Not enough, but something. / What good does “bearing witness” do?
My heart goes to the people of Belarus. My tears run for them, my body Wis consumed by my rage, my skin seethes with the strength of my condemnation of these brutal injustice inflicted upon them. But, What good does my broken heart do though? What good are these tears? Does it do anything? Undeniably, of course, it doesn’t do enough. But I believe in bearing witness. What would make it have more worth as an act of compassion and solidarity is if those who’s trauma and pain we witness in such videos could know the deep feeling those like myself have for them. I wish this woman could know I am weeping for her. That, though I live on state welfare, (I don’t expect others on benefits without the extra support I have from family to be able to@do this -and it is not wrong or a failure if you aren’t able, you can still speak for them, don’t let their plight fade from political discourse, keep speaking for himan rights, refuse to let people forget. Not enough, but something. I learnt to appreciate small victories due to my health, while, by no means a defence of incrementalism, it does make me resilient as an activist because I recognise that a sm
This post is to explain my thought process that I think lends itself well to activism and where I get that outlook from.
I learnt to appreciate small victories due to my health, while, by no means a defence of incrementalism, it does make me resilient as an activist because I recognise that a small benefit, things being a bit better, is, objectively, better than it was.
This helps me deal with the emotional toll felt by activists from often not achieving everything you hoped for.
This perspective means I won’t give up or stop believing in the value of actions that, of course, are not enough, but something.
That’s why I put my heart into these actions, like bearing witness and express, descriptively and viscerally my feelings and deep sense that this is an unforgivable injustice.
Doing so will undoubtedly have a small impact. But I do each of the small things I can (even more limited than other activists due to those same health problems) and can do so without the despair, that drives manyaway from activism, in the face failure.
Im not a victim of apathetic thinking; “if I can’t fix everything there’s no point trying.”
It’s a naive and frankly childish view that my complex and chronic health issues forced me to grow out of sharpish.
I believe this perspective helps me an an activist and also a campaigner:
By taking people through this thought process I have had to adopt, I have been able to convince people of the silliness of their apathy.
An example I can give is of someone who is actually very politically conscious and ludicrously well read.
Despite this, she was apathetic, asking me why I was so concerned with defending a democracy that we both recognise isn’t really a democracy at all.
I was able to change her mind simply by explaining the following:
Just because we are currently living in a bullshit democracy doesn’t meam we shouldn’t defend it because if what what we want is real democracy it would be absurd and counterproductive not to defend it. The alternative being simply allowing this government to compromise it further (as page 48 of Tory manifesto ) because it’s not perfect now.
That phrase “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” is a useful one to sum up this approach.
To reiterate; I am categorically not arguing that activists should be satisfied with incrementalism. I abhor incrementalism and absolute believe we need radical change.
So, what I’m saying is that the radical change is harder to implement, the further that thing you wish to reform drifts from your ideal.
It objectively true that even this plutocracy is better than the result of allowing the Tories to carry out their democracy degrading manifesto commitments.
If you want real democracy it’s going to be even harder and longer to get there if we have to repair from the even worse state this government will take us to if we don’t defend democracy now.
Essentially, we will meet that aim of real democracy quicker if we defend and save it first, as it is, then build it up from there.
So, does this outlook apply to the small act of bearing witness?
I believe so. Arguably tangible and reliable, but then again, you need to bear witness in order to understand the stakes of a situation, only then can you do your best when you try to speak for those that are silenced.