{"id":28487,"date":"2021-03-14T14:01:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T18:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=28487"},"modified":"2021-03-15T21:31:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T01:31:39","slug":"how-to-start-a-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-start-a-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Start a Movement: Focus on Social Habits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you want to know how to start a movement<\/a>? What do social habits<\/a> have to do with social change?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning how to start a movement isn’t a linear process. A lot of it has to do with larger societal habits. The example below uses the Civil Rights Movement<\/a> to help explain how people got involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about how to start a movement below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How to Start a Movemen<\/strong>t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Learning how to start a movement isn’t an exact science, but a lot of it has to do with our habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Successful social movements are said to have three parts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) the movement begins with the social habits of close friendship<\/strong> \u2013 someone is afflicted, and the people close to them immediately help<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) the movement grows from the habits of a community<\/strong> and the weak ties that combine loosely affiliated people. There is increasing social pressure to join to maintain your social status<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) the movement endures because the leaders give participants new habits<\/strong>, a new identity, and a feeling of ownership over the movement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll unpack each of these parts and use the example of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement in 1950\u2019s America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Movements Start With a Victim<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is the first step in how to start a movement. Social movements often begin with a victim who suffered an injustice, like being injured or discriminated against.<\/strong> Immediately, the victim\u2019s close friends band together to help, as the habits of friendship would dictate. (Cue: friend is in trouble; Routine: help the friend; Reward: happiness from helping friend). To have a broad social movement, it helps if the victim is well connected in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Start a Movement Example: Civil Rights Movement<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 1955, Rosa Parks was ordered to give up her bus seat in the colored section for a white passenger. She refused. She was arrested. Actually, Rosa Parks wasn\u2019t the first one to get arrested for sitting on a bus, even in the same city (Montgomery, Alabama) in the same year. But she became a symbol of the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the reason was timing \u2013 Brown v Board<\/em> had just ruled that segregation was illegal in public schools. Part of the reason was Rosa\u2019s pleasant demeanor and relative middle-aged normality \u2013 earlier in the year, a teenager Claudette Colvin was arrested for resisting bus segregation, but civil rights leaders were afraid of championing her given that she was a teenager pregnant by a married man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book argues that Rosa Parks was <\/strong>the<\/em><\/strong> catalyst for the movement because of her exceptionally well-connected placement in the local community<\/strong>. She actively participated in the NAACP, church, youth organizations, botanical club, and volunteer groups. So her arrest set off a series of powerful events:<\/p>\n\n\n\n