In the actual research on social movements (resource mobilization; political process models; cultural affinity, ect).....the march Never was the vehicle.
Having lived through the 60s, been in Latin America, Sri Lanka and India during times of great upheaval and resistance (e.g. peace meditations ranging between 6,000 and 650,000), I’m not convinced of the efficacy of marches and “protests” either, because media attention often focuses on issues other than the stated purpose of the event—the violence, the reaction, the eccentric and the unnecessarily offensive. Such things distract us. They make noise and take us off message. A mass event may be great for expressing and nurturing “solidarity,” but I have often wondered whether the energy involved in such activities might be better spent on a one-to-one focus on the primary message rather than the event itself.
What I am convinced of, however, is the power of example; stories of individuals and groups acting on principle with courage. A.T. Ariyaratne of the Sarvodaya Movement of Sri Lanka, like Gandhi and King, has inspired millions to march and meditate for peace. He also asserts that such spiritual energy is released into the “psychosphere,” and he may well be right. Simply having lots of people come together to agree on a cause can be a powerful experience. What impresses me about Ariyaratne is him—his life; what he has done in the face of danger and injustice. He hasn’t only taken courageous stands; by speaking, doing, leading, working, bringing others along the path, being willing to “fail “over and over again he has facilitated the mobilization of millions.
Has he brought peace to his country? No, at least not enduring peace. But something about his approach has transformed situations and people…without high technology, by the way. Through word of mouth; power of example. Cell phones or telecenters, or networks using all kinds of fancy technology can transmit information a lot faster than before, and turbo-charge rumorsas well as good strategy. But Sarvodaya—the “awakening of all”—is a process rather than an event.
What changes behavior as well as belief and commitment? What makes it possible for the activity beyond the tipping point to be sustained? My sense is that it takes a combination of things, many of which fall into what used to be known as the trans-theoretical or stages of change model—readiness for change, stimulation for contemplating change (whether that stimulation comes in the form of serendipity or a triggering event of some kind), opportunities and abilities to change, then social support for maintaining the new state of affairs. And amidst all that sort of scientific stuff is the unexplainable. Call it intuition, God, magic; whatever…
Think about the proliferation of teevee, for example. It’s amazing how so many people believe that a boring or trivial event can be less boring or more meaningful if it is recorded and experienced (by proxy, perhaps) again. Let us appreciate the new technology but not forget what has the most power of all—authentic, genuine fulfillment of needs, then transcendence of those needs. The new state of affairs will then endure until something stronger (like, say, nature) comes along to impose different circumstances, require a different set of energies, information and motivations. What’s next? More or different what? Force of what kind? Anger and might do not last. And when all the stimulation that we can muster through technology fades away for lack of energy and meaning, something will remain. That’s what we ought to be looking for.
Colleges and Universities, the seat of not a little research, have moved forward on this and are voting with their electronic devices. Many universities use text messaging as one of the primary contacts for students because those are messages that the students read. The same is true for groups working specifically with low income, first in family students in college. Reaching out to check in with students is most effective, some groups find, with text messaging.
It is inevitable with easier to read screens and everything-in-the-palm-of-your-hand devices that greater use of this technology for community organizing and outreach is developed.
Ads that have as their centerpiece the gathering of youth for the purposes only of bemusing and bewildering those of us caught in the act of witness are already on TV. Why not use the technology for more meaningful puposes.
It may be generational for a while, but that train has left the station for those under 25.
There is a value to bringing people together physically in one place. People look at each other and say, “I am not alone. We are many. We can be powerful.”
Read Howard Rheingold’s “Smart Mobs” and check out Howard’s http://www.smartmobs.com blog for all of the latest happenings and ways people are using cell phones to organize and advocate. Also check out http://mobileactive.org/ for additional examples of how activists can and are doing same.
Pete! Did you read our content at htp://mobileactive.org? There are hundreds of creative ideas about how to engage constituents via mobile phones, serve social movements and change the world… Check it out!
Feet in the street and mouse movements are complimentary. Why choose to throw away one tool in the organizers tool box?
Yes, marches can be dangerous. Showing up to speak truth to power often is.
That’s the point, and that is what is makes the experience so transforming and effective.
Look at the pictures from Columbia yesterday-masses of students are rarely seen anymore, and precisely for that reason, here in the US, it makes an impact.
A lot of venerable leaders of civil rights movements in many sectors have chosen belt way lobbying, which can utilize clicks, for the last several decades. There is progress on that front, but there is also much more to be done, that only mobilization can accomplish.
Thank you all for your comments. Please accept my apologies for not responding sooner.
Michael, I’m sure I don’t know the literature of social movements as well as I should, and I’d be very happy if you could share a few of the key works you think I and others should read. I think the speaker I quoted was very knowledgeable about social movements, and what he was trying to get at was what are some new means of mobilizing large numbers of people to participate in a collective statement (distinct from all the hard work that goes into organizing and building movements).
Rick, you’re absolutely right that the essential element in change is the human one, and that technology is only a tool. I hadn’t heard of A.T. Ariyaratne and his Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka, I’ll have to learn more about him.
Caroline, thanks for giving the examples of how text messaging is proving very powerful for reaching students. Changing the way phone companies charge for text and data, distinct from voice, so that text and other messaging through phones can reach its full potential, is one of the challenges that, as Krugman points out, is hampered by our current, poorly regulated oligopoly.
Dennis and Kathleen, thanks for emphasizing the power of bringing people together in large numbers. Gatherings do make a strong statement, both to those watching and those participating in them, about shared vision and passion. Your comments, and the example I mentioned of the banging of pots and pans in Chile, make me wonder what may be some ways for people to use cell phones for making a powerful collective statement. For example, could there be a virtual march, where a large mass of people agree to download a particular ring tone and let their phones ring in sync? Could it force us all to stop and think, in work places, schools, public spaces - a moment of noise, instead of a moment of silence?
Katrin and Paul, you may already have answers, or know people who are on their way to developing them. Thanks for pointing us to http://mobileactive.org/ and the world it leads to.
COMMENTS
BY Michael E. O'neal
ON September 20, 2007 02:40 PM
In the actual research on social movements (resource mobilization; political process models; cultural affinity, ect).....the march Never was the vehicle.
Please review the literature!
BY Rick Brooks
ON September 20, 2007 04:43 PM
Having lived through the 60s, been in Latin America, Sri Lanka and India during times of great upheaval and resistance (e.g. peace meditations ranging between 6,000 and 650,000), I’m not convinced of the efficacy of marches and “protests” either, because media attention often focuses on issues other than the stated purpose of the event—the violence, the reaction, the eccentric and the unnecessarily offensive. Such things distract us. They make noise and take us off message. A mass event may be great for expressing and nurturing “solidarity,” but I have often wondered whether the energy involved in such activities might be better spent on a one-to-one focus on the primary message rather than the event itself.
What I am convinced of, however, is the power of example; stories of individuals and groups acting on principle with courage. A.T. Ariyaratne of the Sarvodaya Movement of Sri Lanka, like Gandhi and King, has inspired millions to march and meditate for peace. He also asserts that such spiritual energy is released into the “psychosphere,” and he may well be right. Simply having lots of people come together to agree on a cause can be a powerful experience. What impresses me about Ariyaratne is him—his life; what he has done in the face of danger and injustice. He hasn’t only taken courageous stands; by speaking, doing, leading, working, bringing others along the path, being willing to “fail “over and over again he has facilitated the mobilization of millions.
Has he brought peace to his country? No, at least not enduring peace. But something about his approach has transformed situations and people…without high technology, by the way. Through word of mouth; power of example. Cell phones or telecenters, or networks using all kinds of fancy technology can transmit information a lot faster than before, and turbo-charge rumorsas well as good strategy. But Sarvodaya—the “awakening of all”—is a process rather than an event.
What changes behavior as well as belief and commitment? What makes it possible for the activity beyond the tipping point to be sustained? My sense is that it takes a combination of things, many of which fall into what used to be known as the trans-theoretical or stages of change model—readiness for change, stimulation for contemplating change (whether that stimulation comes in the form of serendipity or a triggering event of some kind), opportunities and abilities to change, then social support for maintaining the new state of affairs. And amidst all that sort of scientific stuff is the unexplainable. Call it intuition, God, magic; whatever…
Think about the proliferation of teevee, for example. It’s amazing how so many people believe that a boring or trivial event can be less boring or more meaningful if it is recorded and experienced (by proxy, perhaps) again. Let us appreciate the new technology but not forget what has the most power of all—authentic, genuine fulfillment of needs, then transcendence of those needs. The new state of affairs will then endure until something stronger (like, say, nature) comes along to impose different circumstances, require a different set of energies, information and motivations. What’s next? More or different what? Force of what kind? Anger and might do not last. And when all the stimulation that we can muster through technology fades away for lack of energy and meaning, something will remain. That’s what we ought to be looking for.
BY Caroline Boitano
ON September 20, 2007 05:18 PM
Colleges and Universities, the seat of not a little research, have moved forward on this and are voting with their electronic devices. Many universities use text messaging as one of the primary contacts for students because those are messages that the students read. The same is true for groups working specifically with low income, first in family students in college. Reaching out to check in with students is most effective, some groups find, with text messaging.
It is inevitable with easier to read screens and everything-in-the-palm-of-your-hand devices that greater use of this technology for community organizing and outreach is developed.
Ads that have as their centerpiece the gathering of youth for the purposes only of bemusing and bewildering those of us caught in the act of witness are already on TV. Why not use the technology for more meaningful puposes.
It may be generational for a while, but that train has left the station for those under 25.
BY Dennis Fischman
ON September 21, 2007 08:30 AM
There is a value to bringing people together physically in one place. People look at each other and say, “I am not alone. We are many. We can be powerful.”
BY Paul Lamb
ON September 25, 2007 09:10 AM
Read Howard Rheingold’s “Smart Mobs” and check out Howard’s http://www.smartmobs.com blog for all of the latest happenings and ways people are using cell phones to organize and advocate. Also check out http://mobileactive.org/ for additional examples of how activists can and are doing same.
BY Katrin Verclas
ON September 26, 2007 09:13 AM
Pete! Did you read our content at htp://mobileactive.org? There are hundreds of creative ideas about how to engage constituents via mobile phones, serve social movements and change the world… Check it out!
Katrin
BY Kathleen Connell
ON September 26, 2007 09:36 AM
Feet in the street and mouse movements are complimentary. Why choose to throw away one tool in the organizers tool box?
Yes, marches can be dangerous. Showing up to speak truth to power often is.
That’s the point, and that is what is makes the experience so transforming and effective.
Look at the pictures from Columbia yesterday-masses of students are rarely seen anymore, and precisely for that reason, here in the US, it makes an impact.
A lot of venerable leaders of civil rights movements in many sectors have chosen belt way lobbying, which can utilize clicks, for the last several decades. There is progress on that front, but there is also much more to be done, that only mobilization can accomplish.
BY Pete Manzo
ON September 26, 2007 05:44 PM
Thank you all for your comments. Please accept my apologies for not responding sooner.
Michael, I’m sure I don’t know the literature of social movements as well as I should, and I’d be very happy if you could share a few of the key works you think I and others should read. I think the speaker I quoted was very knowledgeable about social movements, and what he was trying to get at was what are some new means of mobilizing large numbers of people to participate in a collective statement (distinct from all the hard work that goes into organizing and building movements).
Rick, you’re absolutely right that the essential element in change is the human one, and that technology is only a tool. I hadn’t heard of A.T. Ariyaratne and his Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka, I’ll have to learn more about him.
Caroline, thanks for giving the examples of how text messaging is proving very powerful for reaching students. Changing the way phone companies charge for text and data, distinct from voice, so that text and other messaging through phones can reach its full potential, is one of the challenges that, as Krugman points out, is hampered by our current, poorly regulated oligopoly.
Dennis and Kathleen, thanks for emphasizing the power of bringing people together in large numbers. Gatherings do make a strong statement, both to those watching and those participating in them, about shared vision and passion. Your comments, and the example I mentioned of the banging of pots and pans in Chile, make me wonder what may be some ways for people to use cell phones for making a powerful collective statement. For example, could there be a virtual march, where a large mass of people agree to download a particular ring tone and let their phones ring in sync? Could it force us all to stop and think, in work places, schools, public spaces - a moment of noise, instead of a moment of silence?
Katrin and Paul, you may already have answers, or know people who are on their way to developing them. Thanks for pointing us to http://mobileactive.org/ and the world it leads to.