Domination (noun): the exercise of power or influence over someone/something, the state of being controlled.
Similar: rule, government*, sovereignty, control, command, authority.
(Oxford Languages).
*The fact that ‘government’ is officially marked as a similar word to ‘domination’ is very telling, remember, this (domination) being ‘the state of being controlled’…
The antidote to domination:
Freedom.
Free(of)dom(ination)
‘the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.’
Similar: right to, entitlement to, privilege*, prerogative, due.
(Oxford Languages).
*Privilege: an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of their position or because they are rich.
The idea that we cannot experience freedom by birth right, but that we need to, essentially, be ‘born into it’, is so wrong to me.
Ultimately, if the government are dominating us and freedom, the antidote to domination, is based on privilege, then the only way that we can make positive change and free ourselves from the state of being controlled, is to abolish the systems that dominate (i.e., the government). Whilst ever the government are controlling us, we can never be truly free, because, the government acts as a gatekeeper to our freedom.
Even if you think that you are personally free, you cannot say this with certainty when the world within which you live is not free in its entirety.
Whilst ever there are women who are still being told that they have no right to an education, whilst ever there are people who are in jail for being gay, whilst ever there are ethnic minorities being subject to hate crimes, whilst ever there are governments in control of me, of you, of us, you are not free.
Open your eyes. Freedom shouldn’t be a ‘privilege.’ Stop letting the out of touch 1% convince you otherwise…
Exit: oppression and exploitation (capitalism and consumerism, and classism and sexism, and imperialism and ableism and racism-all the ‘isms’.)
Enter: Liberation.
‘To Be Free’- A Poem By Lisa Fouweather
You cannot say that you’re free with certainty
when the world within which you live is not free in its entirety.
when there are women and girls who are still being denied an education.
when there are gay people who are still being exiled from the population.
when there are people who are still being discriminated against for being black.
when there are ethnic minorities who are still living in fear of being racially attacked.
when the 1% are still treating the 99% with utter disgust.
when the government is still the biggest source of our collective mistrust.
when they reduce our lives to nothing at all.
when they push us down and then condemn us when we fall.
Whilst ever this ^ is happening, we cannot say that we are ‘free’
anymore than we can say that water does not belong in the sea.
The only way to be free is to break from the rules, to break out of the judgmental, enter into the transcendental
and make living not just surviving our new fundamental.
Open your eyes.
Open your eyes.
Open your eyes
the narrative we’ve been living by is all based on lies
of capitalism and consumerism, of misogyny and racism
and the whole shit show of full frontal fascism
BUT
We can all be free, that we can do,
the buck starts with them and it stops with you.
To speak the truth, to rebel from the system,
to set fire to the bible, to break out of religion.
To say a big ‘FU’ to the police and the patriarchy,
to open your mind to the prospect of anarchy.
To lean into discomfort when the old turns to new,
when I can be me and you can be you.
when it doesn’t matter where in the world you live,
when it’s not based on bribery/on how much you can give.
when freedom is a birth right,
when the systems we can override,
when finally,
we can be free.
If you enjoyed this poem, I highly recommend reading Bell Hooks essay ‘Love as the practice of freedom’, which discusses many similar themes surrounding our need for collective freedom…
‘Many of us are motivated to move against domination solely when we feel our self-interest directly threatened. Often, then, the longing is not for a collective transformation of society, an end to politics of dominations, but rather simply for an end to what we feel is hurting us. If we are only committed to an improvement in that politic of domination that we feel leads directly to our individual exploitation or oppression, we not only remain attached to the status quo but act in complicity with it, nurturing and maintaining those very systems of domination. Until we are all able to accept the interlocking, interdependent nature of systems of domination and recognize specific ways each system is maintained, we will continue to act in ways that undermine our individual quest for freedom and collective liberation.’
Bell Hooks.
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