Are You Paying Attention?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the different ways in which we can resist contributing to an unjust world. Too often, we focus on means of resistance that give away our power to others.  We give away our power to politicians when we wait for them to pass laws that will bring about the change we want. We give away our power to banks when we protest outside of their corporate headquarters, asking them to stop funding new fossil fuel plants that will pollute poor neighborhoods.

Yes, passing good laws and protesting injustice are necessary forms of resistance, and we need to keep practicing them.  But I think we also need to deepen our practice in more personal ways that don’t give away our power and voices to others.  These are times that call for radical action; radical in the sense that we take the values we believe in and live them out in our daily lives however we can. We should resist by withdrawing ourselves from sustaining the systems that oppress us.

What powers do we have in our own hands still?  We have a great deal of power, small individually but crippling to the system collectively.  We can withdraw our money from supporting any institution that causes harm, withdraw our votes from any government that has stopped listening to us, and withdraw our attention from any media outlet that manipulates us in order to maximize profits.

For example, a recent Gallup survey found that more than half of all teenagers spend almost five hours per day on social media. Though we can all have our own opinions on its usefulness, I happen to not be very impressed by social media. It’s held up as a brilliant technological innovation of game-changing entrepreneurs, when I experience it more as a shouting contest to draw eyes au they can get their hands on as much advertising revenue as possible.  And it’s very good at what it does: a recent Harvard study found that last year social media companies made $11bn on advertising revenues from minors. 

Further, sitting in a room by yourself all the time in front of a glowing box looking at the amazing things other people are doing without you seems to be a recipe for loneliness and depression.

And we support these companies and this rising tide of empty consumption, loneliness, and desperation by giving our attention to them freely.  We click the box that signs away our rights to our personal information and put our eyes on their content, tapping  on the things shouting to us. In turn, they sell our attention as their primary source of income and profit.

So we resist by withdrawing our attention.  But when we begin to do that, it’s like when they turn on the lights after a movie in a movie theater and you look around and are surprised at where you are. You are surprised that you had forgotten yourself. And you begin the hard work of filling up your life with other things, you have to decide what to do with the time you have taken back for yourself.  And it’s a struggle at first, as it will be with everyone, but after a while life begins to fill with new things as it always will: maybe you learn to finally ride a bike (or teach your children too), maybe you create something yourself instead of consuming the cheap creations of others, or maybe you cook something nourishing and healthy for your body and the people you love.  And after a while, you look back at all that time and attention you once gave away so freely, and it’s hard to believe. You look around at the wildflowers you picked or the guitar you’re learning to play, and you begin to think about the other ways you can resist – creatively, joyously, collectively – by remembering your power and withdrawing yourself from supporting the other systems that you no longer believe in.