'I used to think if I wanted to get somewhere I had to impress the right people. Then I realised that if you impress enough of the wrong ones you can do whatever you want anyway.' Grace Petrie
'No one is too small to make a difference' Greta Thunberg
It's very hard to speak out in the face of injustice. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and so on still doggedly pursue us on our journey through this life, and I think it's important to sometimes take a moment to acknowledge to ourselves how enormously difficult this kind of this is to speak out against.
Acknowledging it means putting our thought processes down on paper (or on a screen) so here goes:
1) I feel bad for that person that's being oppressed.
2) But maybe the oppressor has something of a point? Let's listen to both sides.
3) Okay, yeah, I don't really agree with what that person's saying.
4) But hold on, aren't I in favour of free speech?
5) Maybe that person just knows more than I do?
6) Maybe I should just stay out of it.
7) No, I can't do that. That's not fair.
8) But the thing is, I don't want to draw attention to myself.
9) No one else is saying anything.
10) God, I have so much to do today.
11) I don't really have the energy.
12) I'll give that person a hug when everyone else has gone. That will at least help them emotionally.
Points 9 and 10 are the most crucial in understanding the psychological phenomenon behind it. The urge to conform is a highly powerful one within society (I used to study psychology, and this was the first part of it I was ever taught about - it hooked me right from the start), and in addition to that, most human beings are loaded with too many priorities in life to really have time to look at the wrongs in the world - the wrongs that in fact, they themselves may be propping up.
I work in the entertainment world, and things there are immensely weighted in favour of the powerful (which is why there's such a high instance of popular entertainers being accused of things like sexual assault - another one came out yesterday, and perhaps it will be the subject of a different blog, I don't know yet). Nowadays, there's a lot of talk about higher representation of things like people of colour, the disabled, LGBTQ+ people and so on - but from what I've seen, a lot of this is just for show. I wrote a bit about my experiences of this being just for show in this blog that I wrote back in January, but it also backs up my overall point about conformity. There is more talk about it nowadays, therefore in some respects it's easier to call out - but in other respects it isn't. It's only easy to call out if your view is in line exactly with what everyone else is saying. If it contradicts the dominant narrative, it's quite hard to get up on your pedestal and call it out, as I found with my objection to the notion that only LGBTQ+ actors can play LGBTQ+ parts. I argued that this is actually harmful to LGBTQ+ rights, and I was quite taken aback by the levels of hostility I got for expressing this viewpoint - even though it's an injustice I've experienced myself as an LGBTQ+ performer.
The entertainment world is where I witness most of this stuff first-hand because that is where I work - however, it's something that applies to the whole of society generally. Particularly in relation to the Labour Party at the moment, what I see of what they're doing, what with ruling out wealth taxes, ditching promises to axe tuition fees and expelling numerous members for calling anything out, is an attempt to reduce the level of opinion that it's acceptable to express. This kind of thing, unfortunately, works. There are so many examples throughout history of it working. When none of the leading political figures are willing to say anything remotely radical, it becomes very hard for any regular person to say or do anything radical as well. If they do, they're likely to be either mocked or get into trouble - and they know that as well, and the fear of losing social legitimacy is often a very strong deterrent.
But, I won't be entirely scathing about conformity either. Like every human function, I do believe that it has its place and can be used for good rather than harm. It's not hard to speak against injustice; it's only hard if you feel that no one's on your side. Once the first person has done it, it's so easy for others to get caught up in it. I can see no better example of this than Greta Thunberg, who never expected her small one-person protest outside the Swedish Parliament to catch on as much as it did. Human beings have a tendency to create a snowball effect with one another, and this can be a good thing as well as a bad thing. What I would advise though is that we always think rationally about what we're doing - whether it really helps, or whether we're just jumping on the bandwagon. Many, many times it does help, and climate activism is an area where I believe it is helping - however, this is also how people join cults.
Dialogue is always the cure for this dilemma. If we're open to talking to one another, even if some of us are expressing opinions that we really don't agree with, we can make so much progress. I have some friends who have some views that I really don't agree with - but I always think, there's a reason they think that, and that reason is probably somewhat legitimate. I think even people who hold racist views, if you really probe into why they think that, eventually just come back to feeling oppressed within society themselves. And they're allowed to feel like that, because most of us are oppressed in some way; and part of the nature of oppression involves turning people against one another. This removes their only weapon; the ability to talk, engage and collectively fight back. There are so many more oppressed than there are oppressors; we could come together and change the system in a single day, if we decided to.
What doesn't work is toeing the line in the hope that eventually you'll be in a higher-up position in which to change things. No one is EVER allowed to change things by the political class. Change only comes from lower down. I won't ever criticise someone who compromises their principles in order to get by, because in this world it is very hard to get by and we all do what we can - but I will say that it doesn't really work. All that tends to achieve is a headache. If you're someone who isn't sure what they can do to help deal with the problem they're most concerned about, I'd advise just chatting to your friends about it. There's so much of a culture of 'let's not bring politics into things', but what if there wasn't? What if we could talk to our friends about things going on in the world that were worrying us? When we can do that, even if we can't immediately come up with a solution, it just feels like there's a weight off our shoulders. I'm witnessing this myself quite a lot at the moment in relation to the day centre in Abergavenny my partner is fighting to save. We've harnessed the strong feelings of so many people, people who perhaps felt it was a losing battle before we started talking about it, and there's such a feeling of hope and optimism amongst the group now. It's a feeling of strength. This is what the oppressors most fear.
I started this with a quote from Grace Petrie, who is one of my absolute favourite protest singers. She said this at a concert I saw her in last year, before singing a song called 'We've Got An Office In Hackney'. It's essentially about being a protest singer getting a bit more attention, and whether that would compromise one's principles. Have a listen - it's a lovely song:
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