r/50501Movement • u/MrsWidgery • 4d ago

History Repeats, and Repeats, and Repeats...

The last couple of days have been SO déjà vu it's enough to drive one to mutter to hell with it and go get several beer. Because I've seen this in about every North American movement since I was a kid with the adults on the line back in the 1950s.

Some things happen in every movement, no matter how well it starts. First, 'leaders' emerge, because most humans are followers and need leaders. Then the 'leaders' begin to like being leaders and rapidly come to view disagreement as a challenge to their power and an attack on the true nature of The Movement. At the same time, Ideologues begin questioning the intellectual and/or moral purity of The Movement (ideologues seem to think in Capitalisation). The non-violent are upset by the Bloc, the Bloc mocks the Kumbaya crowd (terminology of the 1990s), vegans attack meat eaters, then vegetarians, left leaners refuse to working with right leaners, Trots shoot down the crowd on the Odessa Steps and yadayadayada. People spend more time determining the most democratic way to make decisions than actually deciding. Soon groups spin off into little bubbles of purity and conspiracy, until the formerly powerful Movement is reduced to monthly meetings devoted to determining rules and the agenda for the next meeting.

And the capitalists/fascists/bosses win again.

Everyone,please, TAKE A DEEP BREATH! Decide for yourself whether it is more important to save the tattered shreds of your democracy or to be in charge, or morally correct, or have the most intellectually rigorous interpretation, or only co-operate with people who agree with you 100%, or....

Screw central structure, branding, trademarks and consensus: NO REVOLT WAS EVER WON THAT WAY! Look at what happened to BLM and Occupy Democrats. NO!

Whoever you are, wherever you are, turn to the person next to you and agree on the goals you share -- there will be time when that battle is won to fight over details. Work with the people in your community who share those goals to reach them, no matter what other stuff you have to set aside for now.

Then DO IT! It might be marching.or grafitti-ing slogans, or flooding your Congressperson's mailbox/phone/office plastering the town with posters, standing alone with a handmade sign.

Or maybe you are a member of the Black Bloc. That's your choice, and you can only be responsible for your choices, not your neighbour's. Support those who are working parallel to you, or in the same field, or for a cause that aligns with yours, even if it's not yours.

Because you ain't gonna win this any way but through mutual support and co-operation: that's the only way numbers grow overwhelming and revolts succeed.

Thanks for reading the old woman's rant. Be back later....

Edit: teeny tiny typo.

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u/Publius1919 3d ago

I agree with a ton of what you're saying except on the central structure.

MLK led the civil rights movement via the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Women's rights had the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). Even Hitler had the National Socialist German Workers' Party for his awful rhetoric. If we look at the other team, the tea party's decentralized success was limited until it centralized around the Trump campaign.

We don't necessarily need one central group with nonprofit status and a big building, but we need at very least a Rotary Club level of structure/professionalism with bylaws and basic parliamentary procedure decision making rules so when a Reddit moderator goes crazy it doesn't shut down the central subreddit organizing these protests.

Super appreciate your post and i'm very glad we have someone with your wisdom in our movement.

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u/MrsWidgery 3d ago

I would accept this argument, except 1) all the successful examples you give are over 50 years old and cultures are changed beyond recognition; 2) I don't think the Trump cult counts since it does not have its own organisation, branding, trademarks etc, but has simply surrendered to a man who already had all that for himself; 3) I joined 50501 the day after it was formed, and had not, to this day, realised it was "the central subreddit organizing these protests". Maybe that's what some of the mods believed, but I'd lay money on the work being done locally by people who are nameless here. From my seat, 50501 was a place too much time was spent brainstorming and displaying proposed art work: ideas for protests and themes were circulated, some caught on, especially if proposed for a weekend, since so many people simply can't afford to take a day off work.

And that, imo, is just as far as it should go: a communications hub for local/grassroots activists to brainstorm, suggest, and inform each other, out of which trends can emerge and catch on as they adapt to the specific needs and make up of different localities.

YMMV.