To add to da Vinci’s wisdom here— and to simply “do anything” is not enough either… We must discriminate between priorities of action, given the combined severity and urgency of problems we face and fact that time and energy is always in short supply.
We also have to be clear on “why” we’re doing things, and the true intent behind our actions. A lot of activism becomes just about “feeling better” and “being social”, or to serve some aspect of identity as an “activist” that’s “doing something/anything”. It becomes more about meeting our psychological needs, than about genuinely, intellectually and strategically wanting to solve the problems of society.
Alternatively, we also can’t cerebrally live in “theoretical land” forever either, with our proposed visionary models we think society should adopt, perfecting where every nut and bolt will go in an idealized system. We have to be pragmatic too, in facing the here and now cultural and institutional realities/barriers to REACHING those future system goals.
Social connection and gaining a sense of purpose in activism is of course natural and necessary. People want to do something with others who also want to do something. It feels connected, and energizes continued efforts. And we certainly need new visionary models as something we’re moving towards as activists. But at this stage, unless the sum of our actions aren’t also somehow strategically seeking to alter core structural mechanisms of the system we live in now, which are incentivizing ecological decline, economic inequality, and wealth-concentration blocking all progress, then it’s meaningless.
