hmm, im not sure how much i agreed with this one.
basically jenn posits that we as a culture position people at two poles of a binary: - objectification – we all know what this means. for example, in our culture, women are often objectified. their agency removed &c. - subjectification – this is when a person is made a subject, given agency, responsibility. for example, in our culture, Black children are subjectified and assigned far more agency and responsibility for their actions than White children
okay, yes. then she argues that bad, traumatising things happen to e.g., billionaires but because they are subjectified they are denied legitimate victimhood? like, the things they then do aren’t percieved as coping mechanisms, or rationalisations or trauma they’ve suffered, but deliberate actions and ideology they impose
and like, i get that point. but. i feel as though accruing that much power – even though it is absolutely a coping mechanism!! – has to confer a large amount of responsibility. you shouldn’t have power! i am an anarchist though.
idk, i feel like “Elon Musk is the way he is because of trauma” can be both true and immaterial to the fact that Elon Musk Needs To Be Stopped. Lots of people are traumatised in similar ways, and we (society) don’t treat them the way we (society) treats Elon Musk.
jenn also argues that we just don’t have the time or resources or expertise to heal even the most common and basic sorts of mental hurt, which is true, and sad. i hope we get there one day.
actually… i think we do have a lot of the tools we need? idk, i know a lot of people with all sorts of mental trauma who are doing A Lot Better Now. its like other hurts, it leaves scars, sometimes the joint still hurts, but you aren’t still suffering from a wound or w/e. Yeah! Psychology and counselling and so on often are effective, if its done well and shit.
Hmm…
i think im just too much of a weird anarchist to accept (feeling compelled to create?) a power dynamic as a natural or acceptable consequence of trauma. my usual, “lots of people do Y but they aren’t X” rubric comes in clutch. lots of people are traumatised, but very few become despots about it. (i guess more do, locally, but still not enough to be like your trauma made you a despot in a way you had no choice about…).