RE: [pf] we took the wrong track, in the '50s and '60s

by Nan Hildreth

05 December 2000 20:02 UTC

At 09:18 AM 12/5/00 -0800, Fitzsimmons, Diane wrote:

>Why is it that I feel so strongly that way?  And always have?  Why do so
>many other people feel so strongly the other way?

I was raised to try to impress folks with my stuff.   I rebelled against it all 
along, but some of it stuck, mostly shame of not having an impressive car or 
clothes.   

Simplicity study and activism has helped me understand that it's part of my 
cultural heritage.   I'm Scarlett O'Hara's great-granddaughter.   There folks 
are either "colored", "trash" and People.  People prove they are People by 
dressing well and having fancy weddings.   Without understanding the myths of 
elitism, you can't understand the weird things folks do.    

It was a lot of work to question my inheritance of beliefs.  The good news is 
that throwing out the rubbish in them feels good.   For example, the anxiety of 
not measuring up.    

I think a lot of folks feel unhappy,  but unless folks around them question the 
dominant culture, unless they get encouragement to think it through, they will 
presume it's a personal problem.  I did.   Prophetic talk helps us get in touch 
with pains we have buried.  


Nan Hildreth  Nan.Hildreth@pdq.net
Houston 

"As long as we remain disarmed and isolated, alone with a pain that we feel to 
be personal, no matter how clearly imposed by social and economic forces, we 
are bound to feel helpless and reduced to impotence."  Jeremy Seabrook writing 
for Third World Resurgence http://www.capside.org.sg/souths/cap/title/need.htm