Articulation

2003-04-02 - 5:04 a.m.

"How does your activism articulate itself, exactly?" Asked Sam in my guestbook. There was an email address, but this is a public journal, so I guess s/he/it will have to come back to get an answer.

But it's a good question, and one that deserves a response, and is much better than the guestbook signing I got months ago lambasting me for my "anti-picture" stance.

My articulating of activism comes in a few ways. It's been a slow progression for me, having spent years always meaning to do something but mostly just sitting around and reading. It's also still a work in progress - there are things I do that I want to change, and certainly there are things that I don't know about yet that I ought to change. I'm not boycotting the big corporations as much as I should, but it's something I think about, and I think I've started to make steps in that direction.

My earliest form of activism is probably my being a vegetarian. I've heard, somewhere, that vegetarianism is the one single most effective act that someone can take to improve the world. Giving up meat affects so many aspects of oppression - from animal abuse to environmental degradation to cycles of poverty in developing nations to Big Business to hunger - that it made sense to me. I have a meat-eater's soul, and so I fall off the wagon quite frequently, but over the last ten years I've eaten a hell of a lot less meat than I might have...I couldn't even speculate the effect that may have had.

Possibly for just as long, I've been a talker and a writer. Anyone who gets to know me on a level beyond acquaintance knows that I feel strongly about some things. I'm not shy about explaining my political beliefs, and I think it's important that I speak with people, not to "educate" them, but to help them learn to educate themselves. I like discussion, even when there's disagreement, and I enjoy the exchange of ideas. I like to think that I've had an impact on some of my friends, that maybe a couple of them are a little more active than they would have been otherwise. More recently, I've been using this diaryland thing, as well as starting a message board (remember that link up in the corner there? Of course you all do, because no one ever clicks it, ever. No one has any opinions and no one ever wants to talk about politics and feed my ego. Sigh.) and participating in other message board discussions. You can't go two links on the 'net without finding some opinion about something, so I know my thoughts are lost in something of a blizzard, but I -also- know that I am favourited by 27 diaries and at least some of those people must read what I type. It's a start.

I watch what I buy. I've only just started changing what (and where) I buy (in the form of soap and "Fair Trade" coffee, currently, both to be found at a local grocery store that isn't owned by a large company and supports a lot of independent initiatives by stocking products that are made by small businesses in the community.) but it's something that I'm working toward, and will probably be my biggest activist challenge in the next ten years.

I walk or use public transit (but only when I need to). Pretty self-explanatory there.

I've started going to protests, which is something Sam can read about in my journal, should Sam be so inclined. My efforts there are starting to pay off, too, in that I'm building some connections to activist groups, as well as letting myself become a part of a community. Oh, and being another head in the crowd is important.

I guess that's about it. I wish that I didn't spend my money as unwisely as I do, and I toy with the idea of direct action from time to time. I also realized that I have it in me to be a "human shield," if it comes to that...although that's something to think about after my mom has died, I guess. She has nightmares of my getting bulldozed in Palistine.

I'm often timid, and I am not prepared to resort to violence, I still haven't developed a complete (for me) idea of where my beliefs lie and so sometimes I'm confused about the issues I care about. I'm lazy (very, very lazy) and have a penchant to let things slide. Because I have difficulty associating with real-life people, I haven't built as much of a social environment around me as I'd like, and so I often miss out on news. I worry a lot about whether or not I'm right.

I think that's everything. I just hope it answered the question and that Sam didn't really want to know -why- I'm doing all this...that'll be a really long entry.

And I still have two more entries I want to write, but work is going poorly, so they will have to wait. They are: a need for a thesis statement in my fiction, and the fact that my sister is really old now (soon to be 11) and how that relates to my mom's (mild) insanity.

Cheers,

The Magus

previous - next