Step 5: Inferiority as Power

Some thoughts on the role of inferiority in forward momentum, as well as the problem with getting stuck by blaming your past. There are people who move past trauma, and there are people who use their past to control others. This seems to take the form of “no one can know the feelings or pain I have felt” so the empathetic party must defer constantly to the person who cannot get past their past.

This would be considered an easy, or childish, power grab. Not that I don’t occasionally act out to get attention, hence my need for this reminder that I am creating my anger and relying on my pain as tools to use on others.

I think it is tricky to relate this “power of weakness” to identity politics, and perhaps that is another podcast, but essentially I am hesitant about power that can be declared based on biology, geography, or history.

This non-power as power also tends to move into a more post-structuralist idea, wherein rebellion is often self-defeating because it engages with the the tools of the system in which it is entrenched, thereby giving credence to the system you wish to deconstruct.

But more to the point, this is the kind of DIY self-work to be a more independent person participating in community with allies because we choose to, not because we need their reassurance to feel good about ourselves. We want to move through the world without causing damage, helping out and making friends.