Getting people to do the right thing is easy, right? Telling people what’s good for them and showing them cautionary stats is effective, no?
Can’t we all just give the stink-eye to misanthropic misbehaving sociopaths and get them to act right like in this fantastic PSA from my childhood?
Sadly, no. Don’t smoke (but teenage smoking is up). Go to school (graduation rates are down). ‘Til death do you part (divorce rates up). Melting polar ice caps (rate of greenhouse gas production increasing). Polar bears on Lost Islands…oh wait, damn you J.J. Abrams for infecting my waking thoughts!
So if finger wagging by itself is not enough, then how do we effect change? If preparing broccoli for people and telling them how good it is is not enough to get them to put down the Doritos and say
Thank you. These calcium-filled greens are delish!”
then what do we do? How do we take our idea of how the world should be and make it a reality?
In my opinion, the 3 greatest contributors to progress are Action, Communication and Organization.
Action: doing more than talking about how a situation should change. Stepping out, stepping up and educating others. Legislating, fundraising, standing upm sitting in. More than debating. More than spectating.
Communication: Open channels to talk to fellow progress makers. Open channels to educate strangers not familiar with the cause.
Organization: Marshaling of resources toward a concerted effort. Establishing goals and identifying roles and resources to see them through.
Why in this order you ask? PLOT SPOILER: it ain’t because of the alphabet.
Having a platform to connect with fellow activists and then having the wherewithal to organize a rally, protest, sit-in or demonstration is critical to any forward movement, but it is NOTHING without that action: that first step, and each there after that requires sacrifice and risk. Props to Google, Twitter and all of you supporting the people of Egypt as they claim their rightful national dignity in deposing an autocratic regime…but MEGA, HUGE, MAJOR love and respect to those early participants in January 25th’s Day of Rage. They stepped into the street and into the line of fire not knowing that the world would support. Not knowing that web companies would support with free services. They took action inspired by Tunisia. They took action feeling their options were numbered. They took action because talking, considering options and simply mind-melding had ceased to be enough.
And so herein lies the root cause of why
ACTION is the first and most important piece of progress. Because it’s scary. Because it requires courage and because the alternative is so goddamn frightening.
Inaction. Neutrality. Waiting to see where the consensus settles. These are the words and mental framework for spectator complicity. When you don’t do. You simply DO NOTHING.
You don’t stop prejudice. You don’t stop sexism. You don’t stop the Tea Party from ousting Democrats and restricting funding for things like education.
You don’t push your government to watch out for those who watched out for us in our time of crisis and 9/11 workers lose health aid.
OR, maybe you simply DON’T SAY OR DO ANYTHING when somebody calls somebody else a [fill in your favorite racial, sexual orientation, ethnic, or sexist slur] and then you wonder how a situation gets out of hand. Remember Howard Beach?
So to sum it up, progress is always achieved through some crazy confluence of organization, communication with like-minded folks, good PR, luck, a great perm
but it ALWAYS requires as it’s FIRST offering a sacrifice of fear, timidity, supplication to consensus and inaction…it ALWAYS requires a first itty bitty baby step. Progress ALWAYS requires Action.
So whether you’re ruminating for the 2nd straight year on that awesome business idea, waiting for the right time to sign up for your first marathon, looking for the perfect opportunity to give back through community service or plotting on moving to New York,
shut up and go DO something…
even if it’s just a little bit of something. Because guess what? Someone is building on your idea, your high school rival is running that race before reunion, unmentored kids are being neglected and that place you can afford in the E Village just went on the market…and back off the market. Whaddya think? Ready to go do something?
