“I did not die for 70 years”

Resilience in ecology conjures up an image of a thing with the characteristics to endure. But in society, what does it mean to endure? To ...

Resilience in ecology conjures up an image of a thing with the characteristics to endure. But in society, what does it mean to endure? To withstand abuse, to survive? If so, the clock of inner collapse is all you’ve got going and an epitaph reading, “I did not die for 70 years” (adjust age to average mortality rate of your country). It's difficult to applaud what you'll have by default.

Resilience itself is a phase and in that phase it means the status quo continues.

It reminds me of de Certeaus examples of 'tactics'. Methods supposedly deployed to empower those marginalised people, like using machines at work to produce your own work without The Man knowing. Even though his examples of tactics were meant to inspire, I think if you're disempowered you don't want to stay disempowered. People making do with what they have is not empowerment, its just being resourceful by necessity. As de Certeau says, "a tactic is an art of the weak' (but it gives him plenty of opportunity to apply post-intellectual social theory. Thanks, man!).

Just because some plants are shade tolerant doesn’t mean they wouldn’t prefer to be in full sun. Resilience as a banner needs a re-think in the social realm.

 

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