#exsda

[exploresmallworlds]

The Nuance of Social Cohesion

I’ve always wanted to explore Sydney as part of a blog called Explore small worlds but as I was writing my last piece in which I discussed social cohesion and it did give me serious (traumatic) flashbacks to belonging for HSC.

The previous piece talks about the reality of macro social cohesion, something that is evident in the micro scale. After a spike of social cohesion over the period of the pandemic, rates of social cohesion has dropped below 2019 levels. I think that it doesn’t consider the micro experiences that make up the wider macro trend. Although that piece identified that economics.

Sydney has always existed on some version of segregation, being a colonial outpost first and then nexus of that colonial empire and finally resting in it’s current state as the global city rife with the stashing of expensive properties of foreign nationals. A friend quipped that Sydney isn’t a fruit salad but rather it is is fruit bowl. And that rang true. Telling somebody where you live is built in with assumptions about your place. And often describing unfamiliar places is accompanied with quips like “that’s where x lives”. And the discussion that Melina Marchetta makes in Looking for Alibrandi where people live in Sydney and they never interact.

I’ve come from a small world and its one that I didn’t fit in. My beliefs eventually made me more different although it was ongoing trend. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the treatment of women in that place. And although I know many strong women, they were not acknowledged in leadership and that showed me their patriarchal underpinnings. Although some were able to square the circle of this I was not able to. This world was stifling small, although I acknowledge very comfortable for others.

When I left I was so keen to find new bigger worlds, and in the seven years that I have left this world I have been reminded that although this is small and I didn’t fit in, there are many small worlds that exist in similar ways. I’ve come to understand that the world is small and Sydney is even smaller as I find mutuals in the most disparate of places. I’ve been given a unique perspective as someone who has explored more a than few small worlds, and I have concluded that the problems that have been identified as problems of small religious communities are found in many different small communities. And similar processes about effectively shielding those with serious concerns.

There is a underlying fetishism that with the ongoing crisis, small communities are the way that we support our out of these. It’s one that I still believe with caveats. Although I know that in times of crisis there is increased social cohesion as reflected in the increase over lock downs, when the immediate crisis goes away like it has now, then we are left without similar levels. The problem is that the affects of climate change are evident but they aren’t being felt in the small communities that most Sydney-siders reside in. Although with the outer rim of Sydney being more prone to bush fires there is less necessity overall.

The segregation in Sydney is now pushing its residents to be pushed out, and this dispersal of real options for younger people is fueling their lack of social cohesion. The reality of needing any kind of intergenerational wealth is becoming more and more relevant. And those who set policy controls are those who have benefited from stability and security in housing and work in a way that we can only aspire to.

I think that sitting on the marginal space, although now I am an adult I now have a solid network and community. For people like me who have this marginal experience I think that there is implicit exclusion that doesn’t allow grace or any kind of space for difference. Although some of those who reside in those small worlds, are not terrible people but the cultures that are preserved in those small worlds are ones that need to retreat harder in the face of insecurity and instability. Although an understandable position, its one that doesn’t seek difference and diversity of though to expand the resonance chamber. Often the only time that people interact with people with people who are different would be in a fleeting way and when it goes negative, it is final. Although, my generation has been traditionally understood to popularise the concept of “if it doesn’t serve you, leave it”. And that kind of attitude doesn’t sit in the discomfort, despite the understandable concerns that it responds to. There is a space in the middle that establishes good boundaries and expects them to be firm but also is concerned with developing stronger cohesion by allowing a greater communal experience.

[wentthevent]

Weird question but people with religious trauma I have a question.

Did you ever stare at the sun trying to be prepared to gaze at g/ds light when he was supposed to return?

We would stare at the sun for as long as we could because at the time we were positive that the light that would encompass them (the holy trinity) would be brighter than the sun. We didn't want to beg for rocks to crush us so we tried to get used to looking directly at the sun. I'm sure it gave us pretty bad damage to our eyes but yeah.

[thedarkestlavender]

To the tune of if you’re happy and you know it...

🎶If they believe they have monopoly over salvation then it’s a cult🎶

👏🏾👏🏾

🎶It’s a conversion/fear tactic commonly used by cults🎶

👏🏾👏🏾

🎶If their policy is believe🎶

🎶Or be doomed to eternal suffering🎶

🎶Then unfortunately you might’ve been in a cult🎶

👏🏾👏🏾

[wentthevent]

Religious trauma memory vent

We’ve had a scar on the back of our leg since we went to an old summer camp. I don’t remember the age, just that we were young. I remember vividly the stick cutting out leg and the scar being curved. I also remember the blood beading around it and the stinging. I didn’t remember what we were doing in that moment except there were campers and councilors around us as we snuck into the woods. 

It took another Ex SDA person and a repeat of a song about religious trauma that I remembered. 

They were doing this exercise where it was the end of the world. We had to try not to act Christian to the ‘police’ who were camp councilors while we concealed a piece of a bible or a message about being religious without out right denying we didn’t believe in god. 

We were sneaking through the woods and that's when the twig snapped and cut our leg. I don’t remember much else. If they sent us back to the camp for the rest or if we kept going. I feel like at the time we would have begged to stay because we wanted to be seen as the perfect follower in our cult and continued with our group considering ‘if it was actually happening now I couldn’t just take a break and go back to the camp grounds’ 

Looking back at it, regardless of how it ended that was traumatizing it remember.