A Challenge for Us All

The Black American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic and author, Angela Davis, once wrote, "You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. and you have to do it all the time."

This fits in well with the Unitarian saying, "deeds, not creeds", but it is easier said than done. Most of us are very good at being indignant about injustices in the world (and there are far too many) but less good about actually doing something about them. We sigh and tut and say, "That shouldn't happen" or "Isn't that a shame?" But how often do we take that sense of injustice, of indignation, and transform it into radical action?

Words, in this sense, are empty. They have huge persuasive power, but if they do not lead to concrete actions to correct the injustices we see, they are no use. In the Letter of James, the early Christian apostle wrote, "Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers... For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like." (1:22-24) He further wrote, "Doers who act - they will be blessed in their doing." (1:25)

Later on in his Letter, he also wrote, "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you can say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,; and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has not works, is dead." (2:14-17)

Of course, very few of us *can* "radically transform the world". Yet we can behave as though it were possible, and do what we can where we are, with the skills and tools we have. And we have to keep on doing it, whatever it is, because "every little helps". 

Which is perhaps what Angela Davis meant: "You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. and you have to do it all the time."