Sinuhue
09-11-2005, 18:22
I've been pretty mildly political for a while now...not like a few years ago when I was a raging ball of political activism, and I'm kind of wanting to get my feet dirty again. Problem is, as the problem has always been, where do you even begin?
The thing is, for a while pre-911, there was this incredible momentum in terms of political activism. We weren't split along issue-lines anymore. Anti-poverty groups worked with education groups with health-care groups with native groups with separatist groups with *insert issue here* groups...and it was amazing! All of these things are so linked...you can't tackle poverty as though it exists in isolation, just as you can not tackle education as though it were a single issue. And yet, here we are again, split into issues, all trying to get a piece of the funding pie, and of the attention.
I want that broad-based approach BACK!! I always detested the arguments based on minute differences or ideologies...and it was always those most closely aligned in purpose that disagreed the most. I suspect it is a part of the West's individualistic paradigm...we aren't used to working as a community anymore, and it is easy to play us off against one another.
I refuse to get back into nitpicky one-issue-only political activism. I want to hit a number of issues at once, and support a number of different activities at once. I know we are told that this diffuses our impact and works against us, but I think that's bullshit.
But still...where does one even begin...INSPIRE ME PEOPLE! INSPIRE YOURSELVES! INSPIRE OTHERS!
The thing is, for a while pre-911, there was this incredible momentum in terms of political activism. We weren't split along issue-lines anymore. Anti-poverty groups worked with education groups with health-care groups with native groups with separatist groups with *insert issue here* groups...and it was amazing! All of these things are so linked...you can't tackle poverty as though it exists in isolation, just as you can not tackle education as though it were a single issue. And yet, here we are again, split into issues, all trying to get a piece of the funding pie, and of the attention.
I want that broad-based approach BACK!! I always detested the arguments based on minute differences or ideologies...and it was always those most closely aligned in purpose that disagreed the most. I suspect it is a part of the West's individualistic paradigm...we aren't used to working as a community anymore, and it is easy to play us off against one another.
I refuse to get back into nitpicky one-issue-only political activism. I want to hit a number of issues at once, and support a number of different activities at once. I know we are told that this diffuses our impact and works against us, but I think that's bullshit.
But still...where does one even begin...INSPIRE ME PEOPLE! INSPIRE YOURSELVES! INSPIRE OTHERS!