If you haven't read it, the post is here. I'm going to be commenting on it, so best read for this to fully make sense: http://californiajedi.org/an-open-letter-to-the-jedi-community/
I am not steeped in the Jedi Community outside the Force Academy. I joined the Force Academy in 1999 and have largely kept to it, as it met all my needs. To be honest, I am also a "low drama" person and have little patience for those sorts of games that others seem to thrive on in the other Force communities. It's not that I don't like the other sites and groups, nor do I believe somehow the FA does Something Different within the Force than them. I just prefer to focus on my own responsibilities, which are more than enough for me. Given that, I think I have managed to dodge the sort of bullshit Katie describes having suffered at the hands of the larger community. To be honest, I feel lucky for it.
Katie has excellent insights from her unfortunate experience, so her words stand well. I am struck at a few points that I want to comment on from her article.
Kate states: "I wish they had spoken out sooner, but I also understand why they were afraid. The experience of being harassed out of the community was traumatic and a deep betrayal from people I have known for years. I understand deeply why someone wouldn’t want to step up to be the next community punching bag. But the leaders in the community (and not just in the Federation, but in all Jedi communities) had a responsibility to do something, not just for me, but for all of us, and refused. I have never felt more alone than when I was trying to help the community learn to be a better version of itself."
And then further on: "That there is a default of what a Jedi should look like, and deviations from that norm are only to be tolerated so far. This community has defined 'peace' as lack of conflict, and rejected those that have pointed out it’s deep flaws and real problems, instead of grappling with those issues."
If you truly believe that Jedi in the real world can happen, that a simple human can become something extraordinary through a serious and realistic study of the Force in life, then this should cause some sitting up and paying attention. Just the idea of "toxic Jedi culture" is enough to indicate a problem, and I fully believe what she says about it.
And most of us know of those communities and behaviors. Even me, self-absorbed in my chosen site, knows of them and has seen how the mob of self-proclaimed Jedi rally around questioning the ethics of their own. I have been told by numerous people how such and such group is toxic but they don't want to speak up or leave because they'll lose their status there. Or, as Katie says, they're afraid of being run out and harassed as questioning the Order. I have listened to honest concerns about it, and my Jedi Community Survey freeform comments section (which I don't publish because I don't want comments to be traced to their owners by people like Katie talks about) talks a lot about leaders living up to actual Jedi ideals and earning their titles.
They're silent because of fear.
They are Jedi, exceptional human beings who wish to walk a path to be better, silent and complicit against toxic treatment and behavior because of fear.
That's fucked up.
Look. Even since the days when I joined, we've really wanted to be recognized as having a valuable role in the world. I remember the days of wishing we had a place in real life to live and study and work together. There has been a great surge in the world of some very deep problems that our philosophies and efforts could be brought to bear against. But if we are getting wrapped around the worst parts of human nature around groupthink, exclusion, and conformism, then we are far from that dream.
If you're looking for a cause to be Jedi against, it's not Dark Jedi or Sith or the Empire. It's you. It's the silence, it's the justifications, it's the drama. It's right within the community. And yes, that is hard to deal with. Maybe it's easier to just say nothing, but then you're not a warrior at all, are you? It is perfectly fine to say "I was wrong" and then immediately begin correcting the error and making amends. The most worthwhile actions take bravery, because they are not easy.
As Katie says, if you don’t step up and speak out against toxicity, you are tacitly supporting it. If that toxicity granted you a fancy title, that should not mean it reduced your greatness. If you keep the title and stay silent at the abuse, then you prove that it actually did.