Listen to the interview >>
Listen to the Interview >>

The Freedom Theatre
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Youtube Videos from Nabi Saleh >>
Alrowwad – Beautiful Resistance >>

Fred and Gary of Activist Radio, a primetime program on WVKR, had me as their guest to discuss my academic studies in Peace and Conflict Transformation and my interests and intentions working in and with the performing, literary, display and culinary arts as a common ground for dialogue in healing trauma, transforming conflicts, rebuilding personal and collective identities and creating a new common narrative for building a future of reconciliation and engagement on the playground of our commonalities.

Listen to the interview >>jan9activist_radio_AR_Clip

Listen to the entire program >> jan9activist_radio

Here are some links to important articles and interviews:

• Interview on Dance with the Disabled in Palestine: Yante, DanceAbility International Mexico and Tareq Abboushi >>
• Articles and Essays on the theory and practice of Non-Violence Civilian based Resistance (in English and many other languages) >>
• Gandhi’s Autobiography: The Story of My Experiements with Truth >>
• Human Rights in/for Syria website you’ll find sime good links to articles and interviews on the left sidebar >>

I was discussing this idea with my Michael –  before the Occupy movement started – as I was experiencing an internal conflict over my external environment. The reasons for this are many and I may or may  not get into them later. Certainly, they would be instructive but perhaps too revealing about my personal life which is unnecessary for my ends – as far as I can tell now. In any case, if there is some insight to be gained from my personal life I shall divulge what is necessary.

Essentially, what I was experiencing was a loss of identity based in trauma. In my case the trauma was from a death in the family – a normal course of life. What it bred, internally, was a conflict between the principles I believe and espouse vs my conditioned behavior – reactions and responses to external stimuli. That is to say, my practices and principles were not in resonance with one another and, in this state of dissonance, I experienced what can be considered [albeit, on a small scale] an attrocity producing circumstance. As one friend put it, “You got sick on your own medicine.”

In any case, I do believe that the conditions that led to my experience are similar to circumstances leading to atrocity producing conditions  on a larger scale. That is, the trauma is not inflicted as a perpetuation of one’s own choices due to an irreconcilable situation that is part of the normal course of life. Specifically, discussing the plight of the Palestinians under military occupation and decades of violence, the trauma inflicted is carefully calculated as a means by which to occupy one’s identity  as Jonatan Stanzcak, one of the co founders of the Freedom Theatre of Palestine said during an interview for a benefit concert I promoted:

“… the occupation is not only a physical phenomena, it is not only the checkpoints and the wall and the settlements and the military invasion, it is much deeper than that. It is a fear, it’s a sense of suspicion that is everywhere. It’s the occupations ultimate aim, the occupiers ultimate aim is to occupy the identity of the people. It’s to manage to inject fear into the core of society and to make people suspicious between themselves. In that kind of situation all kinds of coming together and challenging that fear is a form of resistance…”

 

Of course, the contrast between a calculated occupation of one’s mind in the case of the Palestinian peoples – as pointed out by Stanczak – vs. my personal experiences are quite different in the sense of the origin of the trauma and the magnitude yet, at the same time there is an important similarity between the two circumstances – namely, the occupation of identity can be a continuous presence as in the case of the Palestinian people and it can also be a cultural indoctrination that is invisible and works its way – like a disease – through the core of one’s being. Elucidating this inculcation – that is, psychically unravelling to understand how this indoctrination into a culture of denial and disconnect functions, one realizes that the goal of the occupier of one’s identity is the same as the goal of military occupation.

The fact is that we are not educated to understand who we are as free willed individuals. Rather, we are bred in ignorance and fear to serve something other than ourselves most often without any personal gain. In my case, which really serves as an example of a human living in a ‘free’ society, my servitude in the enchanted prison was less obvious – certainly to myself at the time. In the case of the Palestinian people, their enslavement is completely obvious to most of the so called free-willed of the world.

Some of the basic principles of conflict deal with will, desire and expection. I would add “need” to this this list as well. A first round of things to cosider is where do our will, desire and expectations come from. Are they driven from our core temperament or are they derived by messages from an external force who is out for personal gain (i.e. God and the State) by controlling our thoughts and actions. Cast these principles into the realm of reality (what is happening), possible realities (what could be), and irrealities (what can’t be, though we may have the will, desire and expectation to create such a reality depending on our level of delusion) and add to that the internal and external forces influencing will, desire, and expectation and you’ve got a very complex situation at hand.

Those of us who have experienced personal trauma and have worked our way through it understand the difficulties of drawing resonance amidst all of the competing principles, forces and messages we receive. Those stuck in an environment where the external forces are ever present and relentless in their tactics to control are, essentially, in an intractable situtaion.

Understanding the nature of the forces, principles and messages and how to manage them to transform and transcend this occupation of identity is to be a focus of this blog and, so, I will continue to elaborate on these ideas as I learn more and gain more insight into the nature of occupation carried out by a power structure that wants nothing more than to keep us in mental slavery locked up in the enchanted prison.

Listen to the interview with Jonatan Stanczak

Listen to the interview with Jonatan Stanczak >>