“Overhaul,” is basic a firefighter skill used to search for hidden fires or sparks—hotspots. These places not only may lend clues to the cause and origin of the fire, but they also will cause trouble later if they are not properly and thoroughly taken care of. The Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute says overhaul is an “attempt to put the building, its contents, and the fire area in as safe and habitable a condition as possible.”
I am aiming toward an overhaul of the contradictions I find between what I believe or claim to know and the sometimes very different ways I participate--what I see myself doing. My goal is to work this into a “we” conversation, so bear with me! I’m hoping to get everything I can “back on the engine”—along with some new equipment I’m learning to work with in fairly short order…
It is likely that I need to take into account that some of the contradictions between knowing and doing are cases of my acting out of ignorance. Rather than some philosophical tension I refuse to grapple with, I may be doing what I do because I don’t know anything different. This could also be as simple as taking for granted that my actions agree with my understanding. But, this is a place to be careful and alert!
My friend and teacher, Christos Kyrou, introduced me to the idea of epistemic violence, where “the means of a culture for knowing and communicating such as language or symbolic systems, are being systematically damaged, altered, or censored violence is done to one’s way of knowing life” (Peace Ecology : An Emerging Paradigm in Peace Studies, 2006, p. 8). Before leaving what could appear a bit narcissistic with all the I/me framing, I want to take the cue from Christos’ phrasing to note how individuals (I and we) do this very violence—epistemic violence—to their own stories as they act out these contradictions and dissonance.
True enough, inflicting violence on others is a major target for our overhaul, and this too can be inflicted in ignorance, as mentioned above—simply not knowing differently. But that ignorance is one of those hotspots we've got to find and eliminate!
Mike C.
Mike C.
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