Individuals, if they’re paying attention, are pretty damned scared about where the species might be going, whether they can admit that fear to themselves or not. So people find ways of managing that anxiety while still thinking of themselves as “good people”. The subscription, the annual demo (walking around London. Great). Clicktivism too, perhaps….
One MAJOR anxiety-management ritual favoured by social movement groups (especially the middle-class/information-deficit model ones) is the sage on the stage meeting, with people sat in rows. The braver or more-“committed” can then ask a “question” in the Q and A, while others can sit there asleep with eyes wide open, having ‘done their bit’ by coming along and getting informed. Everyone goes home happy…
Crucially, this resembles school, which most of the middle-class ones did very well/quite well at.
My favoured rituals are reading and creating A to Z glossaries. So it goes.
see also regression
marchudson.net 