RE: Is "Be the part of the change you want to see in the world!" bullshit?
February 2, 2024 at 8:50 pm
(February 2, 2024 at 4:35 pm)Ahriman Wrote: Is it bullshit? Yes it is, because it only encourages people to join some pre-fabricated social movement, which will never change anything.
I agree with you that we have to be wary of social movements.
Some of them mean well but get co-opted right away and end up serving the people they were supposed to oppose. Some of them are astroturfed from the beginning -- as you say, prefabricated.
Some of them are only supported by a small but noisy minority, and get more media attention than they deserve.
But sometimes -- very rarely -- people without official power can influence the way we live.
The trouble is that to make a real change in the way the system works, the people in the movement at some point have to jump over the walls and get into the halls of power. That's the dangerous point. Way too often you see activists who were (probably) sincere about social change mutated into typical politicians once they get an office.
And since the anti-war movement actually made some difference in the 1970s, the people in power have learned much more effective ways of shutting down such movements. So today we've got the so-called liberals actually supporting the CIA and the NSA, calling for increased government control, and cheering on war.
