560. The Way Is Awkward Not Forward - With Bayo Akomolafe
Dec 22, 2023
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Bayo Akomolafe, self-styled writer, speaker, and activist, discusses 'story as a lie', being an intellectual, African embodiment, colonization, eloquence, polarization, cancel culture, post-activism, breakdown of culture, hyper individuality, gender, and more.
The stability of conservative and progressive views in politics is breaking down, requiring a different kind of aesthetics that challenges the familiar and opens up new possibilities.
Cancel culture, while a response to the limitations of politics, often repeats the same dynamics it seeks to challenge, reducing solidarity to individual choice or rigid categorizations.
Deep dives
The breaking point of politics and the need for a third way
There is a breaking point in politics where both sides, conservative and progressive, limit the ways we see and engage with the world. The stability that comes from these views is breaking down. A different kind of aesthetics is needed, a trickster that challenges the familiar and opens up new possibilities.
The limitations of cancel culture and the need for spaciousness
Cancel culture is a response to the limitations of politics, but it often repeats the same dynamics it seeks to challenge. Solidarity is reduced to either individual choice or rigid binary categorizations. Both sides of the political spectrum are unable to hold the complexity and nuance of our experiences. It is time for a different approach that goes beyond restoring the familiar and troubling the past.
The increasing societal breakdown and the search for meaning
Society is reaching a breaking point where people feel overwhelmed and unable to cope. Mental health issues among teenagers, disillusionment, and increasing poverty are symptoms of a culture that is losing its buoyancy. The current narratives and polarizing conversations fail to offer true meaning making and solutions. There is a need for a new way of being that embraces complexity and confronts the limitations of our current systems.
The role of embodiment and the interconnectedness of body and mind
Embodiment offers a different perspective on the self and the world. It challenges the idea of mind-body separation and recognizes that our bodies are not separate from the world around us. Embodiment is not just a practice, but a way of living that embraces relationships, the diversity of bodies, and the interconnectedness of all things.
Self-styled writer, speaker and activist Bayo joins me to discuss “story as a lie”, on being an intellectual, relationally, African embodiment, colonisation, being eloquent, polarisation, cancel culture, trans-intellectualism, post-activism, Descartes, the breakdown of culture, hyper individuality, the current breakdown, gender and more. A deep intelligent and poetic one.