Self-Organizing Man

What might behaviorally based activism look or sound like?  I don’t know.  But I came across a quote from Dr. Vandana Shiva, physicist, philosopher, ecofeminist, environmental activist and writer.

She is most well know for her campaigns against corporate control and privatization of the world’s ecosytems. 

In Critical Moment she states (Critical Moment’s question is in bold; Shiva’s response is in italics):

The city of Highland Park, Michigan is facing its own difficulties with the water system. Recently, they signed a contract with Coca-Cola to privatize their water. And there are countless other examples of communities that are facing these types of situations. Why do you think it’s important for those communities to be conscious of the struggle internationally?

Because these companies can mine and destroy the water, they cannot be keepers of the water; they cannot be protectors of water. The most important reason is we are connected through water. We are one Earth family, consuming the same water. Seventy percent of the Earth is water; seventy percent of our bodies are water. Someone in Highland Park is seventy percent water, someone in India is seventy percent water - that is what our common humanity is about. Because of our common humanity, we have to defend our rights - for ourselves and for everyone else. 

Shiva’s continues:

And the reason that someone in Highland Park has to be aware of what the women in Plachimada are doing, what the women of Tehri are resisting, or what the women of Delhi are saying no to in terms of privatization is because we learn more about the greed of these corporations, we learn more about the lies of these corporations, we learn more about our capacity as citizens of the earth to exercise our duties, to protect everyone’s rights, to defend our rights, to have the minimum amount of water to sustain ourselves. These are common rights; they’re not different for the rich or for the poor. They’re not different for the richer part of the world or the poorer part of the world. They are absolutely the same set of rights, and they’re not just for humans. The tree has the same right as the human, the fish has the same right as the human, the earthworm in our soil has the same right as the human to have access to water that the planet gives us. These corporations cannot deny 300 million species and 6 billion people on this planet the right to life by treating water as their property to buy and sell as they please.

Her conceptualization of how to address corporate greed and connect the lives between women in India and the citizens of Highland Park, Michigan meets my inchoate criteria for behaviorally based activism.

She talks about greedy behavior, lying behavior, the behavior of making connections through race and class and gender and nationality.

And she does it by using verbs, mostly.  Connect, defend, aware…

And she does it through simplicity and elegance.  The earth is seventy percent water, we are seventy percent water.

Seventy percent of the Earth is water; seventy percent of our bodies are water. Someone in Highland Park is seventy percent water, someone in India is seventy percent water - that is what our common humanity is about. Because of our common humanity, we have to defend our rights - for ourselves and for everyone else.

Here is a call to action that does not rely on identity, but our common humanity and connection with our Earth, our habitat.  Her words mark a beginning for me, and a direction I want to be moving in, both through her conceptualizations of social justice and the very words she chooses.

I think her quote is an example behavorially based social justice activism.

Thoughts?