I thought I might create one of those impressive twitter threads that I admire so much from the wonderful thinkers I follow. However, lacking those qualifications, I’m pretty sure I would botch it up somehow. So, in the spirit of just needing to vent something, you’re stuck with this.
After I find myself finishing one of those impressive threads, usually regarding Indigenous issues or Climate Change (and it is just plain naive to think the two aren’t inextricably linked) I will invariably see in the responses a white guilt laden plea of;
“What can I do?”
Well, today’s your lucky day. I’m gonna tell ya.
First off, I should say this question smacks of all the same sentiment as carried by some man who finds the woman in his life unhappy. Rather than looking deeply into the relationship, and perhaps themselves, they use this question to throw all the emotional labour back on the woman.
“What can I do?”
Here’s what you can do Sport:
FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF!
I found it really frightening when I came to the realization that our collective societal consciousness is pretty similar to an immature, self centred, emotionally moribund, unempathetic man. But there it is.
I look around and I see all kinds of hand wringing when it comes to both Indigenous Issues and Climate Change (did I mention the two are linked?) with folks sitting around desperately hoping someone will tell them how to do their part so they can assuage whatever they might be feeling and get on with their day. Aside from whatever obvious problems you may see with this stance, I would like to point out a couple that I think are key.
Everyone has different gifts and capabilities. This diversity of impact is lost if we are given some token strategy to fix things. When we personally invest in becoming informed, our own unique contribution possibilities will become clear. Sure, there will be certain things that everyone can do. However, we let ourselves off the hook when some obvious blanket action is all we offer to the solution. I honestly have so much hope when I think of the possibilities of everyone redirecting their energies from the banal and personally investing in these crucial issues.
Perhaps the most dangerous outcome of this baby bird outlook; one of waiting for someone to come by and shove what you need into your open mouth, is there are many out there more than willing to do so. In a society where people don’t actively take charge of how they are informed there is a far greater susceptibility to propaganda and misinformation. We are seeing the results of this in election after election and will continue to do so until this intellectual passivity changes.
I humbly hope that I have been of service to you in answering this very important question.