Build community. That’s what libertarians of all stripes need to be doing right now.
How do you build community? Here are a few ways to get started:
- Be friendly. Smile. Converse.
- Find yourself. Then share yourself. Write. Make videos. Interview people. Meet new people. Create art. Speak the truth and never stop.
- Say hi. Empathize. Quiet your mind. Listen with your soul.
- Pursue your interests and values without delay or diversion. Become a better you and make some friends along the way.
- Enjoy life. Maximize your freedom. Minimize your limits. Eliminate preconceptions. Consume art. Exercise.
- Turn off the TV. Limit the radio and Facebook. Follow your own inner voice. Do what it tells you.
- Question.
- Serve.
Here’s what not to do.
- Confront cops.
- Go into a cage.
- Fight the man in his own arena.
- Beat your chest and claim you’re more alpha than the next guy.
- Yell.
- Ridicule.
- Complain. Bitch. Moan.
- Try to be a hero.
- Talk about how you’re right and the other guy is evil or an idiot sheeple.
- Try to convince anybody of anything.
In other words, screw activism. Build community instead.
If we were going to carry the day on logic alone with this argument that all people should be free, then we would have moved on to more complex projects long ago.
If filming cops, distributing pamphlets or getting on TV was going to do the job, we’d be done.
No, we need to build community. That means relationships. We need, each of us, to find ourselves, our respective individual truths. We need to share that with the world in a human way. An emotional way. One person at a time. And we need to be present when our fellow community members do the same. Every day of every year for the rest of our lives.
That is how we will win this thing. That is how we will achieve our goal of a peaceful, prosperous and free world. That is how we will get our freedom. Not through random acts of desperate confrontation but by being better people and helping others be better people. In other words, by building community.
This is my 500th post at Arm your Mind for Liberty. Thanks for reading along these past 7 years. Tell me what to write about in the next 500 posts.
5 replies on “Screw Activism. Build Community.”
Nice article, George. I think empathy gets forgotten all too often in the arsenal of the “awakened.” I think many people get lost or discouraged though, because they’re unsure if they have anything of value to offer. What would be your response to someone who feels that way?
I ask myself that question every single day! Do I really have something of value to offer anyone? Do I?? Some days, I think I might. Other days, I think I don’t. Some days, I know I don’t. But about half the time I keep trying anyway, just in case, and because I don’t know what else to do with myself.
That’s my brutally honest answer. My polished answer is that everyone has something to offer. All of us are born with a piece of the truth. If you don’t share your piece of the truth with the world, then it’s lost. It’s not reissued. So get started sharing! Especially if it’s painful. If it fills you with self-doubt, if you want to stop doing it, then it means you are doing the right thing.
Because doing the right thing, making yourself vulnerable and sharing your truth are really hard!
Did that answer your question at all?
For sure! It’s comforting knowing everyone has similar concerns at times.
Personally, I can go from feeling like I have the ability to affect change in a big way, to feeling like, “what’s the point?” But I think your ideas of pushing through self-doubt and leaving your comfort zone are critical. People have a way of selling themselves short and thinking they’re less capable than they really are, and that’s a mindset you’ve got to identify and challenge.
Thanks for the insight!
I have bounced back and forth between trying to make a change and not giving a fuck for at least 20 years. I think if I deny my voice, I am denying myself and not realizing myself but if I expect anything to come of it then I am doing it for the wrong reasons. How’s that for a slicing of the Gordian knot?