I had to think about this topic for a month solid earlier this year and when I did it started to revised my opinions of activism in general, about any issue. I used to see activists as people who were so angry about something they didn't think they needed to be polite. Now I am starting to see activists as people who aren't afraid to show other people that they are angry about something that's usually worth being pretty angry about.
This was really hard for me personally to realize because I grew up in a household where anger was a discussion-ender instead of a discussion starter, wherein anger was used to bury other feelings (guilt, fear, shame, other anger) instead of talk about them, and where you could never be angry, because if you were angry something was wrong, and there couldn't be anything wrong (repeat cycle).
It took me a really long time to realize that many people didn't think like that, and it's taking me a really long time to realize (daily) that I don't have to think like that. It took me applying those principles that I'd learned about personal interaction to see how I could reframe my mental understanding of activism so that instead of me seeing activism as a bunch of angry people, that sometimes when activists were angry it was because it was ok and even necessary to express anger. That was a big shift for me. It's helped me understand, at least a little, discussions like this one.
I don't know how many people might find that useful for them as a way of thinking about it, but that is the path I'm currently thinking about it on so I thought I would share.
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Date: 2009-03-07 03:29 pm (UTC)This was really hard for me personally to realize because I grew up in a household where anger was a discussion-ender instead of a discussion starter, wherein anger was used to bury other feelings (guilt, fear, shame, other anger) instead of talk about them, and where you could never be angry, because if you were angry something was wrong, and there couldn't be anything wrong (repeat cycle).
It took me a really long time to realize that many people didn't think like that, and it's taking me a really long time to realize (daily) that I don't have to think like that. It took me applying those principles that I'd learned about personal interaction to see how I could reframe my mental understanding of activism so that instead of me seeing activism as a bunch of angry people, that sometimes when activists were angry it was because it was ok and even necessary to express anger. That was a big shift for me. It's helped me understand, at least a little, discussions like this one.
I don't know how many people might find that useful for them as a way of thinking about it, but that is the path I'm currently thinking about it on so I thought I would share.