The Advice of Benjamin

I must apologize to any readers who might wish that I had posted more frequently over the last several months.  Admittedly, my posting has been light.  In particular, I have stepped back from regular updates to my series of essays on the subject of economic precarity.  This is not because this subject has become less relevant.  Indeed, it has become increasingly relevant as the governments of many nations are being taken over by the Global Far Right.  However, my eyes are on a number of trends which have yet to come to full fruition.  Until those trends mature fully, I think it best to keep quiet.  To quote from one of the characters in A Canticle for Leibowitz, "Probing the womb of the future is bad for the child."

And like that fictional character, in a manner of speaking I too have chosen in these days to live a somewhat anchorite life at the top of my metaphorical desert mesa, wrapping myself evening by evening in my metaphorical prayer shawl.  However, I am not so detached that I haven't noticed recent news reports about the global wave of protests against corrupt and conservative governments around the world this year.  These protests have been led predominantly by the members of Generation Z, or Gen Z for short.  I am more than a little too old to be part of the Gen Z cohort, yet if Gen Z'ers don't mind, I'd like to offer some advice.  First, although mass protest is not without effect, I would strongly caution you all NOT to base your activism solely on mass protest marches.  In other words, don't have just one tactic in your suite of tactics. The scholar Gene Sharp identified at least 198 tactics of strategic nonviolent resistance.  These methods include both protest and much, much more than just protest.  Study his writings.  Read his book From Dictatorship to Democracy to learn how to think strategically.  Read the writings and watch the videos of Jamila Raqib.  Use the resources offered by Srdja Popovic and his organization CANVAS.  Learn how the widespread practice of radical frugality can disrupt the holders of concentrated wealth and power.  Learn the power and necessity of maintaining nonviolent discipline in your struggle.  And if you feel so inclined, please read the posts I have written for this blog from the end of 2016 until now, particularly the posts titled "From D to D" which I wrote as a study guide for Gene Sharp's book.  In solidarity I wish you all the best.