[IPSM] Book Review: Wielding the Force: The Science of Social Justice by Zainab Amadahy

[mattm-b at resist.ca]

Book Review: Wielding the Force: The Science of Social Justice by Zainab
Amadahy

http://stonesandsticksandwords.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/book-review-wielding-the-force-the-science-of-social-justice-by-zainab-amadahy/

i bought my first copy of Zainab Amadahy’s book, “Wielding the Force: The
Science of Social Justice” after a book launch and workshop put on by
octopus books, a well-known bookstore in ottawa.  i immediately gave that
first book to my therapist and friend. although i’d only read the
introduction i knew from articles i had read previously and from the
workshop that the focus on healing, relationships, community and hard
science would be precisely the type of book that she would enjoy and that
would be useful for her professionally.


i bought my second copy of the book several months later (i’m poor and my
insufficient income is from the Ontario Disability Support Program or i
would have bought and given away many copies by now, i’m sure.) this is
one of those books that i read at exactly the right time in my life: a
book about how our individual and communal well-being effects and is
effected by the activism we do that i was reading while in the midst of an
intense healing process (from ritual abuse) and as i was re-engaging with
activism after taking an 8 month hiatus due to interpersonal conflicts
caused, primarily, by emotional and mental health problems.


i am planning to give my second copy away as well, or at least lend it out
to another friend who has been going through her own healing process and
coming to terms with the extent to which the activist community we are
both a part of too frequently (dys)functions.


in Wielding The Force: The Science of Social Justice, author Zainab
Amadahy addresses how kindness, generosity and compassion promote
individual and collective well-being, and the hard science that confirms
this. she contrasts this with the negative impacts that rage and
negativity have on people and communities, with a focus of the book being
activists and social movements.


one of the main difficulties that social movements in canada face is the
extent to which the emotionally dysfunctional dominant culture damages us
as individuals and the difficulties this creates for healthy sustainable
relationships and activism – and yes, health relationships and healthy
activism are intimately interconnected. as my therapist says, “activists
need to be well-fed, well-rested and well-connected”. of course, this is
something that EVERYONE needs. the reason for emphasizing activists is
that due to the global systems of capitalism, colonialism and different
systems of oppressions, too many people are not well-fed, well-rested and
well-connected, and activists have made a commitment to changing this
situation. if we can’t prioritize this, or even bother to try, to do this
for ourselves, how are we going to help co-create it with everyone else?


while this book does examine new findings from “hard” science for examples
that show how compassion and joyfulness positively impact individual
health, it is also a critique of the mainstream and materialist
perspective of science. the mainstream scientific paradigm is critiqued as
an epistemology that fails to adequately explain the world, and as one
that creates and reinforces the individual and social problems that we
experience in our daily lives.


a good example of the flaws with the dominant, mainstream materialist
analysis comes from the “science” of capitalist economics, specifically
the concept of externalities: “[i]n economics, an externality is the cost
or benefit that affects a party who did not choose to incur that cost or
benefit”.  in capitalist economics, some relationships matter, and some do
not, and a number of those that do not matter to capitalist economic
theory are called “externalities”. specifically i am thinking of the
extent to which environmental destruction caused by industrial and
capitalist production is largely ignored by capitalist economic theory. in
reality, human beings are not and cannot be separated from their
environments, environments that we are a part of and that effect us, just
as we effect them, and our actions cannot be considered external to the
world that live in.  in fact, this elision serves to mask the true costs
of production, and the actual relationships that human beings have with
one another, animals and the natural world. so, for example, the pollution
of the land, air and water through burning coal for electricity can be
ignored in capitalist economics as an externality, while the reality of
polluted, waters, airs and lands cannot be ignored by all of the plants,
animals and humans that experience them. and this pollution provides a sad
example of how we are all connected, of how “an injury to one is an injury
to all”. when water, a lake, or a river is polluted all of the life forms
that live in that water will be negatively impacted. all of the life forms
that live off the life in those waters – say kingfishers , or ospreys,
will also be negatively impacted. and any humans that fish that river and
hunt in that area will also be negatively impacted. we are all connected
in very real and tangible ways. and this reality of how we are all
interconnected is fundamental to the relational framework that the author
describes in her book.


i used this example from ecology because it is a concept that is, these
days, easily understood and commonly known to many people. however, this
book is not focused on ecology, but on the human heart, mind, spirit, and
how activists need to prioritize healing for ourselves, our communities
and the natural world. healing individually and collectively is essential
to effective social justice movement – without it we are, sadly, bound for
and to failure. not only is it necessary to have healthy and
transformative relationships, consider this: trauma effects our ability
not only to relate to each other in a good way, which is a requirement for
the type of unity we need to truly challenge this whole, capitalist,
colonialist and oppressive society, it also effects our ability to think
and act strategically – and if we can neither unite, nor act
strategically, then how, i ask you, can we hope to win?


in this book you will find many concrete examples of why love and
compassion are beneficial to human beings and to social movements. for
example, researchers at The Institute of HeartMath have found that “a mere
five minutes in the FFF [Fight/Flight/Freeze] state buys you six hours of
depressed immunity, high blood pressure and the biochemistry of stress
(such as high cortisol and adrenaline levels)….HeartMatch research shows
the following consequence of what might be called “negative emotions”
(although such emotions have their functions) such as less capacity to
think clearly, less efficiency in decision-making, less ability to
communicate clearly, reduced physical coordination, higher risk of
disease, increased risk of high blood pressure and so on.”





conversely, when people experience positive emotions, such as thankfulness
and gratitude “HRV [Heart Rate Variability] scans show a smooth,
consistent heart rate that corresponds with the best states of health. HRV
coherence is an indicator of longevity and physical wellbeing.”


finally: “Hearth Math states that the consequences of “positive” emotions
include: enhanced physical and mental performance, enhanced creativity,
innovative problem solving, more effective decision-making, a greater
capacity for flexibility, improved memory and enhance immunity. In sum,
cultivating feelings of compassion, gratitude, generosity and forgiveness,
love, appreciation and other optimistic, pro-social states can play a
significant role in maintaining a healthy relationship to self.”


it is easy to see how all of these consequences of “positive” emotions
would enhance our activism and make us, our groups and our movements more
effective.


there is much more to say about this book, but, as I have been busy and
struggling to get this review finished, I will leave it at this in the
hopes that this brief description gives you a sense of why this book is
important and why I think that you should buy it, read it and give it
away.