« Saturday Gumpagraph | Main | Today's Bush Joke »
September 09, 2006
| Bob Fest | Activism |
Just got back from Fighting Bob Fest in Baraboo. A chilly afternoon for an outdoor event, but it was most inspiring nonetheless. Speakers included Jim Hightower, Amy Goodman, Senator Tom Harkin, and Greg Palast, all of whom were excellent.
Something Amy Goodman said really struck me. She was talking about women and the power of movements, and she got on the topic of Rosa Parks. She said that the popular idea of Rosa Parks is of an ordinary seamstress, tired at the end of a long day, who just spontaneously decided not to give her bus seat to a white passenger. In fact, Parks was an activist, the secretary of the local NAACP chapter, with some experience in strategizing for direct action. But US media seem to think that being an activist somehow de-legitimizes a person, when it should do the opposite. What could be more legitimate than devoting oneself to bettering the world.
But here was the striking thing. Amy Goodman said that the day everyone remembers, December 1, 1955, was not the first time Parks had refused to vacate her seat. But those other times, nothing much had happened. And then came the day that lit the spark that launched the modern civil rights movement. There's a lesson there. You never know what moment, what act, will become the tipping point. You just live your life according to principles of justice and speaking truth to power. And any moment of that life may turn out to be a catalyst that reverberates down through time, in a sort of activist version of the Butterfly Effect.
Posted by Jonathan at September 9, 2006 06:52 PM
Comments
What a good antidote to the discouragement which
is so easy to fall prey to these days.
Thanks,
Kent
Posted by: gumpa at September 10, 2006 08:37 AM
No one should loose hope, and no one should become discouraged in living a life that speaks to truth and power. Likewise, no one should live a hopeful, encouraging life wearing rose colored glasses or walking around with blinders on.
If you believe that the powers that exist today even closely resemble the powers that existed in the 1950's of far less magnitude, you're naive. Efforts to speak to today’s powers have reached global efforts, like those at DroppingKnowledge.org. To date, I can come up with only one answer to the following question. What incentives do the most powerful people in the world have to create true equality, good health and safety for all?
None. You may come up with a number of perfectly reasonable incentives just as I have, but you're not them and they're not you. So this question has to be asked standing in their shoes, not yours, from their view of the world, their values, their motives, their chauvinism, their egos and their greed.
Arundhati Roy made a small clip for DroppingKnowledge.org where she has revealed that she is beginning to ask herself where the line should be drawn for the use of violence as a viable means of dealing with the most powerful people in the world who do not hold society as a whole sacred (http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/media/list/film.page#media_66). Ask yourself what "major" U.S. battles have been won in the last 5 to 10 years that have come as the result of activism and peaceful demonstrations.
Don't loose hope or become discouraged, but at the same time you should be prepared to accept change. I personally believe the days of winning major battles through activism are over, however it will be interesting to see what the folks at CommonGroundRelief.org can do for the city of New Orleans (Now ask yourself why it’s taking a massive activist effort to rebuild a city ruined by a natural disaster in the most powerful country in the world). The majority of U.S. citizens are too dumbed up or just happy enough with what they have to notice or even think to notice. Results derived from peaceful activism these days will require not just a majority, but the vast majority of voices. Something we’d don’t have today.
A less serious account of some of these views can be heard in George Carlin’s latest performance found at http://video[dot]google[dot]com/videoplay?docid=-7068677712290004125&q=george+carlin
Whereas Arundhati Roy remains to be the most graceful speaker I’ve ever listened to, George Carlin has become slightly brasher in his later years, and willing to talk about “anything”. George’s comedy does contain meaningful content, but you’ve now been warned with regard to some of his material.
Posted by: Jeff at September 10, 2006 02:30 PM
Yeah, video . googgle . com errors out for some reason. Replace [dot] with actual periods in the post above.
Posted by: Jeff at September 10, 2006 02:35 PM