Taking action in an imperfect world

The illogicality of wanting things to be "right" before acting against things being wrong ...

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash
(snow capped, green mountains in the foreground and midground frame the top of a valley with low grey clouds in the sky)

Normally - well, so far, at least - with my posts on SubStack I like to work on them offline for the best part of a week before I post them … which is an excellent example of the problem I am wanting to write about :)

I was thinking this morning about the state of the world, and possible ways of talking people into taking some sort of action to make it better. The problem of cynicism was a key part of those ruminations - and cynicism is something I have railed against in the past. Cynical thinking is a defeatist act which (a) does the oppressor’s work for them, and (b) ignores the reality that action has led to things like the abolition of slavery, the eight hour working day, unions, the inclusion of and rights for women and minority groups, safer working conditions (and psychosocial safety is a major advance), etc.

Of coure, those campaigns took time - millennia, in the case of slavery, but they would never have happened is someone, somewhere, hadn’t tried to do something.

My earliest activism was against racism in high school - as a teenager, in a small country town in Queensland. I didn’t have fancy words and well-founded, clever arguments; all I could do was stand against the teachers and say “it’s wrong”.

Looking back, I can see all the arguments and means and methods of persuasion that I could have used, but I also wonder if just being raw and authentic would always have been more effective.

Now, with so much advice and expertise on activism, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, perhaps afraid of doing something wrong. I certainly wish I was across more of the vast knowledge that is available, but … I don’t have enough time left in this life to do so - especially as that field of knowledge is growing so quickly.

I do have the ability to use whatever I do know, and if nothing else, I have the choice to be raw, authentic, and caring.

This world is an imperfect place, and while there is a need for valid cautions (e.g., staying calm to avoid civility traps - which should always be called out openly), the greater need is to take whatever nonviolent action we are able to.

As I mention in the sub-heading, it can be illogical to wait for things to be “right” before acting against things being “wrong” - look after your safety and wellbeing, and don’t take on too much, but do what you can, when you can.