From late 2002 through mid 2003 I worked on a project called
Reinventing Activism. That link goes to a site that outlined an enormous project I had hoped to launch, but which never got past being a detailed proposal. Still, you can see the early seeds of some phrases and concepts I still use commonly.
What you described is referred to in the RA proposal as the Tilt Strategy. I think it is good wisdom about how to identify the smartest goals. Look for people who have staked out indefensible positions--exact words from RA--and you will find that most times they have only been able to do so because they have gone unchallenged. These are tilt targets. The Tilt Strategy calls for creative confrontations with tilt targets who must then choose either to continue bearing the uncomfortable consequences of our sunlight on them, or to be tilted into adopting a position more in line with the specific preferred remedies being recommended. That means we have to know what we want, not just what we don't want. It causes us to be positive, and to address "what would be better?"
Credit where its due, I feel like I have only described and given a name to a tactic used by Michael Moore. Think about in Bowling For Columbine when he took the two young shooting victims into KMart and confronted the store about selling bullets. They said they would stop. He tilted them. Years earlier, on his show The Awful Truth, Moore staged a mock funeral in front of the offices of an HMO denying a transplant to one of its patients. Several years later, the man and his second-hand pancreas are alive and well because Moore successfully tilted the HMO.
We don't always make the most of these opportunities and often accept false alternatives. An example I used to give a lot had to do with Trent Lott. When his racism cost him his party leadership, it really should have cost him his Senate seat. How can it not be OK for a racist to be a party leader but it is still OK for him to be a Senator? This was a case where an indefensible position had existed really for decades, but which only came into view when it came under some challenge for the first time. I think this is the hallmark of the tilt target and tells a lot about how to look for opportunities.
We shouldn't be confrontational by nature. Quite the contrary, we should be doing bridge building and healing our communities from the intentional divisiveness the government continues to foist upon us. However, as We The People unite and rise up against the otherwise intentionally divisive government, we can find our opportunities for limited, creative confrontation by following the Tilt Strategy.
Please read
Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution.
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