UC Merced

Think before you act may be backward. In childhood, most of us learned a lot about ourselves, the world, and what it means to live a good and happy life by reading children’s books. We gained acceptance of the world and its people as they are rather than try to beat up on, or contest designs for living that differ from our own. Children’s books taught us beautiful universal humanisms, like ‘live and let live’ and ‘love is the answer.’ In adulthood, detached from childlike principles of kindness, everyday life appears to have normalized selfishness. Living by the principle of humanity-for-all learned so long ago is not always easy. The pressures and expectations of contemporary society can block us from taking the right action. What, then, could be a way back to principled and purposeful living that supports all people? My proposition is simple: don’t think, act. This ethnographic project, based on over three years of fieldwork with a youth media organization in California’s Central Valley, highlights a method for staying true to the values and virtues learned in childhood. Specifically, it focuses on the unity of a group of young people acting their way into proper orientation to life. They share their personal stories, document community concerns, organize and participate in social justice events, and publish media projects based on the outcomes of their youth-action work. Taken together, action prior to deliberation supports social-emotional well-being and critical-evaluative skills building. Using the idea of ‘secret sympathy,’ that aura among the group that produces conformity to unity, this field research suggests that a group acting without overthinking produces a sense of belonging that young people need. The hope that permeates this research relates to the journey toward the discovery of one’s true self so that values formed foster an awakening to aspirations beyond the limits presented in contemporary society. Aspiration under neoliberal ideals works either against such an awakening or stagnates growth because it locks children and youth in that status quo at moments when they are beginning to see and sense social injustice. This, in turn, produces negative thoughts such as disidentification and maladjustment to reality. Getting active in the world and taking action on literally anything in support of conformity to unity in the name of community health frees young people from dominating social constraints. This supports and activates aspirational awakening to all of life’s possibilities, uncontrolled by institutionalized demands.