The International Liberation Reference Person for Young People
I’m Mari Piggott, and I’m the International Liberation Reference Person for Young People.
What’s true about young people? Young people are born very good and hugely intelligent. Because we have not had as much time to accumulate distresses, we still have flexible thinking. We are smart and are able to think about many things, including connection, closeness, and creativity. Young people have a good picture of the world and how it should be. We haven’t gotten as confused and discouraged as you have. Young people are excellent leaders.
What is young people’s oppression? The intelligence we young people have in the areas of connection and how the world should be is dangerous to an oppressive society. So young people’s oppression comes in and tries to make us feel stupid and powerless so that we don’t challenge the oppressive society.
Young people’s oppression is mostly unacknowledged, or even seen as good practice and necessary. (Think about school.) It is important that we talk about young people’s oppression and liberation, in RC and out in the world, so it doesn’t go unchallenged.
Making RC accessible to young people is one of RC’s major goals. We need to move forward on this. We need all of us having sessions on it and also actively challenging young people’s oppression, in RC and in our lives.
Why work for young people’s liberation? It is a fast track to your own re-emergence. It reminds you of exactly what you need to work on from when you were a young person. Most of our distresses have their roots in our early hurts. Discharging those early hurts and being allies to young people are a fast track for all of us. Also, challenging young people’s oppression is a foundation for challenging the oppressive society. Young people’s liberation will make things go better for everyone.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada