slacktivism is a portmanteau formed out of the words slacker and activism. The word is considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. The acts also tend to require little personal effort from the slacktivist.
Examples of activities labeled as "slacktivist" include signing internet petitions, the wearing of wristbands ("awareness bracelets") with political messages, putting a ribbon magnet on a vehicle, joining a Facebook group, posting issue-oriented YouTube videos, altering one's personal data or avatar on social network services, or taking part in short-term boycotts such as Buy Nothing Day or Earth Hour.
We're slackers.
That pretty much nails where we are as a nation. Perhaps that's why I've been in a funk lately. I've felt depressed, disappointed, disenchanted, disenfranchised (albeit alliterative...) for a while now. We are supposed to be the most powerful nation on earth, yet we have become an embarrassment in many ways. Economic meltdowns, healthcare/insurance reform fiascoes, partisan divides (as if there are really only TWO kinds of people in this country), extreme wealth ignoring extreme poverty, education system embarrassment ... shall I continue?
So why can't we get it together?
There are a lot of individuals out there who are passionate about things (me included on the juvenile arthritis topic). You can check it out any day on various blogs, wristbands, bumper stickers and t-shirts. If you do the math, that should equal a lot of people with a lot of opinions on a variety of topics. Strong opinions should equate to action. But action is haaaaaaaaard. (I know this as I've spent hundreds of hours volunteering for the arthritis cause this year because it's important to me.)
Instead, we are fueling a passive-aggressive slacktivism and abnegating our rights, responsibility and accountability to whackos like Hannity, Bachman, and Beck et al. Sounds like a law firm of Wizard of Oz witches out to get us, and we've become their Beck-and-call bee-yatches.
So the big question really is: why can't we get our proverbial s*!$ together as a nation and take care of the things we need to take care of ... like our PEOPLE?
Bear with me now as I transition to the second part of this discussion.
I've also been provoked to enlightenment by an extremely well-informed, gifted and talented 11-y-o. We had a discussion on the way to school this week about the power of one, how one person can change the world. Sounds pretty simple, or egocentric, or fantastic - depending on your perspective. Think Einstein, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Galileo, Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Dalai Lama, Shakespeare, Lincoln, Jefferson, Franklin, Bill Gates (for better or worse), Mozart, JK Rowling, Aristotle, Socrates, Picasso, da Vinci, Pasteur, Rosa Parks, MLK, Joan of Arc, Hitler (yes, Hitler) Darwin, Newton ... you get the idea. We discussed the fact that it only takes one person to come up with an idea and fuel it with enough passion so that it becomes acted upon and touches/moves/inspires others to take it up as well. Great ideas are often fueled by controversy. Controversy inspires debate. Debate can inspire action.
So who's the next "one" that can propel us forward, off dead center, through the political quagmire, past the capitalistic BS, into a more humanitarian mode, provoking us to take better care of ourselves and our planet, making us focus on the needs of the many rather than the needs of the greedy capitalistic ONE, reminding us to critically think for ourselves about what's really important, forcing us to set aside something as counterproductive as partisan political obfuscation and rhetoric?
I can tell you who it isn't: anyone who is currently a talking head on any network with any show of their own or a regular appearance on any network or cable show. And apparently, most of the people who were elected to represent us as citizens, yet have become blinded by payoffs from big business and special interest groups to maintain the status quo.
If we introduced the word sex into the discussion, would that get your attention? We love our titillating gossip, don't we? And politics is full of gossip and scandal because it's so much sexier than mundane things like healthcare, civil rights, food on the table, blah blah blah. We can spend months talking about Anna Nicole Smith because her boobs were the size of melons, but actual melon farmers in rural America are having a hard time making ends meet and we don't talk about that. Larry Craig was so much more interesting when he was approaching people for gay sex in airport restrooms, but did anyone talk about how he voted on issues? Michele Bachmann votes down the environment every chance she gets, but we don't care because we're more interested in hearing her ACORN-census fairy tale. No matter how much good Ted did for Americans as a Senator, we will never ever let any of them forget Mary Jo.
For information related to actual ISSUES that affect us all as Americans, you can do a little research on your own on the things that interest you here: http://www.govtrack.us/
If you want the titillating, useless, counterproductive dreck, go anywhere that those Vulpes types are, like here: http://www.foxnews.com/
Sometimes it doesn't take a village, but the village idiots need to stop drowning out reasonable thought and discussion. It also takes intestinal fortitude to stand by a cause you believe in until you see it through to fruition.
It takes one person. YOU.
It's finally time for me to go to Washington, where I can vehemently deny the existence of Republicans in our body politic. I can be quite believable if given the appropriate staging...
voice you are the first person to step forward and i am thrilled! i've got the old newspapers, some ideas and probably too much enthusiasm. i've spoken to a few of my artist friends who put on shows and they've all told me to get some material together, talk it up and that they and other artists will promote each other's work. i'm looking into a space i can get to begin the art, what kinda ideas do you have? i live in the galleria area, my son keeps a studio on the northside (about a 10 x 12) cramped starving artist pad and apart from a couple of college painting classes (over ten years ago) i'm a total novice. my idea was something like the artists collective movements of the late 60's to mid 70's, where we could set aside some evening or weekend time to collaborate on this project. i'm also trying to get some people from my houston architecture forum, where i've been a member since 2004. deb
tragic, sounds like a fantastic project! I'd love to get involved, and I know an artist or two.
wilma some of these papers were really hard to read, and i think my son's been getting more of an education than 12yrs of public school! the obits were even segregated! but ageism and sexism were also right there in the "help wanted" which about all said "age 18-44" only. but the editorials, opinion pages were the worst, obviously people in houston had a difficult time accepting the changes taking place. this photo transfer gel is something we're new to, but right now we're working on a window that came out of a 1940's home, with six panes. ultimately the piece will be "window through time" and include the crazy old headlines contrasted with things from today's news. sadly they often sound the same.
We won't think it tiresome once this country erupts into another civil war. Think it won't happen? Think again.
I think the larger issue is simply one of ideological construct. More people are motivated by progressing than by regressing, but the motivation is stronger with regression. People are generally more passionate when it seems like someone is taking something away from them. It is also easier to motivate people around that than progress. Progress is too broad and we have too many differing opinions. Unfortunately, our coalition of liberals, progressives, and moderates is great for winning elections, but not so great for governing.
The teabaggers and the shouters understand one political dynamic well - the appearance of massive public support or opposition does in fact change policy. We learned that in the 60's - civil rights demonstrations and,. later. anti-war protests.
Yes, the country probably was ready for major civil rights changes, but the great cultural and legal changes that happened occurred only after we turned out in public and in large numbers. And clearly anti-war demonstrations had an effect in galvanizing public opposition to Vietnam. Though the country now is weary of Iraq and perhaps even Afghanistan, we still recognize the threat posed by militant Islam. Whether our military can be effective in that fight over the long term remains to be seen.
Anyway, the teabaggers and the town hall shouters got it right - they learned that appearances matter more than substance. Mere months after we elected a liberal Democrat as president and larger Democratic majorities in Congress, the right wing created the impression that it had all be a terrible mistake and that they were still in charge. And it has worked. Slacktivism doesn't win elections. I fear that all we had hoped for in November will come undone by the mid-terms, if not before. And as I have said before, I do fear for my country as I never have.
TM, that's a GREAT idea! Combining old news headlines and art... to depict living in the 20th century, and the racism/ misogyny that existed. That's what it would be like to MOVE BACKWARDS. How soon we forget that equal rights for all is in it's infancy. (with gay rights still barely on the radar). That's a project I could get behind! That's doing something.
Whatever we might say about conservatives, they seem to be better at organizing events like Beck's. And whether you agree with Baptists or not, they sure do have great, organized youth groups. I wonder if it's because progressives are all so different that makes for difficulty organizing events. That leads us to Voice's POWER OF ONE. Maybe that is more the Progressive way.
thank you for the insight on slacktivism. i've recently felt as if i've been moving through the 7 stages of grief over america. except the stages don't include where i started during the obama campaign (fired up, ready to go!) but instead start with where we are today - incapacitated, jaded, exhausted and in my case, bewildered. beck's cleverly filling the days before the murdered census worker is traced back to his hate-mongering incitement by moving on past the garden variety hater, he's now zombied thousands of "patriot mommies" and his next event is a million women march. i joined the online group for two reasons, first i really want to know whats making these ladies tick and second (naive) i wanted, in a good faith effort, to reach out to them as mothers on ANY common ground. but i struck out, as all they revert to is beck's 9 principles and 12 values, as if they possess not a single original thought or idea in their head. because they don't! they are simply another head of the snake, with answers i'm all too familiar with as my brother (912 cult devotee) has on many occasions recited the full manifesto to me instead of answering questions requiring original thought and ideas. yet their disclaimer page states they are in NO way affiliated with beck, only subscribe to his 912 ideals. beck's really outdone himself this time. on his sat show he gloated with frank lunzt, "they can say we're (fill in the blank) but nobody questions a mom, a mom is always right. and already in one day, they've set up chapters in every city and state, have chat rooms so full they have waiting lists, conference calls ongoing and non-stop twitter & tweeting in progress. events planned for each upcoming month leading up to the next hatefest 2010 tax day tea party and who knows from there? clearly luntz & co had this all mapped out for the saturday roll-out, along with all the fox strategists, no way three mom's made a call on friday and have this made like a build a bear workshop, turn-key job. how can we, sane, rational mothers, fathers, people have any hope to address this? i predict this will dominate the cable media, the view, katie couric, all the free advertising beck can drool up. i read on this site today the next roll-out is a group specifically for black moms, starting the topic off a woman of color who says democrats are enslaving her people to be poor and depend on government, so sad. i've decided that the only thing i can do for now is stop asking people to stand with me in silent peaceful protest at the april 15th 2010 tea day, as i've been doing this over a month on several blogs and have a total of four people committed. maybe we're afraid, maybe we won the election and only the ones who have something to complain about feel the need to be inconvenienced and leave their homes. so i'm starting an artists collective project using photo transfer gel to depict the current sad state of divided nation, contrasted with old newspapers i recently inherited that date back to the 1930's - '60's. these papers are shocking with racism, violence such as kennedy's killing, but if you read the articles from the days leading up to these horrific events you see articles quite like ones you might find today. i'm negotiating a space and working with a show promoter for a march show. anyone who would like to get involved should simply let me know. no previous experience (or in my case demonstrated talent) required. just a few bucks for materials and i provide the newspapers. i think it should be therapeutic and productive, perhaps garner a little local media attention or who knows, even some real media coverage. but at least i'll be doing SOMETHING besides slacking, agonizing, and complaining on here day in day out.
Great post! Slacktivism takes many forms. Talk is cheap, and the "we/they/somebody should" variety is the most galling.