Thinking about the analogy of Siphonophores and Jellyfish as ways to portray identities within the current zeitgeist, I began to simplify the metaphor down, to become easy and clear to understand. Children's books are often simple and clear, working with underlying story lines and morals to take away.
The book tells a story of working together to achieve an outcome, however it aims to question and reflect whether that is best; the tide is too strong for even the grouped movement and they end up in the same disappointing outcome as the individual jellyfish. Donna Haraway states “You have to be here, not everywhere. You have to be attached to some things, not everything.” (Story Telling For Earthly Survival, 2016). But even working together doesn't necessarily mean change, we marched against Trump, the worldwide opposition towards his new leadership, however he is in power, he is still sexist and yeah thousands of us stood against it. Trump is the tide. The banks are the tide. The governments are the tide and we are increasingly being swept around even if we act as colonial organisations, it is too strong to fight against. If we are more aware of the reality, if we are not blinded by our own individuality, the fake news and are truly 'attached to some things' then perhaps we can achieve more of a direction. Before that, i believe we need to know what we want. For example, we know we didn't want Trump in power, however what was the alternative? What was the plan B, Hilary was not voted in, so that would also not satisfy either. we marched, but if it had succeeded what would that success have looked like?
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