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The Entangled Activist
Drawing on her experiences, critical analysis and interviews with leading activists, Anthea Lawson offers a timely and eye-opening vision for transformative work. A profound call to acknowledge our entanglement with the world and possibilities for action that go beyond righteousness and reactivity.
- GenresNonfiction
272 pages, Paperback
Published June 30, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 22, 2021
Having worked with the author at Global Witness, for close to 5 years, I was able to 'hear' her speak each word as I read it in The Entangled Activist: with that determination and intelligence that was always so apparent. The intonation is critical for this book seeks to develop a methodology for activists to follow (or at least to consider) when engaging with activism.
It is an engaging, well written and important work. Anthea has deeply considered how she was affected by strident activism and how deeper contemplation, better understanding of those being told to repent, and more understanding of those for who the activism is meant to be employed would benefit the causes for which she maintains a deep belief.
It is far beyond me to critique a book that contains much wisdom, derived from her own deep deliberations and beliefs and powered by many great thinkers of the past and present. Yet, I have a background that is very different in that I have been on both sides: originally in the business of aerospace and defence and then IT before lurching into the anti-corruption 'movement' with Global Witness and others. I have not just seen the two minds at work (the outward mind of the profitmaker and the inner mind of the person that may have some misgivings about how they make that profit). I have been that person. Even if I thought I tried to act ethically, many in the anti-arms business, for example, would have criticised my every action including the mere action of being an employee there, let alone a Managing Director (even if I tried to explain myself in terms of the hi-tech training / VR systems that I sold or the fact that I never indulged in corruption and pulled out of markets where that was required). I would be on a charge of self-indulgence, gross defensiveness. Yet, I was accepted into Global Witness - my own entanglements (from 10 or so years before) notwithstanding
All those that are trying to 'make change happen', whether as part of an NGO or a political party, should read this book to better comprehend how our many entanglements - within our own minds, between us and other individuals, between our neoliberal society and others, between our ideas of the capitalist state and other notions - coincide and how to better reflect on such entanglements to assist in not just how we try to shape the post-modern world (whether to save it from climate disaster or from gross corruption or mass inequality or whatever) but to help us save our own selves from burning out.
In NGO's, as someone 'behind the camera', I became an 'enabler' - someone whose mission was to assist the activists do their work without them having to worry overmuch about all the stuff going on behind them: let them be the swan that we all admire, not the feet paddling like mad beneath. That never meant they could abdicate entirely but it was meant to assist with the process. One critical issue was developing the notion about how each NGO considered who its beneficiaries were and how its effort had to be directed to them (100%).
Anthea's book got me to consider this further. Who are we in the rich West to think of such 'beneficiaries' (who are not even considered at some NGO's except by chance). How have we shaped ourselves to provide such 'benefits'? Do the 'lucky' recipients have a choice in such awards? How should we shape our work to include them in such shaping? Why can't we find a better word than 'beneficiaries' when it echoes our disparate societies - one grandiosly 'giving' and one 'receiving'?
The best example (to me) is climate change (which I now adapt to climate disaster). The dangers for so many in the world are imminent and real but those most at danger from the actions of China, USA, UK, Europe, Russia etc should not, in a world of equals, be seen as 'beneficiaries' but those who have been dramatically disadvantaged by the forenamed countries (amongst others) and who need urgent reparations. They are due now, as a liability of those countries not as a gift to beneficiaries. We have gained from economic growth at their cost - time to pay up.
The same is true in my area of anti-corruption where the same countries via their domination of the rest of the world supplied the means to corruption and the mechanisms that foster it today.
We are hugely entangled. Read this book to begin the process of unwinding the world.
It is an engaging, well written and important work. Anthea has deeply considered how she was affected by strident activism and how deeper contemplation, better understanding of those being told to repent, and more understanding of those for who the activism is meant to be employed would benefit the causes for which she maintains a deep belief.
It is far beyond me to critique a book that contains much wisdom, derived from her own deep deliberations and beliefs and powered by many great thinkers of the past and present. Yet, I have a background that is very different in that I have been on both sides: originally in the business of aerospace and defence and then IT before lurching into the anti-corruption 'movement' with Global Witness and others. I have not just seen the two minds at work (the outward mind of the profitmaker and the inner mind of the person that may have some misgivings about how they make that profit). I have been that person. Even if I thought I tried to act ethically, many in the anti-arms business, for example, would have criticised my every action including the mere action of being an employee there, let alone a Managing Director (even if I tried to explain myself in terms of the hi-tech training / VR systems that I sold or the fact that I never indulged in corruption and pulled out of markets where that was required). I would be on a charge of self-indulgence, gross defensiveness. Yet, I was accepted into Global Witness - my own entanglements (from 10 or so years before) notwithstanding
All those that are trying to 'make change happen', whether as part of an NGO or a political party, should read this book to better comprehend how our many entanglements - within our own minds, between us and other individuals, between our neoliberal society and others, between our ideas of the capitalist state and other notions - coincide and how to better reflect on such entanglements to assist in not just how we try to shape the post-modern world (whether to save it from climate disaster or from gross corruption or mass inequality or whatever) but to help us save our own selves from burning out.
In NGO's, as someone 'behind the camera', I became an 'enabler' - someone whose mission was to assist the activists do their work without them having to worry overmuch about all the stuff going on behind them: let them be the swan that we all admire, not the feet paddling like mad beneath. That never meant they could abdicate entirely but it was meant to assist with the process. One critical issue was developing the notion about how each NGO considered who its beneficiaries were and how its effort had to be directed to them (100%).
Anthea's book got me to consider this further. Who are we in the rich West to think of such 'beneficiaries' (who are not even considered at some NGO's except by chance). How have we shaped ourselves to provide such 'benefits'? Do the 'lucky' recipients have a choice in such awards? How should we shape our work to include them in such shaping? Why can't we find a better word than 'beneficiaries' when it echoes our disparate societies - one grandiosly 'giving' and one 'receiving'?
The best example (to me) is climate change (which I now adapt to climate disaster). The dangers for so many in the world are imminent and real but those most at danger from the actions of China, USA, UK, Europe, Russia etc should not, in a world of equals, be seen as 'beneficiaries' but those who have been dramatically disadvantaged by the forenamed countries (amongst others) and who need urgent reparations. They are due now, as a liability of those countries not as a gift to beneficiaries. We have gained from economic growth at their cost - time to pay up.
The same is true in my area of anti-corruption where the same countries via their domination of the rest of the world supplied the means to corruption and the mechanisms that foster it today.
We are hugely entangled. Read this book to begin the process of unwinding the world.
June 16, 2024
How is it that political activism's successes seem so relatively few and far between? Despite the best efforts of international NGOs like Greenpeace or Save the Children, or protest groups such as Stop Oil or Extinction Rebellion, or intentional communities that prefigure a better future by living it in the here and now, the unjust, unsustainable and shapeshifting juggernaut that currently takes the form of neoliberalism seems unstoppable.
The usual answer is that the juggernaut is so big and so powerful that victories against it will always only be partial and temporary, and that the only option is to work harder and faster to undermine it.
Anthea Lawson rejects this usual answer and argues, in fact, that this response is part of the problem rather than part of the solution. More demotically, she suggests that the 'let's get the bastards' energy that fuels the approach of many activists is counterproductive in the long run, and that this is because 'many of us, as activists, are as damaged by the unhealthy human culture we live in as the people we want to change'.
This damage, says Lawson, leads well-intentioned activists to reproduce many of the habits and practices of the system they're trying to change, such as competition for recognition and status, personal branding, a tendency to patronise the 'other', to make impossible demands on our campaigning colleagues, and to privilege authoritarianism over dialogue.
Lawson's honest and deeply-researched ruminations lead her to eschew diving even deeper or running even faster as routes to a more effective activism. In contrast, she urges us to slow down, to take more care of ourselves and our co-activists, to keep an eye out for signs of self-aggrandisement in our actions, and to stop demonising those 'on the other side' - because that's us too.
Given the dire state of things isn't this slowing down in the name of self-examination a luxury that plays into the hands of the juggernaut we're trying to halt in its tracks? No, says Lawson: 'Slowing down doesn't mean we can't do our activist work. But it does mean we don't hurl ourselves at each task.'
The good friend - and extremely active activist - who gifted me this book said they found Lawson's 'psycho-babble' annoying, but that 'most of the book is really perceptive and challenging'. That just about sums it up for me too.
The usual answer is that the juggernaut is so big and so powerful that victories against it will always only be partial and temporary, and that the only option is to work harder and faster to undermine it.
Anthea Lawson rejects this usual answer and argues, in fact, that this response is part of the problem rather than part of the solution. More demotically, she suggests that the 'let's get the bastards' energy that fuels the approach of many activists is counterproductive in the long run, and that this is because 'many of us, as activists, are as damaged by the unhealthy human culture we live in as the people we want to change'.
This damage, says Lawson, leads well-intentioned activists to reproduce many of the habits and practices of the system they're trying to change, such as competition for recognition and status, personal branding, a tendency to patronise the 'other', to make impossible demands on our campaigning colleagues, and to privilege authoritarianism over dialogue.
Lawson's honest and deeply-researched ruminations lead her to eschew diving even deeper or running even faster as routes to a more effective activism. In contrast, she urges us to slow down, to take more care of ourselves and our co-activists, to keep an eye out for signs of self-aggrandisement in our actions, and to stop demonising those 'on the other side' - because that's us too.
Given the dire state of things isn't this slowing down in the name of self-examination a luxury that plays into the hands of the juggernaut we're trying to halt in its tracks? No, says Lawson: 'Slowing down doesn't mean we can't do our activist work. But it does mean we don't hurl ourselves at each task.'
The good friend - and extremely active activist - who gifted me this book said they found Lawson's 'psycho-babble' annoying, but that 'most of the book is really perceptive and challenging'. That just about sums it up for me too.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews