Taking a deeper look into what activism is depicted as today entails, “impression”. More times then not, people are only being active in society to better themselves but not for all the right reasons…
Thinking back to earlier times and how people went about being active in their cultures is surprisingly different form today, any where from protesting to blogging things have in deed changed. Like I said a bit ago it is all about impressing people, whether being active can help brighten your resume or persuade someone to give you the job instead of the other person who didn’t serve food to the homeless is the breaking factor, this is what being active has become.
Is it really less effective?
Of course in today’s society, activism is not viewed as effective or as prevailing. Even taking in to consideration all the vast differences in technological evolution made it does not come close to matching the true dedication that was present in the past. For example the internet, people think that because of the millions of users that occupy the internet daily that this is a better way to gain participants in a follow. But as time has shown, blogging and creating websites to show activism has not shown as privileged as hundreds of people gathering to protest about their feelings and wants. One might argue that the internet is a way the reach out to way more people in many areas then just one meeting place to protests. This is true but for the intensity that follows a protest on site is much more than any website page can match.
Other examples of activism include your wardrobe. Wear a specific color like purple on a specific day could mean you were supporting gay rights, other everyday forms could be wearing rainbow in the early 90’s this meant you were or supported gay choices. Other than clothing activism comes what you purchase on an everyday scale. Whether you want to help the world to become “green” you could instead by “green” products rather than harmful things that eventually hurt our earth. Any way you chose to be active counts, but as shown there are some ways that out way the rest.
Less dangerous?
Many examples are a lot less dangerous today, such as what you wear or buy, these causes do make a difference in someway and are in no way shape or form hurting anyone. It is a decision on their own to support and no one could tell you what to wear or buy. These are your choices and your rights to follow. Not to mention I think over all activism is less dangerous as a whole in today’s society. You do not have riots forming from protest as often, and you do not have people in public either by themselves or in a small group trying to get their rights across to people. You could now resort to the Internet or blog options rather than being in a place you do not feel safe in protesting movements.
If Klein is correct, what factors do you think have made activism by young people today different from that of the Freedom Riders or anti-Vietnam protests?
The one main thing that stuck out to me the most is that people do not want to support causes unless in some way shape or form it will better them. Whether it be a PETA add against the wearing of animal fur, celebrities think that they are only trying to help make a choice against harming and hunting animals, when really they are just being seen in the spot light in just another form. If they are giving back, they need to get something out of it, of course there are some people left who really do respectable things out of the goodness of their hearts, but more some now then ever this is not the case. This has all evolved because many people now are consumed by money and fame, not by rights and morals. It is sad to think that you could only get someone to help your cause because they know it will help put them in the spot light or make them feel better about themselves because they were nice enough to donate or help those not as fortunate then they are. Either way times have changed and activism is still present whether for the right reason or not.
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