Acting Historically:

Feeling Effective Over the Long Haul

Chris Carlsson

National conventions long ago lost their function as arenas of genuine political
contestation, becoming hollow rituals of secular coronation. The campaigns to get
nominated have lasted longer and spent more money than ever before, and yet there is an
awkward emptiness to the whole process, perhaps best exemplified by Obama’s
meaningless promise to deliver “change you can believe in.”

In the face of this war of advertising campaigns masquerading as politics, there is still a
palpable hunger to take part in history, to act and to be effective. Thus, the dilemma
confronting protesters at national conventions stretching back at least to the 1970s. With
the actors already cast, the scripts already written, and history staged as pre-regurgitation,
what is a dissenter to do? Locked in protest pens, barked at by official speakers of the
Left, Labor, Women, et al, entertained by “radical” millionaire musicians, is it our
historic role to be a faceless mass, to cheer on cue, to march where and when we’re
“allowed,” hoping against hope that OUR clever home-made sign will skitter behind the
reporter’s 30-second TV spot on “the protest”?

The shrinking boundaries of protest and politics have already turned generations of
thoughtful Americans away from participating in their own irrelevance. But does it end
with that? Clearly not. The pre-defined rules of political engagement have successfully
depoliticized a majority of the population, forcing the reinvention of opposition and
political/historic agency on new terms. Exploring the fissures of modern life, probing for
weak spots in the ruling order, uncovering resources in our daily lives that are practically
invisible until we stop to look, finding the real politics of everyday life—these are vague
descriptions of a necessary reorientation that can rapidly and dramatically re-engage us as
actors in our own drama, as makers of our own histories.

One characteristic of the empty politics on display at national conventions is how much
the real issues of daily life are systematically ignored: what work is being done, by
whom, to what end, under whose control? How can cities be reinvented to radically
reduce energy use, improve human communities, feed everyone fresh and tasty food,
guarantee basic sanitation and health care to all? Can climate change and global warming
be addressed locally through depaving, urban agriculture and aquaculture, and an urgent
commitment to a flourishing biodiversity to complement our under-nourished cultural

Chris Carlsson: “Acting Historically” 1 of 2

Coordinator: Team Colors Publisher: The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest
 In the Middle of a Whirlwind: 2008 Convention Protests, Movement & Movements
www.inthemiddleofawhirlwind.info

diversity? How can we democratize decisions—socially and politically—that shape our

technological choices?

Changing the frame of reference for political thinking is a key long-term—even life-
long—task for making radical change not only plausible, but crucially, desirable. For
protesters and dissenters to our mad, mad world, a difficult but urgent challenge is to
convince people who DON’T already share our views to come along. On our path
problems get addressed instead of ignored, individual skills and tastes are welcomed and
encouraged instead of stifled and defeated, and life for everyone gets much better while
planetary ecological health shapes our deeper vision of wealth.

Revolution can seem an empty goal without a real engagement on the ground with daily
lives as they are. To that end, spectacular protests at national conventions or international
summits can become unmoored and attract only a self-referential set of subcultures. To
be sure, those of us in these “choirs” need to keep dialoguing with each other in addition
to widening our scope to welcome people with other agendas and experiences.
Experiments in tactics and self-organization at convergence centers, guerrilla gardens,
mass bike rides, and even some familiar marches and picket lines, are all important parts
of maintaining and growing a culture of opposition. Learning from piqueteros in
Argentina and Bolivia, who clogged the vital arteries of modern society by blockading
roads, turns our attention to the vulnerable flows on which modern society depends,
rather than the static spectacles which are designed to absorb and demoralize oppositional
energies. Learning from radical reform groups like the Ontario Campaign Against
Poverty, who combine direct action with demands for improved social safety nets and
benefits, points us towards practical goals with tactics that reinforce and expand
communities who can act together.

Ultimately our ability to persist over the long haul, facing certain disappointments and
defeats amidst our successes, depends on the pleasure we take from living our lives to the
fullest. Avoiding the cycle of frenzied overwork and burnout in favor or a convivial life
of good friends, good food, and full enjoyment is a political responsibility! We can
change the world, and our everyday behaviors do make a difference. But we cannot
subordinate our own pleasure of living to urgent political agendas—no matter how vital
they might sound. Our enjoyment is a much more subversive force than our anger.
Radical patience doesn’t mean waiting around for others to change things, but it does
mean recognizing that history moves in fits and starts—sometimes your own work is part
of a lurch forward (or sideways) but much more often, our political activities accrete
slowly across time and space, giving others self-confidence and strength to carry on far
from our immediate view. Keeping our inner fires burning steadily requires a good sense
of history—fantasies of sudden, overwhelming change are fundamentally religious
beliefs. Real change, deep and lasting, takes mutual aid and cooperation on a scale few of
us can imagine and almost none of us have experienced. We catch glimpses of it when
we come together in large-scale protests, when for a fleeting time we feel the solidarity
and visionary excitement that set us on fire in the first place.

- April 8, 2008

Chris Carlsson: “Acting Historically” 2 of 2

Coordinator: Team Colors Publisher: The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest