civic geek – Page 6 – Steven Savage

Civic Diary 7/31/2016

July 31, 2016 by Steven Savage

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Not my best week as an engaged citizen, but also a week where I considered a few important issues and had some insights. So let’s get to my latest on being a better citizen.

Civic Engagement

Beyond my upcoming visit to a political organizing party where I’ll work on GOTV, I’ve also engaged a member of a local political group to advise me – just in case this doesn’t work. After my past experiences, I want backup plans.

I’ve done poorly on one of my original goals – contacting my representatives more. I’ve been so focused on the political conventions and the campaign, I’ve forgotten to go annoy them very much. Not a good thing, and something I’m remedying by setting an alert for myself in my calendar.

I also did fall a bit behind on following my government news feed. Then again that was kind of my entire news feed the last two weeks, so I’m not sure I did.

One funny thing I did, in light of the Putin/Trump/Russia/Hacking mess is do a bit of my own protest by queueing up Tweets to mention this – not a load, no more than one a day, properly tagged. It takes little effort and is my small contribution to keeping that issue in the spotlight – currently for 3 more weeks. I was productive in my tiny way.

So that’s a bit on protest, which brings me to . . .

Protest Isn’t That Useful

Watching political events as of late has made me doubt the value of protest in modern politics. Unless it reaches a critical point, it seems to have very dilute effects. I’m not against it, but I’m against people thinking that’s all they need to do. My little Twitter thing is something I know is just an easy little extra.

Protest paired with plans, action, local organization, fundraising, is fine. Protest is one of many tools, but it seems as of late, embodied recently with a minority of Sander’s supporters, that people think protest is all there is. Go out, yell, magic happens.

That’s not it. Again involvement in politics, organizing, pushing for issues, that matters. Getting attention is at best part of it, and worse a waste in our distractible, sensationalist media. If you don’t build (or work with) an organization, you risk being either ignored or a sideshow unless you fit someone else’s narrative.

Post-Conventions

So after the two political conventions, a few impressions:

The Democrats walked with it, with an inclusive platform over a divisive one, with a lot of real political and personal testimony.
Trump’s followup has been horrible, from attacking the parents of a fallen soldier to weird conspiracies about Fire Marshals. Hillary’s comment that anyone that can be set off by Twitter shouldn’t be President seems to hold water.
The Democratic party seized the mantle of patriotism at the convention, and Trump’s actions are only helping them. This is a major cultural shift, and though one that makes sense (patriotism as a coming together), I saw a bit of discomfort on this in random Twitter commentary, that it could become jingoistic or otherwise pathological. I’m not that concerned, but it bears watching.
Conventions are like promises. Sure they’re theater, but people are supposedly saying things they believe in. I liked a lot of what I saw of the DNC – now I can call them on it.
We’re facing some kind of social and political shift, but I can’t get my arms around it. The Republicans have support but seem to have locked themselves out of the presidency. The Democrats are the patriotic adults in the room.

That’s it for me. Any more civic thoughts for you?

– Steve

Civic Diary 6-10-2016

June 10, 2016 by Steven Savage

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

Well the California Primaries are over, my Twitter feed and news feed are filled with politics, and I’m of course thoughtful.

So I haven’t always followed up on primaries in the past, but as I’ve become more aware of politics and civic engagement, I see their importance. It’s not just the presidential Primaries, but its the local voting as well – local politics has an influence on people’s lives, change minds, and build future political careers. Those local bills and policies change a lot. You’ll want to pay attention to.

Since that political meeting I wanted to go to was cancelled, I scheduled two more this month, figuring A) I can make at least one, and B) No one is going to cancel both of them. I pretty much decided I want to find out how to do get out the vote work as a start to real civic engagement.

There are also local political clubs I found and joined one. I figure it can’t hurt to check one out if I have time.

And speaking of time, I’m feeling the time crunch from work, social obligations, my projects, and more. It really takes effort to make time for civic engagement, especially NEW civic engagement. I’m having to rethink my plans and schedules. That’s good, but man, it’s a bit of a pain.

Which brings in another realization – being civicly engaged is a long-term commitment. yes, I knew this and understood it, yes some of my civic work has been long term, especially my more local and geek stuff. Yes, I usually think long term.

But then I realized a good chunk of what influenced me was the 2016 election and the realization people could be better engaged in politics. But still a apart of me had stopped thinking about anything past November. I’m realizing that’s (obviously) short-sighted.

So yeah, I want to get more involved politically and see if there’s anything I can do for this election. But I’m trying to shift my mind to long-term engagement beyond my flirting wit the idea of being on a city board – and I’m kind of drawing a blank right now as to what that is.

I mean I have my civic engagement in the form of social groups and museum work and speaking at cons and the like. But it doesn’t quite feel like its got a lot of long-term planning in it – or even the long-term planning of doing “yeah, that’s good enough.”

However, I have come to realize about 70-80% of what I do outside of politics is pretty satisfying civicly. I may need a bit more thought of what I’m doing, a few changes there, but I feel like my whole elder geek/geek job guru/social integrator thing works pretty good.

So that’s it for my Civic Diary. How are you doing?

– Steve

Civic Diary 5/20/2016

May 20, 2016 by Steven Savage

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Hello everyone, welcome to my weekly look at my attempts to be more civicly engaged.

And . . . not a lot has happened.

One job ended last week, a new job began this week, and I’ve got some vacation coming up. I’ve had a lot on my mind obviously.

Which is probably a good lesson in this entire quest to be more civicly engaged – it’s not a simple, linear process. You will get interrupted. You will need to take a break. You will have Other Stuff To Do.

I confess to some pangs of guilt as I’m busy working on this, and it’s opened up a whole new world to me – but also I realize that’s the way it is. The desire to do this is real, and it won’t go away just because I’m spending a week getting a new job. Or anything else.

I think that’s one of the most important things of being civcly engaged is that it has to come from a “real” place. A desire for change. A desire to connect. A desire to find out what you should and can do. But you can’t fake it or do it out of guilt, it’ll be false and exhausting.

A lot of really civicly active people I see are passionate. They’re for real. This is part of what they live and breathe – and when you try to do this as well that’s what you’re evolving towards.

However I do have a few findings.

Still planning to attend a local political meeting in June to understand how I can get involved in GOTV. That’s gonna be a big step for me.
I like the place I live, and I figure next year I’ll give a look at being on a city board. I’m being realistic here as I have a lot on my plate – three books and then some. I also want to learn more about it, but the idea calls to me.
By following the news more I’m realizing how much does not get said. Did you realize the guy’s behind Ben and Jerry’s have been involved in protests supporting better voting rights? They’re part of Democracy Awakening. That they got a arrested at a protest? That they’re releasing an ice cream in celebration of it? Exactly, you didn’t hear about it. The news is not always what you think.
I’ve become far more aware of how ideas, often insane ones, spread throughout political consciousness. If you told me a few months ago people would be freaking out about transsexuals in bathrooms, I’d figure it’d be confined to some religious group or a single state.
That guide to activism I’m reading, The Little Book of Revolution, is very helpful, and I thoroughly recommend it – even as I’m still finishing it. I’m going to have to reread it a second time to develop more of a plan, but it’s fantastic.
By now my reviews of political news and activism ideas is pretty regular. That always keeps “tweaking” me to move forward – it’s building structure on top of the passion.
As people continue to rail against the political establishment – mostly Trump supporters but also some Sanders supporters – it’s clear a lot of people don’t get that an establishment gets things done. Organization is how things happen, and if you don’t like the establishment your choices are to influence, take over, or replace.
As much as I support protest, that’s only part of it. Protest can inspire, it can disrupt, it can influence, it can get people to organize. But it seems people value protest for protest’s sake (mostly angry screaming) and that’s even counterproductive.

I suspect I’m not going to be having a lot of deep civil insights the next week or two. But I’m going to keep posting these.

I think I like this as I’m doing this publicly to hold myself accountable. If I screw up, I screw up in front of the world (well, on a blog and anywhere from 30-150 readers). It’s nicely sobering.

Besides, the choices I make do affect the world.

– Steve