The Tyranny of Doing: Activism

I am what I call “activist adjacent”. I tend to be pretty progressive and have multiple friends who are, or have been, activists. As such, I’m surrounded by people trying to address a myriad of issues that I care about. I am also chronically online, and have been since the early 2000s. My social media feeds are full of commentary and calls to action. There seems to be a never-ending stream of instructions to do or say something in a certain way. Sometimes the calls to action are contradictory. When I was in my twenties the statements were much more black-and-white, with no space for nuance or consideration that the audience may have a different background, energy level, skillset, or ability than the poster. While the rhetoric has changed somewhat to highlight different ways of being active and to acknowledge differences, the overall impression is still an expectation to “Do” in a specific kind of way.

My clients are largely some combination of poor, queer, and neurodivergent. The current rhetoric coming from Washington about cuts to Medicaid, blatant attacks on transgender rights, and the most recent announcement of a massive data grab to try to “find the cause of autism” are all direct attacks on my clients, my friends, and by extension me. Everyone is scared about potential impacts to their health, safety and freedom. And because we are good people who care about harm to others, there is stress about all of the other harms, threats, and unconstitutional actions happening as well. Everyone wants to feel safe, and wants the awfulness to stop, but they are often overwhelmed with the prospect of trying to Do Something.

I find the “Tyranny of Doing” to show up a lot in activism spaces, especially online. Exhortations to say something, do something, perform somehow, in order to help move things forward. Posts about “Silence is Violence” and the like. I often struggle with the social media aspect of a lot of activism. I am white, college educated, and middle class, as are the bulk of my friends. We also largely come from the northeast, where the Puritan work ethic of "do it yourself" is a value baked into our social structure. Because of those two intersections, individualism often rears its head. Social media posts about “Do this thing!” or “Everybody should…” often take a movement that by definition is a group project and place it firmly on the shoulders of each individual.

How many posts have we seen recently with a list of action items if they want to make a difference? So many of the lists involve financial or energy resources that may be scarce for many people. I’ve seen so many things list “start a…” or “organize a…” as options. Many of these action items are not accessible for neurodivergent or disabled folk.

Ensuring Everyone Has a Role In The Group Project

 American exceptionalism and individualism have created a situation where each person feels (or is expected to feel) personally responsible to solve the problems that they care about. Individual activism and exceptionalism have been weaponized by corporations for decades to keep us all so focused on our own actions and choices and wondering if we’re doing it right that we miss the bigger issues. (I’m looking at you petrochemical companies, with the invention of the individual “carbon footprint” and emphasis on recycling plastics that just end up shipped to developing economies.) American history lessons that teach about Women’s Suffrage or Civil Rights movements focus on one or two individuals who were figureheads, and skim over the hundreds, or thousands of people who participated in the movements but whose names never made it into the newspaper.

 There is also a large amount of in-group/out-group social hierarchy that comes into play in certain circles. It seems to happen more in younger groups, and in largely homogeneous self-selecting groups. (College campuses, and interest groups in high school and college come to mind.) There is some level of pressure, either explicit or implied, to say/do/perform a certain set of tasks or ideas. “Virtue Signaling” is often derided as purely performative, but it’s effectively what a lot of online activism is about. To be seen saying and doing the “right” things so that you can show that you have the “right” set of morals or beliefs. There is often little room for nuance. Because we can only prove what others can observe, it’s tempting to fall into the mindset that the only acceptable ways of acting, of helping, are the ones that are visible to other people. I think it’s important to reframe activism and resistance into a wider scope. There are some lovely graphics and posts available that list out all of the different ways activism can show up. There is beginning to be a recognition that collective work is more effective and sustainable, and that there are limits to what each individual person can do. I appreciate the work and writing of Ijeoma Oluo. Her Substack Post There's No Welcome Committee Here is insightful, as well as providing a great resource of places to start. I also appreciate the slowly shifting narratives around the importance of rest, and that the healers are just as important to the movement as the activists in the streets.

I’m a full-time mental health counselor. I run a private practice on my own and so I’m responsible for all of the scheduling, billing, cleaning and organizing that needs to happen, in addition to the actual work of seeing 20-25 clients a week. I’m also the parent to two young children. I have about 2 hours to myself every evening, less if the kids are being particularly fractious. And it’s because of these restrictions on my time that I run full tilt into the Tyranny of Doing, and the guilt of “not doing enough.” Because I am often at work when protests happen, I have limited funds to donate, and after spending all day in conversations I really struggle with the idea of making more phone calls at 8:30pm. I absolutely do not have the bandwidth to navigate challenging comment sections on social media posts. I often feel guilty for not doing enough. For not being able to turn the tide myself on the awfulness in the world. The populations that I work with are actively under attack, and there’s a limit to what I can do to protect them.

Trauma Activation and Activism

Feeling helpless, and the anxiety that comes with it, often feeds into the internal pressure to “Do Something”, even if that thing is limited in scope, or may be ineffectual. I continually remind myself that being a healer counts as helping. Especially being a healer that focuses on a few vulnerable populations, and accepts Medicaid. I also remind myself that the calls to action are likely meant to find the people who do have the time/energy/finances available to answer them. And while it’s not flashy or quick, I’m working to try to raise good, conscious, caring humans, including being part of my school district’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee. I can use my art skills to make postcards to push my Congress-people into action.

In this context anxiety is the primary driver of action. Anxiety, especially being in fight/flight/freeze levels of activation, diminishes our ability to think rationally. The Tyranny Of Doing, and black and white demands for action, become ever more intense in the face of acute anxiety. Returning to the last post about the impact of trauma: trauma activation requires emotional regulation before the return of rational thought and planning. Many people are regularly dysregulated by hearing bullying and gaslighting words spoken by some of the most powerful people in the world. I saw a recent piece of writing that effectively stated that we should be over our freeze and fear responses and should be doing more to resist. This is not how trauma and fear responses work. Finding ways to regulate your activation and anxiety before starting activism work is crucial for maintaining longevity. Rest is important, even when it is challenging.

The Tyranny of Doing is going to rear its head in regards to activism when people are scared, and when they feel like they are personally responsible for solving every crisis and injustice in the world. The analogy of a choir holding a sustained note is helpful to remember in this context. When a group of people are holding a note, each individual can drop out to breathe and rejoin as they need to. And together the choir continues to sing. Wanting to fix something is the mark of a good person who cares. But no one person can solve the major issues that we are facing as a country and as a species. We are all doing our best with what we have.

Take good care of yourselves.