October 27th 2026

The precession of persecution

The precession of persecution

​Precession is the affect of bodies in motion on other bodies in motion, producing a side effect (precession) at 90 degrees to the motion.

Drop a stone into a pond of water, and the ripples occur at ninety degrees.

Intractable persecution of one group of people has a precessional effect.

Including an entrenched story of victimhood.

For example, intractable persecution of women, and women can carry the energy of victimhood. I know this one, as I had to confront it myself and, on occasions, rip it out of my being even still.

Historical persecution of black and brown people, Jews, Muslims, Catholics… same, same.

The victimhood becomes the character.

With victimhood, we also get righteous indignation. I know that one well too. And a tone of entitlement. My pain entitles me to compensation – be that compensation financial, airtime, advancement or land. The consequences of our compensation matter not. Even if that means wiping out another group of people.

This warped but understandable energy of victimhood is not the pathway out of persecution. Instead, it enables the victim to become the victimiser. And the pattern repeats. It is tragic. And exhausting.

The story of victim becoming the victimiser is a common theme in today’s world. It is part of the reason why we have the manosphere. Not the whole part, but a contributing factor. Women demanding their rights through the voice of victimhood brings that energy into the relational dialogue. Similarly with any other group as they cry victim while enacting victimisation.

We must learn to honour the truth of history, to name it, confront it, and simultaneously refuse to become a victim of it, even as that history repeats in present time. This is not easy to do, yet if we are committed to a world that works for Earth and all her creatures, this must be our practice.

The refusal to allow our biology to be occupied by historical victimhood is as critical as the refusal to be a victim here and now.

It is through the clarity of owning the full measure of our agency and authority to speak to the present-time persecution without the energy of victimhood that we can and will create a world that refuses the persecutors.

If we do not learn to do this, we become the persecutors.

And the pain amplifies as the cycle repeats.

Published October 27th 2026. Photo taken October 27th 2026