Solidarity is not a matter of altruism. Solidarity comes from the inability to tolerate the affront to our own integrity of passive or active collaboration in the oppression of others, and from the deep recognition of our most expansive self-interest. From the recognition that, like it or not, our liberation is bound up with that of every other being on the planet, and that politically, spiritually, in our heart of hearts we know anything else is unaffordable.
Interpretation
Solidarity arises from a shared understanding of our interconnectedness and the rejection of complicity in injustice.
This quote by Aurora Levins Morales emphasizes that true solidarity is not merely an act of goodwill or altruism; rather, it emerges from an understanding of our interconnectedness and the moral imperative to resist oppression. It suggests that our own integrity and self-interest are tied to the struggles of others, and that recognizing this connection is essential for genuine liberation, making it a matter of collective survival rather than optional kindness.
In practice
This quote can be used in discussions about social justice movements.
Right here in our bodies, in our defense of our right to experience joy, in the refusal to abandon the place where we have been most completely invaded & colonized, in our determination to make the bombed & defoliated lands flower again and bear fruit, here where we have been most shamed is one of the most radical & sacred places from which to transform the world.
What is required to face trauma is the ability to mourn, fully and deeply, all that has been taken from us. Only through mourning everything we have lost can we discover that we have in fact survived; that our spirits are indestructible.
That which I have set out in Latin is not my words but the words of God and of apostles and prophets, who of course have never lied. He who believes shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be damned. God has spoken.
The mind, whatever else it is, is a constant of everyone's experience, and, in more ways than we know, the creator of the reality that we live within... Nothing is more essential to us.
If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.
We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.
Dissents are appeals to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of another day.
The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.
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