Festival Theme #3: Revolutionary Care: Building Health Autonomy

@noemi @johncoate Thanks for the questions. We talked about this topic in the reflections post we just published. Overall, I think we should aim to be clear with the language we choose, but also recognize that our words will always be co-opted by the right/neo-liberal agenda. In addition, they are inherently loaded words, we are in fact talking about changing the world, and not everyone will be into that. But also recognizing that certain words have become trigger words not because of what they mean, but the meaning that capitalism/nation states/ governments have put into them. Communism being case in point. When most people think about communism, they think Stalinist USSR or other state controlled system. We harken back to the original meaning of the word, most used in examples like early Marx theory, the French Commune, or the communism of the Spanish Civil War. Even now, words like “autonomy”, “mindfulness”, “wellness” have all been co-opted and likely in the future will be unusable. What I think our mission is is to be explicitly clear about the meaning of words and refuse to let the powers that be taint that meaning. A long path fer sure!