Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Page 25 of 117

Why Are Activist Meetings So Bad?

I’ve spent the last 20 years attending activist meetings, from my Bloomington days through my time in Iowa City. What almost all these meetings have in common is that they’re badly and ineffectively run.

Why?

Granted, most of them happened in college towns. So I could chalk it up to some kind of college town effect. But I’m not too convinced by that. In every other respect, the meetings vary quite a bit. Some involved putting together a new group. Others involved far more established groups. Some were meetings of socialist or anarchist groups, while others focused on identity- or issue-based activism. And attendees varied quite a bit in terms of age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and other categories.

And still, most activist meetings stink. They start late, run over on time, and are facilitated badly. Many people come away frustrated. Maybe the issues they care about didn’t find its way to the agenda. Maybe there wasn’t an agenda at all. Meetings often feel more like friend hangouts than spaces where people do things. And many of these friend hangouts feel inaccessible to anyone not already part of the group.

Again, why? I don’t think it’s due to the intent of organizers. Quite the opposite. Most organizers want to create spaces accessible to new and diverse people. Most want meetings that are democratic and productive. And they use the methods they know in order to get there.

Indeed. I’ll suggest the methods are a big part of the problem here. The methods aren’t so great.

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May Reading List (2023)

While I’m not sure I can compete with the sci-fi and radical politics of last month’s reading list, I do have some interesting things on tap for this month! After reading the quadruple bio of classic sci-fi authors, I decided to return to Heinlein.

Read on to see what I’ve mixed in with classic Heinlein.

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How Do Culture and Politics Connect?

This is a collage of several figures from culture and politics in the U.S.: Donald Trump, Roseanne, Jordan Peele, and Kanye.

I often write in this blog about links between culture and politics. Indeed, we’ve even got a tag for ‘culture’ (see the bottom of this post). But I’ve never tried to systematize any of this, to tell a larger story about how culture and politics connect.

We need such a story. Over the years, I’ve seen a shift on the left in how we link culture and politics. And, for the most part, it’s a shift for the worse, not the better.

As I wrote a blog post and an article on Isaac Asimov and harassment, these broader issues rose to the surface. Does an author’s work provide insight into their politics? Does our study of culture provide us with political insights? More important for our present purposes – and for trends on the left – does our critique of culture provide us with political insights or breakthroughs? And do we do politics when we make or critique culture?

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The Star Wars Universe

Shortly before filming the prequel trilogy, George Lucas and Co. authorized a flood of new Star Wars novels. He called it the Expanded Universe (now Legends under Disney). Some were good reads, and a few (e.g., Shadows of the Empire) were great reads. But they fit together poorly. And as Lucas added novel after novel, they really didn’t work together.

By 2010 or so, the Star Wars ‘canon’ looked like unintelligible garbage. A few dozen or so authors wrote a long series of mostly self-contained stories about Luke Skywalker and friends. The stories didn’t necessarily contradict each other, but they veered wildly in terms of plot and characterization. They always added up to less than the sum of their parts.

In contrast, the Dune universe built a much more plausible franchise model. Two authors develop the plot and write each book. The Dune canon is a bit bloated, and some of the books aren’t good (and none are as good as the Frank Herbert originals), but it all fits together reasonably well.

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Modified Consensus and Activist Conflict

Activist communities often tread gingerly around conflict. They know it tears activist groups apart, especially personal conflict. It has done so for decades.

Sometimes even political conflict tears activist groups apart. The groups find it difficult to work through disagreement on even ordinary political issues, especially in their first few meetings. Usually groups come together as voluntarily associations of people interested in a few topics, and they don’t have much in the way of long personal history and built-up trust.

Many groups react to all these things by avoiding conflict. They bury the conflict, pretending it doesn’t exist. In the short term, this provides some benefits. But it’s almost always a long term path to nowhere. Let’s talk about better ways to handle conflict, specifically modified consensus as a model.

Many react to this history by avoiding conflict. They bury it – pretend it doesn’t exist. This can help in the short-term. But it’s almost always a long-term path to nowhere. Let’s talk about better ways to handle conflict.

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