This clip is part of a series of clips I recently produced for Adam Taylor’s new book Mobilizing Hope. It’s a great read for those of you who want to be more involved in politics and activism, but don’t know how (The other videos in the series are pretty good too 
).
Do you agree with Adam’s statement “a really inspiring politician without a movement isn’t enough”? Why or why not?
Are you involved with any movements related to issues that influence who/what you vote for? If so, tell us about it. If not, why not?
Next week’s post highlights some of Adam’s thoughts about activism and tells the story of how he helped encourage Coke to provide anti-viral treatment for their African workforce.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE: Adam Taylor recently completed a yearlong fellowship at the White House and is the author of the book Mobilizing Hope.
OTHER CLIPS BY: ADAM TAYLOR
OTHER CLIPS ABOUT: Politics & Patriotism
PURCHASE THIS CLIP: Individual clip
You asked a yes/no question. My answer is yes =)
OK Benjamin, good catch:-) Try responding to the new ones above. You’re clearly passionate about a number of political issues, does that generally stop at the voting booth for you?
Craig,
You rock =).
Interestingly, the thing I’m really passionate about is helping families with children on the autism spectrum. If a politician convinced me they were going to do things for those families, I’d vote for them.
However, I have grown extremely jaded about politics in general. Phil Zimbardo wrote a really interesting article about his Stanford Prison Experiment and also about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal (It should be noted, by the way, that the recent wikileaks release of 400,000 documents shows that abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners has continued right up to the present, which in my opinion is not even remotely surprising). He entitled the article (something like) “You can’t be a sweet cucumber in a pickle barrel”. It seems to me that Washington D.C., and Olympia (the state capital of Washington), and Canberra (the capital of Australia) are all pretty much pickle barrels, and that any cucumber we send there is gonna turn into a pickle sooner rather than later, and that it’s astonishingly difficult to maintain a force from out here which can keep a cucumber sweet in there.
Benjamin, are you suggesting that you’d be a “single issue voter” for the cause of autism? How would you respond if that candidate also had positions you disagreed with, say supporting systems that embraced torture of Iraqi prisoners?
The “sweet cucumber in a pickle barrel” analogy resonates with me, but at the same time isn’t all that hopeful (and I want some hope!).
Craig,
It’s interesting to me that you noticed that single-issue thing–I hadn’t noticed it. Thanks for listening brilliantly. I think a second issue that’s increasingly important to me is civil liberties.
In answer to your first question, no, I guess not really. Of course if the candidate was into systems which embrace torturing Iraqi prisoners, I would probably have to, in a sense, not vote for them. =P
There is of course a reverse side to the sweet cucumber in a pickle barrel analogy–namely that sometimes someone *does* manage to be a bit of a sweet pickle in there. For instance, Joe Darby. The sweet side of that analogy is that we are all in pickle barrels, and we are all going to at least occasionally be presented with opportunities to be sweet cucumbers regardless, and if/when we manage to grab those opportunities, then we get to be heroes. Wesley Autrey is a good example. There are even little chances like this every day, it seems to me–chances to choose slowing down and kindness and love and free attention giveaways in a culture that’s high speed, dog-eat-dog, and nothing-for-free. There’s a bit of hope for you.
I love this quote from Tolkien (and, as it were, from Elrond), and for me it touches on the idea that perhaps we grant a bit too much glory/power/hoopla, in our way-of-thinking, to whether this or that politician gets in–a point similar to the one Adam Taylor is making:
I appreciate what Adam has to say. The history of this country (USA) is grounded in small groups of engaged citizens coming together around what matters to them. When we are not engaged, we have given our power away to the elected officials and paid providers. We can change politics – do we have the will to do it?
I will borrow this from my friend, Peter – http://www.asmallgroup.net/pages/content/civic_engagement.html
“If you want to change the world – or the culture – all you have to do is change the conversation. In the beginning was the word — that was how the Bible started. Asking the question of what is true wealth invites people to have a conversation they may never have had before. That itself is a measure of wealth! The value of our coming together can be measured by whether or not we are able to have a conversation we have not had before. A conversation is an action.”
— Peter Block