2018-03-22
For many campaign organisations that throw their heart and soul into helping save the planet, there’s a common thread of fighting what’s not working. But how effective is such an approach?
By Maia Kshemya
In life, it's massively important – though mostly dismissed as insignificant – to move towards what we want rather than away from what we don't want.
For many campaign organisations that throw their heart and soul into helping save the planet, preserve species, protect the vulnerable and exploited, and champion new paradigms, there's a common thread of fighting what's not working. Having signed up with several of these organisations, my inbox is often filled with emails that are constantly reinforcing the 'fight' message. Cue Mother Teresa:
“I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.”
She understood that anything we 'fight' for (move away from) puts us in the box of victim: disempowered, disadvantaged, don't have it, struggling, morale-depleting, resisting, pushing against. In other words, it's fear-based.
While it all seems very heroic, when it all boils down to it rebels are victims. What we resist persists. Energy flows where attention goes – focusing on the fight creates more of the fight.
A shift in perspective
On the flip side, anything we 'rise' for (move towards) puts us in the driver's seat. It's uplifting, empowering, inspirational, self-determining, morale-boosting, hopeful. Like a snowball rolling down a hill, it builds momentum.
Will we get results with the fight? Sure.
Will we get greater results when we rise? Absolutely.
Is pretty much everyone tired of fighting and feeling jaded with the sustained effort needed for that? You betcha.
Are people hungry for more avenues to rise in an empowered way? Hell yes (even if they don't fully realise it). Want an example? Bernie Sanders. His whole vibe and his primary focus was all about positively creating and focusing on a new reality rather than fighting the old one. Stadiums were overflowing. People didn't really know what they wanted until he articulated it and made it seem possible.
In the profoundly wise Pixar movie Monsters Inc, they were bottling screams until they discovered something far more potent. Trump and Clinton were bottling screams. Sanders was bottling joy.
After the recent Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, students have tapped into this approach, too. They've planned a march in collaboration with the organisation Everytown for Gun Safety – not Everytown Against Guns. It's 'March for our Lives' not 'March Against Guns' or 'March Against the NRA.' This student-led movement is powerful because they are rising. They're self-empowered, collectively empowered, galvanised, mobilised, unified and their thoroughly justified anger is being channelled in a positive direction that can create a far greater outcome than fighting against. This has helped them to energetically cross a line in the sand, from which there's no going back.
Fight or flight?
Many grassroots organisations do take the 'empowered together' angle, and that's fantastic. However, when they run with the 'fight' angle at the same time, it puts it all at cross-purposes.
What would it take for these wonderful, dynamic, world-changing organisations (which are to be uber-appreciated for doing the super-important job of helping save our collective ass) to factor in more psychology, energy dynamics and shamanic/Indigenous wisdom for future campaigns? How much greater and sooner could the desired outcome be?
Ask yourself: which of the following speaks more to your heart and inspires you the most?
A new earth reality to fight for.
A new earth reality to rise for.
It really simplifies down to one basic question: how does it make you feel?
For me, the answer is a no-brainer. If you want to fully harness and galvanise my energy and my participation, don't inadvertently deplete me by asking me to fight. I find myself mostly disengaging from the various calls to arms that invite me to join the fight. Like so many others, I've been fighting injustice my whole life.
A new day rising
Bill Gates nails taking the optimistic high road:
“Being an optimist doesn't mean you ignore tragedy and injustice. It means you're inspired to look for people making progress on those fronts, and to help spread that progress more widely. If you're shocked by the idea of millions of children dying, you ask: Who is good at saving kids, and how can we help them do more?”
The Greens are doing a better job than most at prioritising rising over fighting, and hopefully this will increasingly be the case.
While ever the invitation is to fight, I truly believe many on the sidelines will spectate rather than participate. Give us a break from all the fighting, and give us every reason in the world to rise and to know we are rising together, moving forward towards a new earth reality in which we all thrive.
Only then we will have a greater capacity and desire to heed the call, throw on our superhero cape and leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Maia Kshemya of Bad vibe Busters is a Greens member and volunteer, with a background in public education, life coaching, holistic counselling, philosophy, photo-journalism, marketing and public relations.