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dougSo there's going to be an election! Caught me totally by surprise. Who'd have thought it?
I know some of you are thinking of campaigning for one of the parties. Please reconsider spending the time and energy on doing something political instead.
Campaigning in a general election is exhausting, thankless, and changes vanishingly little. Activists end up either burned out and disillusioned with anything political, or further sucked in to the project of maintaining a political party's electoral strength (worse to my mind).
Why not do something more direct? You'd make an actual political difference and are more likely to end up
long-term empowered and active if you actually do something, rather than campaign to get someone elected who if you're lucky might vote the way you want on some laws that say that some other people ought to do something slightly different to what they would have done otherwise.
Take some responsibility!
I know some of you are thinking of campaigning for one of the parties. Please reconsider spending the time and energy on doing something political instead.
Campaigning in a general election is exhausting, thankless, and changes vanishingly little. Activists end up either burned out and disillusioned with anything political, or further sucked in to the project of maintaining a political party's electoral strength (worse to my mind).
Why not do something more direct? You'd make an actual political difference and are more likely to end up
long-term empowered and active if you actually do something, rather than campaign to get someone elected who if you're lucky might vote the way you want on some laws that say that some other people ought to do something slightly different to what they would have done otherwise.
Take some responsibility!
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Date: 2010-04-06 01:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 01:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 02:07 pm (UTC)I was pointed here by
One of my heroes, an Anarchist by the name of Ammon Hennacy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammon_Hennacy), was extremely politically active... but never voted. When people asked him why, he would say that he did vote... he just didn't assign responsibility to other people to get things done.
One of our cultural myths is that voting is the way to be active in the political process. Cast your ballot once every few years, and you've done your job. Good work, here is a gold star. I know plenty of people who don't vote -- because they acknowledge the "choice" as being a crock -- who do far more political work than many who just sit back, cast their vote, and then hope for something resembling change.
So, again, nicely done!
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Date: 2010-04-06 02:13 pm (UTC)Whilst I do, and will continue to vote (and to refuse to tell anyone how I vote) I totally agree with
It's about as effective politically as joining a group on facebook.
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Date: 2010-04-06 02:10 pm (UTC)Given this sums up my experience entirely, I'd quite like this on a t-shirt. I am leafletting at the moment, but I notice already that whoever is wholesaling this ward now I'm not has entirely screwed up my rounds, possibly because they furtively snuck the latest batch onto the doorstep while I wasn't looking yesterday, whereas if they'd bothered to ring the bell ...
I want to feel good about my people but it's really difficult.
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Date: 2010-04-06 02:19 pm (UTC)I think a lot of people can't think of what activism to do or what could be done, by an individual, apart from voting.
Was thinking about setting up a Facebook group or something called "A thousand tiny acts of activism" to give people (and me) ideas...
Someone on the WomBAT list some years ago cited someone saying one of the most inspiring quotes in my life:
"People told me that one person couldn't change anything. On the contrary, it's the only thing that ever has."
Reminds me, I need a 'no political canvassing please' sign for my door. I've been getting them near-daily for the last month. Tempted to tell the next ones "Sorry, I'm a politically-restricted civil servant and it would be inappropriate for me to answer that question", no matter what they ask me, and see if they push off.
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Date: 2010-04-06 02:28 pm (UTC)p.s. your entry tags have a semi-colon rather than a comma separating them
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Date: 2010-04-06 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-07 07:34 pm (UTC)I've seen many great green activists get burned out from GE campaigning. And in green circles I know, the amount of money involved in a general election hugely overwhelms all other activities, so the effort not only drains all available cash but requires lots of people to do fundraising simply to run the election campaign (including the deposit), instead of using it on other projects that would actually directly benefit the environment.
The BNP are a special case in my book - I would consider actively campaigning against BNP candidates, since neo/cod/fascist parties electoral success leads directly to people getting their heads kicked in, and working to prevent that is worthwhile.
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Date: 2010-05-06 10:15 am (UTC)Genuinely interested here.
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Date: 2010-05-06 11:26 am (UTC)