The Complicated “We” & Protagonism: Notes from Shanghai & EcoDharma Intensives (Part 2 of 3)

The ancient Appalachian Mountains, older than the Atlantic and the first land animals and trees, are a wonder, a grand physical marker that we, as humans, are not the center but a part of an interdependent living world. Thich Nhat Hanh’s core philosophy of Inter-being beautifully expresses that we are intimately woven into the fabric of the entire universe — from our atomic makeup to our shared physical origins. We are a product of the cosmos, history, lineage, our ancestors’ labor, and the living beings we share this earth with. 

Our survival as humans over the last 200,000 years has depended on essential environmental conditions: clean air and water, stable climate, and arable land. As a species, we have had to adapt to navigate an ever-changing natural world. In particular, land has shaped our evolution, and we have in turn shaped it. From foraging to domestication, industrialization, and urbanization, our drive to reproduce daily life more efficiently has left an indelible human mark on this planet. This historic dialectical relationship has proven that human life is sustained by our labor and the land.

Nature is among our greatest teachers. By observing the inner workings of our interconnectedness, we can more clearly see that the concept of the isolated self is a delusion—one that brings forth great suffering. This suffering has become acute under racialized capitalism. 

Our human history is etched in these mountains. Appalachian Elegy (bell hooks) highlights the contradiction of our interdependence and the Western frontier ideology of rugged individualism. The Blue Ridge mountain range, in Madison, Virginia, has a deeply personal and dramatic human history defined by colonial and pioneer settlement, localized mining, and twentieth-century mass displacement. I encountered the beauty and felt the discomfort of waking and sitting with these mountains during a week-long EcoDharma retreat at Seven Oaks Retreat Center. Our teachers led talks on decades of ecological extraction and exploitation that have led to ever-increasing environmental crises and catastrophes. Referred to as the “Great Humbling” — we are on the doorstep of a socioeconomic reckoning that is the result of heavily accelerated Western industrialism and technology, and historical accumulation fueled by advanced capitalism’s insatiable need for endless growth. The coal that powered the Industrial Revolution was mined from these very ridges. The timber that built the cities of the East Coast was felled from these slopes. The labor that extracted both–largely poor white and Black workers, often trapped in company towns and debt peonage–was treated as disposable as the land itself. 

This is not ancient history. 

Today, many of the same counties face persistent poverty rates double the national average, while absentee corporations still control vast tracts of land, capturing federal transition dollars meant for renewable energy and community recovery. It is the living legacy I sat with each morning. Despite the system’s attempts to overcome or outpace the Earth’s biophysical limits, we now find ourselves colliding with ecological limitations that threaten the future of civilization and human survival. 

It’s heavy. At every talk, in meditation and mindfulness practice, I felt the psychological and social toll of separation and alienation. I sensed the weight of what we face in my body. 

In Part 1, I shared the lesson of learning to be with it all and raised the question, “What is my/our duty?’ 

When I am willing to see what is, I know that we are connected. I remember the history of resistance and survival. I notice my own capacity to carry my part because I/we are not alone. I return again and again to my purpose: to honor life in all that I do. 

Awakening Class Consciousness: Embracing the Political ‘we’

“The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

- Marx & Engels “Communist Manifesto,”(1848)

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.

It is our duty to win.

We must love each other and support each other.

We have nothing to lose but our chains.

We must fight on!!!” - Assata Shakur, "To My People" (1973)

Between 2018 and 2021, I underwent a significant personal transformation, shifting from being a good non-profit manager to taking on political leadership. It forced me to grapple with the question of duty, to study, and to increase my ability to respond in unprecedented circumstances. In Many Hands, Light Work (p 42-43), I briefly explore how history has shaped our current conditions. I connect this to the driving logic of my former organization: the intentional leadership development of segments of the working class, with the aim to build up the social forces capable of halting and transforming our current conditions under late-stage racialized global capitalism.

“With its beginnings dating back to the 16th century, capitalist hegemonic rule has been consolidated through the use of coercion and consent. Twentieth-century Italian Marxist theorist and political leader, Antonio Gramsci, describes hegemony as the ability of the state to capture political and civil society. Under racialized capitalism, we are forced to sell our labor power (coercion) to the ruling class to survive; the value extracted from our labor perpetuates our exploitation and the oppressive status quo. The ruling class leads the other classes, and their interests become embedded in all aspects of society as the common sense. Competition, consumerism, individualism, and extraction are the ethos of their rule, represented in the economic base and reinforced in political, legal, educational, media, religious, family, and cultural institutions. The ruling class relies on our active participation (consent) in maintaining the system, and their use of repressive forces activates when they can no longer hide or legitimize the exploitation of workers or fulfill their promises of class ascension, otherwise known as the “American dream.” This conundrum fosters alienation that permeates society: we become alienated from our labor, the environment, ourselves, and one another. The dehumanizing effect of alienation is visceral. This becomes the basis of class struggle: the place where class consciousness can awaken.

As Marx lays out, the working class has the greatest revolutionary potential to transform society because of their daily experiences of exploitation and their power to halt production. As political workers and organizers, it is our role to develop the revolutionary capacities of everyday people by highlighting these class antagonisms, envisioning a different reality, and engaging in meaningful work and struggles that bring about transformative change. We refer to this work as developing the protagonism of the working class, a shift from being objects of capitalism, to being the subjects or actors of reshaping our/their realities and the broader social conditions for the collective good.”

It is the slow, patient, ‘spade work’ of building power to shift material conditions, neutralize our enemies, and advance the interests of the working class. 

Over the past year, the question of duty has returned to me as my life and our global conditions have changed. In this season, my role is to help build organizations and develop leaders; to study and understand the world around me–to attune to what is arising and to stay embodied and sharp in practice. I believe that to be up to the task of struggling for our survival and future, we need dynamic people–political workers, leaders, and organizations that possess a compelling ideological framework, the ability to bring people skillfully into strategic political and organizational activities, and the socio-emotional capacities to act with clarity, courage, and commitment in service of our collective good in all aspects of social life. From this place, Blade & Spade Strategy Collective was born. 

“Life itself is the ultimate expression of the harmony of contradictions. Like the lotus flower that blooms unsullied by the muddy waters in which it grows…human beings possess tremendous potential and the life condition of Buddhahood, which they can bring forth in direct proportion to the depth of confusion and predicament they face.” -Soka Gakkai, The Middle Way

In the tradition of revolutionary movements, lessons, and ancient knowledge–I/we are guided by and compelled to protect the inherent dignity of all life. The Middle Way invites us onto a path that rejects the extremes of dogmatism, essentialism, and nihilism. It requires sobriety, maturity, discernment (an intellectual, decisive knowing), and responsibility–the ability to respond. To be awake, skillful, open, and joyful—knowing that we are not alone and the struggle itself is a source of meaning and vitality in these times that are calling us forward to operate from our wisest, most courageous selves. This commitment is not just intellectual or strategic; it is somatic. It must be practiced and embodied, which is why I’d like to offer this invitation to practice. 

*Invitation to Practice*

You can stand or sit.

Close your eyes or soften your gaze, allowing your eyes to land 2–3 feet away.

Feel the ground beneath your feet. Allow yourself to be rooted in the earth.

As you remain rooted, feel the length of the spine up through the top of your head, as if being pulled toward the sky.

While holding the length of the body—our dignity—come into your center. This is the place where all the vital organs are alive. Notice your core, your life force, your breath.

While holding the length and center of your body, come into the width of your body. 

Feel from shoulder to shoulder, one hip to the next, left foot to right foot. 

Then feel out into all the other living beings we are connected to.

As you feel into the full length, center, and width of this body, allow yourself to land on your intention, commitment, and duty. 

Say it aloud.  

Coming back into the body, gently ask the questions:

• Where in my body do I feel the call to act, and what is it asking from me?

• Who am I in relationship with, and how can I show up more fully for the collective?

• What would it mean to embody this commitment with mastery and rigor? 

Pause. Listen. Ask again.

In Part 3, we will go deeper into these questions and focus on how we embody our commitment. I’ll share more about what somatics, boxing, and meditation have taught me about mastery & rigor.