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Reply to @evan@cosocial.ca
Evan Prodromou@evan@cosocial.ca (2026-05-29 11:53:59)
Or maybe it's just the nature of the game. After all, the white bishop can't capture the white queen in chess, no matter how well-positioned it is.
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Evan Prodromou@evan@cosocial.ca (2026-05-29 11:56:37)
That might be the key to it -- the Zen riddle at the heart of Lorde's quote. The master's tools can never dismantle the master's house because by the time we get to the house-dismantling stage, they're not his tools any more. They're our tools, or nobody's tools -- a mob's tools, the crowd's collective tools.

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Jessamyn@jessamyn@glammr.us (2026-05-29 12:12:58)
@evan I've always taken it that way. The master's tools can never dismantle the master's house by definition. He's not the master if you're at the house-dismantling stage with his former tools.

Evan Prodromou@evan@cosocial.ca (2026-05-29 12:14:45)
Honestly, if you wanted to trick a mob, this quote would work really well. When that mob rolls up with all the liberated tools, ready to do some rapid dismantling, you could chuckle patronizingly. "Now, aren't those the *master's* tools? Well, you can't use *those* to dismantle *this* house. It's the master's house, himself! Those tools won't work for the task at hand -- everyone knows that!

R × P@rxp@mastodon.online (2026-05-29 21:13:42)
@evan I think you’re taking the “tools” part too literally. The master’s tools aren’t axes and saws, they’re things like oppression, hierarchy, and a society that allows some people to be “masters” in the first place.

Animal Farm is a good example of this - the pigs had a revolution, and ended up in charge, but they behaved the same way as the farmers. They used the master’s tools, and just ended up with new masters living in the master’s house.