Introduction

I only realised this chapter needed to be written after finishing the book. I should have understood sooner that if I wanted to explore what we can learn from our personal roles and relationships to develop more helpful formal politics, then ultimately, I would have to think about intimacy. I’ve been helped by the new social movements’ (NSMs’) constant reminder that the two Ps – politics and the personal – are inseparable; each connects deeply with the other, whether we recognise it or not and however antagonistic they might seem. James Baldwin is one of the most powerful messengers reminding us; counter-pointing his writing of hate with the writing of love; cruelty, with kindness, encompassing the biggest and smallest things and making us rethink which is which. He has been an essential guide in thinking about the kind of connection in which I have been especially interested here. As we saw at the beginning of this chapter, Baldwin never fights shy of reminding us of the importance of love and intimacy any more than he underplays their cruel US context (Baldwin, 1962).

Intimacy is a benchmark for the personal, demarcating one of its highest expressions.