An Opinion
By: Sherine Abraham
Tags: Activism, Propaganda, Change, Social Media

Armchair Activism: Can it make a difference in the 21st century?

Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov(1856–1918) does not ring a bell for most people who are not familiar with Russian Marxist thinkers.

His contemporary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov AKA Vladimir Lenin is known to most of us.

The leader of the Bolsheviks and the leader of Soviet Russia( later the Soviet Union) from 1917–1924, Lenin was the principal architect behind Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The Trotskys and the Bogdanovs are not remembered in the same light as Lenin is.

Plekhanov one can argue is even forgotten.

Maybe the reason Plekhanov was forgotten was because he was called an Armchair Revolutionary( nee Activist), someone who could never become a leader.

In 1937,Russian Political Philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev wrote: “After years of living in Western Europe, Plekhanov became entirely a Western and of a very rationalist sort, fairly cultured, although his culture was not of the highest kind; more of an armchair revolutionary than a practical one. He could be a leader of a Marxist school of thought, but he could not be a leader of a revolution; that was made clear at the time of the revolution”

Plekhanov had famously noted, “… without revolutionary theory there is no revolutionary movement in the true sense of the word.”

In my opinion the statement above makes a lot of sense, to put an idea into use, it must be formulated first.

Not only does it give the proponents of the idea a platform but it also gives the opponents food for thought, so that they can counter it with something better.

Those were different times with different realities.

If Lenin had taken account of plekhanov’s theories and literary work we would have seen a different Soviet Union if there ever would have been one.

As we have evolved as a society, armchair activism has as well. In the 21st century plekhanov would be much more than an armchair activist. He would be considered an ideological guru.

So who are the modern day armchair activists?

Journalists, celebrities, you tube presenters, social media influencers and to a certain extent all of us who have access to information, want to make a difference and can disseminate the information we have, in a meaningful way, can be considered to be armchair activists.

I am painting a picture with some broad strokes here but I hope you get the general idea.

There is however a big distinction to be made between activism and propaganda.

There are a lot of so called “activists” who spread misleading information, either completely false or partly true to publicize certain political causes or points of view. There is a term for these people and it is not “ activist”.

The term is “propagandist”.

Also another thing to note here is the difference between “activism” and “advocacy”. Activism requires you to work “outside the system” to generate change while advocacy requires to work “ within the system”.

Advocacy can lead to Activism but that is rarely the case these days as advocates generally are people who are glorified propogandists.

This leads us to the bigger question, can these modern day armchair activists really bring about change in our society?

I believe they can and there have been numerous examples of that.

They might not be the instigators of the change but they can act as catalysts for the change.

A hashtag can go a long way in promoting a cause. This has been magnified in 2020 because most of us have literally been stuck to our “armchairs”.

Also another thing I would like to point out is the whole left/right divide and how it impacts activism.

Most of us(left wing folk)would like to think that the left is full of activists and the right full of propagandists.

But this is not necessarily true, there are right wing activist movements as well which have credence an example being the new right movement which consists of the Liberal Conservatives , who stress Small Government, free markets, and individual initiative.

At the same time there is left wing propaganda which goes on as well.

In my mind as long as you can argue your case with the facts properly presented, not twisted or doctored you can be called an activist.

Activism generates meaningful debate, something which is missing from present day society.

Activism also helps us as individuals rationalize ideas and think for a change.

In modern society the power of thought has somewhat disappeared, we are constantly fed information through various avenues and because of the busy lives most of us lead, we do not think about the information that is fed to us, but rather just accept it.

This is a dangerous trend and one that does not bode well for the future.

Indulging in activism can help quell this to a certain extent.

I would like to end this by urging most out there to seriously think about activism and also believe that “ you” can make a difference.

You can choose to be an activist but please make sure that it is “activism” that you are choosing.

Medha Patkar is someone you should be looking up to and not Kangana Ranaut

One is an activist the other a propagandist and I truly hope you can differentiate between who is who and if you cannot then I hope that you are among the select few because if not, our Society would be in real trouble!