Preventative Abuse Intervention

Originally published October 1, 2021

Abuse intervention needs to be a project that is infused into our everyday lives, into the essence of our selves and of our culture.

We have largely approached abuse intervention as symptom management when a preventative solution is well within our reach.

A huge reason that interpersonal violence escalates to the level that it does is because as a society we do not place sovereignty and self-determination of the individual as a core value.

Our world is infused at every turn with logics that support abuse because these logics are meant to control populations, justify exploitation, and make people a party to their own oppression.

A person who holds a deep knowing of their value and the rights they hold over their own lives is a person who is not easily made to feel less than. They are a person who is not easy to manipulate.

And being easily manipulated is necessary both for the continuity of capitalism in creating willing consumers and exploitable workers, and it is necessary for creating the ideal conditions for interpersonal abuse.

Rectifying the culture of abuse is the same project as rectifying a culture of domination and exploitation.

We rectify a culture of abuse by cultivating a culture of differentiation.

A culture based in differentiation respects diversity, individuality, and difference. It holds self-determination as a core value. It can also accurately assess where compromise can and should be made for the sake of a greater good. And it can accurately assess where compromise is impossible and seeks creative solutions to maintaining cohesiveness.

Abuse is not an issue of individual failure. It is systemic in origin.

But the more we strive for differentiation as individuals, and support each other in doing the same, the more we shift the culture that allows abuse to be perpetuated.