{"id":4897,"date":"2019-11-15T11:58:54","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T11:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=4897"},"modified":"2021-06-15T16:49:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:49:51","slug":"activism-is-the-rent-i-pay-for-living-on-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/activism-is-the-rent-i-pay-for-living-on-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Activism is the rent I pay for living on the planet.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Professor David Bates and PhD student Tom Sharkey discuss political activism and how it can be a positive symbol of change. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

‘Activism is the rent I pay for living on the planet.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These words of the writer and activist Alice Walker resonate today perhaps more than ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Professor Sir John Curtis\ndemonstrated in extensive statistical detail, in one of our Public Lectures,\npolitics is more divided than it has been for a long time. Forms of nationalist\nauthoritarian populism are on the march across the globe. The \u2018centre\u2019 (what\nTariq Ali has termed the \u2018extreme centre\u2019) is under siege from all sides. The\nneo-liberal core of the project of globalisation has been revealed: \u2018Politics\nas usual\u2019 no longer seems to be an option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what is to be done? Can we find a principle of hope in such despair? All too often, despair can turn to apathy. Indeed, there is an extent to which formal liberal democratic politics promotes such apathy.  This is so in (at least) two ways. First, representative democracy isolates us from the agonistic character of the political. We leave politicians to get on with \u2018representing\u2019 us. Second, and partly as a result of this isolation, apathy can turn to anger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are frequently disappointed and disillusioned with the attempts of politicians to carry out this representative function. Whether we are concerned with climate change, Brexit or the state of the NHS, our representatives seem incapable of instigating positive change. All that they seem to offer is more of the same. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is why political activism founded on a vision of minimal utopia is so important, indeed necessary. The Situationist International instructed us to \u2018be reasonable: demand the impossible\u2019. As the political philosopher Norman Geras said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We should be,\nwithout hesitation or embarrassment, utopians\u2026 it is the only acceptable\npolitical option, morally speaking\u2026 \u2018 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activism beyond formal politics\ncan be a space in which the utopian imagination flourishes. Our work in the Activism\nResearch Network<\/a> has been concerned with the creation of this space \u2013 a\nspace where joy becomes both an act of resistance and a positive symbol of\nchange.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday 6th<\/sup> of\nNovember, space in the Daphne Oram Building was occupied by 16-18 year olds\nfrom across Kent. The possibility of positive change was fostered and given\nlife through consensus decision making and artistic creation. After developing\ntheir ideas with the Politics academics, the students created a political\ncarnival of banners, chants and music. The young people expressed a wide range\nof often conflicting political views. Yet they were able to unite around one\nkey concern: a desire to make our streets \u2013 day and night \u2013 spaces of safety\nand social inclusion.   The carnival then\nroamed the University\u2019s main campus, demanding safer streets and letting the\nwatching crowds know that responses to street crime and the lack of street\nlighting in their areas would no longer be tolerated. \u2018We demand\u2019 began the\nrallying cry, met with the mass, resounding response \u2018an end to fear!\u2019. Who\nwould have predicted that our utopian space would have produced such practical\n\u2013 far from impossible \u2013 demands? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor David Bates\nis Director of Politics and International Relations and Professor of\nContemporary and Political Thought. Tom Sharkey is a PhD candidate in Politics\nand International Relations. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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