By Tom & Carol Braford
The last “Wide Awakes” movement was started by five frustrated young men on March 2, 1860. They were increasingly feeling like they were being left behind by the prevailing system. It was one of the first examples of social contagion. From these humble beginnings, it ended up rapidly propelling Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency and inadvertently had the unintended consequence of launching the Civil War.
Then, as now, an existential threat to our democracy loomed large over our country, and a large, organized, diverse coalition of young people rose to resist the power of the enslavers and their sympathizers on the political front.
The enslavers this time around, however, are not the actual owners of human beings in the South and the Territories. Now it is the unchecked fossil fuel industry and a small number of vulture capitalists that are threatening not just our country and democracy, but the entire planet. The current threat is political, but more importantly, it is even more ethical, moral, social, environmental and economic.
So we need to take some cues from the original Wide Awakes movement by prioritizing democratic organization and civil action on one hand as they did, while being careful not to antagonize those with different beliefs and goals, which is what their actions and even their artistic symbols did.
We need a more benign, engaging and less off-putting artistic expression for this moment. Even before goth was a thing, the original Wide Awakers decided to wear black capes and a black version of the iconic leather billed cap that became the standard headwear of both the North and the South during the Civil War. That is why our Islands of Cohesion, Just Post Carbon Communities of Practice will be designed to be engaging by turning eyesores into oases, wherever they are built.
To learn more and get involved in making this happen, please contact us at: braford@sbcglobal.net or at www.ArizmendiEcovillage.com.