Page 16 - Vo Vo | FIX MY HEAD #10: COMPLEXITY

THINGS I WISH I COULD CHANGE ABOUT LIVING IN THE STATES (and am working on):
1. The feeling that people are competing instead of working together for something. The imme- diate suspicion I receive when I’m telling folks I wanna do cool fun shit with them for no partic- ular reason besides increasing education and being closer to liberation (collectivism vs indi- vidualism). Or people feeling attacked or defensive when I’m offering my time or assistance.
2. Capitalism. The skewed priorities of folks who have forgotten the ecosystem, & other context. 3. The president. There should be no president, period.
4. The unerring egoism that is a function of said capitalism and commercialism. I miss humility. I am tired when people’s sole motivation is to “get internet famous” or whatevs.
5. The conflation of identity with belief - emotion defining responses and positions instead of critical analysis, engagement and dialectical synthesis. O, to be able to discuss abstract con- cepts without butting into a lizard-brain reaction based on ‘just cuz” or “that’s how I’ve always felt about it, okay?”.
6. The consumerist exercise of dating, or personal or sexual relationships. Shallow, one-dimen- sional understandings of humans instead of multi-faceted individuals. Due to the rampant reli- ance on defining identity and oneself with what we own, buy, consume - lovers and friendships seem to be an extension of that also. I miss spending quality time and developing friendships with folks, and not being judged by pre-determined concepts of who I am based on superficial details.
7. Conformity
8. Living in a nation based on and inseparable from Christianity
9. White beauty standards and communication norms (white supremacy).
10. Misogyny. Rarely seen as a function of what I know or do (eg. an engineer, luthier) but usu- ally as a sexual opportunity or object in an evnironment without capacity to engage.
I’ll leave that for now. I am really content here, overall, I promise. A lot of the time it means searching harder for spaces safe from the above.
Much love to you all X