Organizing for good cause
On specialization, the cult of disruption, and the need to put energy into organizations that have experience solving problems
A one-time candidate for an Illinois Congressional seat says she’s converted her campaign into “a mutual aid hub and community space” which now “organizes civic engagement and mutual aid into local campaigns”. In theory, there’s nothing expressly wrong with experimentation and innovation in the social and civic environments.
■ The problem, as one pseudonymous commenter observed, is that “there are already established organizations on the ground better equipped to address real needs but these activists and ‘disrupters’ keep claiming to reinvent the wheel while they line their pockets.” Specialization isn’t everything, but there’s also a good reason why the spork isn’t used at every dining table in America. In trying to be half one thing and half another, it doesn’t really do either all that well.
■ American civic life has been enriched by voluntary organizations since before we were even a country. It’s one of the things that stood out most to Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1800s: “There is only one country on the face of the earth where the citizens enjoy unlimited freedom of association for political purposes. This same country is the only one in the world where the continual exercise of the right of association has been introduced into civil life, and where all the advantages which civilization can confer are procured by means of it.” There are few problems we haven’t long sought to address through specialized voluntary organizations.
■ As a country, we’ve tolerated or encouraged a cult of worship surrounding “disruptors” and “founders” and we’re doing a terrible job of recognizing and encouraging the people who maintain vital existing institutions. It’s less glamorous but generally much more important. Dedicated new institutions to solve new problems might be welcome. Hybrid new institutions may be less so, especially if they appear to exist more to provide a vehicle to electoral success than to efficiently solve the problem. More important than either is the sustenance of good institutions that have evolved over time and experience to learn the best ways to address real needs.