Political activists are at their very core, farmers. Like farmers we plant seeds, water, tend to them and wait for them to grow. Sometimes we plant seeds on barren ground and they never grow. Other times we plant them in fertile soil but don’t have the time and resources to water and tend them and they grow and wither. Sometimes future generations discover the seeds you planted on barren ground, replant them and tend and water them until they blossom. Sometimes those seeds grow beyond our expectations.
Mass movements don’t spring up from nowhere, they grow as more and more people come to help you tend the seeds you’ve put in the earth. They may have noticed the plants you were growing, were impressed with their blossoms and fruits and decided to plant their own crop, they may have decided to help you grow your crop, before you know it your patch is full of plants bearing fruit.
Even those seeds that fell on barren ground, that never sprouted when you planted them a half a century ago, may have silently rolled into a little crevice. Fifty, 100 or even 1,000 years later somebody may have stumbled on your musings, liked them and breathed life into them rescuing that seed from obscurity planting it in fertile soil, weeding and watering it until it grows like a 21st century clone of some long dead animal whose DNA has been retrieved.
Our primary role as individuals within a community is to plant seeds. It’s easy, very easy complaining about the quality of the community we live and work in. It’s very easy sitting back and waiting for somebody else to do something about what you’re unhappy about. It’s very easy to become a carping complaining consumer in a community where everybody is viewed as a consumer, not a citizen with rights and responsibilities. You don’t know whether that seed you want to plant will grow unless you plant it. not every seed will blossom but the very act of planting that seed transforms you from a consumer into a citizen.
You don’t know whether future generations will clone that seed they found in a crevice. Some of the campaigns I’ve planted, tendered and watered are about breathing new life into old campaigns. The Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Commemoration campaign, the Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion Celebrations campaign, The World War One Anti-Conscription campaign, the Francesco Fantin story, the Peter Norman Commemoration are just a few of the seeds that have rolled into crevices that I have found, cleaned, replanted, watered and helped them grow. The individual matters, whether you succeed or fail is not important. What’s important is you tried to create that new world in our hearts.
You can’t do more than that.
Dr. Joseph Toscano / Secretary / Convenor PIBCI www.pibci.net