The class I taught today reflected upon the statistics you’ll find below, compiled from a Mother Jones survey compiled in 2008. The conversation was fascinating, as they felt confident to speak from their personal experience. They readily use terms like “food movement” and “green movement,” but revealed some anxiety about the position they’re in: they feel a movement of sorts taking place, they say, but also feel individuated, isolated, and insignificant in the production of real change. Skeptical of the tired narrative that change begins with individual, no matter how true they know it to be, they seemed equally incredulous–but in a different way–about the possibilities of collective action. My use of the term “collective mobilization,” I suspect, came off as foreign, a bit old school (in the bad sense). There were, of course, tinctures of intimidation in such a term, too.
Anyway, I invite you to share these numbers with others and strike up a conversation about potential avenues for change . . .
