Summary
An undertow is a current beneath the sea’s surface that pulls a different way from the waves on top. Suzanne Dhaliwal, an adviser to this inquiry, offered it as an image for how deep cultural patterns act on efforts at change: work at the surface, such as shifting a media story, can push one way while something deeper drags the other. Unnoticed, Part 1 warns, “even our most well-intentioned efforts can find themselves pulled back towards familiar ways of seeing and relating”.
Some in the project hesitate over the image, because a metaphor from nature can make today’s dominant patterns sound natural, when they are made and remade by culture.
Rationale
Our own image, which Part 1 credits to Suzanne Dhaliwal. Part 2 widens it: undertows take us “towards (or away from) the fair, safe futures we want”, so some currents are worth tending.
Source: internarratives.substack.com