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If you’ve ever signed a petition, you’re an activist.
If you’re ever given to a charity, you’re an activist.
If you’ve ever protested an injustice, you’re an activist.
If you’ve ever voted or refused to vote, you’re an activist.
If you’ve ever stood up for another human being, you’re an activist.
If you’ve ever taken a risk on someone else’s behalf, you’re an activist.
Wikipedia says, “Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change.”
The scope of activism isn’t always by necessity a huge, organized effort. Sometimes the scope is personal — closely, deeply, quietly personal.
Maybe you believe the effort you made was a small one, a thing of little or no significance or useful consequence. But it mattered to someone, somewhere.
I agree, but I’ve always hated the term, “activist” because it treats everyday battles as though they aren’t a form of social resistance, and it confines people who are organizers or confines causes to the label of activism. It separates. If you live in the world and you struggle, you are an activist.
I understand your sentiment, though, and I totally agree!
–Ben
Thanks, Ben –
“Activist” is a *very* charged word, one that gets spun, wrangled and mangled beyond recognition by the media and anyone else with a counter-agenda. But for this little essay it was closer to what I wanted to convey than “insurrectionist”, and the term “good-deed-doer” — to quote the Wizard of Oz — lacked impact.