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Fascinating strategic reflection on emotions and activism written at the height of the 1980s movement against nuclear weapons. Clearly relevant today. psandman.com/articles/scarstif.htmPermalink On twitter.com
Mood +4 🙂
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"Neither apathetic nor frightened, those who are inactive are actively working at not caring. … Like the terror it masks, psychic numbing is immobilizing. The struggle not to feel saps the energy to act."Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -10 🙁
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"Four antidotes to numbing are anger, love, hope, and action. These concepts – not terror – are the keys to mobilizing a huge popular movement against nuclear weapons."Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +9 🙂
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"While most negative emotions such as depression, guilt, and shame are inward and immobilizing, anger focuses the attention outside oneself and is therefore conducive to action. In some people it seems to chase away fear; in others it makes fear tolerable, replacing numbness."Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -14 🙁
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"Anger without love soon becomes sterile or uncontrolled, while love without anger can still inspire a movement. But there is no need to choose; love and anger are compatible."On twitter.com
Mood +1 🙂
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"Those who feel powerless to prevent nuclear war try not to think about it; and it serves the needs of those who do not wish to think about nuclear war to feel powerless to prevent it. Messages of hope and empowerment, however, break this vicious circle."Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -9 🙁
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"While people are most likely to take action against nuclear war when they feel angry, loving, and hopeful rather than terrorized into numbness, it is also true that action against nuclear war tends to liberate people’s anger, love, and hope. …Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -2 🙁
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… The growth of commitment is circular, in other words, with feelings, understandings, and behaviors alternating in complex patterns; action, however, is likely to begin the process."Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +4 🙂