Rage Camp Manifesto

There’s a lot to be angry about these days.

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Those of us who grew up inside systems of oppression probably learned to equate anger with violence. Anger seems unsafe. Anger seems out of control. Anger seems to make things worse, not better.

In my posts, I often write, “Heal your internalized oppression!” I wonder if it feels inspiring or just confusing. How, exactly, do we heal our internalized oppression?

I say that internalized oppression manifests as imposter syndrome, self-hatred, self-abandonment, and oppressive practices such as force, urgency, minimization, saviorism, the cycle of numbing/stimulation, and Karen’ing - using one of our privileged identities to dominate others when one of our marginalized identities feels unsafe.

To heal our internalized oppression we

1. heal any pain caused by our oppression or supremacy and

2. heal the underlying motivation to use oppressive practices; fear of aliveness.

Life is very alive.

If we think that life is on our side, this is not scary. But, if we grew up inside systems of oppression, we have most likely learned that the system does not care about our wellbeing. We don’t know what will happen to us if we stop grinding. We don’t know what will happen to us if we stop lying to people with privilege about how we really feel. We don’t know what will happen to us in the future. Life is unpredictable and uncontrollable. If we grew up inside systems of oppression, we probably learned to be afraid of death. To colonized people, the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of life seems like a threat to aliveness not the source of it.

To heal the fear of aliveness, we reclaim our right to our aliveness.

One way we do this is to reclaim our right to feel and express our emotions. First, we will probably have to (re)learn how to feel and express our emotions. The system of oppression called Adultism gave adults the right to punish us for feeling or expressing emotions as children. Rationally, we learned to stifle our emotions. We may not remember how to let ‘em rip.

Any Practice of Full Emotional Expression teaches us how to feel and express emotions safely and responsibly in a low-risk, fully supported practice space.

Rage Camp is a Practice of Full Emotional Expression that uses the energy of movement and music to release the backlog of stagnant emotions from the body. In this practice, you move scream, cry, flail, whatever you need to do to release what’s weighing you down. The beauty of this practice is that you come to see that on the other side of rage, or any painful emotion, there is only more love.

As we release the clutter of trauma and pain, we create more space for ourselves and others.

That space feels like love.

Rage Camp Manifesto - Expanded

Rage Camp is a liberated movement practice that teaches us to safely connect to our rage (and other emotions), and learn from them, express them, catalyze them, and use their energy to make beneficial change personally and collectively.

Rage Camp is the embodied belief that:

1. Rage is healthy, helpful, natural, and life-affirming

2. Systemic oppression has demonized rage as dangerous

   1. Because rage is highly energizing and this energy can be used to dismantle systemic oppression

3. Fire is a necessary building block of life on Earth

   1. When fire is in a harmonious relationship with earth, air, and water, all of life benefits and flourishes

4. Fire is transformation

   1. It is only through the transformative power of fire that we transmute systemic oppression into personal and collective liberation

5. Rage is the protector of the sacred

   1. Protecting what is sacred to each of us is how we win the game of our life

6. All our rage deserves to be felt, honored, catalyzed and released for the benefit of all

7. Embracing rage in mindful and intentional ways, creates a safer world for us all

8. Rage is a portal to the clarity we seek

Coming 2024

Photo by Mohammad Mardani on Unsplash