Radical simply means grasping things at the root.
—Angela Davis
Don’t be afraid to think like a radical.
Radical change.
What does it mean to be radical? At one point in history it was considered radical to imagine a world without kings and queens as rulers. It was once radical to imagine an America that did not belong to Great Britain as a colony. It was once radical to imagine a world without slavery. It was once radical to imagine a world where women had the right to vote.
The people who first fought for those ideals were called crazy and dreamers and radicals. They were put in jail. They persisted. They took action. They did much more than engage in whatever in those years was akin to “Internet activism.” They took it to the streets and fought for the causes they believed in, in real life. Would they have used the Internet as a tool if it had been around? Absolutely. Use the Internet, but don’t stop there.
Radical means giving a damn about the things that are important to you. It means treating things that actually matter like they actually matter. It is living compassionately and purposefully. These values should not really even be called “radical,” which implies unusual. The day that being informed and caring about the choices we make as a people and as a nation, the day that kind of compassion and action is normal, instead of unusual, is the day that we will undergo a profound and real transformation.
Just as earlier in the book I may have gone out of some readers’ comfort zones when I asked you to consider prayer and meditation as tools in the battle of the resistance, if this section feels like a stretch, then it was written for you. I’d like to broach the S word. Socialism. I think we all agree that what is needed is fresh ideas and policies that are beneficial to everyday people. We can’t let Trump, the plutocracy, and henchmen like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell win this fight. As I’ve said before, though, it is not enough to stand against something; we need to stand for something, and stand for ideas that are bold and beneficial to everybody, not just the rich. I think that’s exactly why the candidacy and ideas of Bernie Sanders captured the energy and spirits of so many young people during the primaries—people were ready to acknowledge that these ideas don’t sound so “radical” and “crazy,” like I’ve been told. They sound like good common sense.
Which is why I’d like to point to the Democratic Socialists of America as setting a great example of the kinds of things people can push for when they aren’t afraid to be called radical. Look at Bernie!
Life is short, and democracy is fragile, freedom is hard fought for—should we not strive to be the best country that we can imagine becoming? What better place to start than valuing the citizen over the corporation? The message of economic equality for all is one that people can get excited about in every state, red or blue, when the essence of the message is fully understood. Since Trump was elected, there has been a big upswing of people getting involved in the Democratic Socialists of America; I believe that is because socialism is a philosophy that cuts to the heart of the matter and defends the interests of the working class. Democratic socialism is not the same thing as Marxism or communism, but a philosophy within the Democratic Party that believes the country and the economy should be run democratically by and for the people, not just by and for the wealthy few. Also, they believe everybody should have health care!
Wherever you are on the political spectrum, I encourage you to fully explore this and other strategies and philosophies of resistance! I encourage you to explore new avenues for expressing your voice, for finding your part to play in the resistance, wherever that may be.
The core of the Far Right’s rabid base are aging old Fox News fans and uneducated white dudes. Are we going to be outmaneuvered by people who can’t tell fact from fiction? By people who don’t read? Hell no! We got this! If we don’t let ourselves be divided by petty bickering, if we stand together, united by the common causes of equality and fairness for all, we will be unbeatable.
Being a radical means waking up to the fact that the fight for a just society, the fight that includes America’s greatest heroes, from Woody Guthrie to Malcolm X, from Susan B. Anthony to Cesar Chavez, is (and always has been) happening NOW. Happening here, and happening now, and happening because of people like you. To be radical is to be a participant, to be radical is to be someone who is consciously shaping history by choice.
It means using the same tactics and techniques that radicals have always used, to fight and to win, and the Resistance has been around forever. Protest music, pamphlets, strikes, boycotts, organizing, marching, singing and chanting in the streets, civil unrest, civil disobedience, taking to the airwaves, the Internet, using Facebook to spread the message, using any form of media available. Being radical here, now, at this point in time, is about embracing the rich history of protest from the Boston Tea Party to Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, and moving it forward, keeping it alive and growing.
The future is at stake and the time is now.