A lot of the news and the buzz online is revolving around the G20 protests happening this weekend in Toronto. I’ve being paying very little attention to it. I don’t trust the media to accurately report anything that involves protests, gatherings or disobedience because I find that they’re not very keen on discovering the truth surrounding these kinds of events. I think there’s more pressure to report how many fires were lit, how many windows were broken and how many people were arrested instead of finding out who these people are, whether or not the police acted too quickly or if the protesters were organised groups or random individuals – and whether or not these individuals were agent provocateurs.
I also don’t believe that protests are effective at change, at least not in the context that they’re being used in Canada. I think that they are effective methods of expressing solidarity with other like-minded individuals. We don’t live in a society that encourages individuals to be strong-willed and independent in thought so it’s no surprise that activists feel more comfortable in groups.
I still attend protests here and there, mostly only as an observer with a camera or camcorder. It’s still crucial to record movements and gatherings for historical purposes. I’m not saying that protests are useless – in some countries, they’re necessary and very effective. But here, I think that we have more groundwork to do and particularly, as individuals.
It’s the belief that one person can’t make a difference that bothers me the most. You don’t need solidarity to make change, to do good things. You need personal conviction to live honestly and to do good things based on principle. And in some cases, it’s necessary to break rules because they are wrong, they are harmful or they are unjust. Usually, these rules are what I call ‘soft rules’ – the kind of rules that you’d encounter in the workplace, at school, in the family setting, as part of clubs and other organisations. Sometimes, the soft rules cross over to the ‘hard rules’ – the law. For example, there are scores of people who are asked to work overtime for free – and they do it even though they know that it’s illegal. There are people being fired or laid off due to their sexuality, their race or religion, their disabilities or illnesses and yet, most people wouldn’t say a thing about it even if they disagreed with the actions taken by the company.
Protests are fine but they’re not the solution. The solution is to say ‘no’. The solution is to be free, as an individual, as much as possible from the pressure to conform. It’s to ignore the pressure to conform when you’re faced with the question: is this right?
The solution is also financial independence. We have got to stop depending on the system. You can’t protest and cry foul and then run up debt, leaving yourself desperate for work where you’ll do almost anything to keep your job. Debt is a form of guarantee that we won’t become better individuals. Debt is really a form of slavery – when you owe, your choices are tremendously reduced.
Fashion is another form of control. The more we’re led to believe that we have to purchase the next best thing, the more we fall in line with company profits, the more we become less human and more of just a cog in the machine. Fashion is something that is made up – it’s about the bottom line. It’s companies, celebrities or large groups of people inventing the next trend and then it’s recycled. It really is a mechanical process and each time we participate, we lose a bit of our humanity. But hey, we look fabulous darling – and people like us!
A protest says “No, we don’t want that”. A revolution says “We want this and we’re not going to ask your permission for it”. And what better revolution than to start changing the systems that don’t work? We’re angry that bankers have gotten away with their crimes during the most recent financial crisis (I use “crimes” loosely because we’ve made it legal to to act unethically with the money of others). In fact, goverments around the world have given them money to continue to finance these outrageous activities. Where is the anger? Where are the protests about that? How can we just go to sleep at night and forget about it without making changes in the way that we handle our own personal finances?
The education system is a giant mess. We manufacture servants. That’s what you’re taught in school – how to serve. The skills that are taught during the schooling process serve primarily to teach us how to conform, how to fit in, how to grow up and forget our talents and dreams. During the hiring process, we place all of the weight on degrees and then wonder why our young adults aren’t creative or why their strongest skill is the ability to sit in a chair for a long time. So we grow up, work jobs that we hate and live the life that everyone lives: sleep, work, pay the bills (or not), party during the weekend. Hate Mondays. Everyone hates Mondays!
This is something that one individual can change.. something that you can change. It’s not large and out of reach.
Politicians, CEOs and lawmakers cannot change a strong individual nor a strong community of individuals. They just can’t. They can’t get people to conform if they have not been taught that conformity is good. They cannot manipulate you into thinking that junk food is good for you if you have always known that it will cause disease in the long run. They cannot get you to purchase products that you know are unhealthy. And they cannot get you to not pay attention to the scam pulled by bankers when you know exactly where your money is going and how it should be used.
The police won’t be able to harass those who know the law and if they do, they will be pursued in the legal system instead of just being part of an article on someone’s blog. Employers won’t be able to take advantage of those who know their rights. Fashion would become beauty instead of a series of trends. Art would be the voice and transport of thought and emotion instead of being pleas of suffering and anger and objects of materialism. Our health care system will be built on efficiency and care instead of being disorganized and poorly administered. People would not die waiting for treatment, drugs or a diagnosis because we wouldn’t tolerate that. People would be healthier because we would value physical activity and we would care for our mental and emotional health.
That’s the kind of revolution that we need. Sure, you can protest, but I’d much rather that we all question the way we behave on a day to day basis instead. If we can plan to be better people in general, then we’ll be able to make a greater contribution to humankind as individuals.
I leave you with an excerpt from Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”. You should all read the full text here.
“I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name — if ten honest men only — ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever. But we love better to talk about it: that we say is our mission. Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man.”
Here’s an excerpt of “Civil Disobedience” read by Mark Ruffalo:
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4 Comments
I think your claim that fashion as a form of control is slightly unfair. I guess you mean the fashion industry when talking about fashion, yes? Fashion by itself is really just a form of expression of a culture at a particular time. Really there are three pillars, the People, the Industry, and the Journalism of fashion. It seems to me the latter two are in bed together for profit-making. The people, however, are free to follow any trend they wish, or not follow it, depending on whether it interests their personal aesthetics or notions of self-expression.
A ‘fashionable’ person can pick and choose whatever he or she wishes to convey some intentional message to the outside world; sometimes that message is just ‘look at how rich or glamourous I am’, or ‘I’m choosing to conform to gain acceptance’, but it can also be anything else under the sun. I will add that there’s nothing necessarily wrong with choosing from current trends in order to express that message, because, like the gaining popularity of new words, trends form the language that, after some propagation, everyone can understand, even if only on a subconscious level, which makes the conveyance easier and more practical.
Lastly, the recycling of trends has more to do, in my opinion, with nostalgia of the society at large and a desire, from designers, to evolve and tweak the old in a new way, than a conspiracy of the industry only, though maybe I’m just being very naive about it.
Despite all of this, however, it doesn’t really refute your larger point: people do indeed enslave themselves just as easily as others enslave them, by choosing to participate. I just want to say that a person can be a consumer (can buy into a system), and still remain an individual in it, and fashion is a good example of this.
That’s precisely what I meant – the fashion industry. Thanks for pointing that out. I have given the impression that individuals choosing to be ‘fashionable’ are at fault when I really meant to say that it’s people who reinforce the idea that without a pair of Nike shoes or Chanel garments, a person is worthless. It’s really the adolescent ideas of fashion that I think we should get rid of – the peer pressure idea of wearing something to fit in rather than because it’s a personal choice.
Then again, I also have issues with some brand names where consumers are duped into believing that yoga pants are not yoga pants unless they’re from Lulemon, for example. So yes, it’s the industry and the influence of the industry that bothers me. And it’s precisely their messages and marketing tactics that evolve into a form of control.
Another point that I failed to mention about clothing is one of the same points that Thoreau made – that we are often too concerned with what we wear rather than who we are (and this is how we view others – based on what they wear and not what ideas they have).
Absolutely, “a person can be a consumer and still remain an individual in it”. It’s about being conscious of why we consume what we consume that matters.
I can’t even find words to say how amazing this blog post is!LOVE IT!Agree with all you said and I also read what you replied to FJ’s comment and you are right when saying that people care more for what they wear than who they are
I really hate it how the media and everyone is trying to tell us that without a pair of Nike shoes, or something like that, you are nor worth it. That’s just bulls**t! And yes, strong individuals is what it takes to make a change. No one should think that they can’t do anything, cause each of us can make a change 
Glad you like the article.