Snake

[xenologer]

I've found a great way of looking at the roles people sometimes take in groups. People generally rotate through these, but they're all important. Starhawk mentions it in Truth or Dare.

“For the East, the direction of air, of the mind and vision, we have the Crows, who keep an overview of the group’s tasks and progress. For the South, the direction of fire, of energy, we have the Graces, who help the group expand. For the West, the direction of water, of emotions, we have the Snakes, who keep an underview of the group’s feelings and emotions. For the North, the direction of earth, of body and finitude, we have the Dragons, who establish and guard the group’s boundaries, who keep the group grounded. In the center, the place of spirit, we have the Spider, who weaves the group’s connections.”

I used to think of myself as a Crow, keeping track of where we are and where we're going. I thought this just because it occasionally feels like I'm the one thinking in concrete terms about how communities work and what any given one is doing from that perspective.

However, it's become clear to me from paying closer attention to how I operate within social circles... I'm a Snake. Most definitely.

I definitely encourage people to check out the book if they're interested in getting info about the other roles, but for the sake of explaining myself I'll offer what she says about Snakes.

Snakes violate the Censor, speak the unspeakable, bring out into the open what others may not see or prefer to keep hidden. The role of Snake can be an extremely uncomfortable one--and Snakes may become heartily disliked, but theirs is a vital role and the one that perhaps does most to undermine the King's attempts to gain control of the group. The mouth is the greatest organ of resistance. A group cannot function by avoiding conflict and not acknowledging feelings. The role of bringing conflict into the open is vital and valuable. (...)

It is also important to rotate this role. Someone who continually brings up conflicts may lose influence and eventually come to be considered a crank.

Let's see! I'm no longer friends with most of my early college acquaintances for all the same reasons that I'm no longer at Hidden Realms, The Gungan Council, The Jedi Praxeum, or Chaos Theory.

I can't handle having people in my social environment who are dishonest about conflict, unlike the people I have cut off who seem to enjoy it.

Couple this with some shit going down with Thalia--that is secured up in another filter for reasons that should be obvious--and you've got a recipe for me being totally unable to tolerate that kind of dishonesty. People who have problems and are unwilling to be honest about them... I just can't take it.

Word to the wise. If you don't like my tendency to ferret out hidden conflict and bring it out where it can be seen and named... don't act all excited when I do it on your behalf. If you would rather lie and backpedal than stand behind the things you are thinking and feeling, your thoughts and feelings don't deserve any more regard from me than they get from you.

I need to figure out how to detect passive-aggressive liars so that I don't make the mistake of trusting them for even a short while. Either I attract them, or they really are shockingly numerous and there's just no avoiding them from a numbers perspective. Either way! I need some kind of "are you a two-faced coward" litmus test so that having honest friendships won't have to be so fucking labor-intensive on my end.

And, just to be totally clear. If you're wondering whether this entry is about you, it's not. If you're reading this and it's about you, you're probably feeling a lot of self-righteous butthurt right now. Check for that reaction, because that's how you'll know whether I'm addressing you. If you are not currently in the process of rationalizing why you should be lying to people whose trust you want/need/demand, then this entry is most definitely not about you.

Seriously, though. I hate liars. Growing up I became the best liar I know (and if I cared to use those skills, I'd still be the best liar you know), because I had to be invisible. Anybody who wants to take me back there--to an environment where conflict was dangerous and the only safety was in hiding--is not my friend, and deserves my fist in their throat far more than they deserve my friendship. Check for self-righteous butthurt one more time. Did you find it? Yes? Then fuck you. Defriend me now and save me the trouble of cutting you off later.

Comments

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Someone who continually brings up conflicts may lose influence and eventually come to be considered a crank.

Yeah, I know that feeling, too. It'd be a hell of a lot more fun to be the shiny, bubbly, agreeable one everybody likes.

[elorie.livejournal.com]

I tend to fall into the Snake role too, and I have similar motivations. And boy, do people hate it. I try to keep in mind that really, I'm just as driven by my internal demons as they are, it's just that mine prefer everything to be up front and spelled out. Tidy demons.

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

Yes, but your demons make people cry, which means your demons are bad and theirs are harmless little baby bunnies which need to be cuddled and coddled lest they grow into terrible monstrous demons like YOURS, you horrible mean thing, you. =P

[kaisharga.livejournal.com]

You said she writes the above blurb about the cardinal directions and their animal representations, but you never mentioned who She is. Does She have a name?

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

That's a really fucking odd thing for me to have omitted. Edited in Starhawk's name.

Alternate Earth response:

[mothwentbad.livejournal.com]

Why don't you tell us what you really think! ;-D

[kingofdoma.livejournal.com]

*examines self and VP*

Huh. We need some Graces. Heck, A Grace. And then maybe a Spider or two... yes... the planning shall commence...

[klibingly-jivl.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what I am according to that social rubric.

[gc130a.livejournal.com]

Huh.

Well, I guess in the interests of not avoiding conflict:

You may not often like it, but I think it's great that certain regulars of your journal give you shit for the things you say sometimes. I rarely agree with them, but arguing on the Internet is more interesting than communally agreeing on the Internet.

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I'd like to think that, if I've gotten more insightful or more involved now than I used to be, it's because of people on my LJ responding to what I post (which doesn't really happen on my other blog).