Breaking through Ideology, Cognitive Dissonance, and Hopelessness

It’s no small thing to break through ideology, CD, and Hopelessness, but that’s what me and the incomparable Max Haiven attempted to do for the Guerilla Foundation!

What makes up our beliefs, actions, and our desires to change the world?

As activists and organisers, we tend to inherit a liberalist theory that good arguments will win the day, even if all the evidence points the other direction. We tend to imagine that just getting people “on the streets” is enough, but we don’t ask what will make them stick around for the long haul. We tend to forget or downplay how important movements are at providing spaces of self- and community-formation, for good and for ill.

In this deeper inquiry session our speakers Sarah Stein Lubrano & Max Haiven will dive into the depths of social movement psychology, looking at what gives people a sense of agency to change hearts and minds – despite the dissonance that may arise between their belief systems vis à vis their actions -, as well as what are the new worlds activists are already dreaming of – and building – at the centre and edges of social movements.