the joy of survival

Lorde’s words, which were as prophetic and timely now as they were in 1978, beckons us to consider the uses of the erotic in these times: temporal moments when intimate connection between friend and stranger is seemingly obstructed by a type of capitalist individualism that refuses community. So, we must ask: what are the uses of the erotic as well as love, empathy, and pleasure in the lives and work of those who seek to advance human rights and social justice in age when even “rights” and “justice” are co-opted and commodified terms/ideas? More importantly how can we do our “work” in such a way that it might make a positive impact in times that seemingly conjure hostility, disconnection, and apathy, and not love, empathy, pleasure? How can we harness the erotic such that we move toward Lorde’s notion of “deep participation,” free from the “abuse of feeling,” with one another—especially as it relates to connecting to those who are differently raced, gendered, classed, and abled in a world organized around hierarchies and power differentials? How might we do our “work” without destroying each other, ourselves, and our shared world in the process?

We cannot resist the “yes” that exists deep within ourselves: the yes to connection and relationship; the yes to safety and reciprocity; the yes to justice and accountability.  When we say no to connection, to eros, we might easily miss THE movement, that is, the movement that moves us toward each other. In addition, the lack of empathy, a sign of care, certainly, fortifies the ego and frustrates our ability to regard the other. And, that is why the erotic is necessary in the lives and work of those who seek to transform our world. It is a posture of joining in a market-driven time that seeks to re-route our affective energies towards everything but the other, unless, of course, various capitals are to be gained by doing so. And if we are to remake a world and re-create systems, then we must engage transformative work free from the energies of misdirected rage, melancholy, and disdain that tend to characterize our present moment. If we are to remake ourselves, than we will necessarily need to see the self as essential part of a more expansive set of parts, a self that exists in community.”