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Knowledge is Power

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Semo Distro. Why We Can't Depend On Activists To Create Change. Photo Credit: Peter Gorman August 1, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Over the years I have often been asked how I became an activist. This kind of individualistic thinking about collective action is mostly a recent phenomenon. Examining these tectonic cultural shifts has profoundly changed how I understand political struggle. Americans have literally been migrating into values-homogenous social spaces since at least the late 1960s. Political Scientist Ronald Inglehart’s explanation for this trend is based on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: once our basic survival and material needs are provided for, we then focus more attention on social networks and individual expression.

The very concept of a group of activists is an example of this trend of self-segregation. In a society that is self-selecting into ever more specific micro-aggregations, it makes sense that activism itself could become one such little niche. Ten Steps for Radical Revolution in the US. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.”

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967 One. Human rights must be taken absolutely seriously. Every single person is entitled to dignity and human rights. No application needed. No exclusions at all. (Credit: WagingNonviolence.org) Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. We respect the human rights and human dignity of others and work for a world where love and wisdom and solidarity and respect prevail. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Finally, if those in government and those in power do not help the people do what is right, people seeking change must together exercise our human rights and bring about these changes directly.

Bill Quigley is Associate Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. The Top Ten Revolutionary Videos of 2011. At the end of the year, news agencies around the world, including the BBC, report the ten most popular YouTube videos of the past year. The lists inevitably contain some of the most banal, irritating, or mildly amusing videos of the past year, but rarely do we see the BBC and their ilk reminding us of the startlingly powerful images of resistance and revolution. So, in honour of those who were maimed or killed in 2011 in service of a better world, here are ten of the most memorable moments of revolt in 2011: 1. “Suicide that sparked a revolution” Upload date: January 19, 2011; Source: Al-Jazeera English The self-immolation of Menobia Bouazzizi, a young Tunisian man, was the spark that ignited the Arab Spring. 2.

“The Most AMAZING video on the internet #Egypt #jan25 Upload date: January 27, 2011; Source: hadi15 Beginning on January 25, the Egyptian people revolted against its Western-backed dictator, Hosni Mubarak. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. “Austerity” was the word of the year for 2010. 10. SubMedia.tv. Welcome to Prison Planet TV. Alex Jones.