(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)
So what a week, huh? Donald Trump is almost inevitably the Republican Nominee, and . . . well, Jesus, that’s about all we can focus on right now. Well that and we won’t have Ted Cruz Zodiac Killer jokes until 2020.
As of last week I’d realized I A) Wanted to become more engaged in organized politics or organizations with goals, and B) I didn’t understand as much as I thought. Where am I now?
- First, despite that urge to “go out and get involved with some organization” I am holding off. Why? Changing jobs, busy as all get out, and I tend to overcommit. I’m actually going to take time to think this over, though right now “Voter Registration” sounds good.
- I confess I’ve wondered if my future career should take me into the arena of political organizations as an IT manager. THAT is what I mean by overcommitting – my skillset tends to mean my commitments are mild or “all in.”
- I’m going to look more into what to do in June. Setting a time to strategically ask what more I can do helps.
- I’ve come to realized that our civic engagement has two parts to it – strong links and weak links Strong links are where we do specific things in specific organizations for specific goal – helping out a political party or group, etc. Weak links are the weak links of networking – things we don’t do intensely or all the time or in one way, but that have a lot of effects – like helping people look for work or promoting a club. Weak links are weak but numerous, tiny threads of spider silk that hold us together as a civilization.
- Civic engagement is really a mix of Strong And Weak Links. If you focus only on the Strong you’re narrowed (and perhaps almost cultishly involved or part of the System in the bad way). If you focus only on the Weak you miss chances to do big things.
- Strong And Weak involvements play into each other, and neither is better than the other. Both are needed. I could probably go into this deeper.
- I am pretty good at Weak links. I do networking instinctively. I actually think everyone should do that – look for opportunities to connect people to each other.
- Keeping myself mindful of civic engagement helps me follow news better – and I thought I was a news junkie beforehand. Being more concious of it just helps me be more aware.
- I still debate how much blogging and social media helps. I did chime in on issues of sexism in tech on my blog and promoted some good causes on Twitter that got some attention. I just don’t know if this can do more, or if I should do something else when I do it. I guess part of it is finding what it can do and do it, if that makes sense.
- My current big focus of awareness, besides Trump, is how fast the Trans-people-stalking-bathrooms idiocy has spread. In very short time I got to see it go from dumb bills to weirdos trying to protect our bathrooms from innocent trans people in person. Paying attention to news helps you see how fast this dumb-but-evil crap spreads – and let’s face it, this is just a-holes finding a new population to to target to keep the hate motivating their followers.
- I like the idea of Civic engagement being constant, regular, predictable. To be part of my life.
- I think a big part of Civic engagement is how its part of your identity. Probably going to write more on that.
– Steve