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I confess I am as far into my own sense of moral outrage as anybody. But I think I've discovered that it really isn't very effective for advocacy.
What I think is much more effective is to simply present the conditions in a plain and unadorned manner. That's why I put up the video's on the war in Afghanistan. And that's why I followed links to Palestinian sites and watched a few videos and read the daily reports from the EMT's trying to dodge Israeli troops and get to the injured.
These kinds of presentations are their own advocacy and don't need much. Francisco Goya for example put the lie to the French army bringing freedom and democracy to Spain in The Disasters of War.
I think our best historical treasures are the diaries and letters of ordinary men and women caught up in struggles. You get so you can just feel your way through the text to get the story.
Martin writes:
``...In the senior center that I attend, the audience have no opportunity for their own discussion of the social services with which they are dissatisfied. That's the group that I'd like to organize - and I'll be working on it. But it's a long slow process getting people interested....''
The way I discovered is to have people tell their own life story. There is often plenty of interest and lots of real life experience there to work with. It's a little obnoxious, but not if you do it right. Nobody is really interested in a lecture. Most people rarely get a chance to bring their life experience to public view.
Real simple questions. So what did you used to do for a living? You search around for some politically interesting theme and let them do the talking. It's more like sharing. When you find something interesting that they've done, then don't forget to congratulate them, or if you are amazed, say so. It makes people proud to have lived and struggled.
Martin ``Personally, I believe that it all began with the storytellers - the oral historians.''
I'd say yes, certainly. But I want to hear the stories of somebody else who isn't a professional. I think the road to both solidarity and revolutionary equality is through the voices of others.
CG