Membership

build the world you want.

In one of their more excellent articles, The Onion satirized the failures of our democracy: “American People Hire High-Powered Lobbyist to Push Interests in Congress”. Sadly, on first read, their suggestion to hire “Jack Weldon” on our behalf to “use his vast network of political connections to give his new client a voice in the legislative process” sounds like a pretty good idea. Recent studies show that as much as 85% of Americans don’t feel like they have any influence in government. Of course when reading the Onion article, you quickly realize that the intended purpose of congress in to lobby for us, to work for us in building the world we want. Unfortunately, the scale of our representative democracy has caused our government to become problematically abstracted.

Our government, at its core, is actually a kind of membership, albeit one that is grand and difficult. We pay our membership fees (taxes), they have their yearly pledge drive (January through April 15th), and work—in theory and practice—to provide services and advocate for our interests all year. We are members of our cities, members of our counties, members of our states, and members of our country. Even if we disagree with the acts of our governments, if we do not actively seek reform, we have, in a way, entered into an “implied contract” as informed citizens who have decided to stay in this place. Our citizenship is often thought of more as obligation than membership, but is amenable to acts of liberty through either emigration or constructive civil disobedience.

Rather than these obligatory memberships, the contemporary concept usually deals with consumer style memberships. We sign up during the NPR pledge drive—happening now!—or after our trip to the Museum. This idea of membership is commonly a hybrid of allegiance and purchase; we commit our ongoing support in return for solidarity, as well as a product or service. The memberships we choose are a powerful tool for democracy, especially when we start to think of them as something more than pseudo-charitable payment plans for things we want. Membership is a directly powerful way to build the world we want and, considered in this way, gives us political power we can, very nearly, hold in our own hands. Instead of casting our vote into the void, we are contributing ~$10 a month to support specific work we see being done by people we know, in places we live, to solve problems that trouble us.

Unfortunately, this sort of membership is caught in a place between charity and commerce; and a place between obligatory citizenship and civic disengagement. People are often weary of charitable membership for the same reasons as dear Mr. Scrooge:

“…What shall I put you down for?” “Nothing!” Scrooge replied. “You wish to be anonymous?” “I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.” “Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.” “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him.

The establishments he has mentioned as payments he makes as part of his obligatory memberships to the various governments under which he lives: the workhouses, poorhouses, and prisons. Similar to Scrooge, the financial obligations of citizen-membership and the size of its burden serve to harden us to the idea of freely chosen memberships. Why give money to a local non-profit when we are already paying tax dollars that, ostensibly, ought to be directed to meet similar needs? Certainly, the reason is often that the needs are much greater than the government can or ought to fill, but, more importantly, we should pursue specific membership because it lets us build the world we want through direct investment in the people who do that work the best; it lets you see a problem you care about and contribute to its solution.

This is not a unique idea, nor is it especially interesting, but, I believe, it is tremendously important for our generation. We need to move beyond the idea of membership as charity or purchase, to an idea of membership as an essential element of democracy. Our governmental memberships often seem ineffective because, above all else, the work of government is maintenance. It is difficult to re-imagine our streets when the Transportation department staff and budget is over-extended just trying to keep up with repairing aging infrastructure.

Here is a challenge for all of us:

• Decide on an amount of money that you could part with on a monthly basis to put towards building the world you want. Consider what you spend on monthly entertainment memberships. Create a total. Things like $10/month for streaming music, $10 for Netflix, $30/month for Mobile Data, $40/month for cable, and $50/month for internet add up. If you want include ongoing one-time costs for games, movies, events. My total is $60/month. What if we spent the same on building the world we want to live in as we spent on our entertainment?
• Take 10 minutes and consider the City or World you want to live in. What problems do you most care about solving? Consider especially problems that you do not personally work to solve.
• Choose 5 local organizations that directly work on those issues and 2 national or global organizations. Ongoing donations for things like OxFam should not be part of this scenario, those are charities that redistribute your money and are worthy of a different consideration in your budget. Pick groups that work on systemic changes. Consider dividing your monthly entertainment budget by the number of organizations and committing that amount to each.
• When you sign up, tell them you don’t want any stainless coffee mug, no limited edition t-shirts, or any swag that doesn’t directly relate to and support their mission. You are giving to their work and not interested in having them buy you a mug with the money you just donated. If you want a mug, just buy the mug from their store.
• Go out of your way to proactively become an ongoing member and set it for auto-renewal. Every minute they spend fundraising and marketing their programs is time they could be solving the problems you care about. Just as you shouldn’t pay them to buy you a mug, you shouldn’t donate to them to support their work of reminding you to donate to them. Consider all the wasted radio time spend on those pledge drives!

Here at home there are a number of organizations that fit this description:

• Bike Pittsburgh is making our City a better place to bike and walk. As a cyclist life, quite literally, depends on the success of their work.
• G.A.S.P is making our air cleaner to breathe. As someone who breathes more than my fair share of air, I’m scared of dying from air pollution related cancers. Pittsburgh has a higher rate of this than just about anywhere in the country and is one reason I might leave this city that I love.
• Grow Pittsburgh is working towards a day when everyone in our city and region grows and eats fresh, local and healthy food. I want to eat well, I want my neighbors to eat well, and I want to see our land productive and well-cared for.
• WESA provides us with access to the local and national discourse. They help ensure our time in the car is interesting and productive and keep us informed about the important issues.
• Tree Pittsburgh plants trees that clean the air, give shade, increase biodiversity, provide habitat for wildlife, and make our city gorgeous.
• Gittip is a sustainable crowd-funding platform that inspires generosity and allows people to go beyond this traditional idea of membership. Their platform lets you support the great work of teams and individuals who are building the world you want to live in.
• The Saxifrage School works to make college less expensive for the next generation, reconnects students with the lives of their neighborhoods, and reconciles academic theory with real-world practice (this is what I do!).

Not only will these organizations be on the ground doing the dirty work of building the world, they will also act as those lobbyists The Onion sadly jokes about; they have conversations with our Mayor, our Public Works, or the national powers-that-be about what their members want. Right now, I am not a member of WESA, GASP, or Tree Pittsburgh. Time to start helping them build the world I want.