Let’s face it: a lot of us are worried, aren’t we? We can see that there’s so much that needs to be fought, fixed and/or changed, whether it’s the climate emergency, or the return of fascism, or wars, or wealth inequality at the global level. Or perhaps you are kept wake at night by anxiety over what social media is doing to our children and to wider society, or the scary cost of heating and groceries, or the feeling that hatred, disinformation and division are increasingly dominating our political and social discourse? The cocktail of worries can make us feel pretty desperate. It also makes us feel that there’s a world to be saved! But how? And by whom?
Some people feel driven to do something – and that something could range from organising a petition or joining a march to risking arrest under the terrorism act to protest against genocide or running a high-profile campaign against racial hatred.
Others feel so overwhelmed that they disengage as far as possible. They stop consuming news and avoid conversations that take them into stressful areas or make them feel guilty.
Another group want to DO something but haven’t yet identified what that might be or how to go about doing it. Perhaps, too, they don’t feel confident to act because they don’t perceive themselves as useful, brave or good enough.
And if you’re in that second or third category, do you sometimes think that the people in the first – and especially at the more active end of the spectrum – can sometimes be a right pain? Judgy, sanctimonious, pious…even utterly out of touch with the very causes or people they claim to care about? Maybe that has put you off the individual(s) or the organisation and squashed any idea of getting involved.
Well…
‘How to Save the World. Doing Good Without Annoying Everyone‘
Anthea Lawson’s brilliant, readable new book is, on the face of it, directed at that first category and, more particularly, to those who are really stuck into ‘doing good’. Without being judgy, sanctimonious and pious herself (and from a perspective of authentic experience in the field), she does a fantastic job of giving all us activists a good (constructive) kick up the bum. In doing so, she creates space for those who assume that being a hero or a saviour or unmistakably and irrefutably ‘good’ are the prerequisites for activism.
For me, the book works as a highly effective invitation to examine and reflect on one’s own motivation and the behavioural, cultural and personal habits that can have their dark and unhelpful side. Anthea L’s ‘save the world’ script presents the key claims to worthiness in the do-gooding world as individual chapters: ‘I am good’; ‘I protest’; ‘I am pure’; ‘I know better than you’;’ I save people’; ‘I am a hero; and ‘I must save the world’
She takes the reader through each of these ‘types’ and their motivation in a pacy, enjoyably fresh and honest way, analysing the problems and peppering her insights with stories of inspirational, instructive people modelling best practice. I found myself not only absorbed by a really good read, but wincing as I recognised some of my own behaviours that really needed to change if I was not to end up being counterproductive. I’m no doubt still a work-in-progress, but I’ve already changed a lot. I hope.
So, if you’ve been thinking about doing something, but have been put off by hyper-active, know-it-all, always-on campaigners like the old me, this book might make you feel differently about taking the plunge. I really hope it does, because we are in the fight of our lives on so many fronts and you’re needed! And notice that Anthea specifies not ‘annoying everyone’ in the title, not ‘anyone’. Some people need to be annoyed and more!
If you are anywhere near Ashburton on Thursday , July 16, 19:30 please come to Ashburton Arts Centre and meet Anthea L (and me, Anthea S) as we talk about the book, activism, doing good and why we need more conversations about the issues we all face. Anthea has a wealth of experience but she wears it lightly and is warm, funny and very happy to take the p*** out of herself! We are working together now on Common Ground, so I expect we’ll talk a bit about that,too. And she’ll be signing copies of her book, with copies supplied by First Draft Books.
Tickets here: https://wegottickets.com/f/23266 Hope to see you then!
