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Author Topic: How to give people strength to stand up?  (Read 1564 times)

Anon100

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How to give people strength to stand up?
« on: September 27, 2020, 02:06:30 pm »
So Perdita posted what I consider to be a most important question here ( https://ecauldron.com/forum/political-discussions/ruth-bader-ginsburg-is-dead-and-perhaps-so-is-the-u-s/ ) and one which I feel deserves to be seen in its own post

This is the difficulty -- how to portray that hope/'something' positive in a way which the masses can get behind, to overcome those fears and risks in the forefronts of their minds?  Because, in your vision of things (and I agree), the masses appear to be very much required to effect the changes needed/desired.

How to mobilise the people?

It's been a question at the back of my mind for ages ( and no doubt in many other minds too ).

First I will say that I'm so far removed that the strife and conflict and desperation that others who read this are feeling and living, is just a distant and quiet echo for me. I have no idea if I have the right to say anything and, every time I think of doing so or have just done so, so much of me says to stop speaking because I have no right, no understanding in my heart and, yes, no need to put my voice/neck out there to be cut off with scorn or to come back and haunt me in some way.

Maybe I am wrong to still be talking. Maybe it even, in some way, feels like I'm not taking the feelings of those living in harsh, dictatorial, facist, oppresive and other such situations, into account.
I'm sorry if that's the case. However I can only sit quiet for so long, because talking, ideas, thoughts.. Those are all I can offer right now and I'd feel wrong if I didn't do that small thing at least...


So, the question.
How do you mobilise 100% of people? I don't have an idea, but I do have a few fragments of thoughts and memories - like loads of lego bricks needing a design and extra parts. Maybe they'll be of use for others reading this.

1. I have a dream! I didn't live when Martin Luther King spoke those powerful words but, still, when I hear them or think them my mind instantly goes to the deeper and more rounded voice which spoke them with such strength and passion. And what's more, those words spoke of a dream, a hope, a better time for all. They still do.

2. A war memorial day. I was part of a group posting games on FB for people who needed help collecting animals for the game Zooworld. We all came together to do a war memorial event but I wanted my posts to say something. I found story clips for a number of people who'd gained medals for something they did in war that SAVED lives - no John Wayne antics here; There were those who died with stretcher in hand, those who stayed behind so they knew others would get back safe, those who were behind the lines saving the innocent.

3. A movie I caught the end of about the Tuskegee airmen. The sense of uplifting I don't know the word ( joy/pride ) at seeing how a group of men fought for what they believed was good and, though grudgingly, were accepted because they were so strong. The Imitation Game is another powerful one with a similar message of struggle by a great hero against social barriers.


How do you get everyone to feel that? How do you make them dream? I imagine a wave of words online showing people that there's no difference or lesser value, showing them figures of hope worth wanting to raise statues to. Something to make it less scary and alone to face the dark..

The problem is I'm distant and can't see if that could be done, would help or be of use.

So, the question remains. How do you get everyone to care, find strength and support, see hope?

Aisling

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Re: How to give people strength to stand up?
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2020, 06:53:34 pm »
How do you mobilise 100% of people?
/snip/
How do you get everyone to feel that? How do you make them dream?
/snip/
So, the question remains. How do you get everyone to care, find strength and support, see hope?

The short answer is that you don't. 

Humans are not a collective monolith as far as their sources of strength, hope, caring, and dreams.  It's part of the double-edge sword of diversity - we have beautiful and wonderful differences, but with that there will come conflict.  Realistically, there will never be a time or place when every one is on board with the same dream or vision.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2020, 06:55:24 pm by Aisling »

"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." -
Neil deGrasse Tyson

Aisling

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Re: How to give people strength to stand up?
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2020, 07:08:40 pm »
The short answer is that you don't. 

Humans are not a collective monolith as far as their sources of strength, hope, caring, and dreams.  It's part of the double-edge sword of diversity - we have beautiful and wonderful differences, but with that there will come conflict.  Realistically, there will never be a time or place when every one is on board with the same dream or vision.

Accidentally posted before I finished my thought.  ::)

However, I suspect you're probably  defining 'everyone' less broadly than I'm interpreting it to be.  Do you mean literally everyone or everyone who potentially supports your vision of the world? 


"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." -
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Anon100

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Re: How to give people strength to stand up?
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2020, 07:39:43 pm »
Accidentally posted before I finished my thought.  ::)

However, I suspect you're probably  defining 'everyone' less broadly than I'm interpreting it to be.  Do you mean literally everyone or everyone who potentially supports your vision of the world?

Oh, I agree that not 'everyone' will ever come together. I'm more thinking in terms of bringing the vast majority together.
The way I see it, no matter what happens, the vocal and strong groups that form protests and such will always be a minority number - there is a large majority that are ambivilent or, more often, unsure/scared/even unaware. These are the ones who sometimes burst out in instants of voting action etc but otherwise remain hidden, and these are the ones I'm wondering about.

Of course there will always be people with strong views the other way and ones who would lose power if things changed but they too are a minority. Yes, I haven't missed the fact that they have positions of power but, in many cases ( with those just wanting power ), if they see power shifting they'll choose to shift rather than lose it.

Aisling

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Re: How to give people strength to stand up?
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2020, 08:36:46 pm »
I'm more thinking in terms of bringing the vast majority together.

Bringing together the 'vast majority' together is a nice dream, but I'm not sure that it's possible in the current political and social environment in the States (and I suspect this is true in some other parts of the world).  We're broken right now - possibly irrevocably. Realistically, I think the best we can hope for here in the near future is a bit more civility and a little less open conflict, assuming that the current leadership is ousted in the November elections. 

The way I see it, no matter what happens, the vocal and strong groups that form protests and such will always be a minority number - there is a large majority that are ambivilent or, more often, unsure/scared/even unaware. These are the ones who sometimes burst out in instants of voting action etc but otherwise remain hidden, and these are the ones I'm wondering about.

Not disputing that there are folks who might but ambivalent or unsure, but what's your basis for the assumption that those folks constitute a large majority?  Is there actual data or studies that suggest this?  Just curious, because I'm seeing  far more folks who are either firmly decided about their politics or completely apathetic than ones who are ambivalent or unaware.

"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." -
Neil deGrasse Tyson

Anon100

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Re: How to give people strength to stand up?
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2020, 05:43:43 am »
Not disputing that there are folks who might but ambivalent or unsure, but what's your basis for the assumption that those folks constitute a large majority?  Is there actual data or studies that suggest this?  Just curious, because I'm seeing  far more folks who are either firmly decided about their politics or completely apathetic than ones who are ambivalent or unaware.

No. I have no polls or proof and perhaps I would have been better using the word 'apathy' as you have pointed out ( my mistake in using the wrong words ).

I'm going on what I've witnessed and the general nature of the UK elections which have, over many of the past elections, involved the major parties trying hard to reverse voter apathy.
I also hve to admit that I can see how, after the protests that have already been going on, the level of apathy in the US is probably much lower than it would have been before, as people have found themselves heading towards one or the other camp.

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Re: How to give people strength to stand up?
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2020, 09:50:41 am »

How do you mobilise 100% of people? I don't have an idea, but I do have a few fragments of thoughts and memories - like loads of lego bricks needing a design and extra parts. Maybe they'll be of use for others reading this.

Nobody has ever mobilized 100%. Successful mass movements still consist of a well-organized minority- a minority big enough to act forcefully and precipitate change, to be sure, but most people are, for various reasons, not going to take part. These movements typically arise from a combination of hard organizing work by local activists and cadres, and historical forces that produce a populace receptive to their ideas and tactics.

In the past few decades there have been lots of groups and self-proclaimed revolutionary sects trying to foment radical change in the US but with little to show for it. They may have some real achievements but they are usually on a small scale. A patient and levelheaded understanding of historical/ social context matters.

The key link between moments of revolutionary ebb, and revolutionary flow, is poetry. Octavio Paz said this:

When History sleeps, it speaks in dreams: on the brow
of a sleeping people the poem is a constellation of blood.
When History wakes, the image becomes act, the poem
happens: poetry moves into action.

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Re: How to give people strength to stand up?
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2020, 01:02:40 pm »


So, the question.
How do you mobilise 100% of people?

How do you get everyone to feel that? How do you make them dream?

So, the question remains. How do you get everyone to care, find strength and support, see hope?

I think that (as others have said) you can't get everyone on the same page.  In the US, we are SO divided, and many people firmly believe some very wacky stuff....to the point that they absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, believe what they have been told instead of what is actually happening.

I think the first step is to get real information to people.  People need to truly grasp what is going on....from the very basic level of "this is what directly impacts my daily life" all the way to "this is what is going on at a national and global level that will then eventually created changes for me." 

Once more truth is revealed, then people need to start learning to actually think for themselves.  Introspection and personal opinions are so lost right now.  Many people can't figure out what soda they like to drink without a celebrity telling them what they like, let alone anything more important.  We have lost the ability to be unique, to stand out from the crowd in any way and to have opinions.  We need to reclaim this, to teach people how to think and reason so they can figure out what's important to them.

And finally...yes, people need hope, but they also need fear.  It's a lovely dream to think that positive motivators create change, but almost always people are motivated by the negative.  Things get bad and they can't take it anymore so they do something about it.  You do have to have that glimmer of hope, you need something to reach for, but if hope is all there is, they just sit around wishing for something better.  You need that uncomfortable situation to get them to stand up and act.  It's the combination of both, hope and fear, that creates momentum.

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