Anti-Apathy
March 1st 2008 07:23
In The Everyday Activist, a book I wrote about a couple of posts ago, there's a 12-Step Anti-Apathy Recovery Plan, obviously a tongue-in-cheek version of the AA's 12-step program.
I think they ran out of ideas around step 8 when they say, Learn a new joke. Okay, that might shake you out of your complacency a little, but hardly seems much of a move forward, even if laughter is the best medicine. But their first half dozen steps are worthy of note, particularly number two, which says: Repeat the following until you believe it: The power to change things and restore society lies within each and every one of us.
We don’t realise just how much we can do as one person. This is why apathy creeps in so often, because we think being only one person we can’t achieve enough. But we’re not asked to achieve enough, only what we personally can. That may be next to nothing in world terms; on the other hand the repercussions may be extraordinary. Often we’ll never know the full extent of the repercussions.
I’m loathe to bring in that fable of the butterfly opening its wings in the Amazon causing a hurricane in another part of the world. It’s always seemed to me to take the flights of fancy just a step too far, but it does say something about the effect one person can have on the world.
Cyndi Rhoades (she must have loved having to explain how her name was spelt to people over the years) founded a group called Anti-Apathy, and of course they have a website. She had wanted to do something to change the world, but found that her friends seemed overwhelmed by the difficulties: ‘It’s not that I don’t care,’ they’d say, ‘It’s just that the problems are too big and beyond my reach. How can anything that one person does actually make a difference? Why bother?’
Rhoades believed otherwise. I’ve just been checking the site and find all manner of things going on there, including ‘Anti-Apathy's new range of Worn Again trainers for him and her, made from all things recycled - from car seat belts to parachutes, military jackets to jeans.’ That idea of recycling materials for fashion items seems to have really caught on!
I think they ran out of ideas around step 8 when they say, Learn a new joke. Okay, that might shake you out of your complacency a little, but hardly seems much of a move forward, even if laughter is the best medicine. But their first half dozen steps are worthy of note, particularly number two, which says: Repeat the following until you believe it: The power to change things and restore society lies within each and every one of us.
We don’t realise just how much we can do as one person. This is why apathy creeps in so often, because we think being only one person we can’t achieve enough. But we’re not asked to achieve enough, only what we personally can. That may be next to nothing in world terms; on the other hand the repercussions may be extraordinary. Often we’ll never know the full extent of the repercussions.
I’m loathe to bring in that fable of the butterfly opening its wings in the Amazon causing a hurricane in another part of the world. It’s always seemed to me to take the flights of fancy just a step too far, but it does say something about the effect one person can have on the world.
Cyndi Rhoades (she must have loved having to explain how her name was spelt to people over the years) founded a group called Anti-Apathy, and of course they have a website. She had wanted to do something to change the world, but found that her friends seemed overwhelmed by the difficulties: ‘It’s not that I don’t care,’ they’d say, ‘It’s just that the problems are too big and beyond my reach. How can anything that one person does actually make a difference? Why bother?’
Rhoades believed otherwise. I’ve just been checking the site and find all manner of things going on there, including ‘Anti-Apathy's new range of Worn Again trainers for him and her, made from all things recycled - from car seat belts to parachutes, military jackets to jeans.’ That idea of recycling materials for fashion items seems to have really caught on!
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