The Revolution is in the Heart

We know that much of how we think comes from what we encounter and learn from our social environment. Knowledge as deeply socialized. But what about our feelings? Are our feelings our own unique experiences? Or are they shaped and constrained by social and cultural scripts? This TEDx talk by Dr. Mimi Khúc explores how many of us live tightly scripted emotional lives, with dire consequences not only for ourselves but for those around us as well. And it explores the ways that our feeling lives are a critical dimension of what it means to be human—but also what it means to be political and ethical. In our feeling lives, we can both trace the ghostly presence of power and find new forms of political agency. The revolution is in the critical workings of the heart as much as anywhere else.