Yeah, the world treats activists badly. I think the most effective activists are those who are aware of this and can calculate on it.
The best activist playbook is this phrase from the Bible: “Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves, so be wise as serpents and gentle as doves”. Translation: when you go out into the world to defend an ideal that the world doesn’t share, you’re going to be weak. So you have to be sincere about holding the ideal, like a dove, but be ruthlessly strategic about how you promote it, like a serpent. There is a complex balancing act of being naive and being strategic about being naive. This is why, when reading the biographies of Christian saints, you get the impression that they were trying to get killed as publicly as possible. They knew the world would treat them badly, and instead of getting discouraged by that, they used it strategically. This played a big role in how they ended up winning so much.
Of course I’m not saying that one should try to get killed as publicly as possible. What I’m saying is that when you step up a little bit, you sign up for the activist life a little bit. It’s best to go into it with open eyes.
Yeah, the world treats activists badly. I think the most effective activists are those who are aware of this and can calculate on it.
The best activist playbook is this phrase from the Bible: “Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves, so be wise as serpents and gentle as doves”. Translation: when you go out into the world to defend an ideal that the world doesn’t share, you’re going to be weak. So you have to be sincere about holding the ideal, like a dove, but be ruthlessly strategic about how you promote it, like a serpent. There is a complex balancing act of being naive and being strategic about being naive. This is why, when reading the biographies of Christian saints, you get the impression that they were trying to get killed as publicly as possible. They knew the world would treat them badly, and instead of getting discouraged by that, they used it strategically. This played a big role in how they ended up winning so much.
Of course I’m not saying that one should try to get killed as publicly as possible. What I’m saying is that when you step up a little bit, you sign up for the activist life a little bit. It’s best to go into it with open eyes.