I thought it would be a good idea to differentiate what we as a class think is the difference between fundamentalists and activists. I’ve been attempting to draw the line somewhere, and as a society we generally see activism in a positive light and fundamentalism in a negative light. Where can we draw the line? Is one better than the other, or “more right” than the other? How can we establish if a person is being a fundamentalist or an activist?
Wikipedia says that “fundamentalism is a movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a set of basic principles” while activism “can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument”
However, when we talked about activism in class, we had a much broader description.
Do you guys agree with wikipedia? I understand that the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive but then what makes them different? Can a fundamentalist be and activist or vice versa? Furthermore do you think that it is even important to make this distinction?
3 comments:
Hey,
I don't think I understand your questions. As far as I can tell, you already answered them yourself. Could you put them differently?
Wikipedia's version of activism seems to require that the action is against mainstream culture, which generally bring about social changes (if the movement is a success). The activism we talked in class seems to have a broader meaning of 'creating a movement' which does not necessarily against mainstream culture. For example, promoting meat-eating here in the US is activism (by our class definition) eventhough it's meant to stop a social change of vegetarianism.
interesting question! i guess i've always thought of fundamentalism as having to do with belief and activism as having more to do with action. a fundamentalist, then, might choose to engage in activism in support of her belief, whereas "activism" isn't linked to a specific ideology. i'll have to think more about that, though.
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