Solidarity is More Than Words

Like many concepts that have been twisted and deformed through cooption by the establishment and modern lack of thinking, solidarity is a word that has lost its active meaning and practical conveyance of pooled social power. When things are happening what is the first thing our modern teens and tweens rush to do? To make posts on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and any other media site about how they “stand in solidarity” with a people or cause.

Am I the only one who sees this and just feels infuriated by modern complacency and narcissism? Solidarity now almost universally means, “I agree with you," and “I feel for you so here are some words for your troubles." It's a word that is thrown around just to make oneself feel better by appearing to do something when they are doing nothing. There was a time less than a century ago when solidarity was not merely a feeling or word. Speaking particularly of US history, back in the 1900s-1930s when communists and anarchists were literally fighting and dying to just to unionize, solidarity meant not just saying one agreed with a cause, but actively helping that cause. Sympathizers to the union organizers gave food and money to keep strikes going, offered housing to traveling unionizers, and gave money to keep union organs running even if on a skeleton crew and budget. Solidarity once meant going out to another nation, such as the Spanish Civil War international brigades, and putting one’s life down in the name of democratic and socialist ideals against their enemies.

What once was a concept that carried with it real action is now a mere word of impotence and unwillingness to sacrifice anything. “We stand in solidarity with you!” many say and write, and sometimes even bother to stand in a corner and scream: “We agree with you so much that we’re repeating your message!" We’ll tell the entire world about your terrible accident, your horrible life of war, your brutal oppression. We’ll talk about you and how much we agree that something must be done, but we won’t do anything ourselves.

Solidarity use to mean something, it’s disgusting that 1st world morons have taken that word and disemboweled it. If you are someone that claims solidarity with any cause or group do the world a favor: don’t just say it, do something to actually give support instead of just taking 2 minutes out of your day to write words that truly do nothing.