A few months ago, I was regularly reading a Medium contributor who was acquiring a reasonable following. He was publishing one article a day on some version of social justice. He seemed to believe he was making a better world by telling us his perspectives.
Well, my ulterior motive for being on Medium kicked in. Maybe I could promote my alternative democracy by responding to his articles.
When I “dog on” to other Medium articles, most often I am ignored. Sometimes I get a positive response. Sometimes I get a new follower or two. Occasionally, I get chastised by these writers (or their supporters) for using a popular income stream to enhance my income stream. When that happens, I just no longer read the articles from these writers.
This particular writer actually engaged with me. “What is this new democracy?” he asked. I provided a link to my TDG (Tiered Democratic Governance) essay. He came back to me with a quick comment: “DRTL,” which I found to be an acronym for “Didn’t Read Too Long.” The essay takes about 15 minutes to read. For someone interested in fighting for social justice, it seems logical that he should have spent 15 minutes delving into a democratic system that could provide better social justice.
We exchanged a few responses. He wanted one or two sentences that fully explained this new democracy before he would investigate it. Well, I kind of have a problem with that request because even my 15-minute essay does not explain the TDG very well. The purpose of that essay is to get people to read my TDG book, which will take 3 to 4 hours.
“Unless you can explain it in 30 seconds,” he said, “No one will consider it.”
So, I tried a dozen of my best slogans and ad copy. Everything fell short of his expectations, which was kind of ironic in that none of his articles ever approached a 30-second read.
While I appreciated the time this aspiring writer gave to me, I came to the conclusion that his ulterior motive was to only engage with me to better the chance of me becoming a loyal reader. He had no interest in any alternative democracy and anything else I had to say. I no longer read his articles.
But I have to ask: When he spends a few hours a day to prepare his daily rant to his echo chamber, is he really working for social justice?
My stories of working for social justice
My parents were active in our rural community in southeast Alberta. Both Mom and Dad served on various community boards while I was growing up. The lessons were not lost on me, as I too attended meetings for various non-profit groups, helping to make the necessary decisions to move our community along. I’ve been board member, president, treasurer, and secretary of various organizations.
I also spent six years in a political party, hoping somehow my presence would improve the behavior of the party. It didn’t, but that’s another story.
For health and income reasons, it became impractical for me to attend meetings. But my sense of social justice found new avenues.
My town has a beef packing plant. These factories are not great places to work, often relying on immigrant labor to get things done. These immigrants can earn a lower-middle-class income with little education or English abilities.
Injuries are common in this factory. When a worker gets hurt on the job, the provincial workers’ compensation program works reasonably well. But sometimes, especially for longer-term injuries with vague causes, it is up to the worker to figure out how to apply and receive workers’ compensation benefits. Many immigrants do not have these skills; they just leave the plant and my town, finding other work that fits with their new injury. With the injured worker moving on, the company is not penalized with a long-term injury causing higher worker compensation premiums.
As a volunteer, I became an advocate for one of these workers who became disabled because of a repetitive stress injury. It took about 18 months of writing letters, working through red tape, visiting doctors, and forcing hearings. But eventually, we got a decision: The worker was given a permanent disability pension.
In the last hearing, I was able to embarrass the company for how it handled repetitive stress injuries. About a year later, I sensed that workers in this company were no longer complaining as much about the company. The company was changing employees’ work positions more frequently to reduce these injuries. Annual turnover dropped from 40% to 10%. Morale was higher. Did my advocacy have something to do with this change?
My second case of social justice was with a worker of the same plant. She was in an auto accident on her way to work, and she lost 16 months of income. The accident was caused by another vehicle, and that vehicle’s insurance company was counting on this immigrant not taking any civil litigation.
I found her a legal firm specializing in these cases and willing to work on contingency. I was an intermediary between her and the legal firm. But as time went on, I could see she was improving her English, computer skills, and understanding of civil litigation. I was not needed as much towards the end. It took about three years for her to get a reasonable settlement. And an insurance company was held accountable.
I bring these stories up because there is a big difference between talking about social justice and acting for social justice.
The odds of a Medium writer making it to the big time are maybe 1 in 100, probably less. If one is truly for social justice, doing is much more likely to find a good result than talking.
Published on Medium 2022
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