Terrific, Matt. I'm glad to be a new part of this. This is an insight I will hang onto - 'the media system is a kind of collective nervous system'. We must restore it to health for everyone's sake.
Brilliant play on 'who watches the watchers'. Very excited to see how this, among your many emerging threads, develops and brings meaningful impact. It's nothing short of a call to a revolution in the culture of journalism.
reading your comment, it occurred to me, what if it was a standard process that when journalists return from challenging assignments, at home or abroad, they were afforded this degree of witnessing? Years ago I spent time in northern Uganda, where the Acholi community have elaborate rituals to "cleanse" returning warriors, in which the whole village takes part. I feel we could develop our own community-based rituals that would fulfill a similar function, in re-integrating individuals into the social fabric. One of the speakers at MediaStrong described retreating to his flat after coming home from Bosnia, and the absolute impossibility of responding affirmatively to a friend who called to invite him to a Christmas party -- trying to be helpful. What if we had a social architecture of safely-held spaces where the healing power of witnesseding could be offered in the moment, rather than 30 years later, as we did at MediaStrong?
So interesting, painful and moving to read of this exploration of the impact of bearing witness to horrific events. Personally, I think you've hit on something significant with your inquiry about the potential for a collective / community response. I'm connected with a growing network of people who are seeking to (re)create collective 'grief tending' practices. Without wanting to dismiss the benefits of individual therapy, I've experienced something powerfully transformative in spaces where grief, rage, numbness and overwhelm are expressed and witnessed by a group of peers. Care needs to be taken with how these spaces are set up - we talk about building the banks of the river so emotions can flow cleanly and safely. But, I'm often left with an almost joyful and empowering sense of being held in life by a group of people who are not seeking to minimise or suppress the pain of this world. See here for one place this is being explored - https://grieftending.org/.
Wow Sarah it’s great to hear about this work; it soudns very aligned with the kind of collective trauma integration work with do with the Pocket Project. I am away on a retreat this week, but will check out the link, and would love to stay in touch on the above. thank you!
Reading this report, Matthew - I'm beginning to wonder about the effects on all of us who are mere watchers from the side-lines - those of us seeing the videos out of Gaza - of the depravity of the IDF - the children with limbs lost, their weeping, shivering - the anguish of survivors - notwithstanding - the inhumanity of the genocidaires of Zionist US/Israel continues - how is that screwing with our collective souls - especially when our leaders show such ideologically-driven lack of action? Or an occasional brief report out of places in Africa - where on a grander scale the same sorts of things are taking place - and in Ukraine where the Zelenskiy-led regime is putting all its men to age 60 into the field to be slaughtered to fulfil US ideological objectives. It's not just me - I see comment after comment on LinkedIn/on FaceBook - despair and disbelief that nothing is being done to stop these wars and the slaughter - all to fulfil weapons sales and the hunger for energy...
Terrific, Matt. I'm glad to be a new part of this. This is an insight I will hang onto - 'the media system is a kind of collective nervous system'. We must restore it to health for everyone's sake.
Btw, here's a link to a talk I gave at Kairos which elaborates on these themes, in case of interest. Going to share in a future post: https://soundcloud.com/kairosclub/matt-green-20052024-20
Thank you Matt. I am enjoying listening to this in the back garden after I have done some weeding. I think that would be the perfect context!
thank you Chris! was inspired to write this by our previous exchanges. looking forward to deepening the conversation!
Brilliant play on 'who watches the watchers'. Very excited to see how this, among your many emerging threads, develops and brings meaningful impact. It's nothing short of a call to a revolution in the culture of journalism.
reading your comment, it occurred to me, what if it was a standard process that when journalists return from challenging assignments, at home or abroad, they were afforded this degree of witnessing? Years ago I spent time in northern Uganda, where the Acholi community have elaborate rituals to "cleanse" returning warriors, in which the whole village takes part. I feel we could develop our own community-based rituals that would fulfill a similar function, in re-integrating individuals into the social fabric. One of the speakers at MediaStrong described retreating to his flat after coming home from Bosnia, and the absolute impossibility of responding affirmatively to a friend who called to invite him to a Christmas party -- trying to be helpful. What if we had a social architecture of safely-held spaces where the healing power of witnesseding could be offered in the moment, rather than 30 years later, as we did at MediaStrong?
So interesting, painful and moving to read of this exploration of the impact of bearing witness to horrific events. Personally, I think you've hit on something significant with your inquiry about the potential for a collective / community response. I'm connected with a growing network of people who are seeking to (re)create collective 'grief tending' practices. Without wanting to dismiss the benefits of individual therapy, I've experienced something powerfully transformative in spaces where grief, rage, numbness and overwhelm are expressed and witnessed by a group of peers. Care needs to be taken with how these spaces are set up - we talk about building the banks of the river so emotions can flow cleanly and safely. But, I'm often left with an almost joyful and empowering sense of being held in life by a group of people who are not seeking to minimise or suppress the pain of this world. See here for one place this is being explored - https://grieftending.org/.
Wow Sarah it’s great to hear about this work; it soudns very aligned with the kind of collective trauma integration work with do with the Pocket Project. I am away on a retreat this week, but will check out the link, and would love to stay in touch on the above. thank you!
Reading this report, Matthew - I'm beginning to wonder about the effects on all of us who are mere watchers from the side-lines - those of us seeing the videos out of Gaza - of the depravity of the IDF - the children with limbs lost, their weeping, shivering - the anguish of survivors - notwithstanding - the inhumanity of the genocidaires of Zionist US/Israel continues - how is that screwing with our collective souls - especially when our leaders show such ideologically-driven lack of action? Or an occasional brief report out of places in Africa - where on a grander scale the same sorts of things are taking place - and in Ukraine where the Zelenskiy-led regime is putting all its men to age 60 into the field to be slaughtered to fulfil US ideological objectives. It's not just me - I see comment after comment on LinkedIn/on FaceBook - despair and disbelief that nothing is being done to stop these wars and the slaughter - all to fulfil weapons sales and the hunger for energy...