Inactivism
Sometimes inspiration to stand up for a social cause comes in the wake of watching a large, passionate rally — other times it’s the nudging persuasion of a friend, or a moving documentary. For Ohio University graduate student Erin Dame, the decision to become an active participant in reforming marijuana laws came during an event at Purdue University called Cannabash — a music festival calling for drug reform hosted by the Purdue University chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
But Erin, now AGE, wasn’t always opposed to harsh drug policies. In fact, she wasn’t completely aware of the policies in existence. Herself a marijuana user since her freshman year at Purdue, she found herself at Cannabash on April 23, 2005, listening to a lawyer orate facts during a break between bands: 825,000 yearly marijuana arrests, 85 percent of which are solely for possession. The numbers “literally shook” Erin to her core. After the lawyer’s speech, she promptly became involved in the quest for drug reform, eventually dropping out of school to work for the national chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Erin dedicated the next year of her life to fighting for drug reform, traveling from campus to campus around the nation, debating Drug Enforcement Administration agents about the merits of reform and helping people set up local chapters of the organization. Erin’s is an example of a new kind of activism, one predicated on discussion and patience as opposed to anger and action. The common perception of activism, however, has not yet caught up to its realities.
Type “activism” into the subject field on any one of Alden Library’s computers, for instance. The search doesn’t return any specific results, instead directing you to “student movements” and a subset of 27 books, many of which decry the downfall of Western civilization that will be brought on by Communist-leaning, flag-burning college students. It may seem like a quaint generalization, but the fact that the most recent of these books was published in 1975 indicates that America’s way of thinking about activism is outdated. The sit-ins and fiery confrontations between police and citizens are no longer the norm. Instead, activists are likely to work with the establishment to enact some form of change.
That does not mean that the goals of activism have changed, as many modern activists have the same ideals as their angrier predecessors — only their methods have changed, moving toward negotiation instead of hostility, and receiving more than a touch of modernization. “I think at the core they’re the same priorities,” senior Molly Shea, an active member of Students for a Democratic Society, said. “[We still want] a just, equal society where people are treated with respect and have equal opportunities. But as far as specific issues, I think it’s totally different.”
The way activists communicate has not totally changed, as they still rely on word-of-mouth or flyer campaigns to spread the “good word.” E-mail, however, has become the preferred intra-group mode of communication. Molly believes that this has had mixed results. “The advantage is definitely that you can reach more people quickly,” she said. “But at the same time that message becomes impersonalized. … It’s way less effective.”
Erin agreed, but also said that the best way to convince people to become involved is to make them “understand [that] the activism that they do, whether it’s them passing out flyers or whatever small things, contributes to the movement.”
“It’s less angry. I hate to generalize that, but in a university setting, especially here at [Ohio University], it’s less angry,” Erin said. “We find that sit-ins may not be as appropriate as going at it from an inside view and trying to change things by working with the administration, instead of alienating them or working against them.”
This placid face of activism may be affecting the number of people who join the movement. Instead of disrupting newscasts with violent protests demanding change, today’s activists work on taking baby steps forward, accepting that they finally may reach their end goal one day. Although, for many amateur activists, these gradual changes rarely make them feel like they are actually making an impact, leading to a general feeling of helplessness. “People don’t think their voices count, so they go to clubs and they make these connections, and then the clubs might try their hand at activism and things might not work out,” Erin said. “People get discouraged.”
The way to convince new activists to stick with their causes of choice seems to be to tie them into the community — an idea that is fundamental to most activists’ goals. It is by interacting with communities, both locally and nationally, that activists develop a sense of how to convey their messages and, more importantly, just what those messages should be.
“If you don’t feel connected with the people around you, you have no reason to act in solidarity with someone who lives in West Virginia and literally has black water that they’re supposed to be drinking,” Molly said. “You have no reason to care that a generation from now people won’t have woods to hike around in. You don’t have a reason to care unless you have a sense of community and a sense of connectedness to different people.”
Erin emphasized the necessity of a community in terms of making a point, citing the idea that a single person marching to Washington, D.C., would have little effect, but that a million undoubtedly would cause an uproar. A sense of community amongst people in general, let alone in the realm of activism, is proving more difficult today. This apathy has proven to be even more of a plague to activism than it is to politics. “It seems like back in the ’60s or ’70s, the general youth culture was activist, and now it seems to be more a select few that are activists,” Molly said.
Erin, who helped register voters last fall with the Power Vote campaign, reiterated that point saying, “People didn’t know how to register to vote, and a lot of people didn’t care to know. People don’t think these issues concern them when they really do.”
Ending apathy and jumpstarting activism can come from the most unexpected place, though — like Erin’s revelation at Cannabash. Erin found that beginning her career as an activist provided her with a sense of pride that nothing else could give her. “The more involved I got, the more I loved it. Honestly, I get a high from doing it because I’m not only helping other people, but I’m helping myself,” Erin said. “I’m making these connections and I’m seeing how this kind of activism helps other people … It’s taken over my whole life. I’m kind of addicted to activism. It really is what I do almost all day, every day, and the people I work with are my family and all of my friends.”
Molly said she sees a positive future for activism, as the state of the environment, in particular, is leading to “more of youth culture … getting back into activism and organizing, building communities, because things have gotten to a place where people realize that it’s important again.”
Direct link: http://backdropmag.com/hype/inactivism/