Episode 25 Power
quotes from the latest podcast which are relevant,
On power and human behavior (Jenny)
“It led to a lot of theory around people put in positions of dominance and power are going to have the worst parts of humanity come out of them. That it’s like, can anybody really hold on to positions of power and not compromise something of themselves? Of course, the degrees of that might vary. But I just think our psyches and our bodies are not meant for these power vacuums that these worlds create.”
On cultural definitions of leadership and power (Jenny)
“There are definite archetypes of power in Western society, and if you don’t possess those personality traits, character traits, physical traits, whatever, you will be a person who’s not in power… We value certain character traits and define them as the characteristics of a leader. And so does that sort of predispose some of this behavior because of what we define as an effective leadership trait versus what we define as unwanted traits?”
On hierarchical attachment and trauma cycles (Danielle)
“Instead of us being attached to one another—like a horizontal attachment—we’re more attached to power, to hierarchy. And that’s inherently based on who is going to be left out of humanity. So then a child learns something about the world that is contrary to their own development—that love doesn’t guarantee protection… and then we get what we get: these incessant cycles of trauma and harm and powerful men.”
On whiteness as a system of access (Rebecca)
“The very notion of whiteness is absolutely built on the question of who has access to resource and power and who does not… belonging itself is about access to power and privilege and resource. And so the frame itself is already built around power—not around something like love. And so whatever you have to do to get in, the exchange becomes: I will give up parts of myself to have access.”
On the instability of belonging in America (Rebecca)
“There is the ‘bring me your tired masses,’ and yet there is this strain through history that says, ‘We don’t really mean that.’ And if you come over here, depending on who is in power at the time, it’s a fifty-fifty shot—you’re going to get an actual welcome or a betrayal of that invitation. That’s the identity crisis of the country.”
On collective vs. individual survival in marginalized communities (Rebecca)
“When you get into marginalized communities, there is often this sense that what the whole needs far outweighs what the individual needs. And that leaves you vulnerable to the expectation that you would sacrifice yourself… because if you don’t, you risk expulsion from the community. And if you’re already marginalized, being pushed out of even that community is a terrifying possibility.”
On the harm of speaking without accountability (Rebecca)
“The harm that simply comes from, ‘I told you what happened and you turned your back on me,’ is enough. Even if nothing else happens—no job loss, no retaliation—that alone is a harm unto itself. That you said nothing, that you did nothing.”
On accountability and the absence of community (Jenny)
“You can’t have accountability without community, and most white-bodied people are not in community. Everything is so insular—your house, your car, your cubicle—that there isn’t the kind of interdependence required for accountability to actually take place.”
On community-based accountability and reintegration (Rebecca)
“What I hear in that model is not just accountability, but accountability rooted in reintegration—this idea that there is a path back, a path of redemption. That whatever has happened, there is still a way to return to belonging… and that requires something from both the person who caused harm and the person who was harmed.”
On harm as a community condition (Danielle)
“I think of sexual assault as a sickness in the community. And I think of suicide many times as a failure of the health of a community as well… What is the community willing to look past? Because as it turns out, they’re willing to look past almost anything before it gets to the point of actual harm.”