POLITICAL RESISTANCE FOR BEGINNERS
Do you ever have the feeling that you can’t connect with the political issues of the day, that you feel disconnected and alienated from the social issues that plague us and the politicians that drive the narrative?
Do you have the sense that the realm of politics just can’t resolve the tensions of our day; whether poverty, terrorism or the environment?
Have you ever felt powerless when you try and make your voice, your concerns voiced? In a word, have you ever felt voiceless?
Does the institutionalised spirituality of our time leave you thinking you don’t want to be a part of it and that the political commitments of your Church, Mosque or Temple that you attend, is departing from the heart of the teaching you were meant to hold dear?
Welcome to the World of 0w1. Welcome to the life that Strix and his friends lead.
Whether it is the Politic or Religious sphere that makes you feel impotent, that your gifts are not understood and that you spend most of your time defending them or your ‘lifestyle’; that your fellow believers forever seem suspicious of. Does that ring any bells? And that every time you meet them you come away feeling depleted?
When your religion is so strongly connected to the political figures and parties of the day, without any critique or questioning of their lust for Power and that you are urged to follow that party or politician as a sign of tribe loyalty. If you don’t, your salvation will be doubted? Whatever that means, because if they were to know you had differing views, that would definitely disqualify you from being one of the chosen few.
If you are sick of being scrutinised and discouraged, that you no longer need your spiritual experience to be mediated or validated by a supposedly god-chosen representative; then it is possible to find a Way that offers you acceptance over rejection and love over judgement.
The World of 0w1 welcomes you to the hyperreality of the ‘vision space’. The deeper you go, the more the boundaries are blurred.
This then is the political context of “0w1:believe”, a time when the Church has sold out to political power and is no longer a voice for the poor and marginalised. The Group, through their experiences in ‘vision space’ embark on a pathway that will lead them to resist that warped political and spiritual reality of their world, along with their spiritual masters.
“And if we gather around a static god of order who only guards the interests of the “haves”, oppression cannot be far behind...[we need] nothing less than...the dismantling of the empire, both in its social practices and in its mythic pretensions.” Source - Walter Brueggemann ”
As much as they live their lives in the Project and, wherever they are employed in the city, they are forced to attend the Cathedral Festivals of Christmas for Sacred State and Easter for Sacred Mother Church.
This managed life deserves a healthy dose of chaos, of subversion, so that people can actually see that they are slaves to both the State and the Church. The Group plan an event across the Projects and the City Centre, that will show people the true state of their reality. But...the State Security Services are watching and for one of The Group there’ll be a terrible price to pay.
Geoff Hall
