The Marketplace of Activism

Activists are all over the place. The U.S. swarms with them. Many work with sincerity and dedication. Others use the word as a handy label, "I’m a activist." One activist might claim that his activism is going nowhere which means he hasn’t found the right shtick. Another activist who has found the right shtick, sells his activist ideas by writing books telling us that we must save the forests and bring down civilization while failing to see the irony in how many trees are lost in the print business, how many petrochemicals are used in printing inks and that books are entirely contingent upon civilization itself in order to sell his message.

Such is the nature of activists with a keen nose for capitalist enterprise. Recycle the old ideas, there are certainly not any new ones. The trick is to be blithely unaware you are recycling old ideas. Too much knowledge of history is a dangerous thing. That way, you will exude all the innocent confidence of one who has made a new discovery and are willing to share it with others who will come to your lectures and buy your books. People who are yearning to be healed are often not well-read in the first place, or, to be more kind about it, have read all the wrong books (be sure to point that out to them.) In an instructive serious tone talk about things like "animism" and that the animal kingdom is not pacific so human beings shouldn’t be either. Prove your point by sharing how you’ve been attacked by members of the animal species during your bucolic childhood listing them in descending order of size, from a cow to a mouse. Confide how one morning you awoke wondering whether to blow up a dam or write instead, and how you chose writing that day instead of blowing up a dam.

Take yourself very seriously. Never laugh at the hypocrisy of the human condition especially your own. Most of all, never realize your harmlessness even though the marketplace who publishes your work does so for that very reason.

Christian Mohn can be reached at cmohnc@comcast.net