Thoughts on Activism

Last night I had the opportunity to hear Van Jones speak. Jones shared his personal experiences and his journey from a small town in Tennessee to law school at Yale. From his closet office in Oakland where the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights was born to working alongside Prince on Green For All. From advising at the White House to hosting television shows for mainstream media. Much of what he said resonated with the conversations we constantly return to in our capstone class, as individuals committed to social change. These conversations on burnout, on despair, on the struggle.

Jones, throughout his talk, returned to the importance of hard work. He called out the misleading nature of the movie montage, where the protagonist of the film puts in about 30 seconds of hard work—runs some stairs, does some sit ups—and bam! achieves their goal. Life isn’t like that. If the movie reflected reality, most of the 90 minutes-2 hours would be spent training and struggling, with perhaps 30 seconds of glory at the end. Or not. Sometimes there isn’t that moment of glory, of achievement. As activists, we need to realize our lives aren’t going to be a montage. After coming to terms with that, it’s critically important to return to what Mark Manson talked about in his piece “The Most Important Question of Your Life,” and making sure that we choose the right struggle.

Another thing that Jones touched on that is especially pertinent is knowing when to take care of yourself. Burnout is a real possibility (probably an inevitability) for those of us who want to dedicate our lives to helping others and changing the world. It’s important to prioritize taking care of ourselves in order to tackle the issues we care so much about.

At the end of his talk, Jones discussed issues within progressive culture that are counter-productive to the goals social change. One of these is the competition to be the most righteous activist or to be the most successful change-maker. Conversations among activists often fall into a pattern of tearing people down for what they aren’t doing, rather than building people up for what they are doing. Jones expressed his frustration with this and his belief that real change is made when we take time to call people up, not call people out. I really appreciated his perspective and totally agree that effective movements are built on positivity and inspiration, rather than competition.

A final point from his talk that I want to bring up is the pedagogical pitfalls of post-structuralism. We spend all of our time learning how to deconstruct problems and dissect issues into all of their fundamental parts. As a result, we know how to “deconstruct everything, but don’t know how to reconstruct anything.” I wanted to stand up and cheer as soon as he said this. I often feel frustrated by the cyclical discussions on the nature of the problem. Believe me, I’m not trying to discount the importance critical analysis of social issues. To make change, it is necessary to understand the historical context of why things are the way they are. It is necessary to understand the social relationships and structures that dictate policies and perpetuate inequality. There must be time for talking about these things. But now it’s time to get shit done.