MoveOn and the New Front of Grassroots Activism
This election year, a new style of grassroots activism has risen up to a very strong position. When the two owners of computer software company Berkeley Systems (made famous for the After Dark flying toaster screensaver and the popular game You Don’t Know Jack) decided to sell their company for $14 million dollars, they were unaware of what their future held. In 1998, during the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, Wes Boyd and Joan Blades decided to put together a list of names in effort to petition Congress to reprimand Clinton and then “move on.” When their list grew to more than 300,000 names within one month, they knew they had something big on their hands. Although their efforts concerning the Clinton impeachment failed, they were not about to give up. They went on to protest the 2000 presidential election campaign, raise $2 million to air a television ad called “Child’s Pay” during the Super Bowl (which was denied by CBS due to its policy against issue advertisements), and then to go up against President George W. Bush concerning the war in Iraq.
MoveOn is best known by its website (www.moveon.org), which has drawn millions of visitors since it was established. Though many Republicans and some Democrats protest MoveOn’s so-called “extremist” advertising, there is no doubt about it: grassroots campaigning had a new face. With MoveOn’s overwhelming success, other smaller activist groups began springing up all over the Internet in effort to catch some of MoveOn’s success. The fact is many of them are doing just that. The Internet is slowly becoming the largest political campaign tool available. And with the ease of connecting with millions of people with the simple click of a button, the voices grassroots activists is more powerful than ever before.
MoveOn’s next mission is by way of mass telephone calls, hoping to reach 800,000 people a day. MoveOn plans on beginning these calls in late October. How is this possible? MoveOn has created a way in which volunteers (both old and new) dial a toll-free number, punch in their special identification number, hear a brief message concerning the strategy of their calls for that day, and then be instantly connected to an American somewhere.
Existing within the movement must be a leader or leaders, as well as a large number of committed followers or members. Additionally, social movements have “organizations or coalitions” working as a guiding backbone for collectivity and regulation (Stewart,
Change.org is an online petition tool with over 68 million users and counting. Change.org users can either support causes by signing petitions or create petitions and request signatures. The purpose of Change.org’s website is to increase the number of users in its social network in order for more people to create and sign petitions. Change.org generates and retains a large user base by gaining the trust of a worldwide audience, inspiring users to action and retaining users through an effective website design. For profit, Change.org depends on large organizations like Amnesty International and the Humane Society to buy advertising to support their petitions. Thus, its website not only recruits more users but also convinces large organizations to buy additional advertising.
Congressman Lewis’s powerful graphic memoir March highlights the role of nonviolent activism in challenging racial segregation and discrimination and effecting social change. Within the two books, March One and Two, we as readers see some of these nonviolent activities that were implemented by the protesters to show the world that nonviolence is the way to go to bring change in an unjust society and its bias laws. Some of these nonviolent activities that proved to be effective in the eyes of freedom fighters were sit-ins, marches and speeches. Even some minor activities such as going to jail for a cause was proven to be effective.
Throughout history, discontent has been felt by various groups of people. This discontent could be generated by modernization or undesirable conditions. As a result, social movements are put into effect to bring similar peoples together to fight for a common cause. Traditional Chinese foot binding and the controversial Lost Boys of Sudan demonstrate this exact situation, reinforcing the idea that the concept of the social movement can be considered a cross-cultural phenomenon.
The counseling session should be centered on the client and their understanding of their world and/or problems not heavily weighted on the counselor interpretation of the client’s situation. The role of the counselor is to examine a problem needs changing and discover options in overcoming their problem. Bringing about change can help change the client’s narrative on their problem in the future and/or on life in the process.
Democracy is control by the people. On the surface, this appears to be a superior form, but as Plato warned it is slow to react, oppresses of the minority, and lacks skilled leaders (Perry,
Plato's Republic centers on a simple question: is it always better to be just than unjust? The Republic sustains reflections on political questions, as well. Not that ethics and politics exhaust the concerns of the Republic.
Rap music from the 1990’s to the year 2000 is known in hip hop as “the golden era”. This era is all about individuality and innovation of creating music in one of the newest musical art forms. Rap music started out as the expression of young black youths in the inner city of New York. Rap music is rhymed storytelling accompanied by highly rhythmic, electronically based music. It began in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx in New York City as a part of hip hop, composed of graffiti, breakdancing, and rap music. From the outset, rap music has articulated the pleasures and problems of black urban life in contemporary America. Rappers speak with the voice of personal experience, taking on the identity of the observer or narrator. Rap music has lost a lot of it purity and essence due to the multimillion dollar business. Rap music is always critizied because of it’s violent and sexual nature but its just reporting what is views in this cold world.(Rose, 1994)
Citizens of the United States are traditionally given unlimited freedom of speech, press, and assembly. These American privileges allow interest groups to express their perspectives by using the media and other sources that are accessible to the public. In definition, an interest group is a group of individuals who organize to influence the government’s programs and policies. The main goal of these groups is to have the government both listen and respond to their interests (Shin 243). Historically interest groups have and continue to play a crucial role in American politics; especially since it is an effective form for citizens to interfere with government decision making. Two current interest groups in the United States are the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda and the National Council of La Raza. These particular interest groups demonstrate how interest groups directly and indirectly influence public opinion and the political process.
The 1999 Seattle protests brought the apparent proliferation of anti-globalization grassroot sociopolitical movements into the limelight of the world stage. Transnational social movements (TSMs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), as well as the loose transnational activist networks (TANs) that contain them—all these came to be seen as an angry and no less potent backlash that's directed at the powerful states and increasingly towering economic IGOs such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank. In the field of international relations, some regard this as a prophetic watershed event that signals the weakening and perhaps even collapsing of the state-centric system of international relations, while many others insist that Seattle is but an eventually insignificant episode in the book of globalization and state power, as evidenced by the Doha success.
Socrates also believes that the difference between being and becoming can have a moral aspect to it. Lets say one thinks that they have fallen in love with the girl or boy of their dreams. One believes that the love they share is true, which would be a being, but later becomes aware that the other boy or girl doesn’t like him or her, that is know considered a becoming. One believed that it was true love because it appeared real, that appearance would fall under the world of becoming. The main difference between what’s being and becoming is the aspect of actually knowing if that thing is real rather then sensing its legitimacy.
The relationship between the counsellor and client is fundamental to the success of the counselling experience and the results that will follow. The counsellor and client need to build rapport and trust. The client needs to feel comfortable enough to open up and discuss their inner most thoughts and fears in the knowledge that the discussion is confidential and non-judgemental. The resulting relationship should be one of mutual respect.
This summer if you were on social media you heard about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The concept was simple, just film yourself dumping a bucket of ice water over your head, challenge your friends to do the same, and donate ten dollars to the ALS Association. Opt out and donate one hundred dollars (Madison). Many Americans did not know what ALS was and by putting this challenge on social media has brought tons awareness to this devastating disease. Activism used to be taking action to bring social change, people in the 1960s used to gather in front of community centers and protest and or speak about their issue or cause. Now even though people still gather together it is much easier to use the internet. Hundreds of social media applications
The number of revolutions in the last 3 decades has increased, and seems to keep increasing. Civil unrest and protests brought many victims including civil and political figures throughout the world. In the era where technology is at the peak of its success, especially in communication technologies, mankind suffers from lack of communication. Problem is not caused by the technology itself, the problem is in human nature. I will continue with an analogy. Man invented the knife, which is very useful tool in our daily lives. The problem occurs when one thinks about the purposes that knife could be used. Story repeats itself with Newspapers and News Media. Technology improved the speed and the size that news can reach anywhere in couple of seconds. In a few seconds we can reach our friend at the other pole of the globe and receive pictures and live videos in response. We can send information, receive it and even create it in the artificial world. Life has become easier with technology. We can control our cell phones with voice command and reserve a table in the closest restaurant for dinner. Technology is everywhere in our lives, but if we think for a second the purposes we could use them for then the danger begins. In this short essay I will be talking about the struggle of mankind for freedom and the stages it went through. There are 3 parts to my paper. In the first part I will discuss the birth of World Wide Web and how the purpose of it went through changes. In the second part, I will be talking about birth of newspapers in the Web, precisely how it developed into an intermediate body that transfers information to people. Ultimately, I will discuss the Ukrainian revolution and the role of the news media in it and ho...