Personal Growth, Making Mistakes, and Activism

By Wade Hudson

Self-development helps activists increase their effectiveness. Learning better how to listen, be less judgmental, offer constructive criticism, speak from the heart, inspire others, handle anger, acknowledge mistakes and weaknesses, avoid burnout, and spread happiness are some of the valuable qualities that we can cultivate with intentional effort.

Nurturing humility is particularly important. In her "On Being Wrong" TED Talk, Kathryn Schulz stated:

Most of us do everything we can to avoid thinking about being wrong, or at least to avoid thinking about the possibility that we ourselves are wrong.... Getting something wrong means there's something wrong with us.... We all kind of wind up traveling through life trapped in this little bubble of feeling very right about everything.... To step outside of that feeling...is the single greatest moral, intellectual and creative leap you can make.... You need to step outside of that tiny, terrified space of rightness and look around at each other and look out at the vastness and complexity and mystery of the universe and be able to say, "Wow, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong."

Verbalizing thoughts and feelings concerning personal issues enhances understanding. Being heard, understood, and accepted by others is comforting and encourages us to persist with the difficult task of internal examination.

Given the hectic nature of the modern world, regularly setting aside special time to pause, reflect, and evaluate our personal efforts can be beneficial. Such gatherings, perhaps with a small group of trusted allies, can serve as accountability sessions.

Written commitments are also useful. They focus our attention. That’s why partners embrace marriage vows and religious communities verbalize key beliefs in unison during worship.

Yet I know of no political organization with written goals that commit members to engage in self-evaluation, acknowledge mistakes, and support one another in their open-ended self-improvement, with individuals defining their own goals.

I neither expect nor want every political organization to implement such policies. But it seems it would be good if at least a few did. Those groups could attract members who seek a caring, supportive community.

That's why I was excited by the contributions of James and Phil Lawson last weekend, as I reported in “Vincent Harding Teach-In Explodes.” James first articulated a passionate call for a commitment to nonviolence as a way of life, not merely as a tactic (which I refer to as “deep nonviolence.”)  Then Phil suggested that we develop a “recovery program” to help activists deal with the “addictions” that society has inculcated in us. That frame implies a willingness to acknowledge mistakes and weaknesses, which is key to self-development.

The response to the Lawson brothers at the Teach-In and other signs indicate that a full commitment to integrating the personal, the social, and the political may soon crystallize. When I ask people, “In what way do you want to be a better person?” most people respond quickly, which indicates they give the matter considerable thought. The two “compassionate politics” workshops and the “Gandhi-King Holistic Three-Fold Path” workshop that associates and I convened elicited vital participation. The Movement Strategy Center  is doing great work with activists promoting personal and collective transformation.

And as Dr. Dorsey Blake reported in his February 15 sermon at the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, earlier this month the 2015 Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference on “Reclaiming Our Moral Authority: Faith and Justice in the Age of Reinvented Empire" addressed personal issues in a very powerful manner. My notes from Blake’s sermon include:

We cannot dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools…. We need internal examination in order to love consistently…. We are all trapped in Empire, with complicity and duplicity…. Nonviolence is needed to win the hearts of others…. Empire understands violence. It can crush violence. But it does not know how to respond to nonviolence when demonstrators are willing to go to jail….. 

Most of the responses to my "Vincent Harding Teach-In Explodes" post, mostly from women, were supportive. One reported on a recent decision to drop out of an activist organization due to troublesome interpersonal dynamics and commented, “Thank you for all of this. I'm sorry I wasn't there and should have been. I could have used this."

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb said my essay consisted of “important reflections” and commented that both of the Lawson brothers are her beloved mentors. She also encouraged others to support the Black Lives Matter movement and urge the Berkeley City Council to change policies related to police violence.

Roma Guy replied, “Amen...thanks. ” And Joan Greenfield said, “Great write-up. ...Admitting mistakes and resolving to avoid them in the future...is half the equation to me. The other half is seeing, or being aware when one repeats them, and that's easier said than done.”

However, one respondent commented:

I was slightly disappointed to read your account of the conference and its "new directions" without mentioning that these new directions are exactly what the Network of Spiritual Progressives has been preaching and teaching for the past ten years. I would have hoped you'd have told people that there really is an organization trying to do exactly what you talk about in this article…. 

The Network of Spiritual Progressives has made important contributions. In particular, it has helped many spiritually inclined activists to come “out of the closet.” However, their statement of purpose presents an external focus that fails to address internal growth and includes no affirmation of self-evaluation. The same applies to the Network’s recent call for a strategy conference, which even declared: "Nor are we writing you to suggest personal repentance." That shocking formulation contradicts the call for acknowledging mistakes that is implied by Phil Lawson’s proposal for a “recovery program.” So, despite its extensive good work, the Network does not seem to be “exactly...preaching and teaching” what I articulated in my report on the Harding Teach-In.

Another correspondent replied to my post by saying, “You seem to be asking for a ‘catechism’ and a church model to hold practitioners responsible for something that is much more about personal practice to which one holds oneself to in a moment by moment way.”

I find that statement too individualistic. Personal practice is important, but it is not “much more” important than mutual support. The individual and the community are of equal importance. We need an equal emphasis on each, a balance. Peers learn from and encourage one another. Peer pressure can be positive. We are social creatures. Community can be valuable. Intentional community can be even more powerful.

I see no need for a catechism, complex instruction manual, or elaborate creed. However, brief statements of shared principles and simple, user-friendly tools can productively structure self-regulating support groups. Rather than tell others how they need to change specifically, we can encourage a dedication to personal growth in general -- by asking questions like "what mistakes have you made lately?"

For many of us, our personal growth could be enhanced by participating in an activist organization whose members admit mistakes, resolve to avoid repeating them, and otherwise consciously support one another in their self-improvement.

We may soon witness the emergence of such caring communities (or their proliferation if some already exist). If so, society would benefit.