There's a recurring phenomenon here on the lists. I've witnessed it since I joined two years ago. And I've attributed it to the process of Awakening. My current stage of personal growth (discovering the wondrous realm of similarities as opposed to differences) gives me an interesting perpective on this subject.

I refer to the sentiment that elves/Otherkin are "us" and humans or nonkin are "them", and the subsequent urge to do something about it.

This is a natural feeling and there's nothing wrong with it, per se. We've all been misunderstood, wronged, and even abused by people who don't share our views of reality. We all think it sucks to be told that the kind of being we insist we are doesn't exist. We all want to be believed in without having to present a treatise to each person we meet. In some ways, an uprising sounds almost appealing, aside from the increased hate, resentment, and possible bloodshed it would create.

But it's not very practical. For one, it's often very difficult to tell the "us" from the "them". Some Otherkin can identify some other Otherkin by their auras or whatever. But it's not foolproof. I'm very nearly undetectable by even the most Sighted 'kin. We could try to only include people who claim to be 'kin, but what about the elves and things who have lived in secret their entire lives and aren't emotionally ready to come out of the closet now? Are we going to lump them in with "them"? And then there's going to be the usual wave of paranoia that every new 'kin is a wannabe. We've had several such waves already. We've even had what could have become social lynchings, if the people in question hadn't left in fear and/or anger. If we get any more organised, I can't see that actual wannabe lynchings would be out of the question.

Then there's the questionable value of the "Us vs. Them" mentality itself. There are individuals aplenty who despise anyone outside of their perceived groups. Many of them are quite outspoken. They're not the only outspoken ones, but they're the ones we remember the longest because they evoke unpleasant emotions in us. But for the most part, there is no universal sentiment about Otherkin. Some think we're nifty, some think we're flakes, some think we're wrong, some think we're evil. Some think we're all practicing escapism, and some think we may or may not have a point. But I find that the only form of oppression we experience that is directly related to Otherkin is people telling us we're full of it - and nearly 100% of the time it's because those people can't deal with having their little insular realities ripped to shreds. Accepting parallel universes and talking dragons and multiple souls partying it up in a single body is very difficult to swallow for someone who isn't living it. If we expect everyone to just accept it all without it being relevant to them, the problem is with our expectations.

As far as blaming oppression on Christians... excuse me? Sounds like your reality is insular too. If we declare war on the Christian regime (whoever "we" is), we're just extending a pattern of different groups butting heads with each other. This pattern was established as soon as there were enough people to form separate tribes, in not only this world but in many, if not most, others. History repeats itself, yeah yeah. But look around you. The hatred is less pronounced now. Bigotry is no longer "cool". Lifelong enemies and tribal feuds are becoming passe. Gays are being accepted by such a percentage of the population that they can walk down many streets without fearing for their lives. People of color can not only get jobs, but own businesses, hold office, and be adored by millions of White people as celebrities. A person can say out loud that he's an elf without worrying about being incarcerated for the next 40 years.

What does this all say? It says to me that social tolerance is growing by leaps and bounds. Here in the USA we have the first amendment, the fifth, the civil liberties act, and dozens of high- profile, perfectly legal civil rights activism organisations. People are allowed to say these people are wrong or those people are dangerous, but if they try and put their money where their mouth is, we have a slew of laws allowing them to be punished, or at least sued, for their actions.

Why do we want to ruin this by being militant? I've been to England and was impressed by their notable tolerance of weirdness over there. The US is several steps behind, but uprisings and the like would only bring us further behind. 21st century Western civilisation has something uniquely beautiful - it is no longer life- threatening to be different.

We've explored this several times before, which is why that post got so many tired reactions from "Oh, no, not again," to flat-out mockery. I considered doing more than a one-liner myself, but I guess I'm too jaded. But it's important to remember that this is a legitimate stage in self-growth. I went through it myself, although fortunately for me, I was nine or so years old and have no leadership skills nor any desire to develop some. I got treated pretty badly myself at times (nothing resembling sexual abuse, mostly emotional) and I am nowhere near done healing from it all. I'm resentful, bigoted, suspicious, angry, and cynical. I have some warped and paradoxical trust issues. I change certain emphases and analyses of my experience frequently as my viewpoints fluctuate. But I've learned a few things along the way, and one is this: blaming someone is one thing, but exacting retribution is another. Be careful who you make pay for what. Because a lot of this stuff falls firmly into the category of "our own personal struggles". Many a tragedy has been caused by someone who was unable to keep the internal from affecting the external.

So, please, let's have no hurting of humans. Or anyone else for that matter.

Hopefully that sounded sufficiently respectful. It was meant to be. When I read it back to myself, it just sounds tired.

Tocosar the Fool