Systèmes et facilitation/Sous-titres vidéo JS/en

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,360 “Aveuglement au système" Introduction aux Cercles Restauratifs avec Dominic Barter

2 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:04,980 Oakland, Etats-Unis Novembre 2009

3 00:00:04,980 --> 00:00:10,080 My understanding is that after I've spent a couple of hours with a group of people

4 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:14,240 a justice system has been established between us.

5 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:19,600 And that if I don't think consciously about what kind of justice system I would like,

6 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:24,140 I will inherit the one I've been given, by default.

7 00:00:24,140 --> 00:00:29,840 And then the results will turn up and often I won't enjoy them.

8 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:33,960 Now I suffer from "system blindness". It's a condition that I made up.

9 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:39,140 I made up my own diagnosis for myself. It's the difficulty to see the presence

10 00:00:39,140 --> 00:00:43,940 of systems of group, ideas and behavior.

11 00:00:43,940 --> 00:00:48,060 When I inherit a justice system non-consciously

12 00:00:48,060 --> 00:00:51,070 with a new group of people who I'm hanging out with

13 00:00:51,070 --> 00:00:54,780 and then something goes wrong, I'm very likely to describe what's happening

14 00:00:54,780 --> 00:00:58,260 in terms of our individual psychologies.

15 00:00:58,260 --> 00:01:02,700 As if the thing that had happened was exclusively within any one of us

16 00:01:02,700 --> 00:01:05,640 or all of us individually.

17 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:10,200 Then I will think that what I need to do to respond to that is either get away from those individuals

18 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:13,930 because unfortunately they're problematic people who need more therapy,

19 00:01:13,930 --> 00:01:19,080 more meditation, you know,

different diets, whatever,

20 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:25,660 or, I will try and do the same thing to me, thinking that the problem is individually with me

21 00:01:25,660 --> 00:01:31,520 or perhaps I will go to war, and try to fix them,

22 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:34,240 by changing them in some way.

23 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:39,220 So I become interested over the last few years in noticing,

24 00:01:39,220 --> 00:01:43,780 curing myself from "system blindness" by increasing my ability to notice

25 00:01:43,780 --> 00:01:47,000 when there are systems present

26 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,340 in my relationships, that I haven't consciously chosen.

27 00:01:51,340 --> 00:01:56,000 For example, I didn't set up the chairs like this.

28 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:58,580 Did you ?

29 00:01:58,580 --> 00:02:04,060 And here we are in a learning relationship a classroom situation

30 00:02:04,060 --> 00:02:10,440 that none of us consciously chose and that may or may not be serving us.

31 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:15,780 So I'm fine with power imbalances, when they're serving me.

32 00:02:15,780 --> 00:02:18,100 So this is a power imbalance at the moment

33 00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:22,140 I'm speaking, I don't know if you noticed, more than you guys are.

34 00:02:22,140 --> 00:02:25,780 I'm standing up most of you are sitting down

35 00:02:25,780 --> 00:02:29,440 and the design of the chairs and the room

36 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:33,940 is meant to make that make sense and to support it happening.

37 00:02:33,940 --> 00:02:38,650 And as long as it is actually meeting the need that it intends to meet,

38 00:02:38,650 --> 00:02:42,480 which is learning for all of us, I like it.

39 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,860 But if I'm not conscious that this is where I am

40 00:02:45,860 --> 00:02:50,440 if I'm not conscious about having setup and sustaining the balance of things

41 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:52,900 in the way that they are now

42 00:02:52,900 --> 00:02:56,380 and then it stops serving me

43 00:02:56,380 --> 00:03:01,780 then I don't like it so much.

44 00:03:01,780 --> 00:03:07,060 So this work starts with me questioning:

45 00:03:07,060 --> 00:03:11,860 do I actually want the current justice system I have?

46 00:03:11,860 --> 00:03:18,700 I will try to approximate myself to you guys. Let's put that using formal justice to start with,

47 00:03:18,700 --> 00:03:22,980 because it's a little bit easier for us to quantify on a national level.

48 00:03:22,980 --> 00:03:27,820 So are you okay that one in every 34 of you

49 00:03:27,820 --> 00:03:33,400 is currently being penalised by your judicial system?

50 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:39,500 So one in every 34 Americans apparently are currently under a judicial order.

51 00:03:39,500 --> 00:03:43,180 And 1 in every 200 of them are locked up.

52 00:03:43,180 --> 00:03:47,820 Which apparently is the largest amount of people ever locked up anywhere in the world

53 00:03:47,820 --> 00:03:52,600 and also the largest largest relationship to the population,

54 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:56,820 largest percentage of people in the country currently imprisoned.

55 00:03:56,820 --> 00:04:05,780 And it means that 1.7 million children in the US have a parent who is locked up.

56 00:04:09,300 --> 00:04:13,320 And normally in the cultural context that I come from

57 00:04:13,330 --> 00:04:20,640 first of all growing up in North London and then over the last 17 years living in Brazil,

58 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:26,120 in those cultural contexts, I had not chosen that strategy consciously.

59 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:31,900 I was paying for it and I was kind of, by default, sustaining it

60 00:04:31,900 --> 00:04:36,220 because I wasn't consciously questioning it and rethinking it.

61 00:04:36,220 --> 00:04:41,080 I thought I was because I misunderstood criticizing with questioning.

62 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:46,500 So I was quite good at criticizing it but I've learned that those two things

63 00:04:46,500 --> 00:04:54,180 criticizing and questioning are actually distinct. At least that's how I experienced them.

64 00:04:54,180 --> 00:04:59,860 So I have been learning to cure my "system blindness" by noticing

65 00:04:59,860 --> 00:05:09,300 that these responses continue with my invisible silent or active support.

66 00:05:09,300 --> 00:05:14,180 And I don't like the results.

67 00:05:14,180 --> 00:05:19,740 And I've been teaching myself to question the current ways in which we do justice

68 00:05:19,740 --> 00:05:24,260 and to experiment with different ways of doing it.

69 00:05:24,260 --> 00:05:30,140 I have a question about your use of the word "system"

70 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:41,540 When I was a school teacher I had an exciting idea that I was happy with,

71 00:05:41,540 --> 00:05:46,200 which was that I would create a space in the classroom

72 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:52,700 where people could opt out of the lesson without getting into trouble

73 00:05:52,700 --> 00:05:57,600 with their colleagues or with me and without having to leave the room

74 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:02,060 in which we were having the lesson.

Which was complicated for me because I was in Brazil

75 00:06:02,060 --> 00:06:08,180 and in Brazil I'm legally responsible for those people for the time of the lesson.

76 00:06:08,180 --> 00:06:11,540 So if I can't see them and they're wandering around the corridor

77 00:06:11,540 --> 00:06:14,640 then there's legal risk for me.

78 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:18,620 So I created a space in the room where the students could go.

79 00:06:18,620 --> 00:06:24,980 That was day one. That seemed to me to be possible and exciting.

80 00:06:24,980 --> 00:06:28,460 It was well received by the kids.

81 00:06:28,460 --> 00:06:32,020 After about five seconds after I'd made this suggestion

82 00:06:32,020 --> 00:06:34,700 and people were smiling and going wow that's different

83 00:06:34,700 --> 00:06:37,860 yeah I like that,

this teacher's weird.

84 00:06:37,860 --> 00:06:43,100 One of the kids turned to me and he said: "And if the headmaster comes in through the door

85 00:06:43,100 --> 00:06:49,360 then will you protect me from him? if I'm sitting in the corner with my feet up

86 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:53,600 you know reading a book or doing the homework that I want a hand in in the

87 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:56,510 next lesson and I'm so stressed because I haven't done it that I can't

88 00:06:56,510 --> 00:06:59,540 concentrate on this one so I've taken ten minutes out to finish my homework

89 00:06:59,540 --> 00:07:02,220 and then I'll come back to the lesson.

90 00:07:02,220 --> 00:07:06,080 If the headmaster comes in will you stand in between me and him?"

91 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:09,740 I immediately realized my naivety

92 00:07:09,740 --> 00:07:13,000 because no I didn't have structural power

93 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,440 to be able to protect the student from the headmaster

94 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:22,260 if the headmaster decided that what the student was doing was "wrong".

95 00:07:22,260 --> 00:07:28,180 That student gave me a quick lesson in the presence of a system

96 00:07:28,180 --> 00:07:31,560 which our classroom was within

97 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:35,100 and that I was unaware of.

98 00:07:35,100 --> 00:07:39,480 So that for me is a concrete example of the presence of a system

99 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:44,540 and how easy it is, especially in a culture which believes that everything is about

100 00:07:44,540 --> 00:07:48,020 individual choice and decision making and empowerment

101 00:07:48,020 --> 00:07:51,660 to forget that there are these systemic contexts

102 00:07:51,660 --> 00:07:56,860 which we sustain but by sustaining them they are bigger than us.

103 00:07:56,860 --> 00:08:01,640 So if I'm getting what you're saying you're referring to the structure

104 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:05,120 and the legal financial psychological

105 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:11,000 emotional setup that's in operation

106 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:16,800 with our willing agreement or non willing agreement, we're present in it.

107 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:18,000 Yeah. Ok.

108 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:23,140 When it becomes large or habitual enough to be self-sustaining

109 00:08:23,140 --> 00:08:28,200 then I experience it as being different from my individual choices.

110 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:34,200 And then I want a name for it so that I can teach myself to become aware of it and question it.

111 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:38,160 So I'm using the word "system" as that name.

112 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:40,180 Thank you. Chears.