The Dedicated Few

When you hear the word “politics”, what are the first words that spring to mind for you? For some, it’s belief, ideas, convictions and struggle. For others, I’m certain words like boring, bureaucracy, red tape and futility spring to mind. We’re all different, and we all care about different things. For me? I think about change; change, and potential to do great good or great harm. Most people no matter where on the political spectrum most likely believe that their way of doing things is the best way to bring the most good to the most people – otherwise I doubt they’d stick with their convictions. I believe that this is true – at least that they believe that this is the case.

Personally, I believe in balance. In taking ideas from all over the spectrum to integrate into a working policy, and in trying to maintain that balance you serve the people as best you can. If any of these ideas I’ve spoken of had been perfect, we wouldn’t need to even bother with what this text is really about. This text is about what happens when something goes wrong, and needs fixing.

Looking back

I’m talking about activism. Certainly not a new concept – activism has been the first signs that rebellion and revolution are hiding behind the corner, just waiting to knock on the door. A flagcarrier of social change, if you will. Historically, activism has meant small acts of defiance against the powers that be, many times leading directly or indirectly to radical change in society. Looking back through time, one can pick out examples ranging back several hundreds, if not thousands of years, but I’ve chosen a few from the last 100 just to keep things simple.

“The term slacktivist was coined in the mid 90’s and is a merger between the two words Slacker and Activist.”

It is almost exactly 100 years ago that a feminist suffrage parade walked through the streets of New york city in an effort to improve the rights of women. 43 years later Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her act of defiance sparked the famed Montgomery Bus Boycott, and her civil disobedience became a symbol for the Civil rights movement. Today, we see LGBT-activists fight for their rights in a similar albeit more sparkly struggle. Without people that are willing to put their own well-being and even their lives on the line for the greater good, where would we be today? I can only imagine. What I do know is that back in the 60’s, activism was something exceptional. It was unusual in and of itself, and with TV, radio and news programming it spread faster than it could have done fifty years earlier.

Today, activism is at an all time high – it’s become so commonplace that it’s expected and sometimes looked down upon. There are many reasons for this, but I’m going to talk about the one that has really spread like wildfire the last 15 years. Slacktivism.

Stating the obvious

In a time when people have grown increasingly lethargic and dispassionate about what happens in society and politics in particular, when people give less care to how, why and what decisions are being made, slacktivism has acted as a sort of pressure valve for peoples’ guilt. The term slacktivist was coined in the mid 90’s and is a merger between the two words Slacker and Activist. It is used to describe someone that engage in a sort of feelgood-type deeds that have little to no effect on whatever cause they care about. To my mind, this is one of the most mind-numbing and pointless activities one can engage in.

“We condemn offensive deeds not by a vocal outcry of defiance, but with the squeaks of our keyboards.”

Though more people today actively voice their concerns only to be met by silence and contempt, even more people simply ride on the coattails of real activism for the appearance of doing good through nonsense activism like Facebook groups. We can no longer muster the energy and passion to get out of our couches and chairs to stand up for something that we believe in. We don’t really try to change those things that seem wrong to us, but we do our best to make it look like we’re trying – especially if we don’t have to do any actual work or sacrifice anything. Instead of putting in the time or the money needed to support change, we instead pass around status updates on social media sites or change our profile pictures and avatars to reflect whatever is the most popular thing to be against at the moment. We condemn offensive deeds not by a vocal outcry of defiance, but with the squeaks of our keyboards. I struggle to find a word for it other than pathetic, but my mind fails me. Reprehensible, perhaps?

Tell me, have those of you that use Facebook ever seen anything like this:

“If you know someone who has [insert random malady here] , post this as your status message for one hour! 9 out of 10 won’t do this – WILL YOU?”

I’m guessing most of you have seen this, and that some of you have even posted it yourself. While this type of chain-letter-status is pointless and mostly annoying, it’s not the worst type of slacktivism that Facebook has spawned. Does this seem familiar:

“[random friend] has joined the group REAL MEN DON’T RAPE – Click like If U R against RAPE!”

Guess what? I won’t click like. In fact, I’ll even go as far as to suggest that those who DO click it are either morons or have something they need to hide. All things considered, you should feel lucky I don’t find you and give you this lecture face to face. Not only is this group completely pointless as I doubt you’d find anyone both sane and alive that’ll admit to liking rape, but it does a wonderful job of trying to actively shame people into joining up. It also manages to imply that people who haven’t clicked like are somehow either rapists, or secretly in favour of rape. Does this seem likely to anyone? I doubt it.

“This behavior is masturbation for your ego, and serves no other purpose than to make you look like something you’re not.”

Before the invention of the Internet and things like Facebook, did we really feel this urgent need to loudly proclaim what is obvious to everyone, and actively need to take steps in distancing ourselves from horrors and inhumanities that nobody can get behind? Were there groups of people protesting on the streets holding signs that said “Normal People Don’t Axe-Murder Other People”? Was there a social movement of people actively engaged in informing people that using drain cleaner as toothpaste is a bad idea? If there was, I think they forgot to send me a fax about it. This behavior is masturbation for your ego, and serves no other purpose than to make you look like something you’re not – caring and engaged.

The gray area

There are also things that sort of fall in between activism and slacktivism. For instance, this whole thing with colored ribbons. To me, it’s bordering on slacktivism, but it can stay around for a little while longer since they actually generate some revenue that gets funneled into research… but really, it’s starting to outstay it’s welcome too. Let’s try to find new ways of doing good, okay?

Of course there are things that demand very little effort that can still do good. A prime example of this is the Wear Something Purple-day. Simply put, this is a day that you wear an item of clothing or an accessory that is purple to show your support for those LGBT-people that haven’t found the courage or opportunity to come out of the proverbial closet to be open about their sexuality. At first glance, this reeked of slacktivism to me, but when I dug a little bit deeper and thought about it, it ceases to be that simple. Wearing something purple is incredibly simple and effortless, and it’s also stating something that should be obvious – there are no gay people, or straight people, or transexual people: there is just people. So far the stamp of slacktivism is still there.

But if this can help even one person who’s having to hid their feelings and true identity near you, isn’t it worth it for the price you pay? Especially when you consider what that price is – next to nothing. The trick here is that this simple gesture can actually help. You send out a clear signal to those who are aware without tooting your own horn how good you are to those who don’t know or don’t care. You’re both shouting your intention from the rooftops, and only those it matters to can hear it. Isn’t it brilliant? Of course, spreading the word to others about what you’re doing is also important but can be done in a more subtle and delicate fashion.

So, what’s the point of all this, then? Will my ranting and raving here make a bigger difference than those people out there making Facebook groups and tweaking their avatars? I’m not sure. What I am sure of though is that my passion and commitment doesn’t end here; it follows me every day, and I’ll never stop trying to improve myself and the world around me. You can count on that.

Never doubt that a
small group of
thoughtful, committed people
can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only
thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead