Gesundheit - SDaS 2007 - 5 : Social Activism

One of the humans who shared his knowledge with us was Robert Naiman..He is part of JUST FOREIGN POLICY.ORG...He is favoritely called the Economics Man (by one of the concerned citizens of the planet)...

How to produce more activism:

a) spend more time doing activism

b) be more efficient

c) recruit more People to be activists

Activism is the normal state of human affairs and although some people view activism as deviant social behavior they appreciate the results of it. Bob suggested that we attempt to break this view and recruit more activists. He said the best way to do this is start out on a personal level.

He used the example of trying to figure out how to help a blind person cross the street saying most people would not stand by and not help the blind person. And he uses this as an analogy that one doesn't pass by unthinkingly not trying to find a simple solution to solve problems.

Bob: Why do people push to get one the bus? When people see a bus half empty they are polite and let others ahead of them but when they see a bus is jammed... people push to get on the bus. A normal person would just say that people are rude and complain about it. But an activist would say: "We need more buses" (seeking an alternative)

Bob stated that "Language (words) are a major barrier for activism in the U.S."

Bob then returned to questions on public/private ownership?

When does something controlled by the government belong to the public?

He asked that we reformulate and think of examples... examples given park, sidewalk, library, hospital, etc.

Patrick, another concerned citizen of the world, pointed out the difference between belong and control. Is it a public park if it has bum proof benches and riot police?

Bob asked us once again to reformulate the problem, where we lower our standards to where something useful is taken away or privatized and asks would that make us upset.

Focus our attention that we should be concerned about socialism/capitalism and pointed out that there are some things controlled by government that belong to the public that we believe are ours and would fight for them if taken away.

Bob : Activism is a 'good' and more activism is needed.

Cassandra (another concerned citizen): There is the march against war, there are certain amounts of activists and what amount of activists is needed for the activism to be effective?

Questions you can ask yourself or others...

Activism is a good produced by Activists, are we producing enough?
How can we produce more?

Activism is the normal state of human affairs
How do we contribute?

Why do people push to get on the bus?
Why is money so annoying?"