'…taxation is now seen as money that rightfully belongs to those who have it, rather than a resource that enables society to function well.' Photo: Jeremy Holt / flickr CC.
Speaking out together
Ruth Tod reflects on the need for positive words and actions
I recently unearthed these words in a greetings card from a children’s centre in the Philippines: ‘No one of us can light a fire to brighten the world’s darkness. No one of us can light a fire to warm all the world’s coldness. But we can open our hearts and our circle of love to include all those we meet.’
As I reread those words, I was conscious of the coldness in political decision-making and attitudes. Austerity suggests coldness and so does the apparent lack of understanding that goes with it. To counter this we need to be opening our hearts and our circle of love.
Our Quaker testimonies spring from love. Compassion and empathy lie at the root of the Yearly Meeting’s document Our faith in the future, with phrases such as ‘We offer friendship to all and solidarity to the marginalised. We speak truth to power with love. We find creative and nonviolent ways to get our message across.’ Love, not fear, is at the heart of our vision. Why, I wonder, does it seem so difficult to convey? What stops it being heard?
One thing I know is that having a strong vision inspires and energises people and that the most successful leaders of all political hues are those who can express such a vision. Many of us feel helpless, paralysed by the challenges around us, stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Some who voted for Brexit did so because they had a vision of being free to make our own decisions and shape our own destiny. Some hark back to a golden age that never was; yet it makes them excited about the future. It may all turn to dust. We do not know. But for the moment they seem energised and eager. People were offered a vision and many embraced it. Those who voted remain, on the other hand, had a much less clear vision. It was too nebulous and negative, a vacuum, rather than a vision.
I worry about negative news and subtle messages that manipulate opinions. Some of this is so ingrained that we hardly notice it. Peace, for example, is defined in terms of arming ourselves against others, and there is no public conversation about peace-building initiatives happening around the world.
Weapons and war get attention and dominate our conversation. Similarly, taxation is now seen as money that rightfully belongs to those who have it, rather than a resource that enables society to function well. Our culture seems to have shifted from the moment Margaret Thatcher told us there was no such thing as society.
I am also concerned about negative campaigning, even when the underlying vision is a positive one. Too often there seems to be a war of words in which people fail to hear one another and conversations turn to argument. Negative campaigning can turn people off. It de-energises campaigners and, perhaps most significantly, it gives energy to the very things we oppose.
This is true in a personal context as well as a political one. If we think of someone who complains a lot, they are feeding the problem by giving it time and space to be heard. They are not finding a solution. In my view this happens over and over again; negative campaigning gives airspace and attention to the very things it seeks to reject.
Campaigning towards a vision of peace, sustainability and justice requires that we counter those messages. The words and phrases we use, the stories we tell, and the visions we convey all need to offer ideals that draw people to them. I think, for example, that demonstrations need to be springboards for positive messages and actions, so that people watching say, ‘Yes I want to be part of this!’
Somehow the warmth and solidarity in the crowds needs to be harnessed away from what we don’t want, towards what we do want. Even quite subtle messages can help, as at the American base on Greenham Common when women reminded us about the true nature of the common with flowers and fabric woven into the fence.
Or there can be more specific action, for example when staff at another base were invited to tea at the campaign camp. In each case someone asked: what do we want to see instead? Common land restored? Hospitality offered across divides? People connecting with one another?
Positive actions
We also need to affirm the importance of positive actions by talking and writing about them, as well as by engaging in them. For example, in Sri Lanka there is a small project working with young Muslims to help them leave the Taliban and surrender their guns. In Sudan, where the choice for many is between fleeing across the sea or joining Jihad, another small project provides apprenticeships and support for new businesses.
People are discovering that there are alternatives that work, projects that we can support with money and by talking about them. There is no shortage of such examples of courage and imagination.
Here in the UK many campaigns focus on a positive vision, such as the Ammerdown Invitation to look at redefining security, campaigns for Positive Money, the not for profit organisation that argues for a fair, democratic and sustainable money system and for investment in green energy, and small scale projects to support refugees or start allotments or teach resilience and life skills.
Inevitably, we will be on different paths, but we can share our journeys and head in a common direction. We can take our own steps towards it and each one can be a talking point.
There is still warmth and compassion out there; society does exist and love still flows out into all spheres of life.
Comments
Yes, this speaks to me. Complaining has become all too common. Doing whatever small thing we can is better. Looking for small projects we can contribute is one way to build community
By doreen.osborne@outlook.com on 7th September 2017 - 18:53
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