The People Are Waking Up

by Lisa Pellegrino
Cornwall Meeting

Growing up Catholic, it took me many many years to even consider coming back to any organized religion. The Quakers have won me over with our consistent approach of using inquiry to seek truth. Any kind of preaching or proselytizing is frowned upon. We do not ascribe to any doctrine or dogma. Hallelu, ama’am! It’s been enlivening to awaken to questions as the answer.

What a growing number of us in the working class are realizing is that our political and economic systems are corrupt. In grad school, when I was studying business and sustainable systems, they would say how the system isn’t broken—it’s working exactly as it’s designed to work. Case in point: if you’re poor, you pay interest; if you’re rich, you collect interest. Both are reinforcing feedback loops that keep one in their socio-economic status.

I recently watched online a panel discussion at the New School with bell hooks, where she shared how she thinks being in conversation is one of the most effective learning techniques. That stuck with me. Being in dialogue is a fluid dance that sparks genuine engagement, and I know I learn so much through conversations with friends on emerging topics. An important one of late has been wealth inequality. 

Class consciousness is on the rise. While it can be a slippery slope between awareness and despair, ignorance is not bliss. Knowledge is power. And the right question at the right time can be transformational. So what are the questions we need to be asking?

My faith is guiding me to listen more, to myself, and to my carefully selected teachers. I’m also feeling led to ask questions more loudly. I want to start honing in on those juicy questions that engage critical thinking to help us progress to where we know we need to go, which is a post-capitalism world. The work of the Post Growth Institute has been a brilliant beacon by facilitating beautiful offerings like the “Offers and Needs Market,” and so has adrienne maree brown’s work on Emergent Strategy. There are many others lighting and leading the way.

For the vast majority of us in the working class, the situation has become untenable.

And we are coming together like never before. Some are saying it’s no longer right vs. left, but bottom vs. top. As a Quaker I know better than to relish in any adversarial dynamic, but the imbalance has become so undeniable that it can no longer be ignored.

The people are waking up.

How then, do we as a Quaker community address this?

How can we act with a moral clarity similar to that of Lucretia Mott, who helped lead the abolition and women’s rights movements, and advocated not buying the products of slave labor?

How can we show up with the fervency of old Friends like Benjamin Lay, who sprayed fake blood on wealthy slave owning Quakers at the Burlington, NJ Meeting?

How do we organize and build bridges for the emerging environmental and economic justice movements with the vision and diligence of Bayard Rustin who mentored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in nonviolent civil resistance?

Rather than shy away from them, how can we as Quakers reclaim and embrace our radical roots? 

What does evolving past strategies look like to branch out for organizing and movement building?