Was watching Lindsey Ellis's latest video essay where she was comparing conservative children media to those that teach social emotional intelligence. It struck me that much of media is socializing kids to have a officer in their head to be disappointed if they act in a way authority disapproves of. My kid loves power rangers but I get the same vibe, lots of shame based morality without validating what people are feeling.
it's actually from politicial activst and theater artist Augusto Boal's writings. He pioneered a form of political theatre called Theatre of the Oppressed to workshop ideas for oppressed people to take power back from their oppressors. You get actors to role play a scenario and then the audience makes suggestions, or even tags in to take the actors place with what they would do in the scenario, and the role play becomes a debate, too, with people being given turns to describe their solution.
He claimed that many people were policed by the cop in the head, that would inhibit people from feeling free and able to do what they want even when on their own
oh, that is super interesting, thank you! I'll have to dig up more info about this, sounds like an interesting (if potentially very tedious, depending on the audience) process
My guess is that it's about how many of us are complicit in our horrific criminal justice system. Casual things, like people laughing at the suggestion of prison rape being retribution rather than recoiling in horror at the suggestion.
There was a homeless guy sleeping in the parking area of my apartments and everyone I mentioned it to suggested that I call the cops. I went and asked the guy if he was alright. We said a total of like 10 words but he was just some 30ish year old dude looking for a little temporary shelter. Do you really need to call the cops to fuck his shit up even more?
I heard this expression for the first time recently from a friend who was grappling with wanting restorative justice vs punative justice. Really lovely saying.
I probably don't need to say it here, but starting by boycotting anything even remotely copoganda is a good place to begin.