There’s a quotation from Mohandas K. Gandhi that activists have loved to use to keep motivation high, even in the face of many defeats: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then you fight you, then you win.”
It’s a hopeful, plucky kind of optimism that’s just lovely. Really it is. Many times, however, it’s just not true.
These days, progressive activists are finding out that just when they thought they’d accomplished something, the same old problems are creeping back. We struggled against the right wing corporate Republicans, only to see them replaced with right wing corporate Democrats.
So, here’s a revised version of Gandhi’s aphorism, more suitable for our times: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then you fight you, then you die.
Put that poster on your college dorm room wall. Sigh.
