Guidelines for Activists

According to the helpful Wikipedia article, activism “consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good.” That sounds good to me. How about you? 

I asked ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Bing Chat for their suggestions regarding guidelines for activists. Of the three, I thought the former was clearly the best. It (they?) suggested such things as “educate yourself,” “set clear goals,” “build a strong network,” “stay optimistic,” and five more.

This article, though, is more about why one should be(come) an activist, and here is ChatGPT’s response to my question about that: people should be activists to “create change,” to “give a voice to the marginalized,” and to “influence policy.” Those sound like good reasons to me.  

I also agree with their statements about avoiding the errors of “all-or-nothing thinking,” “intolerance of opposing views,” and “demonizing individuals.”

I have long been an advocate of activism, although my actual social activity through the years was greatly limited by work and family responsibilities that kept me from having the time and energy to do more.

Recently, I have been thinking about some of the guidelines for my own activism, and lack thereof, which I am now sharing with you—and I am saying “we” instead of just “I.”

** It is better to do something, however inadequate that might be, rather than nothing. That sort of sentiment was expressed in the following well-known words by Edward E. Hale (1822~1909), an author and Unitarian clergyman. 

**Beware of thinking that because we are doing something we are doing all we can or should do. Perhaps we all are tempted to think that if we are actively engaged in some good activity, or activities, we are doing enough. That is most likely not true.

**Do not be(come) judgmental and critical of those who are doing less. Because we are doing something, it is a temptation to look down on those who are not doing as much. Such “self-righteousness,” though, is unbecoming and harmful to our relationship with others.

** Spend activist time/energy/money wisely, giving priority to those activities that will have the greatest benefit for the most people. It is easy to get caught up in emotional appeals for good but relatively insignificant causes. Always seek to focus on what is most important.

** Let’s remember to wear our bifocals! We must endeavor to make changes for a perceived greater good both for present-day society and for the world of the coming generations.

And speaking of bifocals (as I did in my previous blog post) for those who are activists, such “lenses” can be helpfully used in situations such as E.B. White wrote about: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world.”

Let’s try to do both every day.

Christian thinkers have often spoken about sins of omission, that is, not doing things we should have done.

Most of us, perhaps, are more guilty of that kind of sin than doing wrong or bad things, which is how sin is usually thought of. Remember what the New Testament says about this: “So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin” (James 4:17, NET).

My away-from-home activities are greatly limited now by lack of energy and stamina. But, no doubt, there is much (more) I can and should do by working at my computer at home. That can, I think, be meaningful activism also.

So, more than in recent months/years, beginning today I am going to try, consciously, to do one “activist” thing a day, even though it might be rather small. But, again, doing something is better than nothing.

What about you?

Thanks from a Happy Workhorse

So, as announced last week, here is my 1,000^th blog post, including the first tentative one I made in July 2009. I am posting this with deep gratitude to those of you who have read my posts through the years—and especially to you who have taken the time and energy to post or email comments. 

Cover of the book with
100 of my 1,000 blog posts.

These 1,000 blog posts have been made by a happy “workhorse.” As I wrote in the post made in November 2016, during the academic year of 1981-82 when I was back in Missouri on a missionary “furlough,” I had the privilege of teaching at William Jewell College.

Dr. David O. Moore (1921~2016), my professor/benefactor/friend, was on sabbatical, so I had the privilege of using his faculty office (and library) during that wonderful year. Hanging on the wall of his office there was a horseshoe with the accompanying words, “God loves a happy workhorse.”

I resonated with those words, as I had up until then—and have also since then—seen myself as a “workhorse,” that is, as a person who is not flashy (like a racehorse) but a “plodder.” That had/has been my modus operandi up until then, and since.

Recently I asked ChatGPT about the characteristics of a workhorse. Since I actually drove workhorses as a boy back in the late 1940s, I expected an answer about horses. I was surprised that the response was about persons.

The first sentence from the chatbot was, “A workhorse is typically a reliable and hardworking individual who is able to handle a large workload and complete tasks efficiently and effectively.”

Well, I don’t know how effective I have been, but what I learned as a farmboy about working hard became a lifelong characteristic. (But now, in my 85^th year, I have decided to quit working so hard.)

I also asked ChatGPT what it means to say that God loves a happy workhorse.

The response explained that “God values hard work, perseverance, and dedication . . . individuals who are willing to put in the effort and dedication necessary to achieve their goals, and who find joy and fulfillment in their work.” Yes, I can identify with that.

But then I was surprised that the chatbot cited Colossians 3:23-24 as an example of a Bible passage that speaks about “the importance of hard work and the value of being a good and faithful servant.”

I was surprised not only because I didn’t expect response to my question about a workhorse to include a Bible reference, but I was particularly surprised because I cited that Bible passage in a sermon preached in 1955, the month before I started to college.**

The AI response concluded that “the characteristics of a workhorse and the idea that God loves a happy workhorse reflect the importance of hard work and dedication in achieving one’s goals and serving others.”

When I started this blog in July 2009, just before my 71^st birthday, I didn’t set a goal of posting 1,000 times. But in March 2010 I decided to regularize the blog by posting articles of 500~700 words every five days (give or take a day at times).

I set the goal of making 1,000 posts around the time I made my 500^th post back in 2016. And I am happy to say that I have met that goal, never missing one time to post as planned.

Once again, many thanks to all of you Thinking Friends, and others, who have read most, many, or even just a few of my 1,000 blog posts. And while I will be posting irregularly and less often now, I hope you will continue to be friends who read—and perhaps respond—to my future posts.

In 1963—60 years ago!—I remember Ed Burgher (1925~2001), an older ministerial colleague, saying, “Impression without expression leads to depression.” I still think that that is a wise observation.

So, I am going to continue to blog, just not so often and not on any regular schedule. I don’t want to be depressed!

Please look forward to my next blog post. On the day after I made my 999^th post, I started writing number 1,001—but it will not be posted until after January 15. I trust you will find it worth waiting for.

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** Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

I’m fairly certain I read that passage in that 1955 sermon, although the text I used was Ecclesiastes 9:10, which admonishes, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” Even though I didn’t know the words memento mori then, these are words related to that concept which I was thinking about when I was still 16.

Happy New Year of the Rabbit!

Today is New Year’s Eve in the Western world, but as I have done in previous years, I am posting this after the new year has already begun in East Asia. So, in true Japanese fashion, I am wishing each one of you a Happy New Year! 明けまして、おめでとう御座います!* 

The new year, 2023, is the Year of the Rabbit according to the zodiac of China/East Asia. The Chinese New Year doesn't begin until January 22, but for a long time now Japan has celebrated January 1 as New Year’s Day, although many of the ancient traditions are still maintained to varying degrees.

As most of you may know, in East Asia there is a sign for each of twelve years rather than twelve signs in one year as in the West, and each sign repeats in a twelve-year cycle.

It is easy to guess what year a person was born in if you know their sign, so in Japan it is common to ask for a person’s zodiac sign rather than asking their age. If a young senior citizen says they were born in the Year of the Rabbit, you could easily guess they were born in 1963, not 1951 or 1975.

“People born under the sign of the rabbit,” according to this website, “are gentle, sensitive, compassionate, amiable, modest and merciful, and have strong memory. They like to communicate with others in a humorous manner.”

My father was born in the Year of the Rabbit (so as you might guess, he was born in 1915), and the characteristics given in the previous paragraph seem to have fitted him well. How do they seem to fit those of you who were born in, say, 1939, 1951, or 1963?

What can we expect in the Year of the Rabbit, 2023? Early this month, I received a special issue of The Economist titled “The World Ahead 2023.” Every year they publish this sort of special edition, which I always find interesting and helpful.

This time, though, I didn’t find editor Tom Standage’s “Ten trends to watch in the coming year" to be particularly beneficial. The first two were “All eyes on Ukraine” and “Recessions loom,” but perhaps most any of us could have predicted the same things.

I did, though, think that these words from his final paragraph were thoughtworthy.

In retrospect, the pandemic marked the end of a period of relative stability and predictability in geopolitics and economics. Today’s world is much more unstable, convulsed by the vicissitudes of great-power rivalry, the aftershocks of the pandemic, economic upheaval, extreme weather, and rapid social and technological change. Unpredictability is the new normal. There is no getting away from it.

So, yes, what the world will experience in the year ahead is quite unpredictable—although to a large degree, that is true for every new year.

I asked ChatGPT what the world could expect in 2023. It quickly replied, “It is not possible for me to predict with certainty what will happen in 2023, as the future is always uncertain and can be influenced by a wide range of factors.” That was pretty much a no-brainer.  

But the “chatbot” did suggest four “potential developments” that could take place in 2023, including, “It is likely that there will be continued progress in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology, which could lead to new products and services that change the way we live and work.”

That is consistent with what Economist editor Standage mentioned as one of the expected ten trends in 2023. Apple is set to launch its first virtual reality headset, which they suggest may be the next “best thing” in the “metaverse.”** Will they change society as much as iPads/iPhones have? We'll see. 

Regardless of what might happen in 2023, the Year of the Rabbit, I pray that it will be a good year for you—and for the world at large.

_____

* If you don’t have Japanese fonts loaded on your computer, you may not be able to see the Japanese words in this sentence.

** As envisioned by Octavia Butler in her 1998 dystopian novel Parable of the Talents, by 2033 such virtual reality headsets were being replaced by the superior Dreamasks. 

Evaluating Three McCarthys

As far as I can remember, I have never personally known anyone with the name of McCarthy. But I have known about three “men” with that name, and I am posting a brief evaluation of those three here.

Charlie McCarthy was the name of a ventriloquist’s dummy. Beginning back in the 1930s, Edgar Bergen (who was an actor, comedian, and ventriloquist), made Charlie McCarthy a popular and beloved figure in American entertainment from 1937 on for decades. 

I probably heard Bergen and McCarthy on the radio in the late 1940s. During those years my birth family would often sit around the dining table in the evenings listening to radio programs. Surprisingly, Charlie was well known as ventriloquist Bergen’s dummy even though he couldn’t be seen.

Bergen (1903~78) was the father of the well-known actress Candice Bergen (b. 1946). In her early girlhood years, she was irritated whenever she was referred to as Charlie McCarthy’s little sister.*¹

A few years after I first heard of Charlie McCarthy, as a high school student I began to hear some about a Senator named McCarthy.

Joseph McCarthy (1908~57) was a U.S. Senator (R-Wis.), first elected to the Senate in 1946. He was relatively unknown until early in 1950 when he began charging that there was massive Communist infiltration in the U.S. government.

Margaret Chase Smith, Maine’s Republican Senator from 1949 to 1973, was a leader in the opposition to Sen. McCarthy’s spurious charges. Heather Cox Richardson wrote about that on June 1, 2022, noting that “once upon a time, Republican politicians were the champions of reason and compromise.”

In 1954 the Senate finally voted to censure McCarthy, and according to a Senate webpage, “Censured by his Senate colleagues, ostracized by his party, and ignored by the press, McCarthy died three years later, 48 years old and a broken man.”

But McCarthyism—and it is interesting that his name is one of the few names that became an “ism”—has continued to live on, most recently in Trumpism, another instance of a name becoming an ism.

Roy Cohn (1927~86) was Sen. McCarthy’s chief counsel in the 1954 hearings, and then he was Donald Trump’s lawyer and mentor for 13 years in the 1970s and ’80s. A Yale history professor’s opinion piece about the connection of McCarthyism to Trumpism was published on Dec. 4, 2020.

Kevin McCarthy is a current U.S. Representative (R-Calif.) and the top Republican in the House. First elected to Congress in 2006, McCarthy (b. 1965) was elected as GOP majority leader in 2014, the fastest-ever ascent to that pivotal leadership post.

McCarthy is a Southern Baptist, and his pastor in Riverside, Calif., flew to Washington to offer the opening invocation of the House on the day before McCarthy was installed as the majority leader. The next day, McCarthy told a D.C. group of religious conservatives that he was “proud to be a Christian.”*²

During the impeachment investigation in 2019, Cleveland Plain Dealer cartoonist Jeff Darcy referred to Rep. McCarthy as “President Trump’s ventriloquist dummy puppet.” He then added, “Out of respect to legendary ventriloquism puppet Charlie McCarthy, the two are not related.”*³

Soon after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, McCarthy was highly critical of Pres. Trump, rightfully calling it an "unprecedented attack on our nation." He said that Trump's words and actions "helped to encourage the actions of the rioters" and that the President's "betrayal of his office and supporters" was a "dishonor to the country."

However, before the end of that month, McCarthy backtracked his criticism and even went to Mar-a-Lago to visit with Trump. He seems to once again to be “my Kevin,” as Trump has referred to him through the years.

Now Rep. McCarthy is vying to become Speaker of the House when the 118^th Congress convenes on Jan. 3, 2023. Implying McCarthy’s lack of integrity, columnist Dana Millbank wrote on Dec. 2 that McCarthy “sells his soul to extremists in hopes of eking out enough votes to become speaker.”

Clearly, Charlie seems to be the best of the three McCarthys.

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*¹ I first remember Candice Bergen as the leading actress in Sand Pebbles (1966), one of my favorite movies.

*² Even though I was a Southern Baptist for 65 years, I have far more respect for Rep. Jamie Raskin (see my Dec. 10 post) who is a Jew, than for Rep. McCarthy. That is largely because of the latter’s hypocrisy or opportunism—and for his besmirching the good name of Christians.

*³ Here is the link to Darcy’s cartoon and article about Kevin and Charlie.

Note: The fourth paragraph about Rep. McCarthy was generated by ChatGPT, the new AI online program. I just slightly modified what it wrote from my prompt asking for McCarthy's criticism of Pres. Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.