The Disengagement Factor

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about who I was in college and who I am now, mostly in relation to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and where I stand on the activism scale. (Some trends show that young people tend to become less politically and socially active as they exit the university scene and get into “real life.”).

I always promised myself that I was going to be a “save the world” kind of girl, but within reason. By reason, I mean, in my journey thusfar, I’ve learned a few things:

1. You can’t pour from an empty cup = I can’t actually save the whole world, that’s more energy and time than an individual has, but I can save a good part of it.
2. You don’t have to live off of rice water and bathe in public parks in order to do so = Don’t punish yourself for being privileged when others are not, do something about it, but you don’t have to feel guilty whenever you do something fun either.
3. Don’t act on everything and don’t act on just anything, act on “The Thing”. The Thing is your cause, what makes you get downright vicious when you want to create positive change. You should be willing to burn down buildings for it. And don’t feel guilty if it takes you a long time to find The Thing. It takes you a long time to find a spouse, right? You don’t walk in the daycare and pick up the first baby you see either; you look for yours. We take our time with the decisions that matter the most to us.
4. While looking for The Thing, keep an open mind. Make sure you listen to the opportunities that are presented to you and that you are looking for the ones that aren’t. If you can’t find either, create your own. Take one hour a week to study organizations and people that inspire you.
5. Travel x3 to learn all that you can, but remember to do something with that knowledge later. Never mistake awareness as a form of activism. It’s not. Maybe it won’t happen until you’re thirty, but you need to save all those tiny experiences with all those incredible people and use them to help find and invigorate your future cause.

Now, back to Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs. I knew I couldn’t start doing the “heart work” before I did the hard work so in two years, I’ve tried to satisfy my physiological, safety, and belonging needs. Now that I’m standing of the precipice of Esteem and Self-Actualization (life sounds way more extreme when I say it like that), I’ve run into a major thorn.

I don’t have MY THING. (Yet).
I haven’t found what shakes me to the bone.

My parents, who have also always known me to be a “save the world” kind of girl, talk to me about it as though it were my future husband. “You should really get active about it,” my mother says.

“I’m sure it’s out there, waiting for you,” my dad assures, “You just have to find it.” And then they go on to say the exact same things about my actual future husband…Their encouragement is completely welcome, but I have been struggling with a way to keep them – and my own self-guilt – at bay until I find The Thing. Why is it so difficult when I don’t consider myself to be an apathetic person?

That’s when my friend (the super cool Invisible Children warrior that you can read about here) sent me this video that made it all click. Dave Meslin, “professional rabble-rouser”, knows what’s up. His excellent presentation on the media, our abuse of public space, our misconception of heroes, and the endless deluge of political party nonsense strikes at the core of just how much of this so-called “apathy” might not be our fault.

Meslin points out, “Apathy doesn’t exist as we know it. We just live in a world that actively discourages engagement.”

In this age of the social platforming frenzy, one might cry out, “How could he say that?” Oh, but he can…and he can say it in seven different ways, from seven different websites, using seven different usernames so by the time he’s done saying it and 45,000 followers are done repeating it, it doesn’t seem quite so profound anymore. In fact, it doesn’t even sound like words, just another annoying blip in cyberspace.

Let’s go back to #5 on my list: Don’t mistake awareness for action, it’s not. Don’t join activist Facebook groups that you’re never going to chat with, don’t sign online petitions just because you’re asked, don’t even press “Like” for this article because really, I don’t see that as any kind of effort at all. I wouldn’t even count my writing this article as a form of activism, I’m only asking you to be aware.

I would add to Meslin’s quote: “We also live in a world that actively discourages REAL engagement.” Today’s movements might start with the internet, but they should never stop there. There are many people who understand this, but just in case, we’d better add another level to the Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs. Right between Belonging and Esteem, it should definitely say: “Dude, get off the internet.”

That’s stage I’m at…and as this social enterprise movement takes off online, demanding participation online, conversation online, and the purchase of goods online, I find myself out of the loop sometimes. Even if I wanted to go to an actual conference and talk about these issues, the price tag (going by the recent mentioned IncrediblEurope summit) runs at about 960€. Ouch.

As social enterprises, we need to find a way to change those 35,426 “I Like This” into real people with faces and voices and consumerist power that drives the world in a positive direction and we need to make this movement realistically accessible to them – on the ground – in any part of the world. Only then will we get close to actually changing the system.