What is an Everyday Radical?

What does it mean to be an everyday radical? It means adopting the radical idea that we don't have to accept the unspoken truths that are shoved down our throat by those in power. We don't need anyone's permission to walk up to our societies coat check and get our lives and our money back.

I have started by creating a facebook page to allow for dynamic community involvement in Everyday Radical. I am creating this blog page to post longer more in depth pieces. I am going to try and make sure everything I post adheres to the following basic ideas.

1 Anyone can do it: This is primarily about making people realize their own empowerment. I don't say it's about empowering people because I am of the firm belief that people are empowered they just need to realize their own potential.

2 Nothing Promotes the Perfect being the Enemy of the Good: One of the societal lies that has always bothered me is that if you can't go whole hog it isn't worth it. 1000 people wasting 10% less is just as good as 100 people living a perfectly holistic waste free life, and the first goal is a LOT easier to attain. I tip my hats to people who only buy local, and make everything themselves, and are off the electricity grid, and never forget their re-usable bags when they bike to the store, and compost, and grow their own food using only natural fertilizer created by their compost, and . . .well you get the idea. How many of us can take all that on? Not very many, but how many of us can mix up some vinegar and water instead of buying S.C. Johnson Wax products? Plenty and is it still worth doing? Yes.

3 A strong emphasis on collaboration and networked thought: The 99% movement has gotten a lot of attention from people who want to know "Who their leaders are" "What they want" "What their focus is". What they do not realize is that the Occupy movement is basically the bit torrent of activism. They don't lack a leader or a single issue because the situation we find ourselves in is different than the previous generations situations. They are organized differently because they grew up on Napster, and MP3.com, and Bit Torrent, and re-shared ideas on Facebook and Twitter. They have watched protests in Iran and Egypt fueled by these social media platforms and more importantly the collaborative nature of the internet has broken down our need for a leader. When you look at projects like the It Gets Better Campaign the "leader" or "creator" Dan Savage repeats over and over again that he isn't really responsible for the Campaign. The people who took part are. Now he coordinated, and helped nurture it's growth, but he's right. Every person who posted a video, every person who re-shared the videos that touched them, the people at Google who were ready to back date the project so it could keep growing before Dan and Terry even knew what had happened are the true heroes of the project. That is not unique to It Get's Better. It is the core spirit of not just action on the Internet, but how the Internet has taught us to take action in all aspects of our lives. So I will try and emphasize the sorts of structures that facilitate that phenomenon.

4 Non Extremes: There is a place for extremism in all honesty. The goals of extremism are never the right ones, but sometimes you need a little anarchy to break up established structures. Then when the dust settles you need the better angels of your nature to step in and start to work things out. Even at the height of rebellion though there is a place for laying the groundwork of the peaceful period that follows the revolution. The 99% seem to have the revolution covered. It is my hope to tackle some of the rest of what is coming.

So that's what this is all about right now in my mind. As time goes on and other people start to contribute I fully expect the focus to evolve and change. While I'm going to use this space to post larger ideas and thoughts that won't fit on the facebook page, so it kind of belongs to me I hope to create a space on facebook where others will post their ideas contributions. Hopefully these will include posts from other people's blogs and at the end of the day that I won't own this any more than anyone else.

So go to the facebook page, see what's going on and throw in some of your radical ideas, and read some of everyone elses. The simpler and more casual the actions are the better. :)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Everyday-Radical/280811658607907