#autonomy

[cosmerelists]

Cosmere Characters vs. A Watched Pot (That Never Boils?)

You know that idiom, "A watched pot never boils?" Well, here's how Cosmere characters would treat a pot poised to boil that they're not supposed to watch.

[This post contains jokes based on Wind & Truth!]

Kaladin: Watches the pot the whole time, feeling stubborn.

Lirin: Doesn't watch the pot. He can recognize wisdom of the Heralds when he hears it! Also, he is busy.

Siri: Doesn't watch the pot--she has other things to do in the kitchen! She's helping the cook!

Lift: Doesn't watch the pot. Watching water boil sounds stormin' boring.

Pattern: Watches the pot, delighted to learn that it boils anyway, right on time! Humans sure love their lies.

Vasher: Doesn't watch the pot. He's sleeping. Wait--he's sleeping too long! Someone tell Vasher that the pot is boiling over!

Szeth: Watches the pot the whole time, his eyes wide and unblinking. Is he actually watching? Is he reflecting upon the voices only he can hear? Before long, the pot boils. Possibly out of fear.

Elend: Having been told not to watch the pot, Elend can't help but steal a few glances at it, you know, just to buck authority.

Shallan: Does not watch the pot--she has, like, a million other things going on right now!

Amaram: Watches the pot but claims he didn't.

Lightsong: Has Llarimar stand with his back to the pot, deliberately not watching in case that helps it go faster. It is unclear whether Lightsong believes this or is just messing with his priest.

Ulaam: Does not watch the pot, but does leave his jar of eyeballs on the counter next to the pot, just to have a laugh (it's kandra humor).

Navani: Knows how it long it takes for a pot of that size to boil with that amount of water and that amount of heat. She doesn't need to watch!

Dalinar: Doesn't watch the pot, but does keep checking the time-keeping fabrial on his wrist. He can't seem to help himself.

Autonomy: Has hundreds of pots boiling on hundreds of stoves. Can she really watch them all? (Yes, and she's doing it.)

Honor: SWEARS he only took his eyes of the pot for a SECOND but the water has already burned away by the time he looks back and now the house is on fire. Whoops.

Preservation: STARES at the water, unblinking, to ensure that it doesn't try to turn into a gas on him. It doesn't work; why does it never work??

Harmony: Has Wax watch the pot for him.

[philosophybits]

In Kantian ethics, which is at the origin of all ethics of autonomy, it is very difficult to account for an evil will. As the choice of his character which the subject makes is achieved in the intelligible world by a purely rational will, one can not understand how the latter expressly rejects the law which it gives to itself. But this is because Kantism defined man as a pure positivity, and it therefore recognized no other possibility in him than coincidence with himself. [...] Unlike Kant, we do not see man as being essentially a positive will. On the contrary, he is first defined as a negativity. He is first at a distance from himself. He can coincide with himself only by agreeing never to rejoin himself. There is within him a perpetual playing with the negative, and he thereby escapes himself, he escapes his freedom. And it is precisely because an evil will is here possible that the words “to will oneself free” have a meaning.

Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity

[zebulontheplanet]

I get really confused, and even angry sometimes at lower support needs people who don’t understand the true meaning of autonomy and when it comes to caregivers and guardianship.

I mentioned ONCE in a group about wanting to go into assisted living and looking into it. Immediately got dog piled by people saying to absolutely not go into assisted living because itd “take away my autonomy” and “I should just live with others for as long as possible.”

Assisted living, group homes, guardianship, whatever, can very much mean that someone actually GAINS autonomy. And independence. The goal is for quality of life. We should be focusing on quality of life instead of what YOU want. What YOU want as a lower support needs person because you’ve heard bad stories.

Higher support needs people often don’t get the decision. It’s life or death for them. Y’all HAVE to realize that.

Stop forcing your narrative on young higher support needs people who are looking into different options for their care. Yes. It’s SCARY to be put in a bad situation, but often times it’s trial and error for us. Y’all HAVE to realize that. We don’t have the privilege to pick and choose between if we just live independently or go in a group home. It’s group home, or death, or living in a fucked up, maybe even abusive situation already.

Stop it.

[biophonies]

when I drew this comic 3 years ago I had NO idea how far it would reach. I'm happy to finally share a corrected version with proper abbreviations, and even MORE state names of indigenous origin ♥️

however, the goal of this comic was to inspire people to do your OWN research on indigenous history. To question everything we have been taught, and everything that has been pointedly left out. This erasure, this “forgetting”, of history is not just of the past… it is happening now. - Across so-called Canada, the US, and US-occupied islands, native women are victims of murder at 10-12x the rate of non-native people, and are the most likely to go missing without being searched for by the law. - Native reservations have the highest rates of poverty in the US, with over HALF of tribal homes with no access to clean water (with more joining this list by the year) - Native people are 6-10x more likely to be unhoused than the rest of the population, and native teens suffer suicide rates higher than any other demographic. This list of modern day genocide goes on (thank you for compiling @theindigenousanarchist <3) and yet take a look at those environmental stats!

Native people manage to do SO much for the planet as a whole - thanklessly - and with all this stacked against them. Don't even get me started on kin fighting in south america. Could you imagine if there was help? #landback is resistance to genocide, and it is the key to saving our warming earth.

So look into it and the other hashtags, cuz a cartoon goose ain't a substitute for a proper education. Love to my grandparents who always kept a map of tribal territories of turtle island on their wall, to speaking on our Tsalagi & Saponi heritage. Love & solidarity forever, happy research, and happy #indigenouspeoplesday

LANDBACK.ORG

(Also, if you care to support the artist, I'm publishing a book ! and writing another - a fantastical afroindigenous graphic novel - that I post exclusively about with tons of other art on my patreon.)

[only-knives]

people hate self diagnosis because it provides Mad people with autonomy.

self diagnosis goes against the idea that psychiatriac professionals have unique knowledge - knowledge only obtainable by someone who has studies for years, specifically from a removed & outside perspective to any individual's Madness: even if that student, themselves, is Mad.

self diagnosis goes against the idea that Mad people are inherently incapable of telling their own story - that any ways in which they do communicate, express themselves, etc. is tainted by their Madness and thus unreliable.

self diagnosis says "i know my own bodymind better than anyone; i live here. this is my life. i get to define my experiences." self diagnosis holds self compassion. self diagnosis holds self empowerment.

diagnosis is typically something "given to" Mad people. in psychiatry's eyes, diagnosis is something to describe us that we must have, yet can never attain for ourselves.

so even though self diagnosis takes from the boxes that psychiatry has prescribed, it is still a rebellion. it may not be The Solution to freeing Mad people from psychiatry - but it still means something. to me, at least.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Direct action, simply put, means cutting out the middleman: solving problems yourself rather than petitioning the authorities or relying on external institutions. Any action that sidesteps regulations and representation to accomplish goals directly is direct action—it includes everything from blockading airports to helping refugees escape to safety and organizing programs to liberate your community from reliance on capitalism. Here we present a step-by-step guide to organizing and carrying out direct action, from the first planning stages to the debrief at the end, including legal support, media strategy, and proper security.

There are countless scenarios in which you might want to employ direct action. Perhaps representatives of despicable multinational corporations are invading your town to hold a meeting, and you want to do more than simply hold a sign; perhaps they’ve been there a long time, operating franchises that exploit workers and ravage the environment, and you want to hinder their misdeeds; perhaps you want to organize a festive, community-oriented event such as a street party. Direct action can plant a public garden in an abandoned lot or defend it by paralyzing bulldozers; it can occupy empty buildings to house the homeless or shut down government offices. Whether you’re acting in secret with a trusted friend or in a mass action with thousands of people, the basic elements are the same.

[internetcatholicism]

Urgent prayers needed for a young lady, R. She is getting tremendous pressure from her family and the father to abort her child. Please pray for her friend, M, who is trying to convince her of God’s love for her and to save the child.

[millybrowm]

one issue i've noticed about a lot of the discourse surrounding women's choices here on tumblr is that people are trying to apply frameworks specifically used to discuss fiction to real people with autonomy and free will.

queerbaiting is something an author or director does with their characters (who do not have free will), it is not what a real person does when they "dress a little gay" or are unsure about their sexuality

the male gaze is a framework used specifically to describe how a director shoots a movie and the audience they have in mind. the male gaze is not something that is omnipresent and a woman wearing something sexy isn't "dressing for the male gaze".

characters do not have autonomy or free will. characters don't actually make choices.

real people do. acting as though women are incapable of thinking about their choices/dress/presentation and implying that anything they do that could appeal to men is automatically objectification strips women of their humanity.

[rikaklassen]

Originally reposted from Cohost. Drawn by @cherryinthesun.

[hellyeahscarleteen]

“Some autistic people have sensory sensitivities and may need to lay down some boundaries about how and where they are touched, and it’s okay to say you’re not comfortable holding hands, or don’t want to be hugged without warning. You have the right to bodily autonomy⁠! I’m not super into physical affection⁠, especially in public spaces, myself, and my partners know that. Sensory sensitivities around food, the texture of clothing, scents, and other issues are also things you can bring up, because you deserve to be comfortable. You don’t have to stress out through a meal of things with horrible textures or nod and smile when someone gives you a reeking perfumed candle!

When it comes to sex, clear, steady, constant communication is important for everyone — not just autistic people. Your partners should get that, and if they don’t, that’s not a super great sign. Sex can be silly and fun and dorky and it may include some joking around, but communicating about what you do and don’t like is no game. Tell your partner you want clear guidance from them, and provide the same. Some things to consider might include: Where you do and don’t like being touched, the level of pressure you like, how fast or slow you want things to go, what kinds of sensations you enjoy, the light levels you prefer, and whether you have a “stop everything right now” word (a safeword⁠), even if it’s just “stop” or “red.” (Safewords aren’t just for kinksters.)”

s.e. smith, Sex on the Brain: Sex and Autism, Mental Illness, and Other Cognitive Diversity

[akindplace]

“this makes no sense”, I think to myself. “But maybe it’s not for me to understand, because it’s someone else’s business”. Some things are just not for you, they don’t resonate with you, you don’t haven’t really experienced anything similar, and it’s not about you. You’re not going to like or relate to everything in this world and it’s fine. It’s not your business if something you don’t get makes other people happy. You don’t have to care.

You can just see it and go “oh this is not for me but it’s fine if it’s something other people like because it affects only their life and not mine” and just move on. People have a right to like what they like, to do what they enjoy doing, and not everything has to cater to you and everyone else in the world. And it’s fine, because someone probably has thought the same thing about the stuff you enjoy and what you do with your life and they moved on. And you have the same right to do the things you enjoy, to live you life the way you want to, and not have someone judge you harshly for that. If they do, they are the ones who should mind their own business.

[inkyrainstorms]

One of the things Ford would deal with his physical difference:

Medical malpractices.

That entry on the webpage about that medical facility, and that doctor seeing him more as a lab experiment than a person, affirms the brand. It ties well into the theme of his bodily autonomy repeatedly being violated during his life. (Which Alex Hirsch recently started properly exploring.)

People not only want his company. Others want to study him and / or take advantage of his differences.

yes! that page is always so facinating to me, and you’re right, it connects to a big theme that goes through basically Ford’s entire life: personal autonomy

between Ford’s dreams of going to West Coast Tech getting crushed (by what he believes is on purpose), him getting isolated by his peers, the medical malpractice he presumably goes through(the page ofc), Bill Cipher (which is a whole can of worms by himself) (emotional control and literal possession), his years before the portal incident are just him losing control of his own narrative.

even post-canon, there’s something to be said about Ford’s literal name being taken (with good intentions, im not bashing Stan) and twisted into something unrecognizable. he lost his home, whatever life he’d tried to make for himself— and even his name isn’t his anymore.

this all, of course, cumulates in him appearing to be very controlling. his life has been dictated by other forces for so long (bill, these hypothetical doctors, even Stanley(though he wasn’t really trying to)) that people that tried to help him(like Fiddleford) are also dismissed. he was afraid Fiddleford would steal his achievements, would undermine him. he wanted to be defined as more than his physical difference or intelligence (again, Bill and the doctors), but he sabotaged himself in the process

…Honestly, in the Martian Stan AU, Ford’s entire narrative seems to be, like in canon, him tempting to control his own story and save Stanley, even when people try to stop him. (he’s not…. succeeding so far) (i’m rooting for him)

in the martian stan au, Fiddleford is actually a big perpetrator of Ford loss of autonomy! i’ve been having a lot of thoughts about this recently, and what it would mean for him overall. Fiddleford and Bill play very similar roles here (so far) and it’s unfolding very interestingly in my outline documents

[dailyanarchistposts]

Turbulent times are upon us. Already, blockades, demonstrations, riots, and clashes are occuring regularly. It’s past time to be organizing for the upheavals that are on the way.

But getting organized doesn’t mean joining a pre-existing institution and taking orders. It shouldn’t mean forfeiting your agency and intelligence to become a cog in a machine. From an anarchist perspective, organizational structure should maximize both freedom and voluntary coordination at every level of scale, from the smallest group up to society as a whole.

You and your friends already constitute an affinity group, the essential building block of this model. An affinity group is a circle of friends who understand themselves as an autonomous political force. The idea is that people who already know and trust each other should work together to respond immediately, intelligently, and flexibly to emerging situations.

This leaderless format has proven effective for guerrilla activities of all kinds, as well as what the RAND Corporation calls “swarming” tactics in which many unpredictable autonomous groups overwhelm a centralized adversary. You should go to every demonstration in an affinity group, with a shared sense of your goals and capabilities. If you are in an affinity group that has experience taking action together, you will be much better prepared to deal with emergencies and make the most of unexpected opportunities.

This guide is adapted from an earlier version that appeared in our Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook.

Affinity Groups are Powerful

Relative to their small size, affinity groups can achieve a disproportionately powerful impact. In contrast to traditional top-down structures, they are free to adapt to any situation, they need not pass their decisions through a complicated process of ratification, and all the participants can act and react instantly without waiting for orders—yet with a clear idea of what to expect from one another. The mutual admiration and inspiration on which they are founded make them very difficult to demoralize. In stark contrast to capitalist, fascist, and socialist structures, they function without any need of hierarchy or coercion. Participating in an affinity group can be fulfilling and fun as well as effective.

Most important of all, affinity groups are motivated by shared desire and loyalty, rather than profit, duty, or any other compensation or abstraction. Small wonder whole squads of riot police have been held at bay by affinity groups armed with only the tear gas canisters shot at them.

The Affinity Group is a Flexible Model

Some affinity groups are formal and immersive: the participants live together, sharing everything in common. But an affinity group need not be a permanent arrangement. It can serve as a structure of convenience, assembled from the pool of interested and trusted people for the duration of a given project.

A particular team can act together over and over as an affinity group, but the members can also break up into smaller affinity groups, participate in other affinity groups, or act outside the affinity group structure. Freedom to associate and organize as each person sees fit is a fundamental anarchist principle; this promotes redundancy, so no one person or group is essential to the functioning of the whole, and different groups can reconfigure as needed.

Pick the Scale That’s Right for You

An affinity group can range from two to perhaps as many as fifteen individuals, depending on your goals. However, no group should be so numerous that an informal conversation about pressing matters is impossible. You can always split up into two or more groups if need be. In actions that require driving, the easiest system is often to have one affinity group to each vehicle.

Get to Know Each Other Intimately

Learn each other’s strengths and vulnerabilities and backgrounds, so you know what you can count on each other for. Discuss your analyses of each situation you are entering and what is worth accomplishing in it—identify where they match, where they are complentary, and where they differ, so you’ll be ready to make split-second decisions.

One way to develop political intimacy is to read and discuss texts together, but nothing beats on-the-ground experience. Start out slow so you don’t overextend. Once you’ve established a common language and healthy internal dynamics, you’re ready to identify the objectives you want to accomplish, prepare a plan, and go into action.

Decide Your Appropriate Level of Security

Affinity groups are resistant to infiltration because all members share history and intimacy with each other, and no one outside the group need be informed of their plans or activities.

Once assembled, an affinity group should establish a shared set of security practices and stick to them. In some cases, you can afford to be public and transparent about your activities. in other cases, whatever goes on within the group should never be spoken of outside it, even after all its activities are long completed. In some cases, no one except the participants in the group should know that it exists at all. You and your comrades can discuss and prepare for actions without acknowledging to outsiders that you constitute an affinity group. Remember, it is easier to pass from a high security protocol to a low one than vice versa.

Make Decisions Together

Affinity groups generally operate on via consensus decision-making: decisions are made collectively according to the needs and desires of every individual involved. Democratic voting, in which the majority get their way and the minority must hold their tongues, is anathema to affinity groups—for if a group is to function smoothly and hold together under stress, every individual involved must be satisfied. Before any action, the members of a group should establish together what their personal and collective goals are, what risks they are comfortable taking, and what their expectations of each other are. These matters determined, they can formulate a plan.

Since action situations are always unpredictable and plans rarely come off as anticipated, it may help to employ a dual approach to preparing. On the one hand, you can make plans for different scenarios: If A happens, we’ll inform each other by X means and switch to plan B; if X means of communication is impossible, we’ll reconvene at site Z at Q o’clock. On the other hand, you can put structures in place that will be useful even if what happens is unlike any of the scenarios you imagined. This could mean preparing resources (such as banners, medical supplies, or offensive equipment), dividing up internal roles (for example, scouting, communications, medic, media liaison), establishing communication systems (such as burner phones or coded phrases that can be shouted out to convey information securely), preparing general strategies (for keeping sight of one another in confusing environments, for example), charting emergency escape routes, or readying legal support in case anyone is arrested.

After an action, a shrewd affinity group will meet (if necessary, in a secure location without any electronics) to discuss what went well, what could have gone better, and what comes next.

Tact and Tactics

An affinity group answers to itself alone—this is one of its strengths. Affinity groups are not burdened by the procedural protocol of other organizations, the difficulties of reaching agreement with strangers, or the limitations of answering to a body not immediately involved in the action.

At the same time, just as the members of an affinity group strive for consensus with each other, each affinity group should strive for a similarly considerate relationship with other individuals and groups—or at least to complement others’ approaches, even if others do not recognize the value of this contribution. Ideally, most people should be glad of your affinity group’s participation or intervention in a situation, rather than resenting or fearing you. They should come to recognize the value of the affinity group model, and so to employ it themselves, after seeing it succeed and benefiting from that success.

Organize With Other Affinity Groups

An affinity group can work together with other affinity groups in what is sometimes called a cluster. The cluster formation enables a larger number of individuals to act with the same advantages a single affinity group has. If speed or security is called for, representatives of each group can meet ahead of time, rather than the entirety of all groups; if coordination is of the essence, the groups or representatives can arrange methods for communicating through the heat of the action. Over years of collaborating together, different affinity groups can come to know each other as well as they know themselves, becoming accordingly more comfortable and capable together.

When several clusters of affinity groups need to coordinate especially massive actions—before a big demonstration, for example—they can hold a spokescouncil meeting at which different affinity groups and clusters can inform one another (to whatever extent is wise) of their intentions. Spokescouncils rarely produce seamless unanimity, but they can apprise the participants of the various desires and perspectives that are at play. The independence and spontaneity that decentralization provides are usually our greatest advantages in combat with a better equipped adversary.

Bottomlining

For affinity groups and larger structures based on consensus and cooperation to function, it is essential that everyone involved be able to rely on each other to come through on commitments. When a plan is agreed upon, each individual in a group and each group in a cluster should choose one or more critical aspects of the preparation and execution of the plan and offer to bottomline them. Bottomlining the supplying of a resource or the completion of a project means guaranteeing that it will be accomplished somehow, no matter what. If you’re operating the legal hotline for your group during a demonstration, you owe it to them to make sure someone can handle it even if you get sick; if your group promises to provide the banners for an action, make sure they’re ready, even if that means staying up all night the night before because the rest of your affinity group couldn’t show up. Over time, you’ll learn how to handle crises and who you can count on in them—just as others will learn how much they can count on you.

Go Into Action

Stop wondering what’s going to happen, or why nothing’s happening. Get together with your friends and start deciding what will happen. Don’t go through life in passive spectator mode, waiting to be told what to do. Get in the habit of discussing what you want to see happen—and making those ideas reality.

Without a structure that encourages ideas to flow into action, without comrades with whom to brainstorm and barnstorm and build up momentum, you are likely to be paralyzed, cut off from much of your own potential; with them, your potential can be multiplied by ten, or ten thousand. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world,” Margaret Mead wrote: “it’s the only thing that ever has.” She was referring, whether she knew it or not, to affinity groups. If every individual in every action against the state and status quo participated as part of a tight-knit, dedicated affinity group, the revolution would be accomplished in a few short years.

An affinity group could be a sewing circle or a bicycle maintenance collective; it could come together for the purpose of providing a meal at an occupation or forcing a multinational corporation out of business through a carefully orchestrated program of sabotage. Affinity groups have planted and defended community gardens, built and occupied and burned down buildings, organized neighborhood childcare programs and wildcat strikes; individual affinity groups routinely initiate revolutions in the visual arts and popular music. Your favorite band was an affinity group. An affinity group invented the airplane. Another one maintains this website.

Let five people meet who are resolved to the lightning of action rather than the agony of survival—from that moment, despair ends and tactics begin.

[pratchettquotes]

Behind him Of the Twilight the Darkness cackled. "What a piece of work you are, Mister Slightly Damp, freeing the slaves and all. What you think his lordship will say about that?"

Moist shrugged. "He might be acerbic, but a little acerbic isn't all that bad. He's quite a one for freedom is Vetinari, though not necessarily mine."

Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

Hoid's now in Scadrial!! The vaporisation didn't go as Retribution had planned, apparently Hoid had a plan in case that happened, I guess that's what you have to do when you piss off most of the shards of Adonalsium. Anyway, I loved the references to the era 2 of mistborn, Ulaam's also there, which sounds very fun. Hoid did say that he won't be able to return to Roshar in a long time, because of Retribution, but also because Autonomy's planning weird things on Scadrial (and having read era 2 I know what he's talking about, that's so exciting!!). My favourite part, tho, was when Hoid admitted he, in fact, would care if Roshar got destroyed and that he loves the people there, contrary to what he told Dalinar in Words of radiance. Love the character development there.