We Are All Born To Be Activists

Somewhere along the way, we forget that we are

I recently read Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe’s On Palestine. A thoroughly enlightening read. One of my favourite books of the year so far. As a collection of informal interviews, the book feels as if you are sitting alongside these great contemporary academics and activists as they discuss Palestine while listening to their favourite music. Chomsky has good taste.

While they cover numerous issues about Palestine, it is the exploration of activism at the start of the book that I keep reflecting on.

‘How did you become an activist?’ is something activists often get asked, notes the French activist and editor of the book Frank Barat.

While seemingly an innocent question, it can be quite exasperating for activists to constantly answer.

Why do these questions become so frustrating? Well, because every activist is usually trying not to explode with the reply ‘how can you not be one?’

Activism is more than just having a strong opinion about certain issues or being passionate about a particular cause. Activism is about our humanity.

The reason activists get worked up with such questions is because it really comes down to morality. As a non-activist, you have to ask yourself why don’t the injustices around you affect you in the same way.

Barat, despite his frustration, chooses to answer with patience and insight. Activist too needs to remember that they have taken a journey of educating, removing systematic and personal biases and began their activism by asking similar questions.

But for Barat, we do not suddenly become an activist, we are all born as one. It is simply that we forget that we are.

‘We are all born with compassion, generosity, and love for others inside us. We are all moved by injustice and discrimination. We are all, inside, concerned human beings.’

Love is innate but prejudice is taught.

How did we become nonactivist?

The more important question we then need to consider is why are we, not activists? When and how did we lose this natural ability?

For the majority of us, the reason is simple. We do not know enough to be one. I mean how do you fight for something if you don’t understand it? Our ignorance leaves us confused, sceptical and overwhelmed so we choose to ignore these issues and start to lose our compassion.

We become nonactivists because we don’t take the steps to learn. Barat argues that we live in a time where we can barely afford to take a breath for ourselves let alone take time to educate ourselves on issues that do not personally affect us.

‘The remote control of our world only has two buttons, “Play” and “Fast Forward” while the one we all are looking for is the “Pause.”

I don’t know if we are looking for the pause but it is most certainly something that we need. To be an activist means to pause and take a critical look around. Not just at external issues but the problems within ourselves. To ask questions about others but to also question our own beliefs.

How to become an activist

Barat ‘became’ an activist when he became a reader.

As writers such as Edward Said, Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy became part of his daily routine his vision began to change and the complex world around him became less obscure.

‘Books are one of the best tools we can use to learn, reflect on, and truly understand the world we are living in. The written word if more effective and long lasting than the spoken one as a tool for change.’

Reading is the only bridge between us and the world around us. Books whether works of fiction or nonfiction have the unique ability to transport us to places we will never go and see the lives of people we will never encounter.

It is through regularly crossing this bridge that you can truly see and understand our world.

Try taking a pause on it. Ignore the trolls of distractions and reflect on the views around you. The two sides appear to be very different at first but underneath it all, they are very much the same. The first cross is always the scariest, it is not easy to confront reality and see the faults of what you hold to be true. But there is something magical, adventurous and truly eye-opening about this bridge so you cross it again and again until it becomes the only route you choose to take.

We don’t just learn from each book we read but we walk away changed. Books alter our vision and give us a new perception. It is through this gradual process of change you begin to understand the world. It is through seeing from a new perspective that you begin to feel compassion for others.

It is through reading that you see just how indifferent people are and so you too begin to ask ‘How can they possibly not care?

That’s when you become an activist.