The dance of liberation | The Way Things Are

The history of societies is nothing if not a history of conflict. All generations of the past have found

themselves as belligerents in a conflict of the body, heart, and mind between the circumstances that they are born into and the circumstances constructed for them by the systems that govern.

Our present era captures an especially momentous battle given the sheer number of individuals and groups that the system has managed to antagonize. It is a battle fought on the frontlines — in those instances at rallies, protests, and riots when the ground forces on either side are explicitly aware of the nature and intensity of the conflict.

However, to the committed soldier, to the ones who are able and willing enough to see the extent of the systemic injustices that we are victims of, it is also a battle fought in offices, factory floors, classrooms and homes — in moments that retain passive intensity and, yet, significant weight. As such, it is a battle with no respite, a battle with no designated battlefield, and, often, a battle fought against an undefined yet powerful enemy.

It is a battle that requires us to stand at attention under a persistently scorching sun and take arms against a sea of troubles that give no sign of an end, no matter how much we oppose them. It is a serious battle moulded by the seriousness required by all the countless despairs, horrors and moral failings of our era.

However, it is in the very recognition of the gravity of this battle that we must learn to, from time to time, allow ourselves to be unserious. Allow ourselves to be disarmed. Allow ourselves to take an off-day.

Such was the exact attitude of the American gay liberation movement of the 70s and 80s — the queer activists found themselves fighting a system that refused to recognize an AIDS epidemic that was killing them by the hundred thousands. And despite this, they were some of the most fun individuals to be around. The itinerary of liberation, in the eternal words of Dan Savage, involved “burying friends in the morning, protesting in the afternoon and dancing all night.”

The toll that any soldier consents to pay is the constancy of battle. Every stage of the good fight, right from our education of the several injustices we face to the practical measures we take to rebel against them, requires being in close proximity with the other side.

The dance is by no means supposed to be a distraction. It does not mean to take away from the fight itself— in the end, it is not separate from the fight, but in fact, an essential part of it. To conclude Savage’s quote, “it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for. ” In fact, it is in the depths of this sweaty, crowded and intoxicating dance that we are closest to the ongoing fight given that we are made aware of all that we have to lose if we didn’t enlist as committed soldiers.

I shall take a moment to selfishly lament our generation’s own despair by stating that our present struggle is a uniquely grueling one. The system of predatory capitalism that we are pitted against is able to permeate our daily lives unlike any other oppressive system of the past. Going back home to an apartment that costs too much, after a work day that pays us too little, for almost no time for leisure is punishment guaranteed to dishearten even the most resilient of souls. As such, it feels like those hearses we bury every morning before going to protest in the afternoon contain the bodies of our own resigned selves. The persistent alienation that Marx mentioned as making the worker “not affirm…but deny himself” makes daily life feel like a death before death.

Fortunately, ours is also the only era which has seen Kendrick Lamar, Freddie Gibbs and J. Cole all

release an album within the span of a single year. The only era lucky enough to exist at the same time as Boiler Room sets, techno nights, karaoke private rooms in Koreatown, and $3 beers during happy hours at your local bar. Never has there been a larger abundance of free museum visits, themed nights, and curated experiences dedicated to putting strangers in touch with each other.

Indeed, never have there been more young adults hungry for the same dance that Dan Savage mentioned as being the lifeblood of any revolution. For it is only in these instances that we are able to build the resolve and gather the strength needed to take part in the life-long fight against an oppressive system. Only in these moments of extraordinary experience is a dying life able to renew itself.