Many a time I’ve been dismissed for being “radical” because I believe that everyone who walks the planet deserves plenty of good food, clean water, nice shelter, decent health care, and free time to dive into creativity and relaxation. Don’t we all want that for ourselves and the people in our lives? What’s so crazy about wanting it for everyone, then? I don’t drop bombs on people, I don’t use money/sex/drugs to suppress people, I haven’t tortured anyone. So why should I be dismissed as a scary weirdo?
The word “radical” is slapped about hastily by people who fear stepping outside what they already know—the norm has been established, and they’re sticking by it. Anything beyond that norm is thus regarded as dangerously loony. Meanwhile, those with dishonest and cynical aims use the word as a lazy shortcut for keeping people afraid and/or angry. I want to lift the lid for fresh air.
To me, being radical means:
- (Un)learning. All the time, everywhere. 90% of our brains sit around doing nothing. Couldn’t we use a bit of that dormant gray matter for planning, creating, building, growing? It’d be helpful to remember that sometimes learning requires unlearning what binds us to lies, “facts” that can’t be proved, somebody else’s ideas that we’re this and not that.
- Recognizing that our truths today are based on our personal contexts and realizing how we can be more honest by allowing those truths to change.
- Understanding the value of our own worths.
- Having the guts to call out wrongs and rights as they’re happening.
- Altering perspectives from time to time.
- Taking a stand against greed and selfishness. There’s more than enough to go around, there’s more than enough room for everyone to be appreciated.
- Empowering people if you’re an employer. It’s not cool to promise flowery concepts about how great the company is and then deny your team members (staff, temp, or freelance) livable earnings. You don’t devalue your own time or services, so why expect anyone else to?
- Using less so someone in need can have more.
- Refusing to feel hopeless while doing nothing.
- Feeling good about receiving, expecting nothing from giving.
- Admitting mistakes and experimenting with better ways of doing things.
- Asking, “Hey, how can we meet our various needs and wants without destroying one another and the entire planet?”
- Residing in the territory of what’s possible. That territory doesn’t operate under slogans or flags or make claims that some god has some special mission for it.
- Thinking without borders, acting without borders. This isn’t a big “Hooray!” for illogical trade (i.e. rich countries gobbling up the resources of poorer ones); rather, it is recognition that prioritizing borders over the real needs of humanity fosters unnecessary divisiveness.
- Living like hybrids. We all consist of blends. There’s no reason to corner ourselves into singular identities based on job titles or religions or nationalities or political parties or whatever else.
- Giving credit where credit is due. Thank someone who deserves to be thanked. If appropriate, let other people know about this person’s special worth and talents.
This list is not meant to be the end-all, be-all. Each of the items on this list is worth a separate post. So I’ll eventually come back to them, one by one. In the meantime: What does being radical mean to you?
