The activity of controlling, and usually limiting, general access to something.
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There's a lot written about gatekeeping, why it's dumb, bad, and detrimental to society.
To caveat: I'm not referring to every action of exlcuding people from certain groups or spaces. It's not always gatekeeping.
Sometimes it's moderation or maintaining context or providing safety or requiring a signal of commitment.
My point isn't to define all the nuances. All I can say is it's a judgement call. You have to use your judgement.
My point is this: Gatekeeping is a weak person’s version of what they imagine a strong person is like.
Rich people have a warped view of what a poor person is like. Unintelligent people have a warped view of what an intelligent person is like. Immature people have a warped view of what a mature person is like.
Weak people have a warped view of what a strong person is like.
In fact, when you see something like gatekeeping, it’s a pretty reliable indicator of weakness because gatekeeping is the exact opposite of what strength does.
Strength is secure, it lifts up, holds open doors, makes connections.
It gives continuously because it understands that giving is the source of its strength.
In a sense it is a conduit for strength. Strength flows through it.
It isn’t the originator of the strength.
“I’m an antenna for the strength of the universe,” it might say.
Only something that has not experienced this feeling would think that strength comes from exclusion.
From gatekeeping.
Ok, that's a lot of high-falutin' talk. Can you give me an example? Like I said earlier, it's pretty obvious if you stop to think about it. People are doing it all the time.
Here's one pretty clear example from Kelsey Hightower, a software engineer who goes to a lot of conferences. notice: this is not Kelsey describing this behavior, it's someone else observing Kelsey doing it
I'm reminded of an anecdote I heard almost 20 years ago. I was going on a journey and someone I met gave me a Tibetan prayer shawl to wish me luck. The story is probably apocryphal but it's stuck with me.
In Tibetan Buddhism, a prayer shawl (khata) is a symbol of respect and compassion and if given to people to wish them well at greetings or partings. It is placed over their head and onto their shoulders.
When the Dalai Lama goes somewhere, the street is naturally lined with people all putting khatas around his neck. Hundreds of them.
The Dalai Lama then picks it off his shoulders and places it onto someone else's.
At a superficial level, this makes logical sense. If he didn't do this, the Dalai Lama would quickly be buried in prayer shawls.
But at a deeper level he's communicating this: I am not the recipeint of this blessing. I do not hold on it. I am a conduit for blessings. They flow through me.
The more blessings I receive, the more I must give them away. For in order to receive more, I must give them away, else there be no room for more blessings. The flow of blessings will stop.
I gave that khata to someone a long time ago. I wonder where it is now.
