When protest becomes play. On inciting a revolution of joy

Rana is home.

A ‘ceasefire’ has been declared.

Trump is claiming credit for ‘peace’ in the Middle East, whilst attempting to send troops into Portland, Oregon, because he claims it’s a “war zone” and “burning to the ground” due to people protesting the actions of ICE.

The courts disagree and have blocked him on the grounds that the ‘unrest’ doesn’t meet the standards for a military response. 

Protesters are using costumes, humour, satire, nudity, and theatrical tactics to critique federal intervention and push back on Trump’s overblown rhetoric. Pensioners are playing ukuleles on the street, a Naked Bike Ride Protest was organised, Furries have been spotted amongst the crowds, and protesters are handing out flowers to law enforcement.

What does this have to do with you and your life?

Everything.

Our ability to be playful and access joy regardless of our circumstances is the ultimate power – and the ultimate f*ck you to any oppressor.

Trump WANTS the incite violent protest so he can legit send in the military, ushering in an era where it’s normal to militarise American cities that protest the government.

That’s a slippery slope that you can review as a history lesson in 1930s Nazi Germany. 

When the protesters refuse to play the game, and instead frolic, play, and radiate joy EVEN as they organise to prevent the terrorization of ICE campaigns destroying neighbourhoods, Trump’s rhetoric is revealed as the ravings of a lunatic. 

Or a man intent on controlling the USA by dictatorship before the next elections roll around – the one he can’t legally contest as a second-term President. 

Joy and play in the face of horrific circumstances flip the script and wrestle power back from those who would claim it by force.

In our own lives, where most of us live lives of extraordinary privilege, we can check ourselves by reflecting on how much joy and playfulness we embody when no one is bombing us into extinction, our water is safe to drink, our children are not starving to death, snipers don’t haunt out every step, and our identity is not being attacked and erased.

Wait – aren’t I meant to be writing about the ‘spiritual path’, and Kundalini Awakening?

Yes – and have you ever noticed that the word ‘enlightenment’ contains the most succinct instruction ever to access it?

En-light-en-ment.

Lighten up.

Be light (and hold the dark).

When the play is seen through, the character revealed, the truth tasted – what is left to do, but laugh and cry and delight and experience the joy of being alive because we ARE?

Now imagine an entire community, town, city, island, or nation that has lightened up.

That can meet control and domination a nd oppression with playfulness and joy.

Imagine, if you were one of those troops, indoctrinated and sent into your OWN CITY, to quell a protest… would you find it easier to obey orders and shoot if you were met with an angry, screaming mob armed with rocks and Molotov cocktails?

Or if you were met by singing, dancing, costumed protestors tossing joy?

Which one would make you fire your gun faster?

Which one would have you question your orders?

Which one would give you PAUSE?

And if you are those protestors, which one is the more difficult to generate and maintain?

Anger and fury?

Or joy and playfulness?

So THIS is why we train my friends, this is why the spiritual path, this is why the awakening. This is what I am calling Dancing the Dragon.

This is the challenging path because all the evidence in the world says you SHOULD be angry, and afraid, and react like THAT.

Yet from a strategic perspective, where we understand the cocreative role we play in this great dance, ACTING from joy and playfulness is the VERY action that will liberate us ALL.

The most successful protestors of the 19th and 20th centuries were non-violent and peaceful – and they were HIGHLY strategic. These included (but are not limited to) Gandhi’s Indian Independence movement (1915–1947), the U.S. Civil Rights movement (1954–1968), the Polish Solidarity movement (1980–1989), the Liberian Women’s Peace movement (2003), and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia (1989).

Maybe the most successful protests of the 21st century will be not JUST peaceful, not also JOYFUL – full of singing, dancing, drumming, and chanting.

Need to get your JOY on? Consider mentoring with me. Find out more here.

This was a newsletter for my peeps, but felt too juicy to hide away in email. Want to be the first to get these kinds of missives? Subscribe here.