There were even laws about grief. About the sound itself. In Ireland, under British rule, keening — the high, unrestrained mourning wails led by women — was banned. In parts of ancient Greece and Rome, women were prohibited from public displays of grief at funerals, their voices considered too destabilizing, too disruptive to civic order. Power has... See more

Every time we allow ourselves and our communities to grieve — for a person, for a season, for a movement, for a dream — we are practicing a politics that refuses disposability. We are rejecting the idea that we can just move on without consequence.

Arlie Russell Hochschild in her 2024 book, Stolen Pride. The left-behind find themselves trapped in what she calls “a pride paradox,” a bootstrap mentality where they tend to blame themselves rather than the corporations and government laissez-faire that left them high and dry. “Doubly blocked, they become vulnerable to structural shame,” and more

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