The Struggle: Who's doing it, What its' for, and Why you ought to too.

This week we contemplated the content of two absolutely smashing articles, "You probably know to ask yourself, “What do I want?” Here’s a better question", and "Blockadia: The New Climate Warriors". These two articles work together to start a narrative on identity, hope, and determination. Naomi Kleins’ conversation about Blockadia grapples with the popular notions that economically fueled overexploitation of the global environment is an unstoppable phenomenon of the modern age. She counters this doom-and-gloom yarn with a shotgun-strategy of stories regarding unlikely allies and unforeseen champions standing up against a common threat - Fossil Fuel extraction.

Cowboys & Indians, Greek Youth, French villagers, Nigerian Ogoni, Canadian First Nations, and working-class Richmond residents are all players on Kleins stage, working with varying degrees of awareness of each others’ struggles to fight back against the unrestrained interests of an industry with no regard for human health. Sure, we’ve all heard success-stories of small pockets of social justice here and there across the globe, but Kleins’ article forces us to look a little closer to see the big picture.

As fossil fuels become a scarcer resource, fossil fuel finders must work harder and use more extreme measures to acquire their next payload. This helps explain the rise of Hydraulic Fracturing AKA “Fracking” as a global conversation piece. While the new technology enables this industry to extract oil from places never before considered economically viable, it has not enabled them to roll right over the peoples who live on top of their product. Naomi Klein is showing us that this uncanny mix of resistant communities from across the globe have become entrenched in an issue that could soon become everyone’s issue - if I don’t want devastatingly pollutive oil facilities in my backyard, then where will they go? Well, as the French residents of Saint-Tropez said, “Not Here, Not Anywhere”.

Blockadia’s current track record shows us that as the struggle to keep oil in the ground continues, the spread of oil-extraction industries is being stamped out while the established drilling “homelands” of the Midwest, Canada, Europe, and Africa have for the most part maintained their grip. However, Klein is showing us that where fracking attempts have been squashed by local resistance, the momentum spreads out to other communities, serving to hedge the exploitative industry in. Each new addition to Blockadia caused by an overzealous fracking is another straw on the metaphorical camels’ back for the fossil fuel industry. 

This is where Mark Manson’s article comes in. His short and sweet article asks the reader to ask themselves a hard question; What are you willing to struggle for in life? This question is delivered as an alternative to the flabby, generic soul-searcher default question of “what makes you happy?”. In short, this article demands you reframe the way you look at happiness to recognize the steps needed to take to live a fulfilling life. For people like me who struggle with the subjective dichotomy between pursuing a “happy” life and contributing my part to the betterment of the world, this article was a much needed kick in the pants. Both of these articles serve the same conceptual dish, albeit with different garnish. They offer the reader an unadulterated viewpoint on how the power of one’s attitude can make the difference between making something impossible or possible. I encourage everyone to read these two articles and ask yourself, “what are you going to do when they come for the oil in your back yard?”. Just don't forget, we're all in this together.

The Foundation of "Togetherness" and Reaching the Top

“We’re concerned about protecting the environment as well as people’s health…It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are at or what race you are-red, black, white or yellow-we’re all in this together.”  

This was stated by Lummi master carver Jewell Praying Wolf James after his tribe had arrived in Montana to meet with the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and local cattle ranchers to help protest the largest coal export terminal on the West Coast.

One of this week’s readings was Naomi Klein’s, “Blockadia: The New Climate Warriors,” which at one point looked at evolving pockets of resistance fighting against new industrial activities. This conflict zone known as “Blockadia” has brought people together far and wide from all over the world. So why are different groups of people from all walks of life coming together you ask? People that have never heard of each other, to groups that would cause harm if they came into contact with each other, are setting their differences aside. They are joining forces in their stand against new industries that threaten to destroy their homes and livelihoods because even when things get dark, there is always light when it comes to community as diverse groups of people experience the same consequences of ecological destruction. No matter where we are from, we all live on the same planet which means we are all going to have shared experiences due to our own actions. This is why different ethnicities, that no more than a century ago would have fought, have formed alliances because the state of mind that, “We’re all in this together,” has never been so important until now and corporations still fail to recognize this. As more of these diverse groups form, the communities they create have this level of “togetherness” that is making it much harder for corporations to conduct business. The phrase, “Not In My Backyard,” no longer applies to the world we live in and it is, “Neither here, nor elsewhere,” more people are living by that raises our spirits and gives us hope that one day the answer “No” will be final when it comes to corporate ecological degradation.

In Mark Manson’s article, “You probably know to ask yourself, “What do I want?” Here’s a better question,” really hit home with me, especially in this chapter of my life. I have always thought of doing cool things in life and getting my name in the spotlight but I never wanted to go through the trial and error of failing and getting back up again which you hear many successful famous people talk about. I just wanted to have a fast track pass to the top without ever doing the hard work. As Manson puts it, “I didn’t like to climb much. I just liked to imagine the top.” I was not willing to put up a struggle to get what I wanted and I now realize that struggle is all part of the process. Knowing this has given me new hope that one day I will “reach the top” and the experiences I have are all part of the journey that will mold me into the person I become. It is up to me on what I am willing to fight for and I know the reward will be worth it in the end if my heart is in my struggle. 

Mark Manson’s Piece titled, you probably know to ask yourself, “What do I want?” Here’s a way better question, led me to reflect on my relationship to my wants and struggles. Manson’s piece suggests that general population wants the reward without the struggle but, what if my wants are to struggle? Not saying that my wants come easy but that they are framed in a way that the struggle and want cannot be separated. I don’t want to be smart I want to study, I don’t want to be fit I want to exercise, I don’t want to be rich I want to work. My parents are loving and supportive and are financially supporting me as I go to HSU. The question I ask when I look at my bills and grades is, have I earned this? I want to be at HSU but, I am separated from the struggle of my want because it has been given to me. Without my parents support I would not be able to attend HSU, should I drop out and start working for my keep even when they are willing? While reading Manson’s piece I started with the position that I am different than the people he is talking about, because I want the struggle. AS I continued to think about what Manson was saying I started to understand that I am no different. Just because I focus on the struggle of the reward doesn’t mean I am able to take more suffering then anyone else or that I enjoy the suffering. My framing of struggle and want hasn’t made my motivation to exercise or study any easier. Manson ended his piece with “choose you struggles wisely” that is the next question I need to reflect on. I need to think critically about how much I can really take on 

Doom and Gloom Vs Tales of Victory

For any environmental writer the goal is to motivate and inspire. Transforming words on a page into global activism. However, when doing this an important question arises. Should you aim your focus on the risks that we face if action isn't taken or the stories of success and mobilization? Both of these narratives will affect your readers in drastically different ways.

You may feel that the doom and gloom rhetoric encompasses the right amount of urgency for these sets of problems but in reality too much of this can be crippling for the reader, furthering that feeling of hopelessness towards a undefeatable problem. We want to move away from that type of influence and instead promote the idea of hope. However, when people only read about environmental victories it undermines struggles and hardships. This can potentially take away from the amount of concern the reader might have for that specific issue, ultimately leading away from public participation and action.

If done incorrectly both of these positions can be dangerous. Throughout my experience, environmental writing has been the most effective when blending these two types of narratives, bringing both the urgency and hope to the table. For a writer, balancing these two types of stories can be challenging but in the end it's what we really need. People look to writers and story tellers for direction and the closer we get to perfecting this, the closer we get to repairing our environmental problems. 

The Effects of Stories and Idealization on Hope

In Blockadia: The New Climate Warriors, Naomi Klein discusses positive stories of resistance. Even though mining and fossil fuel companies are extracting more and pushing into even more territory, this increase in risky methods is also fueling more backlash. Many of the stories we hear today are focused on the extreme extraction -- or otherwise harmful activities -- that industries are taking part in. However, we often don’t hear the stories of resistance or other positive stories that combat these stories of degradation. This lack of sharing positive stories can lead us to fall into a pit of despair. If we do not hear these positive stories, then we can fall into the trap of believing that “no one cares” or “nobody is doing anything about this” and resign ourselves to the false belief that “nothing will ever change”. We can become cynical about both the world we live in and the people in it, without realizing that change is occurring every day. Klein, with her positive stories of resistance and a “continent-wide” and even “global movement”, tries to combat this pure cynicism and sense of powerlessness. Bringing more attention to these stories of change that are overlooked -- whether it be activism or one person at a time realizing the horrible consequences of an industry's activities -- can bring us more hope by showing the change and resistance that occurs much more often than the dominant discussions of awful stories would lead us to believe.

In the article "The Most Important Question of Your Life", Mark Manson discusses how many times people want the “good things” in life without recognizing the work these things require. Just as it is important to draw more attention to the positive stories that occur today, it is also important to acknowledge that these positive stories often had lot of work put into them to make happen; they did not just appear out of thin air. In terms of hope, the amount of work people are putting in around the world to make change happen is just as hopeful as any “result”. Manson also discusses how we have an idealized view of “happiness” that ignores both the complexity of emotions and struggles we will face in our lives. Often times, we are told to “find our happiness”, with some dream of an end result where we finally have the perfect life. This type of thinking can also be attached to the world as a whole with another sort of dream that it will become a “utopia”. Imaging that there will suddenly be a “perfect life” or “utopia” will only be detrimental to hope, as it will create disappointment when these idealized versions of life and the world do not occur. Instead, hope can be found not in the perfect, but in working for change and the better -- which can having a variety of meanings for different people.

One thing I disagreed with in the "Most Important Question of Your Life" was Manson’s statement that “this is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes”. While Manson does acknowledge that he is not simply calling for “willpower”, this type of statement does fail to discuss that some people in life are going to have to work far harder for their “rewards” or “successes” than other people might have to. “Success” can happen much faster for those that may already have a more privileged access to it. There are such a variety of “struggles” and “pains” in the world that occur (many without any sort of “willingness” or “want”), that they cannot always be said to lead to “successes” either. Just as it is important not to idealize happiness, it is also important not to idealize “struggle”. For some, a better and more hopeful world may mean alleviating some of the pain and struggle that occurs.

“I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love not with the fight but only the victory. And life doesn’t work that way.”

This quote is from a piece titled, You probably know to ask yourself, “What do I want?” Here’s a way better question, and written by Mark Manson has led me to ask some introspective questions..

What do I want to struggle for? What pain do I want to endure in the quest for contentment and true happiness in this life? Well...If you had asked me this question at the beginning of my college career I would have told you a hundred different things.

At one point I was sure I wanted to be a sexologist.

At one point I thought for sure that I wanted to take over my family's farm.

At one point I really thought I wanted to get an intersectional doctorate degree and be a professor.

At one point I thought I wanted to get an environmental job across the country and move.

So what about now? What pain and struggle do I want to take on now?

It is clear to me that I was not actually in love with the tediousness of the academic world.

That I was not in love with the internal struggle surrounding moving back to the Central Valley.

That I was not in love with the thought of being completely alone in a foreign place quite yet.

So what about now? What struggle sounds the most pleasant? What pain can be met with a simultaneous pleasure?

In this present moment...all I know is that I want to garden, exercise, and travel after I graduate.

I want the struggle of working the land, planting my crops, and harvesting them.

I am in love with the fight that I feel within myself as I push my body further and further through exercise.

I want the process that I will undergo mentally and physically through travel.

And that is it. No more. No less.

Let me explain this realization that I have had in another way:

I keep asking myself what I have really learned in college...and I am just now figuring it out. I have learned how to be content with myself and my desires. I have learned to rid myself of the plague that is dissatisfaction and a constant thirst for more. To be happy in the simplicity of my life. To make peace with not being able to fix all of the problems around me, & to instead focus on what I can do that is positive and does make me happy in the purest of ways

And it feels freaking amazing.

...I have realized that to be happy, is to be honest with yourself. To find what you want to do, not what you want to be and to chase after that. Because life is not going to give you victories or rewards for free. As Mark Manson says...life doesn't work that way.

To The Teacher That...

“When students are encouraged to trust in their capacity to learn they can meet difficult challenges with a spirit of resilience and competence...Teachers who extend the care and respect that is a component of love make it possible for students to address their fears openly and to receive affirmation and support.”

Being a college senior has turned out to be an extremely reflective time for me, which I must say, I did not expect when I started this collegiate education journey. As I begin to close this chapter in my life, at the extremely confusing age of 22, I can't help but look backwards at what, and who, has led me up to this very moment. It seems as if the days, and years, have flown by and it was just yesterday that I was attending my first day of college at FCC in my hometown of Fresno, California. How did I get here to Humboldt State? How did I get in this Environmental Studies Program? It would seem that this writing by Bell Hooks titled, Teaching Community - A Pedagogy Of Hope, has come at just the right time to help me dive deeper into these questions.  

If it had not been for some very influential and, in retrospect, loving teachers than I cannot say for sure at all if I would be graduating this spring with my degree in Environmental Studies...I cannot say for sure at all where I would even be in this world. What I like about the piece by Bell Hooks, is that she articulates an experience that I myself have undergone as an undergrad as I have been working,  and searching my way through the thick jungle canopy that is the college schooling system. Looking back to who I was at the beginning of my college career I can now acknowledge this: I was extremely insecure (and clueless) about my abilities, my strengths, and my weaknesses.Now I feel so much more confident in the few years I have dedicated myself to becoming a more well rounded and critical thinker. I can proudly declare what I know I am good at and what I know I struggle in without any feeling of shame or anxiety.

How do we put a price on that? What school standard did a teacher use to give me this gift of confidence? Is it the textbooks and tests that I have to thank for this? The answer is a loud and assertive HELL NO.

What has been the most formative and influential for me throughout my college experience has been my professors. And this one thing, my professors, is what  I have come to realize is my definition of a pedagogy of hope as it most makes sense to me in my life. I can think of certain teachers specifically who really changed my course and steered me closer to my most current being and for that I will be forever grateful.

Without these teachers extending their care, respect, and love to me I would have never done so many things that I currently treasure so dearly. This affirmation and support that I received from my teachers has meant everything to me and I want to take this particular moment in space and time to consciously honor them. I want to do this because although these people have meant so much to me in my life..most of them I have no idea how to contact and they would never guess they made such a big impact on me. In fact I can't even remember some of their names. It is funny how the mind works...So at least, at the very least, this is a place to start to honor these teachers and all of the love, and hope they have instilled in me.

• Thank you to that weird philosophy teacher I had in Jr. college for philosophy of religion that always wore bicycle shorts and cleared his throat every two minutes. You drove me insane most of the time but underneath your..quirkiness..you were a brilliant man. Thank you for introducing me to the world of ancient philosophers and for the wisdom that they have continued to bring me in my life. Thank you for teaching me that it is not what is on the outside, it is what people have on the inside that matters. Thank you for teaching me patience. Thank you for teaching me how to deconstruct philosophical views and opinions. Thank you for the God and the stone question. That has always stuck with me!

• Thank you to my JR. College biology 103 teacher who taught me that women can study and work within the world of science. Thank you for giving me enough to confidence to realize that I AM smart enough to study and work in science too. Thank you for inspiring me to have role models again. Thank you for being someone I wanted to impress and for unintentionally encouraging me to get a high A in your class. Thank you for being the first proud and well educated vegetarian that I had the pleasure of discussing animals with that showed me other people think critically about animals as well. Thank you for inspiring me to find a science program that fit my interests!

• Thank you to Mr. Tannen for seeing talent and worth in my writing in Jr. College. Thank you for caring about me, engaging with me, and respecting me enough to reach out and tell me to that I would be a good english tutor. I would have NEVER done something like that otherwise. Thank you for having fun, themed, classes for English 1A and 3 that have forever changed my interpretation of superheroes and my future immensely. Thank you for making me a better writer and for helping me become more confident and secure in my abilities.

• Thank you to Professor Sarah Ray for your passion for critical thinking that you bring to class with you every single day. Thank you for somehow getting to know me, my passions and my life despite having countless other students in your life. Thank you for making me feel like I have important and valid things to say. Thank you for introducing me to so many amazing authors that I will literally spend years reading. Thank you for always being your authentic and honest self. Thank you for being the mentor I needed and wanted from my time at Humboldt State.   

So who the hell am I this may when I graduate from college and am officially in every way an “adult”? I have no clue. But what I do know is that without these people, these teachers that each gave me something unique: that inspired me, educated me, gave me hope, and molded me into the articulated and confident person I am today, have made all the difference. They have all individually helped me figure out who I am...and you know what? I think I am pretty damn cool.

Education Creating Hope: A Story of Two Sisters

This weeks readings were centered on education, our first reading by Jeff Duncan-Andrade, “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete,” and excerpts from “Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope” by bell hooks. 

Though I have never considered myself an educator, these readings have really opened my eyes to what being an “educator” means and the power that one holds in this form. I have come to discover that we are all educators in some way or another, whether it be to a sibling or a cousin to a coworker, there are many opportunities for “education.” 

I have only one sibling, a younger sister, who I am very close with. We have been close all of our lives, mostly because of our parents divorce during our youth. We knew that one another were going to be the only ones who truly understood what the other was going though. Such as how life was at moms house, to life at dads house, to life at our grandparents house. We knew that the only way to maintain hope about getting through our parents divorce was to stick together. 

The lesson of sticking together to maintain hope is one that Duncan-Andrade and bell hooks have reaffirmed for me, but on a much broader scale. When Duncan-Andrade stated, “… audacious hope demands that we reconnect to the collective by struggling alongside one another, sharing in the victories and the pain” this really resonated with me but I was not sure why. Through reflection and discussion with my sister over spring break I have come to understand that we maintained our friendship and sisterhood to maintain hope. By applying a broader definition of educator, where it is not a simple top down relationship, but a cycle, I came to understand that my sister and I were educators for each other. She would teach me how to not stress about moving back and forth from home to home and I taught her how to divide fractions. We were able to balance one another and form a relationship that both of us cherish everyday. Perhaps we would have fought and not become as close if it weren't for our parents divorce. 

Trying times open up opportunities for connection and community that can give personal and societal hope about dismal situations. Education is a powerful form to create this bonds, and by brooding the definition of an “educator” there is more opportunity for these bonds, and thus hope, to be formed. When applying this lesson to climate change as a “trying time” the possibilities are endless. 

Change the Story

                How can we as individuals challenge the societal norms we have become accustomed to everyday? As an elementary school student I was conditioned to fit into a system which is obviously outdated and was detrimental to my own way of learning. When I read the Bell Hooks piece, Teaching to Transgress I came to realization that I was not the only student who has had a negative experience in the education system. I understand that the bulk of the reading our class did was surrounded around college classrooms but I believe that this can also be applied to the elementary school level. Each student is an individual. We all learn differently. Some students fit into the already existing, outdated Prussian industrial model, however most do not. I was one of those students who became conditioned to fit into a way of learning that I was not comfortable with. I was a very high-energy boy and a visual learner. I learn best by being immersed in a subject. I need to see how the subject in question works in the real world.  In college certain classes I took fit my style of learning much more than I was previously accustomed to. I began to encounter professors that cared about the content of their class engaged me as an individual student. Writer Kelly J. Baker sums up my point perfectly in her review of Teaching to Transgress called Teaching as Liberation. She writes, “We must do better. Students need knowledge, but it has to be more than bits of information they are forced to remember. It should be relevant to their lives. Teachers should care not only about the mastery of the subject, but how the content engages a life.” If we change the overall story of how a classroom ‘should be’ then we can engage more students and inspire more learning in all levels of education.