It's amazing to me that I haven't used this space to bitch about the union yet, considering anyone who interacts with me in person is probably sick to death of hearing me complain about it. Well, here goes.
You know, I could be an activist forever, and I probably will, for one cause or another. I could fight injustice all day long. It's not the injustice that's the problem, though; fighting iniquity is the easy part. It's the damn apathy that turns out to be the hardest thing to fight.
My own, even: there are days it's hard for me to muster the energy to make union meetings and events. Time was, my laziness or just feeling like I had better things to do could keep me home. These days my sense of accountability wins out every time, and I'm actually confused and mildly irate every time other people's sense of accountability doesn't take over and get them on the picket line for an hour, or in a meeting on a Sunday afternoon when there's not even anything good on TV.
Either they don't value health care and a living wage, or they don't see the connection between their own participation and attaining those things. That's dogmatic on my part, but there it is; I can't explain it to myself any other way.
A broader problem is that, once you become an activist, you realize that you could make a full-time job out of protesting, picketing, canvassing and boycotting on behalf of causes you believe in. Suddenly they're everywhere: take back the night, gay rights parade, keep-PCB's-out-of-the-Kalamazoo-River efforts, panel on global warming, community garden, save the arts programs in our public schools, search for a university president, peace in the Middle East... so much to fight for, so little time. And suddenly it becomes easier to understand how someone fails to show up for any of it, because how do you fight for so many changes at the same time?
How do you cope with the disappointment of not moving that mountain? Then again, how do you stop trying to move it?
A long time ago I got accused of being a nihilist. As I said at the time, anyone who thinks I'm a nihilist clearly hasn't met my dog. I'm not a nihilist, just a pessimist. Deep down, I don't really believe that my actions can change the world. I don't believe I can defeat the system or change anyone's mind about things. But here's the funny thing: I don't see that as any excuse for not trying. Because honestly, what the hell else are you going to do?
