Loeb Speaks at Forum

When long-time liberal activist and author Paul Rogat Loeb faced an audience of the Cambridge Forum at First Parish Church Monday night, its meagerness appeared to confirm one of his primary concerns: When citizens feel politically powerless, apathy is tempting.

Loeb has been traveling around the country since mid-August promoting his book, The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Keeping Hope Alive in a Time of Fear, and trying to “broaden the stream” of involvement.

“Because people feel like they can’t do anything, they stop listening and they stop caring,” Loeb said. He referred specifically to the disappointing results of wide-spread protests of the war in Iraq. The outpouring of objections from voters seemed to fall on deaf ears in the Bush administration.

Why then continue with political activism? Loeb responded by recounting the stories of successful activists in the past. “Our culture will say, nothing ever matters. We know that’s wrong, and we can point to example after example,” he said.

Loeb’s latest book is an anthology of anecdotes by the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Tony Kushner and Pablo Neruda. The general theme? Apparently ordinary citizens can make an extraordinay difference.

Loeb reiterates the oft-expressed but nevertheless important point that too often people take the outcomes of history for granted and forget how they came about. “We know that women got the vote, but we don’t all know how…All we know is the conclusions, not the process,” he said. No one considers Susan B. Anthony a failure, he pointed out, even though she died 12 years before women got the vote.

Although he spoke directly of the hottest political topics, Loeb never raised his voice once, not even in response to hecklers from the audience during the open forum at the end. He really did seem to be, well, hopeful.

Rather than devoting himself to directly attacking the policies of the Bush administration, Loeb defined feelings of fear and isolation as the enemies of change. “It’s easy to create self-fulfilling prophecies of despair,” he said, especially when people don’t have the broader perspective of history, but rather only the immediate results of short-term activism.

The war protest may not have stopped the war, Loeb said, “but it changed the dialogue…it brought the issues to the table.”

Loeb mingled historical story-telling with his discussion of recent events. He reminded his listeners of Nelson Mandela’s limited means of keeping hope alive during his 27-year captivity, when he and fellow prisoners continued with such small acts of hope as passing from cell to cell a forbidden scrap of newspaper that an absent-minded guard had dropped on the floor. Or Rosa Parks’ long-time involvement in local civil rights projects long before her famous refusal to move to the back of the bus.

Similarly, in imperialist Zambia, when a law stipulated that a Black person shopping in a White store must have their merchandise handed out to them through a window, one local activist bought a Land Rover and insisted on driving it through the window, legally destroying a wall of the store and making a leap for the civil rights movement. This last example elicited an appreciative laugh from the small crowd.

“We want to create a peaceful world and we’re told that it’s impossible, but it’s a failure of our imagination,” Loeb said. As an illustration, he pointed out that many radical evangelical groups, although conservative on most political issues, are in favor of universal healthcare coverage.

The forum maintained its tone of optimistic determination when audience members stepped up for the question-and-answer exchange with Loeb. The main concern was what Loeb had anticipated in his talk: What can I do in my day-to-day life?

Loeb objected to the easy approach of stating simple disagreement, advocating well-informed discussions. “Part of it is recognizing that if we don’t tell these stories, they aren’t going to get out…If we’re talking about an issue, we have to listen to what [the other person] is saying. ‘You’ve given me something to think about’—that phrase always really warms my heart,” he said, smiling.

Loeb said that activism over a long period of time means being satisfied with partial victories—getting people to talk about what they think, proving to them that what they think is important and reminding them that history can surprise us.

One of the last questioners, a man with an indeterminate European accent who was not familiar with the American election system, asked Loeb how he felt about Americans voting for Nader as vice-president in the upcoming election.

Loeb and other audience members confirmed this was not an option, and the man’s surprised response was, “America is a very backward country compared to Europe.”

Loeb’s response was tongue-in-cheek: “Well, I believe that at the time this country’s constitution was written it was considered ahead of its time.”

A little humor went a long way in breaking the tension that built up around topics of heated debate like the war in Iraq and the upcoming election. In a culture of fear, Loeb stressed calm and steady conviction.

“Part of the danger [of the Bush administration] is the absolute lack of humility, the sense that you don’t have to listen to anybody,” Loeb said. “There’s a manipulated fear from the administration: ‘If you question us, you are part of terrorism.’ Anyone who calls us unpatriotic when we react to them, we have to say, ‘How dare you?’” he continued quietly.

Loeb is prepared to face the prospect that Bush may be re-elected, but he plans to continue his work right up until the election, making time especially for swing states Ohio and Kansas. “You never know,” he laughed.

One thing’s for sure—humor, hope, and patience may make all the difference in an uphill battle to turn the tide of current events.