Pamela's Blog 34

Published on Friday, July 10, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“How Do We Grow A Mass Movement?: Essence Of Activism – One”

by Pamela Satterwhite

So…how do we grow a mass movement? Waking Up attempts to answer this question, but perhaps we can make a few tinctures, essences, and concentrates.

On the radio just now I heard Derrick Jensen say that we have to stop thinking of ourselves as “consumers” and start thinking of ourselves as animals (…or, perhaps, I suggest, plants).

As consumers, he said, we have only two options for our activism: to consume or not to consume. In this schema, the acme of activism is to reduce our consumption.

OK, deal. Ka-boom, done!

If you, as have I, denounce and renounce WalMart, Costco, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Whole Foods and Starbucks,* to name but a few…then…

…is activism executed? Moral high ground accomplished? Sound sleep, righteous rest…assured?

[Pause while we all take our well-deserved nap]…………

The other possibility is to consider that we may actually be living things, with an allegiance to life above all else (…that’s right, even above our creative accommodation, our carved-out compromise…)

“As an animal that needs habitat, we’re not bound by that bargain [to reduce our activism to the choice ‘consume,’ or ‘not-consume’],” he said. **

He believes that the first step towards taking our world back is for us to figure out what we love, and to then get busy defending it.

…I know, easier said than done, right?

But that’s just because of all the cons confusing us – all the systematic, well-planned and maintained, conditioning.

Surely, superior species that we are…surely, we’re not numbler than your basic, average, stinkin’ pink jasmine? (Do you detect slight animosity…or maybe just awe?) It could teach us a thing or two, could that jasmine.

They establish their roots, stake their claim to the space, before they send out their flowers.

So what does that mean…for us?

How can we stake a claim to our own earth, our own souls, our own minds?

How do we make them Priority Number One?

Why not go outside, right now, and look around…

…imagine it’s yours.

What do you want to be different?

Flesh out that picture.

Share it…

…share it with the people who share your earth…the neighbors across the street, the neighbors next door, the man who just hawked up his sputum on the sidewalk, the bare-backed boys bouncing balls, the women who sweep by in their cars for recyclables, the numb-looking students plugged-in to devices.

Look at the neglected earth, the neglected children, the neglected cultural commons. Say out loud what you think.

Say...out loud...that enough is enough…we deserve something better…

Can fear of our fellows be more frightening than…this? Our everyday, casual complacence in the face of so much that is not what we want?

* All of which are organizing, plotting and planning to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.

** He was being interviewed by Kris Welch on the July 10, 2009 Living Room on the Pacifica radio station KPFA.

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Pamela's Blog 34

Published on Friday, July 10, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“How Do We Grow A Mass Movement?: Essence Of Activism – One”