What is activism? Our scatterplot across the room demonstrated the variety in our ideas and ideals of what activism is. I like to say an effective activist is informed and acts with good intent.
First: being informed. If you are going to march for climate change, then reading up on the science, the arguments, the counterarguments, enhances your credibility as an activist. It is hard to persuade someone of your cause if you do not understand its cause, which is why spending the first few classes defining and learning about climate change set us up to go into activism. Information comes before the act like a thought becomes before movement. If we are going to be activists, we need to understand what we are acting for and against.
Second: intent. Looking at the rhino picture, I was uncertain of its scale of activism because I could not pinpoint the intent of the photographer. Did they take the picture because they care deeply about the plight of rhinos and want to people to look at this picture and care? Did they want the money, the attention, the prestige? How did they capture such a powerful photo? Where they there when the violence happened? Did they try and stop it? There are endless questions that come to mind when I see this picture. I want to know the intent, but I cannot know this from a photograph. For some this may not be a problem; it is a powerful picture and people should know such atrocities are happening. But I think this form of activism is inaccessible to most. It’s hard to act off a photograph, we aren’t given any information about the situation. We can be passive on-lookers and feel deeply, but what are we supposed to do?
The Monkey Wrench Gang, though destructive, acts from good intentions, which allows my conscious accept their actions as activism though they are destructive. The gang does what is within their power to change their situation – they are removing the “anthills” (tractors, bridges, coal cars) of their wilderness. “The anthill, is the model in microcosm of what we must find a way to oppose and halt” (Abbey 84). In the minds of the gang, they are improving their surroundings, and it’s hard not to respect the intent of their actions as well as the fact that they are, indeed, acting.
Abbey, Edward. Money Wrench Gang. HarperCollins, 1975.
