Joan ([info]joanhello) wrote,
@ 2007-09-25 21:44:00
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Don't know whether this is true or not
...but it's an interesting quotation.
...political activists rarely act from a spiritual basis; instead they more often act from inner attitudes of anger, embitterment, moral superiority, and either a self-defeating fatalism or a self-promoting righteousness. I know that when I was younger I thought you had to be really angry to change the world for the better.

Now I know that anger is the least productive political emotion, and serves chiefly to make the angry activist feel important while he or she actually gets relatively little accomplished. Anger clouds your perception; forgiveness clears it. Clarity is essential to political action that actually creates positive change.
- D. Patrick Miller, quoted on http://freewillastrology.com/beauty/

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[info]panmodal
2007-09-26 02:10 pm UTC (link)
The proportional bits of the first paragraph may be up for debate, but the second is almost certainly true.

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[info]joanhello
2007-09-26 08:19 pm UTC (link)
As to the first, one of the reasons my activism is mostly solo is the stress I experience dealing one-on-one with my fellow activists, who are all too often exactly as described.

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[info]ngakmafaery
2007-09-26 11:07 pm UTC (link)
...yup, sounds true: you can't fight for peace...

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[info]cauldronfarm
2007-09-27 09:05 pm UTC (link)
An old friend of mine was an activist for some years, and had stopped mosty of her involvement when I saw her last. I asked why, and she said that she decided she had to step back from activism until she could do it from someplace besides self-righteous anger. Good for her, being aware of her motivation.

-- Joshua

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