Workshop on Workshops?

An excerpt of a rant from Steve S. in which he takes on our concept of skill shares and workshops:

The other side of this dynamic is that people treat Radical Writers as a space where you can just show up and expect to be taught how to become a better writer, without having the involvement or having to do the work that a real academic class at school would provide. I think that type of education, which despite our best intentions tends to happen any time someone professes to host a "workshop" i.e., a model of education more democratic and non-hierarchical than a hated "school" class, is in fact even more hierarchical than traditional schooling, because it further reinforces the idea that a student is an empty vessel lacking knowledge, to be filled by the teacher/expert/professor. Without each and every participant preparing themselves to both learn AND teach, all workshops on any subject will run into this same problem. Writing workshops can be a shining example of how to use education for social change, and it's incredibly easy to lead them without hierarchy. But they require dedication and preparation, and unless you are interested in putting that in with me, then I'm not going to bother trying to put this thing together anymore.

Towards Love Infused Theory

Some great comments showed up on the Theoretical Relationships post.

I really liked TechPhobe's point that I went about it backwards. Instead of injecting politics into relationships we should be looking at how to inject relationships into politics. Except, then I sat there wondering how the hell do I do that? But, luckily Bhaskara came to the rescue and completed the inversion with the question "Is it possible that critical analysis can deepen and elaborate relationships?" Instead of treating theory as an analytic post hoc affair it should be a tool for building relationships. Bhaskara's focus on consent in the later questions points the way for how to do this. Perhaps solitary obsessive evaluation should be replaced by mutual questioning which not only examines the power dynamic but simultaneously acts on it.

Two closing thoughts: (a) I would love to hear from folks who have done anything like this. (b) I feel like I am letting myself off too easily and that there is more and deeper things to say.

Theoretical Relationships

As radicals, we do our best to be aware of and confront issues of power dynamics and specifically gender dynamics, gender roles, feminism, patriarchy, etc. Most of the time we're focused on what's happening out in the world. Some of the time we bother to check how we're doing within our own community. But what happens in our personal relationships? I sometimes feel like the ongoing critical analysis in my head gets in the way of my ability to fall in love like "normal people" do. Relationships with other people shouldn't be mediated by theory. But at the same time I wouldn't want it any other way, because I feel that my politics should permeate everything I do, and what's more important than relationships? That's exactly the place where we should be confronting the ills of the society we live in and building the future we want to see.

Which is why I would like to pose the question: What is the role of theory in a relationship? (and am I even asking the right question?)