In order for democracy to work, we have to fight the impulse to surrender our power. We have to take responsibility for our own lives, individually and collectively. That means making a practice of taking back power from those who we have surrendered it to—even when believe they are using it benevolently.

There are cracks in the capitalist hegemony. And the life that grows there is both fragile and resilient, like a dandelion, both common and mysterious. It is irreducible to mathematical formulae or objectifying language. It is uncontrollable, wild. It is ubiquitous, and yet practically invisible to capitalist eyes. These cracks are the spaces which emerges when two or more people connect and form a relationship free from exploitation and domination.

"I was amazed how a BLM protest could end up creating the conditions for a counter-protest and possibly even politicizing a group of people who may have never engaged in a political demonstration otherwise. While everyone was congratulating me on a great event, I was privately wondering if the most significant impact we had was to energize and mobilize people on the opposite side who might otherwise have stayed home. That was the last demonstration I organized. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to make sense of what happened."

You don't have to believe them when they tell you that your uniqueness is a sickness, that to defy them will mean your undoing, that it makes you the enemy.