DC Activism

DC Activism

On facebook I agreed a strategy (in theory) of creating influence through decency and compassion - I would prefer sila and compassion so we should argue about this.

It was a personal agreement but I advocate for more.

And the more we need is activism. Not activism within parties promoting policies that are decent and compassionate - nice though that would be, yet which cannot work because political power is controlled by money. But I do advocate strategies of decency and compassion within community activism. It is hard for me to judge because I am only a communication activist now ie I am only active on the internet, but it seems to me that community activism is on the wane. I don't know whether this community activism has been replaced by political activism or whether we have just become keyboard activists.

But activism is about people, working with people, helping people. Young people need this activism - going out and helping those who are suffering. And it matters not the politics of those who are suffering, compassion means freedom from suffering for all so decent people help all.

We must remember that online is a communications medium. As has become apparent recently we can trust very little of what we read online because it is being manipulated. Our online communication platforms are run by business interests, and these interests have a business model that encourages online communication and uses information from that communication to sell profiles to commercial or vested interests. It is possible that during the elections a sponsored facebook ad was microtargetting you to affect your vote. We have to be discerning and not trust what we read online.

It is hard enough to discern the truth when we meet in person but there is more chance of a true assessment. Activism, working with people we meet. There needs to be a transformation in which power politics responds to grass-roots activism, activism where we help people in our communities wherever they are. There are good people everywhere (as there are bad). Those good people are being compromised by being forced to choose in a bipartisan voting system when all they want is a government that is helping their community. Even in Nevada there are such good people but overall who did they end up voting for? A dead pimp.

I have always been a marginal voter. I have never been able to vote for a candidate who I trusted to be decent and compassionate. I always voted for "better of two", and that decision has become increasingly marginal - even worse of a compromise. Perhaps it is time to end that compromise. Perhaps it is time to say that you only get my vote if you can demonstrate that what you are DOING is decent and compassionate. If you want my vote how can you demonstrate that what you are doing is practically helping my community?

To begin with this would be a problem. We are practical people and we understand that power politics is compromised. We understand that people in politics have to argue their position, they have to justify and be reasonable working together with all parties. But what happens with all this rhetoric, discussion and compromise? Zero action. This way is just not working for anyone except those at the top making profits.

These opportunists, political people, want our vote. On both sides they want good people to vote for them, and then the opposition is painted as so "demonic" we think not voting is a vote for the demon. But we have to remain detached. We have to recognise that this demonising is simply a mechanism to "vote for us" - whichever party, and once they have that vote nothing benefits the community. Compromise voting has not worked, remove that compromise - only vote for someone whose actions are decent and compassionate. We demand of our politicians not "what are your policies?", but "what are your actions that were decent and compassionate both personally and politically?"

There was a political movement that demanded the system be fixed. They held peaceful public protests demanding the system be fixed. The media asked "what are your policies?" because policies can be controlled, and the protest said we have no policy we want you to fix the system. What did the system do? The police destroyed the Occupy protests.

It is time to look with detachment at your vote, when has it ever been a vote for decent and compassionate action? End compromise voting, voting for the marginally better hasn't fixed anything. Vote only for decency and compassion. Neither has political activism fixed anything, good people who are political activists prop up the system for the opportunists and their plutocrat masters. Turn your activism where it is needed - to the community.

Remember the vote is only about power, and power-fighting is not activism. Activism is working within our communities, through decency and compassion helping others. If we focus on community maybe one day power will come to us and say we want your vote. And you can say we will give you our vote if you can demonstrate decency and compassion in your actions. DC activism.