Sunday, May 22, 2011

Comfortable Activism

True activism must not be an easy path. Asking uncomfortable questions to the point of extreme discomfort and working with people whose rights have been compromised, infringed and trampled upon appears to be lot more difficult than this new wave of online activism and this rising clique of bored professionals who indulge in concern almost to a point you may just as well cringe as if its their make belief profession bequeathed by 24/7 internet availability and its million flowery offerings in organizing someone's suffering and its existence into their own forced importance. As someone said,
We agreed: it seems improbable that after years, decades, of politics, action, research, we can still be so easily shocked. You know it’s not uncommon to hear activists, while discussing quotidian barbarities - the system’s incredible & everyday sadisms - confessing, almost sheepish, ‘I was actually shocked.’ Embarrassed at the naivety that we’re still stunned...(contd under Thesis on strange surprise )
Himanshu Kumar of VCA shares his experience on this virtual albeit fake activism. You discern.