In 2018 we started exploring metaphors for the kind of rock bottom and rehabilitation humanity would need to go through to outgrow the imprints of modernity in our ways of thinking, feeling, imagining, relating and being. We were looking for an allegory that could emphasize that this is not a matter of shifting just our thinking but one that requires nothing short of neuro-genesis. Inspired by a conversation with Dougald Hine and Felix Marquart, we started to talk about the need for “AA for humanity”. Felix compared our behaviour as humans and neurochemical attachment to modernity to an addiction to heroin and emphasized, from experience, the pain and difficulty of rehabilitation.
Although we did not proceed with using the term AA for humanity at the time, that conversation had many ramifications, including the publication of the anti-assholism memo and contributions to the work on neurocolonization and neuro-decolonization by Cash Ahenakew. We also had helpful conversations about the benefits and limitations of Alcoholics Anonymous (including its foundations, history, and grounding in a onto-metaphysics of individualism).
Today, we are experimenting with repurposing the term “AA for Humanity” to denote the calibration of a compass guiding us towards emotional sobriety, relational maturity, intellectual discernment, and intergenerational responsibility (SMDR), anchored in 14 daily steps. In this context, we ask you to come up with your interpretation of what AA could mean in your context other than alcoholic anonymous. We offer a brief synthesis of the SMDR compass (for a more detailed version, see here) and the 14 steps below (for a more extensive version, see here). We recommend using the SMDR compass and these 14 steps in conjunction with the “Towards Relational Accountability” deck of cards.
SMDR compass
- Emotional Sobriety: Emotional sobriety in the SMDR compass means choosing a path of rehabilitation over self-serving behaviours. It involves:
- Letting go of harmful colonial impulses like the desires for absolute moral authority, unaccountable autonomy, the arbitration of justice and common sense, and the affirmation of one’s virtues, purity and innocence.
- Developing the capacity to handle discomfort, uncertainty, and conflict without seeking immediate comfort or validation.
- Building emotional and relational resilience to confront difficult realities without escapism.
- Shifting from reactive responses to intentional ones through neurophysiological self-/co-/meta- regulation.
- Relational Maturity: Relational maturity is about choosing to embrace the challenges of “eldering” instead of seeking instant rewards or self-infantilization. It includes:
- Moving away from transactional relationships based on control and predictability and towards relationships grounded on trust, respect, reciprocity, consent, and accountability.
- Learning to be (self)compassionate, patient, and to set healthy boundaries.
- Connecting with a deeper source of wisdom beyond the ego and identity grounded on human constructs.
- Intellectual Discernment: Intellectual discernment involves transitioning from certainty-driven to inquiry-driven reasoning. It encompasses:
- Moving away from rigid, reductionist reasoning and embracing more flexible, adaptable and multifaceted approaches.
- Developing depth, insight, and the ability to differentiate between different perspectives and layers of complexity.
- Recognizing when one’s desire to be right hinders love and compassion.
- Intergenerational Responsibility: Intergenerational responsibility means embracing responsibility for the impact of one’s generation on the planet and future generations (i.e. “the buck stops here”). It includes:
- Letting go of the belief in incremental progress and investing in interrupting harmful systems.
- Processing and learning from past mistakes to prevent their repetition.
- Prioritizing the well-being of current and future generations of all species.
- Driving change through embodied and visceral epigenetic rewiring instead of self-interest-driven choices.
7 steps back
1.stepping back from one’s self image to decenter the ego and centre the challenge at hand
2.stepping back from one’s generational cohort to have a sense of how incoming generations may interpret and experience the challenges differently
3.stepping back from the universalization of one’s social/cultural/economic parameters of normality to understand one’s privilege as a loss of perspective and sensibility
4.stepping back from the immediate context and time to see wider historical, structural and systemic patterns
5.stepping back from normalized patterns of problem-posing, problem-solving and relationship-building to tap what is already viable, but unimaginable/unintelligible in the mainstream
6.stepping back from the elevation of humanity above the rest of nature to consider our metabolic entanglement with the planet
7.stepping back from the impulse to find quick fixes in order to expand our capacity not to be immobilized by complexity, complicity and uncertainty
7 steps forward and/or aside
1.stepping forward/aside with honesty and courage to see what you don’t want to see
2.stepping forward/aside with humility to find strength in openness and vulnerability
3.stepping forward/aside with self-reflexivity so that you can read how you are being read and learn to read the room
4.stepping forward/aside with self-discipline to do the work on yourself so that you don’t become work for other people
5.stepping forward/aside with maturity to do what is needed rather than only what you want to do – to become a good Elder and ancestor
6.stepping forward/aside with expanding discernment and attention, increasing care in proportion to risk
7.stepping forward/aside with adaptability, flexibility, stamina and resilience for the long haul and be prepared to fall, to fail, to have your plans shattered, to be stretched, to change course and to find joy in the struggle itself rather than in the imagined prize at the end.
For a more extensive version of these steps, visit 7 steps back/forward/aside.
Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures 