think harder. Stop pushing so hard for your way, as the only right way. Chances are excellent that it is not the only right way.

Domination culture is white supremacy culture. We can't thrive under domination culture. Reduce it down. Winners mean losers. We're all losing so much on this course.