This (r)evolutionary imperative to see the manifest condition in which one can thrive is more ancient, more deeply rooted, and thus more powerful than the inclination to oppress others for one's own warped sense of self-gain.
In a global, media-drenched world, awareness of self is expedited by the sheer number of other self-expressions to compare one's own expression (or lack thereof) to. Thus the cycle of being lulled to sleep by paternalistic promises--only to be rudely awakened by a nightmarish loss of freedom--is quickened. We come to terms more rapidly with the reality that as soothing as it may first appear when we are young and naive, we do not want to have everything taken care of by the Great Hero Father. Hence our empires rise and fall more swiftly than ever. Dictators, monarchs, aristocracies, and elite parties beware: you are remnants of the past even before you take your corrupted seats these days. When your fabricated means of distraction fall away, the People will rise.
Beyond survival and security, self-determination is the underpinning of justice. When corrupt leaders falter on the first two, the last is the restorative penance that must be paid. Beyond simple survival, being able to determine our own path is the hallmark of self-expression, self-fulfillment, and most importantly, self-love.
In insisting upon the removal of decades-long dictators, the People reclaim their fundamental, inalienable right and responsibility to determine their own path. A right they have come to recognize has been obscured and hampered by individual men projecting an image of themselves as the sole reflection of an entire People:
what they will and will not have access to how they are to be governed what they can and cannot become
It would appear to the untrained eye that these Arab Peoples were ruled by different men, but to the eye of the astute, each dictator was a differently dated carbon copy of the other, and all of them mere proxies for fear.
But the People eventually stay the Iron Fist, lift the veil and see the cowering figure clinging to power is neither God nor Hero, just a small, desperate man. Emboldened by their commitment, empowered by their collectivity, liberated from the shackles of fear, the People rise to find liberation from the shackles of oppression.
Questions abound as to how the all-knowing US didn't see such a wave of revolutions forthcoming: America's deep-seated racism and perceived religious-cultural superiority conspire to make the quiet swelling of a sea of brown and black People calling for their freedom with fearlessness, grace, and unwavering determination a political improbability. To see them do it in succession, leaving the realm of mere anomaly? Impossible.
Having paid so much to keep them divided, we simply lack the imagination to conceive of Arab Peoples bonding together in solidarity to restore the dignity and rightful place of their own. How else could we justify funding the suppression of their beautiful brown selves for so long? How else could we be so confused as to whether we should continue to underwrite Mass Muslim Control rather than proclaim the side of the People the only righteous side to be on?
Even as we witnessed it with our own eyes, we clung to our reductionist, divisive values: it was the youth, it was educated, it was the middle class, it was the non-religious. No matter that many of the largest protests formed after Friday prayers. Even more un-humanizing, it was Facebook or Twitter. Make no mistake: no matter the vehicle or tool, it was the People.
The brown, red, black, and yellow People of this country can learn volumes from the hopefulness and vision expressed by our Arab brothers and sisters. If invested in the transformation of society beyond the policy win, past the campaign, despite the funders, our own organizers can benefit from the study of revolutionary change—rooted in the mass power of collective love for the People that unifies, coupled with the individual compulsion for self-determination—that will always eventually transcend fear.
When that happens, we the People, too, shall finally rise. —yours in truth, aKwdedicated to the power of the People. may they rise again and again.
--- copyright ©MMXI. angel Kyodo Williams changeangel: all things change. (sm)
angel Kyodo Williams is a maverick teacher, author, social visionary, and founder of Transformative Change. she posts, tweets & blogs on all things change. permission granted to retweet, repost, repast & repeat with copyright and contact information intact.
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Hello Sensei Williams,
Dr. King copied some of Gandhi’s practices of nonviolent advocacy, but certainly the black civil rights movement in 1960s America was a wonderful example of a somewhat successful avenue for change.
I just watched the self compassion mindfulness presentation from Shambhala Mountain Center. I wanted to share with you that I wrote a thesis on social change in regards to the closing of institutions for persons with cognitive disabilities. My study was less a psychological one and more of a sociological one; although, I am personally interested in psychological, mindfulness healing practices.
The movement’s strategies, as many that came after, were copied from the black civil rights movement that began in the churches of America in the 1950’s. Framing theories of social movements are written about by Benford and Snow (2000) and Gamson and Meyer (1996).
Political Opportunities is written about by a book edited by Mayer N. Zald (1996). Social Networks by Snow, Zurcher and Ekland-Olson (1980). Resources Mobilization is written about by Jenkins (1983), Klandermans (1984), and McCarthy and Zald (1977).
Doug McAdam writes eloquently from the Marxist perspective on political opportunities and how they can be instrumental in determining whether movements can or cannot succeed. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that for sociologists it is not just about how activism is framed.