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The Activist’s Handbook: 1000 Ways to Politically and Socially Activate Your Life
August 7, 2011
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It is time for people to become more active politically, socially and culturally. It is not enough to spend your entire life waiting to be entertained by the political rhetoric.
These are the first 100 of 1000 ways in which you can politically and socially activate your life (for full list visit here):
1. The next time you’re with family or friends, discuss a particular cause, instead of letting the conversation drift to celebrity gossip.
2. Be mindful of the fact that the news channels synthesize events in ways which make the individual feel as if activism is hopeless.
3. Try to make friends that are politically involved, instead of maintaining the same old school friends.
4. Stay focused on one particular cause, it’s fine to take up many causes, but always recognize your main cause.
5. Call a big bank that was bailed out in 2008 by the people and ask them if they would be willing to bail out poor families.
6. Go to a protest, do not let the stigma propagated by the mass media keep you away from protests.
7. When your friends talk to you about new consumer products, change the topic to political causes instead.
8. If you’re going to a protest, try to bring as many of your friends as you can.
9. When friends say that protestors are ‘crazy’, explain to them exhilarating feeling of being part of a large politically conscious group.
10. Being an activist requires sacrifice, you will lose many brainwashed friends along the way, but who needs them anyway!
11. Write an open letter to the CEO of a certain company that you dislike and publish the letter online.
12. Write an anonymous letter to anyone who abuses their power, boss, CEO, professor, manager etc.
13. When people use the word consumer to describe human beings, correct them and tell them that human beings are more than consumers.
14. Organize meetings where you can discuss political matters with others who share the same interest.
15. Always persuade people, avoid antagonizing them or their social/corporate defense mechanisms will kick in.
16. Instead of going to watch a mind numbing Hollywood film, look up protests in your area and go to one.
17. Talking to people is the most effective way of short-circuiting the mass media’s control over people’s minds.
18. Learn from the experiences of others, ask a homeless person how and why they became homeless.
19. Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! Volunteering teaches you that human actions do not have to always be about financial rewards.
20. Instead of going to a nightclub or a party to meet other people, go to a protest.
21. Parents will always question political activism, do not let it bother you.
22. Try seeing how long you can go without purchasing anything barring food of course, to test your consumerist drive.
23. Do not get ahead of yourself with thoughts of changing the world, change your life first and the lives of those around you.
24. Avoid feelings of apathy that follow political disappointments, instead, set a new goal and work on it.
25. Organize a group of four or five people and help each other go to protests.
26. Do not antagonize the police, that’s counterintuitive, and it allows the capitalist force to activate its violent drive.
27. Ask a police officer if he or she are part of the upper class, the ruling elites.
28. Ask a police officer why they protect the bankers and capitalists which keep all of our children in debt.
29. Write an open letter to a billionaire asking them why they love money to the point of forgetting about starving human beings.
30. Find a political magazine or blog and write for them.
31. The next time you visit a store like Wal-Mart, ask a worker how they feel about lacking a union and basic worker rights.
32. Go to the shopping mall and buy absolutely nothing, instead go there with the purpose of talking to workers about their exploitation.
33. The next time you see a friend with a brand name item, ask them how much the workers who made it get paid?
34. Start a blog to fight against a particular injustice.
35. Change the way you think, do not think in terms of me me me and stuff stuff stuff, but in terms of we, us, all, the world, humanity.
36. If you are dating someone who is obsessed with consumer products, take them to a protest or a political rally.
37. Don’t be vindictive against consumer-addicts, remember that consumption is their only way of belonging, show them a new way to belong.
38. During the G20 protests, locals often flee the city, find ways to bring locals to the protests, fight against their apathy.
39. Invest your time and energy into others, not for profits, not for sexual possibilities, but for humanity and change.
40. It is impossible to always practice what you preach, but do not stop preaching, do not stop thinking in a politically healthy manner.
41. If you find yourself feeling guilt for going to Starbucks, don’t fret, ask yourself why you’re there, analyze your actions.
42. Think of the revolution but do not become obsessed with it, small actions and steps should be your main focus.
43. Many people give up on activism because they’re too impatient for the arrival of the revolution, do not be so fatalistic.
44. Instead of spending your leisure time on facebook trying to ‘hook-up’, start a political facebook group.
45. Remember that capitalism and the mass media will do everything in their power to control every minute of your life; take your time back.
46. Try doing things that do not require some kind of consumption.
47. For one day, perhaps, a Saturday or Sunday, go to a public park and avoid all media consumption.
48. Find public spaces and use them to meet with others, to organize book readings and intimate speeches.
49. Befriend a homeless person, spend a day with them, see how they live their lives.
50. Call the headquarters of a corporation that you are fighting against and tell them you want to interview them about their vile acts.
51. When your friends tell racist jokes, stop them in their tracks and explain to them how there is nothing funny about racism.
52. If your family says that you’re wasting your time on activism, tell them that they’re wasting their time trying to become billionaires.
53. It’s good to be vocal, it’s good to be outspoken, it’s good to speak for a cause, but avoid being vindictive.
54. Capitalism will not collapse as the result of violence, capitalism will collapse when people are shown their brutal exploitation.
55. Violence against capitalism will only justify massive military budgets which help spur on stock market rallies.
56. Take advantage of your right to congregate, do not isolate yourself in your room and your mind.
57. Go to a church, sit in the audience, ask them how they feel about the exploitation of human beings, ask them why God does nothing.
58. Do not obsess with becoming a revolutionary, it will come with time, focus and methodical actions.
59. Do not be a sexist, do not disclude people from conversations, events and protests based on their sex.
60. If you’re a male, you can most certainly be a feminist, fighting for women’s rights does not undermine your personhood in any way.
61. Do not allow capitalist labels and stereotypes to control your life, think of a stereotype and examine how it serves the ruling class.
62. Do not be a classist, fight against prejudices that were wired in your mind since birth, poor people are human beings too.
63. The next time you’re at a grocery store and you see someone buying a product, tell them about the company’s exploitive acts.
64. Do not focus on money and donations, focus on people, their time and their thoughts.
65. The next time you’re going to a protest, text everyone on your phone and invite them to come.
66. In the world of Activism, there is no such thing as success and failure, there is only humanity and justice.
67. There is no such thing as a successful activist, you have to avoid such vain formulations and petty expectations.
68. Do not become an activist if your goal is to be some kind of hero, this is not hero business, activism is selflessness.
69. You have to change the way you see the world, look up the lyrics of a popular song and count how many times consumption is mentioned.
70. Love is a beautiful feeling but do not allow your love for an individual to hinder your higher love for humanity.
71. If you catch a member of your family watching the shopping channel or infomercials, explain to them how they’re addicted to consumption.
72. Avoid watching television, the channels of the billionaires are programmed to subdue our political consciousness.
73. If you’re forced to watch television with others, vocalize your analysis of the shows and the commercials, be obnoxious.
74. Do not allow intellectual elitism to get the best of you, there are many uneducated people with valuable insights and ideas as well.
75. Don’t become entrapped in the ivory towers of academia, revolutions and change happen in the streets, not in lush university offices.
76. Call your local government official and ask him/her why they bailed out billionaire bankers while families are losing their homes?
77. Voting is not enough to assert your right as a citizen, do not fall for the 4 or 5 year electoral trap of passivity.
78. Avoid celebrating capitalist holidays which are designed to intensify consumption.
79. Share a meal with a homeless person.
80. Avoid material comforts, many people avoid activism because they are focused on attaining an infantile level of material comfort.
81. Avoid talk of big capitalist spectacles, The Super Bowl, American Idol finale etc. Talk about social resistance instead.
82. It’s easy to sit passively in front of the tube, but you must remain socially active, your mind must remain conscious and alive.
83. There will be many people who will doubt you and question you, because you represent a threat to their convenient perceptions.
84. Take public transportation and talk to people about their lives, try to find out what it is they’re struggling with.
85. Cleanse your mind of commercial thoughts, sit down alone and see how many times you think of stuff and commercial experiences.
86. Ask a professor how much they earn.
87. Change your definition of culture from the culture of the rich to the lives of ordinary people.
88. If you hear or read about a strike, join the strikers at the picket lines.
89. There is no reason to feel lonely and isolated, when the world is full of causes to take up and ideas to explore.
90. Visit the poorest neighborhoods in your area to see the toll that capitalism takes on people’s lives.
91. Redefine your life by redefining that way you see your time, time is not money, time is human freedom.
92. Organize a group of five people, and have each person focus on a particular cause, then talk about what you’ve learnt.
93. Negate your visits to the mall with a visit to the local recycling centre, see the wastefulness of it all.
94. Do not encourage children to indulge in Disneyfied fantasies, instead encourage them to examine society critically.
95. When your friends start talking about sports, talk to them about the mass starvation in our world as a result of capitalist accumulation.
96. Every morning, ask yourself the question of how you as an individual can contribute to the alleviation of human suffering.
97. Do not fall for the trap of careerism, shift your focus from your own success to the lives of those who have nothing at all.
98. Volunteer at an orphanage or a senior home.
99. Volunteer at a soup kitchen.
100. Make friends at protests.
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