Mostly, I am ashamed to say, I have been the protesting counterpart to a soldier of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders. That is to say, most of my anti-war activities have come while my ass is firmly planted in a rather uncomfortable chair, here in front of my computer.
But, the depths of deception that have been practiced by this Batshit Loopy Leader of the Free World and his minions, and the Siren’s call of Cindy Sheehan to combat the continued senseless deaths in Iraq, have penetrated by lethargy.
I started out with the candlelight vigil for Cindy Sheehan last month. I am going to Washington. And, last night, I attended my first meeting of a local anti-war group. It is this last venture into activism that I must report to my fellows here at Booman, after the flip.
Being a blogging activist is easy. It is pleasant. The people here are almost invariably in the really deep end of the gene pool as far as intellect goes. At least that is my perception. This place is erudite. It is like the ivory tower of activism. I come to this assessment by comparison of course.
I do not mean to diminish my local anti-war group. These are people (over twenty of them at a regular meeting) who have been coming together for over two years now to try to put a stop to this insanity that has engulfed our country. For that alone, they should be heralded as heroes (though, it is far more likely that they are scorned as villains). But, as a community, they are not the Booman Tribune.
At the front lines of activism, much like the front lines of war I suppose, you can smell the humanity. Twenty people crowded into a hot room, getting their dander up does not an antiseptic smell make. I wouldn’t call the odor unpleasant. But, it is obviously human.
There are no quarterbacks or prom queens on the front lines of activism. No one looks like a frat boy, or a sorority sister. These are real people. Aged. Young. Marginalized in appearance (myself included). They are disabled. Gay. Women. Elderly. Multi-cultural. It was a carnival of diversity. But, there are no apparent bankers. No NASCAR dads that I could see. No car salesman, or insurance adjusters from the looks of things. All this is not to say that the middle class was not solidly represented. It was, I think, in as much as one can take in such data with one’s eyes and ears. It was just that this place did not look like people in a Gap commercial, or a McDonald’s advertisement. At least not to me. It was gritty.
There is that old line about Mussolini, that as a dictator he could at least make the trains run on time. Whether such a thing is true or not, I do not know. But, it leaves one with the impression that at least in fascism, you can have order. But there, on the front lines of activism, I found the polar opposite of that old adage. Activism, at least what I could gather of it in my first taste, is a very messy and inefficient process. Leadership was almost non-existent. It was a group of people, their chairs circled like a kindergarten class, talking to (or at) one another. There was little consensus. Little by the way of action. It was not a boardroom. Or a courtroom. There was no process for birthing peace into this world, as so many of these people obviously desired.
It is this last observation that troubled me most, I think. I was a newcomer. So, it is probably very harsh of me to judge. But a revolution without leadership, seems to me, to be headed for chaos. And this was little better than loosely controlled chaos. So disorganized it was, that I was at times tempted to rise and leave, not wanting to be disheartened in my belief that regular people can change things.
But, I stayed. And I think I’ll go back. I am, however, left with an abiding sense that this entire movement in America – my own wishful desire for a return of an active, progressive, populist movement – is going to be led by people in the blogosphere. This is the brain trust. The troops on the front lines lack your command of the facts on the ground, and your tactical awareness. Of this I am sure.
And it all leaves me with just two sentences, that as I form them in my mind, give me at once a sense of great hope, but also great trepidation:
This is our world. Change is going to have to live and die with us.
Oh, Joe, I hear you — I have been kicked in the teeth with the same feeling this past month in my sojurn out of making my own corner of the world the best it can be into the wider avenues of activism.
My problems included a few run-ins with ego-driven help drives for Katrina victims, something that pissed me off beyond belief. Me last Friday:
“I am so sick or PR moves right now, I could throw up.”
AND
“While I vehemently disagree with everything you just said, I am not here to argue with you today, I am here to help — do you have anything for me to do or not?”
Waiting for people to call on me to act is NOT my strong point — which no one has, BTW, I have called far and wide to offer (and “register”) my skills, but have received not one call to duty — I have taken matters into my own hands thanks to shycat’s and diane’s (I got the check yesterday!! Thanks!) monetary contributions…
So, acting is made to feel all the more useless at times, but I won’t give up and it sounds like you are not going to either — in the midst of meetings like the one you describe, we must BE THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE, frustrating as that may be at times!
One day at a time, one action at a time.
Well Joe, what you described in a way sounds frustrating yet as you said these people have been coming together for over a year….and have apparently continued with their meetings which gives one hope.
The people you described sound like and I could be very wrong but a group of mainly disenfranchised (god I hate that word to describe people)people who simply don’t quite know what to do. Maybe given something concrete or some sort of plan they would be galvanized to act instead of just have meetings that so far has accomplished little. Although I don’t want to belittle their efforts either..it is more than many people are doing..which is nothing. You know there must be many, many pockets of people like this around the country like this group who are just waiting maybe for someone to contact them, give them a plan of action.
Like a protest day in front of their Senators office to make her/him come out and explain why he or she isn’t actively asking bush for a plan to get out of Iraq…just something like that…any small plan of action is better than sitting around talking.
I think it is not so much that we have to take back the government but we have to take back the people of this country maybe one person at a time. We can’t take back the government if most of the people don’t have a clue of what is really going on by officials in their state and at the federal level.
Given the fact that you are able to go to D.C. and have attended a few activist outings I would say you’re not so ‘accidental’ anymore.
I understand your feelings of trepidation. I have recently thought a great deal about the seeming lack of direction in the protests; not only against the war, but also against the steady erosion of our civl rights and liberties and the rapid descent into a feudal, medieval society, more in keeping with the 18th century than the 21st.
My experience today, when compared to similar experiences in the 60’s and 70’s, lead me to believe that the biggest problem facing the anti-____[your choice here] movements is a lack of cohesiveness. A great void in leadership and commonality of purpose.
There are no true leaders, ie: MLK, et al, and, there is in fact, a huge leadership void. There is a fracturing and fragmentation of the goals completely devoid of an overriding principal or common goal. Every vigil and action I have participated in for the past 5 years has drawn distractors from every other cause who attempt to draw attention to their own vision/quest. I’m not talking “wingers”, I’m talking every cause imaginable, from GLBT to PETA, each proselytizing that their cause is the “most” important…it is truly the epitome of a circular firing squad.
Certainly, all these issues are important, but the resultant chaos and disorganization, anarchy if you will, creates a situation where none are adequately addressed. I have been forced to disassociate myself from one group that I have long supported because of their inability/unwillingness to develop and embrace a more focused agenda.
If we cannot take back the reins of power, or at a minimum, create an aggressive opposition, everything else is unattainable. It’s not rocket science. Look at the polls on any issue you like and significantly less that 50% of the people support anything that this administration is doing. But they keep pushing their agenda, everywhere, because they can. It’s: fuck you, whatta ya gonna do about it?, in your face government.
Before any of these noble causes can be addressed, we must first restore Government of, by, and for the people. Where is the leadership? Where is the unifying, compelling voice that can somehow focus all the angst and energy, intelligence and caring that exists; not only in places such as this, but in those small groups such as the one you describe?
I wish I had the answer.
Peace
You expressed my angst better than I did. Where is MLK. RFK. Dead of course. We do need a hero.
I agree. There is an enormous leadership void. I don’t think at this point the leadership is going to come from any of our politicians unless someone does a RFK against the war.(I know several politicians have been against war from the start but they aren’t that well known)
Hopefully someone will show up on a national scale that is charismatic with real leadership skills and will weave once again all the democratic ideals and all the various groups into one big functioning unit that support each other to ensure the goals of all these groups will be met.
For me that basically comes down to a civil rights/human rights issue-everything is under that umbrella.
Paul Wellstone (a wrestler we can all be proud of, instead of Rumsfeld) will run as the RFK of 2008. oh no. Wait. He’s dead.
A strange rash of anti-war, pro-civil rights dead people. Hmmm. I’m heading for the Reynolds wrap drawer.
(btw, I’m a frat boy and I look like one. 😉 )
I’ve got a lot to say, but unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to be particularly eloquent. Please bear with me, and I hope you can construct what I’m trying to convey through the random thoughts I’m about to put down.
We’re all ‘regular folk’. Yep, that means me and you too. And we can effect change in the little ways we can, be that by writing articles online, donating money, or whatever.
The same goes for the people you met with; it’s just that they’ve taken a different path to get to that meeting than you have. And they can do their own, unique little (or big, maybe!) thing to help.
You look at these people, these ‘regular folk’ and see a lot of energy, but no direction. You also claim that the blogosphere is going to lead the revolution.
And I think you’re right. The blogs have given us a tremendous tool for spreading information, and providing organizational structure. But, as you also observe, we need boots on the ground.
They need thinkers; we need doers. But that isn’t really what it comes down to, is it? Because we are them, and they are us.
More specifically, you are us, and now, you are them too. You can help give them direction, whether it be an active leadership role, or maybe just printing out some things you thought were pertinent, that you had read during the week, that they weren’t aware of.
You can turn them on to sources of information they never dreamed were there. And, when it’s their turn to go to work and do whatever it is they do, you can learn from them too, and start to expand your boundaries of what you can do.
It all starts with information and organization. From there, you can find direction. And with direction, you can use the energy of regular folk, motivated by purpose, to start to make real visible change.
Don’t be disappointed with what you see. You’re a group trying to make change; if you can effect change within the group to make their efforts on changing things outside the group more effective, efficient, or focused, then maybe that is what your role should be.
Great heart, incredible stamina, but the people who have been carrying out the lonely vigil of the anti-war movement over the last few years have almost no idea of tactics and even less of political effectiveness. It is not their talent to lead, only to warn.
Leadership, if it comes at all, will come from elsewhere.
But where?
The main omen is this: Cindy Sheehan.
Why is she a focus of attention, and of dissatisfaction with the war? Because she does not do what she does out of desire or knowledge, nor because of a particular moral understanding, but because she has no choice.
That is the way of it now, and it is not a happy thing–certainly not for the people who will be doing it: Stark and inexorable necessity will be guiding the actions of those shaping the coming age. Most will be burnt up or destroyed in the process–but it will not matter. That is what necessity means–you no longer have a choice. And that will be the fate of those who will come to lead.
Certainly bloggers will not be leading. Perhaps we will assist.
Unless fate falls upon us, and we end up with no choice either.
from my previous comment:
We are now in the age of 4th generation warfare. The centers of power in the world, as they continue to centralize and grow in an attempt to maintain a political economy that is already doomed to go down in destruction, and devote more of their attention to simple domination (including the use of military force) will progressively drive more and more people into opposition. Not just in far-away muslim oil-countries, but everywhere. Including here in the United States. Many of the citizens of New Orleans (if they had not guessed already) have learned that the Powers That Be are not their friends, and that an attitude of (careful) opposition is mere survival necessity.
In the war of the few against the many, the few can bring overwhelming force to bear anywhere, but in the very act lose control everywhere.
One implication is that it is still too soon for leaders: Leaders can be killed or destroyed–and will be.
The art of it is to present no targets. The Iraqis have already learned how to do this. So will we.
I, along with others here, will be in Washington for the march on the 24th. I would be a liar if I told you I didn’t have some trepidation about what we might be confronted with during the march. I expect a lot of people to be there and I also expect there to be an increasingly sinister security presence. The new tactic of deploying mercenaries in New Orleans does not bode well for those seeking to use their right to free speech in Washington. I have a dark sense that this is the beginning of a dangerous and brutal struggle for the soul of the country and we will lose people eventually because they will not go quietly, that much is sure.
I agree with you that perhaps it is too soon for leaders. We need to carry the fight to them and we need to weaken them before it will be safe for any dynamic leader to step forth.