So you want to be an activist?

quote:I am just getting into activism, and have been introduced into it by my boyfriend. He's part of a punk band and they're all very political. I feel very intimidated because I feel like I want to do something to change the world, and he's very passionate about it, but I feel like I'm not tough enough or cool enough to be part of his group.

Punk Girl

Ms. C's answer!

Does anyone ever consciously decide they want to be an activist?

I think “Punk Girl” is right. Getting into activism can often be intimidating. The rhetoric of a movement itself can be intimidating. It often seems like in order to be a part of something you need to be fluent in feminist theory or have a degree in labour studies or know the names of every minister, senator and Member of Parliament.

Activism isn’t always approachable, and I understand Punk Girl’s worries, assuming that many wannabe-activists don’t feel well-versed enough or well-read enough. I often feel that way! I thought Miss C’s advice was dead on. Start small, meet people and get involved!

quote:Originally posted by Caissa:
Does anyone ever consciously decide they want to be an activist?

I think so. It's a decision to take the ideas that are in your head and turn them into action.

I don't think a lot of people sort of wake up one morning and say, "Hey, I'm going to be an activist!" But I've known lots of people who think along the lines of, "I want to get more involved in stuff" or "I want to become more politically active."

quote:Originally posted by jrose:

Activism isn’t always approachable, and I understand Punk Girl’s worries, assuming that many wannabe-activists don’t feel well-versed enough or well-read enough.

People should try to be more welcoming. (I do think activists should try to become well-read and well-informed, though).

But she's not concerned about not being well-read or well-informed. She's worried that she's not tough or cool enough. This isn't the first time I've encountered the confluence of "activism" and "cool". It's a very, very, very bad sign, in my view.

"Welcome to the thankless world of activism!"

How uplifting.

Activism should be grounded in need to be enduring and long lasting. However, those needs could be of the most elevated social or spiritual kind.

quote:RosaL: But she's not concerned about not being well-read or well-informed. She's worried that she's not tough or cool enough. This isn't the first time I've encountered the confluence of "activism" and "cool". It's a very, very, very bad sign, in my view.

The culture wars, mostly emanating from the USA over the last 30 years, succeeded in "The Conquest of Cool". Check out the book of the same title. It was "cool" to be active in issues of social justice and to be part of the counter-culture. The culture wars undermined that, and made selfishness, racism, misogyny and other markers of capitalism "cool". This is no small matter at all ... but associating social justice activism with "coolness" [rather than associating the misanthropy of capitalism and business culture with coolness] seems fine by me.

That's the way it should be, no?

The Conquest of Cool by Thomas Frank.

[ 27 June 2008: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

quote:Originally posted by N.Beltov:

The culture wars, mostly emanating from the USA over the last 30 years, succeeded in "The Conquest of Cool". Check out the book of the same title. It was "cool" to be active in issues of social justice and to be part of the counter-culture. The culture wars undermined that, and made selfishness, racism, misogyny and other markers of capitalism "cool". This is no small matter at all ... but associating activism with "coolness" seems fine by me. That's the way it should be, no?

The Conquest of Cool by Thomas Frank.

No, I don't think it should. I don't like what "cool" means in this culture and I am suspicious of the value system of anyone who aspires to it. Coolness is only for young, attractive (in the conventional sense), relatively affluent and privileged people. The poor, marginalized, disabled, oppressed people of this world are not "cool". They don't have a hope in hell of being cool.

(I enjoyed One Market Under God enormously, but haven't read The Conquest of Cool.)

ETA: I really haven't made my position clear. I'm doing a couple things at once and have to leave in 5 minutes. Maybe later.

[ 27 June 2008: Message edited by: RosaL ]

quote: RosaL: But she's not concerned about not being well-read or well-informed. She's worried that she's not tough or cool enough. This isn't the first time I've encountered the confluence of "activism" and "cool". It's a very, very, very bad sign, in my view.

Not only is activism considered “cool” in some circles (Punk, as referenced in the letter to Miss C. is a prime example) but activist groups are also trying to appear “cool” to attract the mainstream media and to reach more people. I often wonder how much of a slippery slope this is.

It's a culture, and ultimately a social, war. The bosses and their agents want consumer idiocy and slavishness to the boss to prevail; those of us on the left want social connectedness, spiritual elevation, and class consciousness to prevail. "Cool" is simply a term the two sides fight over, like "freedom", and so on.

I want to add that there is also a kind of fake activism, or a watered-down activism, that is sold to people. Consumer actions, through shopping, replaces mass mobilizations. And so on.

Here's what Frank wrote about the counter-culture and the fake counterculture:

quote:Thomas Frank: from its very beginnings down to the present, business dogged the counterculture with a fake counterculture, a commercial replica that seemed to ape its every move for the titillation of the TV-watching millions and the nation's corporate sponsors.... Apart from certain obvious exceptions at either end of the spectrum of commodification (represented, say, by the MC-5 at one end and the Monkees at the other) it was and remains difficult to distinguish precisely between authentic counterculture and fake: by almost every account, the counterculture, as a mass movement distinct from the bohemias that preceded it, was triggered at least as much by developments in mass culture (particularly the arrival of The Beatles in 1964) as changes at the grass roots.

Even the impulse to be involved in social justice issues is a target for capitalist marketing. Let the activist beware. It's a totalitarian system. But forewarned is forearmed, even for young activists looking at our brave new world with blinking eyes.

The "Conquest of Cool" does seem interesting, but too focused on the US alone - 1968 was a global phenomenon - not just May 68 in France or the Chicago riots.

I have read rot similar to Alan Bloom's stuff about May 68 being quasi-fascist from Sarkozites in France, by the way...

The reaction against 60s hope also took very violent forms in some parts of the world...

I became an activist as a young teen around 1968 - it was like a revealing flash of light against conformist, sexist, racist and consumerist society. Sure there was sexism, racism, a form of conformism and forms of consumerism within activist movements, but these horrors are not what drives them - they are the inevitable consequences of their insertion into late-capitalist class society.

And experienced the hard right turn of the 1980s as a time of deep disappointment and even betrayal as I saw some former comrades sell out - some of them actually became ideologues of the established order.

Fortunately, not all of them did, and there is a new wave of activism now, but it is struggling to exist under very adverse circumstances of deep economic decline and the application of security ideology and the so-called "War on Terror".

Ms C is right in that activism involves far more stuffing envelopes, leafleting and nowadays doing the same via internet as thrilling demonstrations and mass public meetings. And an infinite succession of boring (internal) meetings...

I think it's useful to assist the prospective social justice activist by pointing out that they will face a battle of ideas, even over their activist soul, and that they should be ready for it. We should protect our young.

I think the letter-writer does illustrate a problem. You don't have to be "rebel chic" to get involved, but it probably seems that way.

First of all, the word "activist" is kind of loaded, isn't it? It's kind of a self-conscious label, one that people might feel like they need "cred" from other "activists" in order to be an activist themselves.

I think it's necessary to rethink the whole activist chic thing. There are ways of getting involved and working for change without necessarily cultivating The Image Of Activist.

quote:Originally posted by Michelle:
First of all, the word "activist" is kind of loaded, isn't it?

I think it's necessary to rethink the whole activist chic thing. There are ways of getting involved and working for change without necessarily cultivating The Image Of Activist.
Another loaded word is "change," as overused by the Unity Pals yesterday.

It reminds me of the old General Electric Company slogan "progress is our most important product."

Capitalism dissolves cultures and boundaries. "Change," yes, but not the change anyone here asked for. Bush wanted to change Iraq.

[ 28 June 2008: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]

Well, I don't feel "activist" is over-used - it is an expression of commitment and priority. In French we'd say "militant, militante" - I know that can sound kind of militaristic or terrorist to people in the .... no, I know we can't say "Rest of Canada" as some people think it makes people in Halifax, Red Deer and Hamilton sound the same, but y'know what I mean...

For example, I'd think of Lйa Roback, Madeleine Parent and Michel Chartrand (just to take some local examples) as "lifelong activists".

Activism has always been cool and out front. In the long run it's always co-opted. Listen to the Quirks and Quarks segment on teenage chimpanzees. Apparently it happens in all primates. Cool is just the teenage rebellion that has been adopted by the larger society.

We know about co-opting too. I remember when the early members of the civil rights movement started coming north on speaking tours, we asked them about the funny farmers clothes they wore. They explained that dressing like the poor southern farmers help them gain acceptance for programs like voting rights and desegregation. So a few of us in the north started wearing jeans in solidarity with our older activist cousins. We all know what a marketing bonanza that turned out to be for the capitalistas. First it was wrong to wear jeans, then there were designer jeans almost overnight. The first time my grandmother saw me wearing jeans she said "why you wearing those farmer clothes". We were going back to what she moved away from. Today's cool is tomorrows marketing device. It's sad, but it's the way it is. You wanna be cool, but you also want to move beyond cool real quick. Turn cool into commitment, before it gets old, and bypassed by the next cool. As for those who are uncool, that's way more of a problem than cool. How do you save your movement from the ideological nerds that spend way too much time in meetings and not enough time in action? Don't get me wrong it's fine to have meetings, if at the end of the day, some action comes out of them. But, the meetings need to be held by people who are actually getting out and doing something. Not by cause groupies. That's where the tough enough part comes in. When I was a kid we had to risk being beaten and jailed to walk through the "activist" door. I know I'm gonna hear screams of protest, but, as "activists", we used to be a lot tougher.

Interesting remarks, retired guy. However, I'm not sure that Punk Girl will feel any less intimidated by them.

We do want her to feel less intimidated, don't we?

I guess the thing with being an activist, is occasionally you're going to get beat up, maybe not physically, but verbally, you're going to get ambushed, you may not be picking yourself up off the pavement, but you're going to be picking yourself up emotionally. I guess the first thing you need is a cause you're willing to suffer abuse for. But, the cause comes first. You can adopt someone else's cause but you have to make it yours before you go out there. So, I guess my advice would be , read everything, try and be aware of all the issues, become an activist in whatever field catches your attention, whatever that might be. We may all want to free Tibet, (my Free Tibet t-shirt didn't shrink but somehow it's become woefully small) but you don't really get to dictate what it is that ultimately catches our attention. Personally my next big thing will probably be campaigning to ensure the Species at Risk Act is not amended to make the protection of caribou habitat on crown land legally impossible. That something like that would be of interest to any but a few people is highly unlikely. But that's what appeals to me right now, so off I go. I'm sure there are many more "worthwhile" things out there, but each of us has a responsibility to go with what inspires us.

A couple of clues. If something inspires you, you'll find out everything you can about it. You'll read, you'll watch any available films, you'll know who the "experts" are. The trick to being an activist is being active. If that's too much, just go to the parties.

There are two kinds of activists. The frontline grunts (the people who are hard-core, and actually risk their lives for the causes they believe in) and the auxiliaries (the people who engage in letterwriting campaigns, bake cookies for striking workers etc.) and while the people in the auxiliaries may not be doing activism that's particularly exciting, every little bit helps.
For example, I think updating all hail the Israeli resistance is a form of activism. I may not be risking my life to protect Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip, but I think I do more good adding material to those threads than I ever would in the occupied territories.

[ 01 July 2008: Message edited by: CMOT Dibbler ]

[ 01 July 2008: Message edited by: CMOT Dibbler ]

[ 01 July 2008: Message edited by: CMOT Dibbler ]