Untethered: How to keep going

It's been a few weeks since I recorded an episode. Because what is there to say?

Today's episode is a rumination on hopelessness and the responsibility we have to resist it. I consider the deep soul wound of watching a genocide play out and be ignored by anyone with the power to stop it. But I also ask listeners feeling similarly despondent to consider those who've come before us. All the revolutions in the world's history, fought by people who felt helpless at various points. I then consider those who come after us, learning from this moment in time.

Ultimately, I hope I've provided some kind of solace and also encouragement here to hold our nerve and find the humanity in fighting back.

Audio footage opening and closing the episode recorded at the rally in Naarm on Monday May 27.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Resistance Against Apathy and Injustice
• 17:39 Collective Resistance and Intergenerational Courage
• 24:17 The Power of Love for Change

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Resistance is justified when people are occupied. Resistance is justified when people are occupied. That was the voice of Nua, one of the speakers at tonight's Snap Action in Nam, the Our Babies Matter rally organized by Hashtag. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Untethered with me, your host, clementine Ford.

Speaker 1: 0:35

I know it's been a few weeks since I've uploaded anything and, honestly, the reason is because what is there to say? I just feel like we're living in an endless loop of horror and terror and inhumanity and all of those things, punctuated by a deep sense of apathy that seems to be coming from the majority of the population. It is unfathomable to me how we are, almost eight months in now to a genocide that is being broadcast into every single one of our phones, into our feeds, into. It is unavoidable at this point to not see it. You know, it's incomprehensible that anyone could be at all ignorant to what's happening, except that people, of course, choose to remain ignorant, and some people choose to remain completely inhumane in their continued support for Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Like every time I speak about this and I know that this is a common feeling for a lot of people that you're just speaking into a void Again, it's like what else can you say? What else is there to say? What else is there to say If the visuals that we have received over eight months of, you know, not just dead people but dead children, specifically, if that isn't enough to wake the entire world up to demand instant, not just an instant ceasefire, but instant change, an end to this murderous regime, to the oppressive Israeli regime that inflicts apartheid on, you know, everyone in Palestine, not just in Gaza, but that also has been responsible for decades for the murders of thousands of people, that is still responsible for the imprisonment, against international law, of thousands of Palestinians, many of them without charge, many of them without charge, many of them children.

Speaker 1: 2:48

If it is not enough yet that people can have stood up and said no, no more. And I know look, I'm not being entirely cynical I know that the world wakes up more and more each day, but it just feels to me like we're at this point where it's like you're trying to tell people that the sky is blue and there are still swathes of very influential, very powerful people, many of them in government, insisting to you that, no, the sky is not blue and that, if you see it that way, somehow that is an attack against people who recognize that the sky is not blue and you're oppressing them. I just feel like I'm being driven slowly, mad, and even as I say that, I feel indulgent and self-pitying and hyperbolic, because what the fuck has it really affected me? I mean, I'm safe, I don't have to worry yet about bombs being dropped on my house, and yet this wound that is festering in my heart and in my soul, that I think each of us who cares about this can relate to, is just growing bigger and bigger and more infected by the day, because I cannot imagine how we can go on living in this world, interacting with people daily, people in the school line who don't seem to care or want to do anything about it, people at the supermarket who don't seem interested, who are content with just a sort of oh yes, it's terrible, isn't it? Oh, it's awful, these things that are happening in the world, but no actual action.

Speaker 1: 4:26

And I'm going to say something that I've said before, I think even on this podcast. But to come up against the reality and again, this is not something that you know, women of colour in particular have not been saying for fucking years. So I get it. I get how ironic it is that, oh, I finally got it. But to sort of like realise, oh, we are all, for the main, in the majority, just completely ambivalent about what the world actually is, as long as we're not being generally harmed, although you bet your fucking bottom dollar that people have something to say if they feel marginally put out or inconvenienced. You know, it's like people who protest or not protest because they hate protest. People who speak out against protesters doing things like blocking the highways, as if somehow this is worse than not just the genocide but impending climate collapse. All of these things that deeply privileged people do and I count myself amongst the deeply privileged because, again, I'm not having bombs dropped on my house, I have a roof over my head for now and I don't have to worry about clean drinking water for now. My child is safe for now and I don't have to worry about clean drinking water for now. My child is safe for now. All of these things that we just think that these things will continue in perpetuity. You know, never, ever be challenged. But the moment we're mildly inconvenienced, suddenly want to fucking storm the Capitol.

Speaker 1: 5:58

You know, it's just ridiculous that we have this narrative, particularly white cultural narratives of our heroism. You know, look at this fucking country, the Anzac Day furor that we come across every year, oh, just, you know the somberness of it. We honor our fallen heroes. We love to imagine ourselves, white people, as the protectors of democracy, as the instigators of change, as the leaders in courage. And yet not only is the vast majority of our history quite the opposite of that, that we are in fact the instigators of torment and pain and colonialism and violence and oppression, but also that most of us who aren't making those decisions, if we're not tacitly endorsing them, we're just completely fucking ambivalent to them. The idea that somehow any of us could rise up and be heroes in the way that white culture and white literature and movies and all of these things have always reassured us, lies at the center of our core. The idea that any of us would actually raise up and stage revolution to bring down oppressive regimes is fucking laughable at this point.

Speaker 1: 7:14

And this is what I said a few weeks ago when women in Australia and look, I'm not saying that we don't have a problem with men's violence against women in this country, obviously we do. But it seems to me that there is a very convenient and cynical obsession with that currently Not obsession is the wrong word, but a sort of a self-indulgent stoking of this from otherwise pretty privileged women. You know, oh, we're just trying to survive here every day, we're just trying not to get killed. And you're like do you really feel honestly, honestly, do you really feel that every single day, as a white, privileged woman in this country, that you were just trying your hardest not to be killed? Be honest, be honest, be honest, posh. Do you really feel like you were trying your hardest every day not to be killed? Because I don't think that that's true. I think that it's a convenient thing to say when it comes to avoiding having to engage with any other systems of oppression and violence in the world that actually are making people feel that.

Speaker 1: 8:19

And I thought that this morning, when I woke up and I saw one of the worst days in this eight-month genocidal sort of timeline, and that was that a couple of days after the ICJ, the International Court of Justice, a couple of days after the ICJ ordered Israel to stop their bombardments on Rafah, of course Israel was like fuck you, we'll do whatever we want, because we're getting the bombs sent to us from America and we're getting funded and endorsed by Western governments all over the world. So fuck you. If you tell us not to do that, then it's obviously because you're anti-Semitic. It's just all fucking bullshit. But waking up and seeing the horrifying carnage and fallout, not just of you know quote unquote Israeli airstrikes, which is such a clinical way for news outlets to refer to this, but the deliberate targeting of refugee camps in which families are sheltering in tents, refugee camps in which families have been told these are the safe places to go. I mean, obviously no one in Gaza now believes any of that, nor would they have ever believed that from Israeli information sharing. But to be told, go here, this is where you'll be safe, only to be herded up, herded, herded into a small and increasingly smaller place so that Israel can drop 2,000 pound bombs, supplied by America, on them.

Speaker 1: 9:59

The things I saw this morning and the things that people who are following this closely you don't even need to be following it closely to have seen them, but the things that I've seen will never leave me. The sight of a father holding his headless child and screaming. How could anyone look at that and not consider how you could even go on, if that was you and your child to not consider the rage, the burning rage that you would feel, to be forced to hold your dead child's body in that way, to know that that was how they left this world. I saw a tweet that summarized it perfectly for me and I'll paraphrase it, but it was someone saying someone loved this child. Obviously Someone fed this child, made sure they had enough milk, made sure that they were warm enough, combed their hair, kissed their cheeks thousands of times, and this is how their life ended. It's, it's.

Speaker 1: 11:19

There are just what else is there to say? And every time I sit down and think I have to do a podcast episode, I'm promising one once a week. That's how you build a podcast. Do one once a week, make it regular. I just think what else is there to say? And I can't not talk about this because talking about other things feels completely pointless, and I think that that's wrong too, for us as a human species, to think that talking about other things is pointless, and I think that that's wrong too, for us as a human species, to think that talking about other things is pointless.

Speaker 1: 11:51

How can we be trapped in this unrelenting, endless, just chamber of torture, watching it on screens and being told that there is nothing, nothing we can do as a population that seemingly will be effective in stopping it, that when we try, we are engaging in violence, we're engaging in hate speech, we're making people feel unsafe. I mean all of this fucking bullshit. And then I go back to the lies and the stories that we've been told, you know, through those same vessels and mediums of pop culture, the ones that love portraying white people in particular, or white adjacent people supporting whiteness, as the heroes. And every single bit of civil disobedience that we are engaging in currently, from the small scale to the large scale, that is being condemned as violent, that's being condemned as unhelpful, that's being dismissed as somehow disruptive to democracy, disruptive, not the right way to go about things. And you think, why don't we ever make movies about that? Why don't we ever make movies in which we're just told the reality and the truth of how the systems that be want it to actually transpire, that they want, ultimately, us to be on the side of the imperial empire, that they want, ultimately, us to be on the side of the capital, that they want us to identify the rebels as the baddies, as the ones the terrorists, the ones doing things in the wrong way. Just be peaceful in how you ask for it.

Speaker 1: 13:51

What else is there to say If you're not screaming with every bit of your soul and every ounce of energy that you have and every capacity, soul and every ounce of energy that you have, and every capacity structurally that you have right now for this to end, and not just this iteration of the decades-long slow-burning up to this point, genocide of Palestinian people by Israel and Israel's supporters? If you're not screaming for that, then what are you doing? Where are you? How are you still turning away from it and pretending that it's someone else's problem? What else is there to say?

Speaker 1: 14:49

But then I think, well, we have to keep saying the thing, just keep hearing it ourselves, to know that, even if nothing we do can actually create the change that is needed and I don't want to believe that but even if that were the case, that we will go down still chanting the messages of the resistance, that we will go down still screaming for liberation, that we will go down still reminding ourselves that there was nothing that could stop us, not even the slow death of the soul, nothing that could stop us from speaking the truth about what's happening and for maintaining, in that voice, our own humanity. So maybe, even though this started as a sort of cry for something, something, a lament, a howl of emptiness and sadness and frustration, sadness and frustration. Maybe what it really needs to end on is a reminder that, even in the moments where we feel like nothing is changing, where we feel helpless and where those of us who do have some kind of power feel impotent in our ability, seemingly, to wield it effectively, that we still are all here, standing together, speaking up, calling for change and becoming more and more radical and revolutionary every day, and that every day that we do that, someone hears that call and decides that this is the day that they're ready to join. Maybe that's the purpose of today's podcast to remind us all that, even though it feels hopeless, all revolutions have felt hopeless at some point but they only ever succeed if people continue moving forward in spite of their fear that nothing is happening.

Speaker 1: 17:39

I think that we are all feeling to some varying degrees and, of course, those of us of this number who have direct and personal connection with Palestine and are part of the diaspora, in particular, who can't return home, are feeling this to degrees I can't possibly even imagine, to degrees I can't possibly even imagine. But although we're all feeling this deep, deep well of rage and soul emptiness, it's time to maybe reach out, if you're feeling that, and hold the hand of someone who's with you and get them to hold the hand of someone who's with them, and get them to hold the hand of someone who's with them, and just remind ourselves, I think, that these movements only succeed when they succeed collectively. Or rather, these movements to remind ourselves that these movements only succeed when we remember our collective responsibility to each other, when we remember the collective vow that we make to keep going, that change has never been easy, that revolution has never come peacefully or politely, that the reason that people-powered movements are so opposed by structural power is because they need us more than we need them. If you're feeling that emptiness today, particularly on waking up and seeing such horrifying, unforgettable images, then I encourage you to sit for at least five minutes and meditate and when I say meditate, I don't necessarily mean meditate the way that all people mean it, because some it's hard, for some people, I guess, but meditate in a kind of philosophical way on the great legacy of collective action that we are all part of, that we are all, all of us, at every single stage of humanity's existence. We are all of us making history, all of us. And the history that you are making right now as part of the resistance is very different to the history that is being made by those opposing it. And so sit for a few minutes and ponder what it means to be human and remind yourself why you're part of this movement and the purpose of maintaining presence in the movement and maintaining faith that it will one day be realised, the objective of the movement, and maybe drawing on some of the strength, the legacy of those people who've come before, particularly people who have fought for this cause, especially before, and even if you're religious or not religious, or you have no spiritual faith in anything, whatever it might be, just bring them to mind and thank them for getting us to this point so far and ask for a bit of strength, ask for a bit of resilience, and understand that at some point in the future, whether for this cause or for another cause, there may be a person just like you, 50 years, 100 years, 150 years, 500 years for all we know sitting there and feeling similarly demoralized.

Speaker 1: 21:46

Sitting there and feeling similarly demoralized and similarly hopeless and wounded on a deep soul level about what it is that they have seen and witnessed and what it is they seem powerless to stop, and that they may be sending a message back in time to you. How do I keep going? So you think of that person, those people in the future, as you're drawing on strength from all of the ones in the past who fought so hard for humanity's liberation, and you do it knowing, in part, that we do it for them, for the future, because all of this is about building a better world. I really believe in the phrase that Palestine is freeing everybody and in being freed by Palestine we can enact things in our own lives and we can change on a deep cellular level, maybe the way that we leave that legacy for future generations.

Speaker 1: 22:54

If intergenerational trauma is inherited, as we know it is, then maybe too there's something such as intergenerational courage. Maybe there's intergenerational knowledge, intergenerational spirit that can be passed down to our descendants that we are in the process of creating right now. Everything is so much bigger than we can possibly imagine at the same time as being so immediately in front of us that it can't be ignored. I'm not sure if that comes to an effective conclusion, or if that leaves you feeling soothed. All I know is that we have to find some way each day to keep fighting for humanity and to keep fighting for what we know is right, even when we are being shown in 4D, in super streams, in unrelenting footage, the absolute, abject worst of what humanity is capable of.

Speaker 1: 24:17

And don't give up. You've been listening to Untethered with me your host, clementine Ford, and I love you. I think that love is so important to all of us Love for ourselves, love for each other, love for everybody, love for those beyond you know, the people that we can touch and talk and laugh with, love for what it means to be alive in the world and love for the great gift and the privilege of being able to honour life for others. So I love you and I'm sending you some waves of love through this, and I'm sending love to all of our human ancestors who have given us such incredible blueprints for how to fight back and to fight for the world that we want, and I'm sending love to everyone who comes after us who, with any luck, will no longer need those lessons but, with all likelihood, will still probably benefit from them. Free Palestine no-transcript.