ActiVICTIMism Sells Us All Out

This word, activictimism, keeps surfacing in my mind. I don’t know where it came from.

My mind kind of tripped on it - like a mental stutter - but it has stayed with me.

I’ve been reluctant to acknowledge it or write about it because it sounds insensitive. Like a trigger word. Like victim-shaming. Like dismissing suffering. Like mockery of genuine efforts to make heartfelt change.

But that’s not what I’m thinking when this word comes to mind. That’s me anticipating the weaponization of my thoughts against me. That’s the “victim” anticipating the move of the “enemy.” And given that observation, I suspect the word is showing up as a call for introspection.

I am, after all, an activist.

I’ve written before about my concerns around activism. It’s something I have to keep coming back to for my own sake. Activism is generally driven by passion. And passion is fiery. It must be tempered or its creative power can be eclipsed by fire’s destructive nature.

Activism and Cultural Autoimmunity

Welcome to Babylon

Activism as a trauma response is dangerous. But when misunderstanding and chaos rule, trauma can drive our actions. We all need to pay attention to what is driving us.

Looking inward, I notice that some of my most painful experiences involve feeling misunderstood. I’m sure I’m not alone in that, but being misunderstood tends to make me feel more alone nonetheless. It doesn’t help that weaponized language only amplifies misunderstanding. I have watched definitions change to accommodate the agendas of those who seek to translate the “truth” for us. Polarizing speech fuels outrage and makes enemies out of people who think and feel differently.

Somehow we are all in Babylon - speaking the same language but somehow unable to understand each other. Everyone feels misunderstood. Everyone wants change and is seeking justice. Everyone feels like they’re coming from a good place and is convinced that the people who don’t get it are in the way. And everyone is the person who doesn’t get it to someone else. I really want to dig our way out of this.

I want to reclaim words, conversation, communication and all things interpersonal. I’d really like a return of Heart-to-Heart. But we can’t do that with any authenticity when we tip-toe around ideology.

We also can’t effectively bring change when a preoccupation with our grievances drives our actions.

So how can we work together to create change?

History Lessons and Woke Reflections

As often happens, the wisdom of others surfaces when I can’t untangle my own. I found these Substack posts by Barry Brownstein and Tessa Lena really helpful.

I can always count on Barry Brownstein for a poignant history lesson…

Liberalism Needs No Enemies

In his instructive political fable, The Awakening of Jennifer Van Arsdale, George Leef writes, “Liberalism is the one philosophy that requires no enemies… It minimizes conflict and calls upon people to resolve whatever problems arise through peaceful means.”

By liberalism, Leef refers to the 17^th-century movement that began to free individuals from entrenched interests, “from the constraints of the powerful institutions that dominated their lives—the interests of monarchs and church leaders and guilds.”

Leef observes that “human energy and ingenuity” were freed “to pursue commercial gains, rather than confining them to furthering the interests of the rulers.” 

“Under liberalism,” Leef writes, “the only way for a person to improve his life is through cooperation with others. There is no place for the theft, exploitation, and domination that other systems invite.” There is no need to make enemies.

Is the growth of collectivism and the decline of liberalism why Americans are angrier than ever? With anger comes the need to blame; many are certain their enemies are other Americans.

I recommend reading the entire essay, but consider this little pearl…

The human mind can make bitter enemies from whole cloth by cherishing grievances. Human weakness is manna for authoritarians. The more undisciplined our minds, the more power authoritarians get. The wise individual seeking freedom attends to human frailty. Minds can be creative or destructive. Be right-minded. Stop justifying grievances. Embrace liberalism. Value voluntary cooperation; as you help others flourish, you will flourish.

And I can always count on Tessa Lena to call it as she sees it…

Soul Deprivation and the Trojan Horse of Wokism

Let us talk about wokism.

Let us talk about it like it is, as in, not a whim of a redemption-seeking and perhaps more than a little entitled college kid—but a brain child of the alphabets, an energy that was “genetically engineered” by taking real problems and real hurt feelings that have piled up—and grafting dead-end, anger-inducing talking points and irksome absurdities onto pain.

(Think of it as a classic American soul-wobbly child who is very rude to the parents over not getting the toy he wants—but applied to intellectual toys.)

Let us look at wokism as an expression of energy that was carefully engineered to irreparably divide and to appeal to the innocent undernourished souls who have been born into an emotionally starved, consumerist culture—who feel a lack of respect for their soul with their gut—but who are too young, too inexperienced, or perhaps too lazy to go on a journey and do an investigation of who had actually stolen the respect.

A one liner definition? Here it is. Wokism is a deliberate and malicious rerouting of the innate desire for respect.

And the intro to her proposed solution (which you should read in its entirety)…

The solution, I think, is entirely unglamorous. It is in the active sensible opposition to the undignifying goo—bit it is also in growing our spine of love so much that we can love the sincere woke young souls, love them all over, give them the soul food they crave, listen to their side of the story until they are ready to hear that they’ve been had. Like earlier generations have been had. Like all of us have been had. (But there are also islands of love.)

If I’m being honest, I’d like a new word. Activism doesn’t mean what it once did. Either that or I’m learning about its pitfalls and want to reroute. I like voluntary cooperation as Brownstein describes it.

Or maybe we can reclaim activism and all the other words by living their best definitions into existence. Maybe if we let our character and not our emotions drive the actions, we’ll see a different outcome.

“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.”
― Joan Didion, On Self-Respect

I’d love to hear other ideas about this. Please share if you have any.