Powerful Social Movements

Other Groups it advocating for the needs and rights of people with mental health problems.

In A Primer on Social Movements, David A. Snow and Sarah A. Soule identify five conditions for a social movement to be considered as such. First, a social movement has to challenge existing systems of authority, or defend existing structures (Snow, D. A., & Soule, 2010). Idle No More meets this criterion in that the movement was born in response to changes in laws by the Canadian federal government that were to jeopardize the protection of rivers, lakes and the lands (“9 Questions,” 2013). For the First Nation members of the group, their motivation to advocate resulted from personal troubles, or in other words, feeling their personal values to be threatened. But when it is something as elementary as nature that is in danger, it goes beyond

Society’s stigmatization of mental illness prevents people from advocating for themselves and getting the help they need. It is paradoxical that a society that prizes freedom of speech is also one that silences people when it comes to mental illness.

Mental Health America (formerly known as the National Mental Health Association) is the country’s leading nonprofit dedicated to helping all people live mentally healthier lives. With more than 320 affiliate nationwide, we represent a growing movement of Americans who promote mental wellness for the health and well being of the nation, every day, and in a time of crisis (2007 Mental Health America). As an organization, Mental Health America has been around for nearly a century. We began work in 1909 when Clifford W. Beers, a young business man who struggled with a mental illness and shared his story with the world in his autobiography “A Mind

While reading the book, the reader’s emotion was inspired to make changes in the mental health system and promote social justice. As a reader, Earley’s objective to educate the reader to embark on a social movement one person at time was achieved. Earley’s example on how to challenge the system one person at a time, offered the reader a blueprint on mental health education and policy change.

The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States from the 1890s to the 1920s (Boundless 2016). The depression from the financial panic of 1893 affected farmers, workers and many businesses.

The Populists and Progressive were two major movements that occurred during the outbreaks of the workers union after the civil war. The populists began during the late 1800s and the progressives began during the 1900s. There are many differences between these two movements, but yet both of these movements have many things in common. During this time, farmers united to protect their interests by creating a major political party. This party was known as the Peoples Party, which became known as the Populist Party. Populists drew their strength from rural areas as many Populists tended to mostly be poor and uneducated. They had ideas such as government ownership of major industries. Progressives, also affected by industrialization, began their movements in order to reestablish their society.

The American dream in 1776 supported the idea that all men are created equal. However, African Americans were not included in this idea. In a segregated society, African Americans received insufficient treatment, politically, financially, or otherwise. Despite the similar anatomy, dark skin color was considered the defining factor of a person, dictating the right to vote, quality of living, and educational value, and often resulted in meeting darker aspects of society, such as xenophobia and hate crimes. Before the American Civil Rights movement began its ascent, social activists began to notice the depravity of the social system they followed. They began to take action against these expectancies

Social movements shed light to social issues present in communities and harvest social change in political, religious, educational, health, government, and other institutional matters. Social movements give individuals a clear outlet to concerns about the rights and well-being of themselves and others, mostly through public protest and conversation, in order to promote social justice and democracy. Throughout history, humans naturally ended up starting movements to simply improve their way of life and movements have continually aided in a remarkable change in communities. In the essay “From Civil Rights to Megachurches,” Charles Duhigg explains the three critical steps that initiative successful social movements. Social movements must

Nonviolent action is a mass social movement used by those who are opposed to an issue or conflict. Nonviolent action is different than nonviolence because rather than simply lacking violence, which is used primarily out of religious; moral; or ethical beliefs, it instead is employed to enact change. Nonviolence requires only the lack of violence, whereas nonviolent action requires an output as well.

I agree with your assessment that we should not idealize all popular resistance movements. Divisions in society can cause marginalized groups to become affected by members within their own ranks. For example, members in a marginalized group who do not toe the line may face violent backlashes directed at them. Furthermore, those who do not conform to the groups goals can become oppressed by members within their own social class. This example highlights your position about an individual or group motivated by their own self interests. In addition, Gledhill and Schell points out in their book the dark side of collective violence. This goes back to what you were saying about the us versus them mentality. This essentially means that the poor and

Cantril, Hadley. The Psychology of Social Movements,. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1941. Print.

There is strength in numbers, or as you would have it collective action. For example, social movements have more power than any one person. A social movement is a collective effort of social activists so to speak. From this base of social movement collective actions may be initiated to influence state, and federal decision makers. So, in this light, it was the collective efforts that cause laws to change; and, not any one unit per se. Social movements are likely to have longer lasting impacts because of the magnitude of collective action. If a person takes on a cause but fail to generate the sufficient supporters, when he or she dies, the cause may die also. Thus, it is with the benefit of mobilizing, structuring, and training that social movement

Mass movements are so powerful because they are full of passion. If political movements become powerful, they always have a religious passion to them. For instance, the French Revolution was a new religion, which replaced all the dogma and rituals of the Church with similar ones devoted to the State. The same thing goes for the Bolshevik and Nazi revolutions.

Social movements (SMs) have been part of society’s history and politics for centuries. For some authors, they started with the French Revolution and have been constantly rising and falling depending on the existent socio-political climate (Reichmann & Fernandez Buey, 1994). For Charles Tilly, the nineteenth laid the groundwork for the modern social movements of the twentieth century (Tilly, 1998). Karl Marx also studied and developed the concept of SMs; he viewed them as a means of achieving a deep social change through class conflict (Tarrow, 2011). Studied in relationship to the rise of globalisation and social media, the expansion and modernisation of SMs has become increasingly prominent in the academic literature of the last century. Accordingly, Globalisation has made it possible for individuals to empower themselves through participation in supranational organisations and international organisms that challenge governmental authority. As evidenced by Manuel Castells, populations around the world are now able to come together to affect change by expressing ideas and demonstrating in support of pressing issues (Castells, 2009). Chile has been no exception to the trend of globalisation and has participated in and developed a number of strong international social movements.