I want to pick up the thread begun in my last post, where I recognized my own toxicity in the face of the tumult of the world. I now want to abstract it a bit and propose some ideas for why we all glue ourselves to the news and social media when the sh!t hits the fan. (Recent sh!t includes the white supremacist insurrection at the capitol, Trump being impeached again, concern about violence in the coming week, and continuing COVID numbers, if you’re still tracking that.)
Why am I glued to my Instagram feed, scrolling through hot takes about the recent violence? Why am I checking the New York Times several times a day, despite knowing that they only update it twice a day? Why are you scrolling through Reddit? Why are we arguing with people on any of these platforms?
There are many reasons why such constant consumption of content is normally addictive. In times of massive change, stress, upheaval, and uncertainty, it particularly has to do with the experience of powerlessness. As I wrote about at the start of the COVID pandemic, the experience of lacking power and control over the world around us is extremely destabilizing and drives us to behaviors that resemble grasping at straws; just looking for anything that will give us a feeling of control.
But these times are even more than simply stressful times. These are historic times. And we just don’t know how to handle that.
These are historic times. And we just don’t know how to handle that.
As Americans, we are more and more being confronted with the truth that history is continually being made all around us. Major events in history aren’t things that happen in a far-off land that we’ve invaded. We are now confronted with the acute reality that history is so close we can taste it, and we have an opportunity to be agents of history, rather than merely the subjects of it.
Most of us, frankly, have no idea what to do with that idea. We turn to the only tools of agency that feel familiar to us: consumption and conversation. We read the news because being informed about all the history-making around us feels like we’re doing something. We try to make sure that, years from now, at least we can tell our children, “I watching it while it was happening.”
Maybe we wait for the next big revelation to come out so that we can actually spring into action by… posting something. Or better yet, we can argue with people on the internet. Why? Again, because it feels like we are doing something. And it’s relatively easy. We talk and lament and shout past each other so that, at the end of the day, we can feel superior to someone else and feel like at least we “did” something.
Well, in most cases*, it’s not even something that we did. My CBT therapist likes to call me out when I tell him about all the steps I’ve taken to prepare myself for something I actually want to accomplish. He reminds me that it’s very appealing to do all these peripheral things and to feel like we’ve actually done something. For example, if I want to start a blog, I might feel proud of myself for buying a domain name, setting up a WordPress theme, coming up with a cute design, and creating a newsletter. But at the end of the day, I haven’t actually accomplished what I set out to accomplish: writing a blog. It’s important to not give ourselves a pass on doing the hard work, simple because we do the easier peripheral stuff.
It’s the same thing with watching history unfold around us. Yes, paying attention to history and having conversations about it are important, and it’s good to appreciate how those activities can alleviate feelings of anxiety or powerlessness. But it’s not enough. These are supremely activating times. The current state of society presents a hugely unique opportunity for us to wake up, take action, and become the agents of history that every one of us has the power to become.
These are supremely activating times. The current state of the society presents a hugely unique opportunity for us to wake up, take action, and become the agents of history that every one of us has the power to become.
The Capitol insurrectionists had one thing (and only one thing) right: they knew that they had the power to be agents of history. And hell, they succeeded. There are volumes that can be written about the psychological mechanisms that drove these people to take action and the messianic demagogue who took advantage of these mechanisms. In large part, they were deluded into believing that their lives were intolerably bad and that the solution to their problems was relatively straightforward and presented less of a downside than not acting. They are extremists and acted extremely.
What the world needs is action from the non-extremists. The armchair commentators, the Facebook liberals, suburban yuppies, the white-collar nihilists, the tech cynics, the I-have-a-mortgage-to-pay intellectuals. The world needs action from you.
The world needs action from you.
You have the power to be an agent of history. Go to a protest. Call, text, and write your elected officials. Teach your children about oppression. Find a job that is more than just a paycheck. Talk to your employees about their hopes and dreams as humans, not corporate assets. Boycott evil brands. Take action in your community (all politics is local). Get to work in your local mutual aid project (or start your own). Grow food for your community. Take direct action over the injustice that you’ve learned to tune out all around you.
Put the phone down and go be an agent of history. Because if you don’t, history will be made by those who stormed the Capitol on January 6. And we both know that’s not a history that we can allow to be written.
*There are very important exceptions. One is that, when debating in a public forum, the largest impact you can make is on lurkers – people who are not actively engaging in the conversation but are silently following along and honestly considering the points presented. Another is when social media is used to actually mobilize and organize real direct action. And lastly, I do personally believe that there is merit in signal-boosting compelling ideas for consumption outside of the echo chamber from which it emerged. I have had many wonderful examples of friends letting me know that they appreciate the things I share from some of my more radical circles, because they are not getting those viewpoints elsewhere.