This has been on my mind for quite some time, but has been bothering me especially in recent days. This is a matter for which I don’t have advice, and am still musing on the best course of action.
It seems obvious to me that in a moment of crisis, all secondary concerns should be abandoned and the crisis dealt with. To give a simple example, you don’t ignore a burning house, but leave immediately and attend to the emergency. This is how I’ve felt about the world as a whole for the last several years: an emergency is unfolding, and it seems sensible to drop all other concerns to fix it.
Instead, I’ve found that most people, most of the time, go about their days as if things are normal. There are those who instead dedicate their lives to the problem, to the detriment of whatever else they might have done with that time, and this seems palpably unfair.
This was brought to my mind today, as I walked through my home city toward a rally event. On the way I passed through an ongoing major event, full of signage and celebrities and festivity. I felt an urge to condemn the people undertaking the event, to be frustrated at their seemingly carefree activity in the face of the mounting strife our society faces.
The consequence of this disconnect has caused me a lot of misery. It seems wholly inappropriate to undergo any vestige of normal life while the crises in our political, economic and ecological systems are ongoing. To me, it feels like trying to hold a party in a burning house. But for most people, apparently the lack of established methods by which to address the problems leaves them using only small, momentary efforts, often guided by others who have a clearer idea of how to act. It may simply be that as a species lack the imagination to respond to threats that aren’t visibly imminent.
On the other hand. I’ve heard a lot of advice lately about preserving joy. Though it doesn’t come easily to me, I can understand the logic behind it. We have to hold on to what makes live valuable in order to have the drive to protect it. Moreover, focusing wholly on crisis management, in the face of a crisis which cannot be resolved quickly, leads inexorably to burnout, as I have personally learned in the past.
So the question becomes, how much “time off” do we take? How much rest is appropriate? Presumably the answer depends on the person. The most common risk, at least based on my experiences, is the temptation to give up all progressive work and wallow in shallow gratifications. But the worry that really gives me pause is that the many who, through disinformation or wishful thinking, have convinced themselves that things are fundamentally fine, and seeing social and festive events occur as normal can reinforce that misunderstanding.
A possible approach, which I am still in the process of considering, is to use public events as forms of social outreach by which to eventually bring more people into the cause of activism. This has to be done subtly; obvious proselytizing will drive people away. General friendliness can get farther, but it’s important to not shy from difficult issues. This is the mistake we have been making in the past. We cannot afford to keep the problems of today out of our public space; they must be freely discussed. We must acknowledge that this will cause discomfort, and that has to be endured. We cannot afford comfort and must learn to live on the edge, because that is where we are.
As I am not outgoing, I cannot how best this can be accomplished in specific steps. It is something that warrants further thought.
How to Save the World 