Hope or Fear??
Why are we organizing? How do I get other people to believe that working for our community is worth it? How do we decide what our values and strategies in organizing are?
These are all questions that I’m encountering all over the site, in my message box, in the forums, and in my own work in my community. There are volumes of writing and thought over the centuries about these questions that we must struggle with in our community organizing, but there is also a common theme that these questions come back to: why have we decided to care about our community?
Some folks decide to care because they are scared. Because we are losing jobs, and losing relationships, and losing connection with others, and all the while being told that if we don’t defend ourselves and don’t protect our turf and don’t be careful of who we let in, then we will lose. So we start organizing from a place of fear. And the results of fear are all too common to us all: defensiveness, paranoia, reaction, scapegoating, blame, apathy, confusion, criticism, and the list goes on.
Some folks decide to care because they have hope. Hope that their lives and their communities can be different and better and safer. Hope that drives us to look to what can be instead of what is. Hope that calls us to believe that everyone wants to be safe and cared for and loved – not just us. And the results of hope are creativity, vision, innovation, co-operation, grace, and belief in others' motives and actions.
And so many of us want to hope and want to come from a positive place and still find ourselves in a heated, intense moment reacting out of fear. The cards are pretty stacked against us – the messages of fear are everywhere and even on our best days fear can seem like an easier starting place than hope. Our work in organizing our communities must continually call us back to a place where we can meet each other where we are at, support each other in our moments of fear, and remind ourselves that even we can change and be different.
Each of us is working on just this. Every day calling ourselves out on reactions or conversations that are fear-based and asking ourselves instead, “What is it that we really hope for? And how do we get there?” And we need everyone in the FWT community to support us in these questions…to examine our conversations in forums, and our interactions at our local meet-ups, and our planning for our local actions and to ask, “Is this coming from a place of fear or a place of hope?” And how we can do that in tangible and helpful ways is a conversation we can start here…
These are all questions that I’m encountering all over the site, in my message box, in the forums, and in my own work in my community. There are volumes of writing and thought over the centuries about these questions that we must struggle with in our community organizing, but there is also a common theme that these questions come back to: why have we decided to care about our community?
Some folks decide to care because they are scared. Because we are losing jobs, and losing relationships, and losing connection with others, and all the while being told that if we don’t defend ourselves and don’t protect our turf and don’t be careful of who we let in, then we will lose. So we start organizing from a place of fear. And the results of fear are all too common to us all: defensiveness, paranoia, reaction, scapegoating, blame, apathy, confusion, criticism, and the list goes on.
Some folks decide to care because they have hope. Hope that their lives and their communities can be different and better and safer. Hope that drives us to look to what can be instead of what is. Hope that calls us to believe that everyone wants to be safe and cared for and loved – not just us. And the results of hope are creativity, vision, innovation, co-operation, grace, and belief in others' motives and actions.
And so many of us want to hope and want to come from a positive place and still find ourselves in a heated, intense moment reacting out of fear. The cards are pretty stacked against us – the messages of fear are everywhere and even on our best days fear can seem like an easier starting place than hope. Our work in organizing our communities must continually call us back to a place where we can meet each other where we are at, support each other in our moments of fear, and remind ourselves that even we can change and be different.
Each of us is working on just this. Every day calling ourselves out on reactions or conversations that are fear-based and asking ourselves instead, “What is it that we really hope for? And how do we get there?” And we need everyone in the FWT community to support us in these questions…to examine our conversations in forums, and our interactions at our local meet-ups, and our planning for our local actions and to ask, “Is this coming from a place of fear or a place of hope?” And how we can do that in tangible and helpful ways is a conversation we can start here…
Views: 2
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tanya on -
i hope for a country that I can stand as an individual with my own ideas and morals but to be given a right to organize with others and express our common interest without being hindered by fear. i hope for an opportunity to give a voice to the concern of those who have no voice. i hope for a society that bases it's authority not in power and riches but in truth and decency. That the standards of living may be held upright by those that live in a world controlled not by the masses but by a universal understanding of equality for harmonious living. We care about or brothers and sisters of this world because they are as we are. Noone is left oppressed because their suffering is taken as an offence agianst us all. I HOPE
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Permalink Reply by Jon on -
I think fear is the tool of governments. Hope is the tool of the common man/woman.
If it takes fear for someone to finally stand up and get out there, then so be it, but hope and inspiration are much stronger tools.
That's not to say that we don't all have fears, because we all do. But to be driven by fear is never a good thing. It can make you do irrational things. I may be wrong
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Permalink Reply by Parano1d on -
i think there needs to be an equal balance of both. Without on ore the other would would be illequipped. With too much of one of them we would also be unbalanced
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Permalink Reply by Cat on -
I am not intending to offend you, but I often challenge these types of points. I have never bought into the whole "balance" thing. I believe that the idea that hope/fear, good/evil, light/dark are all necessary to maintain balance has been wrongfully instilled in our minds. These are the most common themes in modern media (books, comics, and movies alike)
But I ask this, why? Why does there have to be good and evil etc.. I believe that all people are innately good, that the evil is caused by wrong doings. I believe that if we could all settle on the light/good/hopeful side this world could achieve amazingly great things (this is limitless). There are still some tribes that live as hunter/gatherers and they are usually non-aggressive, peaceful people. They do not consider in their philosophies this balace of good and evil, they believe in goodness in nature and on earth. You don't have to agree, but at least give it some thought.
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Permalink Reply by Xeranar on -
Well the fundamental issue with the idea that everybody is good is that, well....we are...but we're also greedy and stupid. Very few people are definitively evil, villians in the comic books rarely exist and when they do they show up as people like Josef Stalin or Saddam Hussein, who gain power and only keep it through fear.
So basically most of the evil we see committed by corporations aren't a purposeful attempt to ruin the world. DOW doesn't wake up in the morning and go "hey, lets kill a few thousand Indians today!" They have accidents or problems with disposal that are caused because they want more profit. The problem is we view profit in and of itself as GOOD. A firm change in that belief is all that is needed to make the world a better place.
To get onto the topic of the post: Fear is a needed component of society, but fearing our government is not what we should fear. We should fear being alone in life, fear going to jail for doing bad deeds, but never fear our government because they aren't acting in the interest of the people because the people in power have gotten so greedy they've become blinded to the needs of society.
Being scared of terrorist attacks are silly on top of it all, people like that have will always exist, we can't eradicate them, they've always existed since some people just wish to see the world burn but living in fear is not really living at all. Keep moving forward with a progressive society is the only answer to people who want to keep us in fear of the world around us.
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Permalink Reply by Cat on
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"The problem is we view profit in and of itself as GOOD" -Xeranar
I agree with this statement completely. When did we start believing that a good company is a company that has huge profits? Better yet, that their profits should increase every year? Doesn't this show that they are for themselves, and not at all interested in helping the community that gives them those profits? A classic example is the automotive industry...they want to sell more and more cars every year even though there is no reason why everyone needs to purchase a new car every year, or every five years, or even every ten years, not to mention that pushing people to buy more cars directly effects the environment in a negative way, which in turn effects everybody.
I understand and even agree with what you are saying about people being greedy and stupid, however, I believe that these traits are learned, even forced on people by advertising and a failing government/education system. So in this regard I still think we are born 'good'. Thanks for your input Xanar, I really appreciate it!
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Permalink Reply by BSpot1 on -
I agree with both of you that we went wrong some where when we decieded a company with high profits equals "good". And that why our schools need to teach civil responsability, and teach our kids that the need to buy from companys that have the same beliefs as us. Conciseness consumerism.
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Permalink Reply by Parano1d on
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Becuase as much as it is sad to admit, there will always be evil in this world. And i was talking about fear, not evil, i think you interpreted my reply wrong.
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Permalink Reply by ActiveAnarchy on -
In regards to this in a general society, the basics of hope a fear weigh on a thinking majority. We in the states do not have a thinking populous by any means. If you aren't scared, you aren't a thinking person. Also Jon, and I say this with my utmost enthusiasm, you are correct and make a very valid point in saying fear and hope are two sides of the same coin. You need hope to take the initiative to overcome your fears.
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Permalink Reply by kristine on -
I'm wondering if you all are talking about 2 different kinds of fear. I feel like Seth is talking about blind fear that is a product of lies that are used to manipulate us - to divide, immobilize and conquer us. George Bush and the mainstream media are big instigators of that kind of fear, no?
The kinds of fears "that we all have", which are certainly healthy to acknowledge, are fears that are not blind. They are legitimate fears that are based on our experiences.
Both kinds of fear are powerful, and neither is pleasant - legitimate or not. I think it's helpful to name fears and look at what they cause us to do - as a nation, as communities and as individuals.
That said, I think that the more fears we can face and get rid of, the better. I don't think we need a balance of fear and hope. I don't think we should pretend we don't have fears, but I have a hard time thinking of positive results that come from fear. Maybe you can say more about what you think, David?
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Permalink Reply by seth on -
i guess what i'm always wondering is: when i act out of fear (any type of fear), who does it benefit? it usually doesn't benefit the person i'm reacting to, and usually doesn't benefit me because it only gives one more thing power over me that i would have to react to, and it certainly doesn't benefit my community for an increased climate of fear...but i do think it benefits cycles of oppression and those that benefit from oppression and then ends up hurting us all.
for example - when i'm afraid to speak out against someone else in my community being treated unjustly...doesn't benefit me because then i'm also caught in the cycle of oppression, doesn't benefit my community member who will continue to be treated unjustly, but it does benefit the person who is continuing the injustice - it gives them more power.
(i would also argue that both oppressors and the oppressed lose their humanity in an oppressive relationship, but with that understanding there are immediate benefits the oppressor gains by everyone else reacting to them out of fear)
i would also wonder if all violence is fear based?
more thoughts?
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Permalink Reply by knittermama on -
fear can be a very paralyzing emotion. i would agree with the original post that it is easy to get pulled back and forth between fear and hope. for me it happens because i see myself as living in an instant gratification society, and when my efforts don't immediately produce measurable results, i easily get frustrated, overwhelmed and afraid that either i'm not "doing it right" or that change maybe can't be achieved.
not only do i tend to feel this way about our country politically, but also in my job, where my role requires me to lead without any actual authority. it's easy to feel this way about all sorts of things.
i try to remind myself that sometimes change is gradual, more like an evolution that an instant process. what helps me remember this personally is talking with others who are like minded or sometimes just spending a moment alone and being still and listening.
then i try to bring myself back to the basics and stop trying to force the change. in general, change is inevitable in one way or another. we can help effect the outcome through communication and education. sometimes just sharing the message is enough, but i feel we have to share it a lot. oftentimes people get so caught up in the fear, they don't know what to do about it. as a FWT community, i feel this is where we lean on each other for support and have to act like parents and friends to those we are trying to recruit to the trenches: listen, share, inform, create, encourage and then step back and allow them to act.
although it's helpful to have a sense of urgency as a motivator, i think sometimes we are so focused on the destination that we forget about the journey.
your thoughts/perspective?
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