Activist Check List Go! Part 2

The Imputed and the Unsaid
Are mutually dependant
One as important as the Other
To practice and believe in only one
Leaves the One and then the Two in Thrall
Strong, in a way, from its constant activity to support

The unsupportable
But still a hostage, a slave, to the phantom structure

It is important to reclaim and to define words that we use within the struggle. Words are the battleground, really, as any legislator, propagandist, or, perhaps less incendiary-etymologists, will tell you. The battle is for their definition, whether it is changing the Affordable Healthcare Act to Obamacare, The-Right-To-Work Law (look it up),  Reagan’s “Strapping young buck”. I want to share with you some words, here and in coming posts, that must be understood and protected-for the battle for the community is the battle to be had. The community, at least for now, is necessary to operate a social contract, without a tipping point of consent (whether bought, coerced, bribed, or forced), the rulers cannot rule. I think an important illustration of this, in particular to words, is a study I read in Physical Review E. that states that 10 percent is the tipping point to general opinion, though, this 10 percent, make no mistake, has to be a committed 10 percent. Definitions are the variables/symbols of how we understand and exist in reality, there is a reason why it is so fought over (especially in the Public Education sector). Let us move forward here in defining a few terms.

Reform:

The act of a reform model is the action, belief, that accepts (whether overtly or subtly) the dominant lens. Its form of resistance is in creating a space that reduces the harm of the dominant system. These are typically human services departments, non-profits, or even voting etc. This is not a negative critique. In almost all the societies I have ever had to study or live in (which is not much as I am a poor scholar) I have witnessed the need for a reform model, in fact, my argument is that activists must engage in both of these models, and the choice is whether they center the Reform aspect or the Revolutionary aspect. The reason, even the most radical activist, has to support reform models is that Revolutionary models take a longer time, and in my own life I am not okay answering those I would serve to, “wait for the revolution”; destructive suffering can only harm and remove those who would otherwise align with humane revolutionary practices and should be, even from just a strategic lens, be, at least, ameliorated through reform practices.

Revolution:

Revolutionary practices are actions, beliefs, that are in direct opposition with the dominant systems catalysts. Its form of resistance is radical because of this opposition and work. It is important to note that some of the practices of a dominant system may still be in practices when the revolutionary model becomes the norm, I state this because what often gets mistaken for revolution is changing the proverbial deck chairs of the Titanic-the practices- and also, often, believing that you can’t use any deck chairs once you have switched ships. There will be means of communication (let’s say email) that are still a mode of communication in an revolutionary paradigm, there will still be systems, there will still be technology, so to say, what changes are to what these Tools serve. These tools are not, by themselves, a value, they are value neutral, how they are used and what they are used for are the determinants of its virtue or not. Revolutionary practices are focused on the determinants of the value/virtue of the system.

Choosing:

I would identify myself a revolutionary/radical driven person but have spent lots of my life in a reform model. I can say that the reason being is that the Time I have been in was not ripe to blossom the revolutionary practice. This does not mean I did not work on it, I did, long hours studying, reading, trying to write, and also bringing this understanding within a reform model. I also stood with many people in their acts of radical defiance, from people experiencing homelessness, to resistance against globalization from the lens of it being to serve the wealthiest (I believe that globalization is a necessary outcome of the development of the human species but it does not have to look like it does now). But there was not enough populous momentum to push through these measures in whatever means there was. I believe there is now and is why this writing is becoming more public, it is a small avenue of mine to materialized this aspect of my own revolutionary practices (I have others too, such as the founding of the movement to creating a Worker’s Cooperative).

It is also important for those that might believe they have to ‘choose’ to know that any good that I have been able to accomplish in the school(s) I have had the blessing to support, has been because of a radical lens. The thought that the fundamental nature of being is Ineffable, that this demands humility and confidence, in the face of the responsibility to serve limitlessly is radical in the juxtaposition of dominant cultural systems (specifically the public school system). This lens I brought allowed me to practice to the limits of a reform model and to push against the walls of the dominant system. In this way I was able to outline the nature of the threat of dominance and then to do ‘out of work’ work that was targeted at changing these catalytic principles and practices, in fact, one will in an authentic reform model see where it must then include a radical revolutionary model. Dominating systems will always oppress, we can only reform so far within its halls, the one’s that are left out are those that the system will not serve and, frankly, cannot with its structure as it is. Only a revolutionary model can include them.

Only human lead reform models have kept oppressive systems from being, in total, oppressive, and only revolutionary models will be able to keep these oppressive systems in agonistic positions rather than the creative protagonists.