Noam Chomsky, whether you are agree with or disagree about his opinions, frequently brings up one thing that I think all people can agree on. The ills of society and our government are made possible because people don’t speak out. But, people do speak out and politicians and FOX news both just basically ignore them (or in the case of FOX news, ridicule them). I guess if everyone who disagreed with a topic spoke out, it might make a difference, but, considering there are so many things that are wrong to speak out about, you’d basically have to spend all of your free time protesting if you really wanted to change the world. So, in the real world of day to day life how does one find a balance between activism and living a normal life?
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Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Fox News is the only media outlet that ignores or ridicules people who speak out? Seriously?
granted you are correct but that is not the real issue of this problem
Here’s what doesn’t help: jokes about “I’m from the government, I’m here to help you” and shit like that. That way of thinking keeps people powerless. If you think “the government” is against you, if you expect it to be against you, it will be against you.
Balances such as that must always be individual.
I’d say: volunteer a little. Find a political party, or cause, that you like, and join their organization. Get a membership. Find the local branch and go to some of their meetings. Volunteer some time with them.
You don’t have to be a big-time mover and shaker. You don’t have to run for office in the branch. Just…show up now and then, and see what you can do.
Another possibility: write letters to the local media. Newspapers love a well-written and thoughtful letter on a current topic. Don’t bloviate or spew talking points, but try to say something worth thinking about.
The single most important thing: VOTE! Vote every damn election, and vote intelligently. Study the ballot, all the way down to the stupid little piddling things like County Board of Waterways. Voting is where democracy really functions.
I agree with that all except voting. Voting seems to be pointless is a 2 party corporate controlled system. I am not advocating to not vote, I just don’t see that it makes any difference much at all.
I’m sorry. I just don’t see any life devoid of activism or passion for something as normal. I feel we’re hard-wired to care but frustrate ourselves by trying to care about everything at the same time. I could be wrong but that’s my humble opinion.
I may not be understanding the OP perfectly, but let me give it a spin. It’s the natural problem of Two Party system. To a degree, when your choice is “A” or “B”, black or white and the American people show a predisposition to alternating between which they put in power, why should either side listen to you? Each has its base or core it can rely on, a minority of the voting age population, so the rest of us don’t count. And if they don’t listen, how do you keep caring?
Pick one (or at most two) cause you feel deeply about and stay as active as you can in it. And stay with it for life. Work for it any way you can with as much (or as little) dedication as you can muster. Sooner or later, your views may become a movement. And at some point your movement may become popular enough that one party or the other will work it into their agenda. It worked for the Christian Right and the Gay Rights Left. It has reduced smoking and it has improved racial and sexual equality. It has created more freedom for religion while at the same time creating more freedom from religion. And none of those are really bad things.
Now once you have that one down pat, consider (but don’t force yourself to) branch to the related topics. Can we have racial equality without economic equality and social justice? Probably not. So there is the next place for you to spend a little time and voice. From there it just becomes time management and personal discipline. To paraphrase slightly, think globally and act locally and see what develops. And best of luck yo you.
Yes, except that as long as we are all arguing over gays being married or the 10 commandments in the courthouse… as long as the “corporate overlords” keep us arguing about that, they are free to proceed as they wish unmolested.
What’s your point, that these are irrelevant issues? To you, maybe.
Oh. so you are against those who use their energy try to make workable changes in their lives and the lives of their neighbors rather than go off tilting at windmills.
okay.
No, they are important, but they are not as important as climate change or income inequality or illegal foreign wars that kills thousands and thousands of people.
And thus we see the meta-issue. There are hundreds of ways in which today’s reality is not optimal. And each of us has our own prioritization of which issues are major and which are minor. Much less whether we think “optimal” means we should have more of X or less of X.
Since there can be only one reality today and only one reality, say, one year from now, this means X is going to move one way over that time, not both ways. And of all the potential issues *to *change even a smidgen, only a few *will *change. And not very much at that.
At the end of the day, activism is tiresome, almost thankless, frustrating work. Because you’re fighting the folks who want the opposite, AND the vast inertia of the system and the folks who don’t care.
So rather than approaching it offensively, e.g. “I’m going to fix X”, you almost have to approach it as “I’m going to work to prevent the other side from making X worse.” And when it does get worse, you console yourself that it’s less worse than it would have been but for your team’s efforts. And if by chance you do improve X, so much the better.
Folks above have given good advice. Pick a single issue, devote some real effort to it. As part of a group; true solo effort is almost universally pure waste.
Time & bile spent whining is worse than useless. Yet that’s all that 90+% of “politically aware” folks actually do. it’s politics as entertainment, and ulcer-causing entertainment at that. Don’t be that guy.
I think I basically agree
Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something. True cliché, there.
Now, specifically, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I deal with it very frequently. How can we battle neoliberalism most effectively (the corporate overlords and such) when our own societies are often slipping into reaction? I didn’t see that coming, really. All the momentum seemed to be with “us” from the late 90s until shortly after the 11 September attacks. The ensuing war was not the only factor, but it had a lot to do with it.
One answer lies in prefigurative politics, i.e. becoming the change you want to see in the world, living your values, and such. In other words, all the issues you care about are present even when they aren’t the primary focus. So, when I was at Occupy DC, although our primary objective was (as it happened) to engineer ongoing publicity stunts to call attention to corruption and collusion between capitalism and the state, we also spent an enormous amount of time and energy on trying to avoid/fight racism/sexism/homophobia/transphobia/ableism/ageism/classism and so much else both internally and externally. If such a movement achieves progress in its primary mission while also adhering to its principles in all other ways, then those related ideals will progress as well. There are too many examples of revolutionary movements being hobbled by serious social ills, unfortunately.
Look at much of Latin America in the past fifteen years or so. Social movements (workers, students, peasants, women, LGBTQ, indigenous people, etc.) allied together and were often able to take power. Even if the change in government brought about only some of the changes that the movements wanted, the fact is that they were able to wage war on poverty and inequality, and otherwise bring about changes that would have been impossible back when almost any movement towards justice would bring about shrieks of “COMMUNISM!!!” and an extremely violent response. Look at the way that Greek (and perhaps Spanish) social movements have reacted to the very ugly consequences of neoliberalism in their countries. Why not elsewhere? What’s stopping us? Hell, it used to be that even conservatives like Eisenhower and Nixon dismissed neoliberal ideas of welfare for the rich and free markets for everyone else! Things changed around 1980.
You know what else is a hopeful sign? The imperialist USSR is gone, and thus no longer ruining things (directly or indirectly) for otherwise positive movements worldwide.
Organize! Solidarity! Start somewhere.
Voting is what all of the other activities relate to! We raise consciousness…to persuade voters. We raise funds…to buy advertising to raise consciousness. We write in detail about issues…in part, at least, to help raise funds. But voting is where it counts, because that’s how we select legislators who create – well, laws. Laws backed up by force.
Voting is when we exercise force.
There are still two parties! Voting only ceases to make sense when we’re down to just one. (And when that happens, they often make voting mandatory, and helpfully fill in the ballot for you anyway.)
people often don’t care about the big picture/other guy/global if it cuts into your lifestyle.
eventually the world gets to a point when everybody is affected by that neglect.
He said pick something. He didn’t tell you what to pick.
ok, but isint spreading political capital among too many topics a problem?
I only vote so that people can’t accuse me of not voting. To think that the corporate overlords are going to allow anyone they dont like to be elected is absurd. Unless you have billions of dollars to back a third party candidate you are never going to make a difference.
You’re missing the point. I didn’t start with this idea but I am firmly convinced that unless we get rid of capitalists overlords then any form of activism is basically a waste of time.