Activism v. Stativism, by Barbara Fields, Executive Director, Association for Global New Thought

Allow me to demonstrate how we, who proudly think of ourselves as cultural progressives, are becoming a defeated contingent of highly articulate “stativists.“

I did not know the word, either, until I stumbled upon it in my google search for an antonym to “activist.” Stative describes a verb expressing an abstract state or condition, rather than a measurable activity or event -- such as, to be or know, as opposed to do or grow.

For a while now, I have been asking myself why I feel so exhausted by the media stream of information, arguments, positions and debate whose brilliant articulations challenge and impress me every day. Some (but not all) reflect the sincere aspirations of writers in pursuit of clarity, wisdom and solution-building for a never-ending list of issues we are facing as a society.

Isn’t dialogue a good thing? Doesn’t insight illuminate the matter-at-hand, as the word suggests? If our hearts and minds can be captivated by ever more compelling sentences, concepts, analogies and descriptions crafted in service of an idea, are we not elevated toward resolution and success?

As it turns out, the answer is Not Exactly. And not only this, but we find ourselves confronting an inadvertent obstacle -- namely, that now we have traded, incrementally, systematically and ever-so-subtly, what we hoped would be effective change through activism for a stative feeding frenzy of words disguised as plans.

Whether your preferred “stativists” take the form of pundits, columnists, organizational leaders, spokespersons, your minister, social media influencers (that whole concept should give us a hint, right? ..), or simply show up in the heartfelt and sometimes passionate conversations we have in person or writing with friends, colleagues, and family members, this prolix trend is modeling for us a formula for ultimate defeat.

What if Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had only been a powerful orator? If he had not stayed up nights with his fellows in justice creating strategic plans for well defined aims, then went on to put his own body in front of the marches and demonstrations, his time and strength into negotiating policies and contingencies for evolving outcomes, sat in jail as a consequence and still drafted letters and conducted painstaking research for the cause... would the tides of civil rights have been shifted in his time? Would that history have yielded the unfolding future as we know it today?

Famous among the many stories fondly told about Mohandas K. Gandhi is one about the parents who journeyed with their young boy to Gandhi and asked him to speak with the son about controlling his over-fondness for sweets. The Mahatma, to their surprise, told them to come back in a week! When they returned, they repeated their request but also inquired as to why it could not have been addressed at their prior visit, to which Gandhi replied: “How could I tell your child not to eat sweets before a took out a week to stop eating them, myself?”

Lest you think I don’t admire the wordsmiths of our culture, one more brilliant than the next, these individuals, themselves, are not at issue here. A much broader and deeper demon has morphed out of their righteous intent. We and they have become mutually mesmerized by the Sovereign Thought. The Benevolence of Being. The Justice of Judgement.

“All we are saying, is Give Peace A Chance,” sang the Beatles and the 60’s bred a generation of freer lifestyles in active and often violent opposition to existing policy. Strategically visionary, they provided a soundtrack that helped turn the tide in Vietnam. John Lennon and Yoko went into a public bedroom and did nothing, which was, indeed, something wildly motivating to citizen activists; the ongoing and sustainable public response was to create a national, indeed worldwide trading post of blueprints for social disruption. With full and specific understanding of what was at stake and why, we protested not only with our minds and mouths but with our hands and feet. Sometimes with our lives.

Heaven knows that if ever there was a time we needed mentors and heroes, it is now. I dearly hope you will contest my belief that for a hundred or more of the clattering voices we listen up to for direction, only one has a plan of action in the vault and can show us how it is being implemented, to what practical end, and when that objective will be delivered. And if it fails, what’s Plan B?

Here I am at the end of this rant and what has actually happened?

Yes, exactly! I have demonstrated what it looks like to be another example of the “Stativist” over whom I have here attempted to cast a veil of caution and question.

So, what can I do better?

I challenge myself to this simple exercise: I vow to apply myself to a new practice such that, for every ardent articulation I put forth to others, I will take an action step that can be quantified and carried out toward the “Good” of which I claim to be a champion.

Barbara Fields

Executive Director, The Association for Global New Thought. She is co-founder and project director of: The Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence; the Synthesis Dialogues I, II, & III with His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama of Tibet; the U.S. based omni-local initiatives for the Harvard Project on Negotiation’s Abraham Walk Initiative in the Middle East.

Formerly, she served as Program Director for the first modern Parliament of the World's Religions centennial celebration in Chicago. She was Program Director for the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies facilitated by Purdue University, and was a delegate to the UNESCO Seminar on Religion and Peace in Granada, Spain.

She was Director/Producer of the “Awakened World” Conference Series, including the Gandhi King Peace Train, AGNT’s Interfaith Forum in Rome/Florence, the Awakened World International Film Festival in Santa Barbara, CA and Symposium on Engaged Spirituality in San Diego.

She is the author of AGNT's newest nine module spiritual activist curriculum: "Social Uplift Ministries" (S.U.M.)

Contributing author: The Community of Religions; Two Hundred Visionaries; Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power.

Awards include: Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters; Religious Science International’s first Peace Award; The Peace Museum's Community Peacemaker Award in the area of Diplomacy; the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Award from Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.