Radicals and the 99%: Core and Mass Movement

"Radicals tend to become radicals because we become disillusioned with aspects of the dominant culture. When you feel like you're up against the culture, it's easy then to develop an inclination to separate yourself from that culture. When we begin to become aware of the destructive impacts of capitalism, racism, sexism, and whatever other social systems we encounter that we see perpetuating oppression, we don't want to be part of it. We feel a moral repugnance and a desire to not cooperate with injustice.

In the story of the righteous few, success itself becomes suspect. If a group or individual is embraced by a significant enough portion of society, it must be because they are not truly revolutionary or because their message has been "watered down." It seriously messes with radicals' heads when some of our ideas start to become popular! We are so accustomed to being the most radical kid on the block, and suddenly people we've never met are coming out of the woodwork, marching in the streets with us, and spouting some of the lines we've been saying for years. Frankly, it can lead to a bit of an identity crisis. 

Here we see the importance of checking our narratives for faulty components. If we allow the story of the righteous few to hold a place in our narrative about social change, then our efforts are likely to be seriously hindered by a general mentality to separate and distinguish ourselves from society and to retreat from success. To organize effectively, this mentality has to turn 180 degrees. We have to orient ourselves to connect with others, to notice commonalities, to "weave ourselves into the fabric of society" (quoting OWS participant Beka Economopoulos), and to embrace being embraced by society. For many radicals, this can be a big shift in our conceptualizations of ourselves and of our society."

-excerpt from "Radicals and the 99%: Core and Mass Movement," by Matthew Smucker

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I love this! My cousin does a lot of writing for the Occupy movement (among other things), and I love his approach to group-based cooperation and success. His advice to "be the life of the party" makes the radical irrestisible -- and approachable.

At a panel on feminism and voting rights/activism I attended last fall, I asked: "What can the 'average' person to do spread this information when becoming a full-fledge activist is a near-impossible task?"

One of the panel presenters replied [paraphrase]: "Just talk. Talk to your co-workers at the water cooler, talk to people who aren't your friends, talk to your neighbors. Just getting people to listen is where everything starts."

I like this: the approachable radical.