Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T20:53:56.039Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Activists carving out a place in the public sphere for discussion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2009

Nina Eliasoph
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Get access

Summary

Part 1:Is this a tangent?”: activists in meetings

We're good at having discussions but bad at deciding anything. We'll have a meeting and someone'll ask us what we decided and we'll say, “We don't know but we had a great discussion!” That's why we're having a strategy meeting with a regional organizer.

Neil, an activist in CESE (Communities for Environmental Safety Everywhere), sounding guilty but a little pleased

I have a little sermon I wanted to give – it's short, but I just want to say a little something about what I was thinking after I met with Wilma Balinsky's campaign for governor. She asked to talk to us, and see the incinerator site, and she wanted to know that we're not just alone, that we're not just babes in the woods or flaky liberals. I think we really convinced her, but we'll see. But it really made me think: we're getting somewhere! What we're doing here matters!

We're not in this for a big splash – we're in this to protect our future. If you care about the future, or even if you've ever had a child, or even if you haven't, you know that you're not in this just to make a scene or get attention. We're not doing this for ourselves, or because we want to make a fuss just for the purpose of making a fuss – we're in this to protect everyone's future. […]

Type
Chapter
Information
Avoiding Politics
How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life
, pp. 165 - 209
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×