I have been asked by an undergraduate student how they might develop a career as a campaigner that might result in a change for the better in the world that they see all around them.
This is not the first time this has happened. So, I thought an article and maybe even a YouTube video on this issue might be of use, given that I am, in a formal sense, at the other end of my career. Let's start here.
My suggestion to my past students, when they asked me about this, which they quite often did, was that they should not be in a hurry. The world might be a mess, but very few people are going to do much about that at the age of 21. I know Greta Thunberg did, but she is the exception that suggests that my comment is right. Like it or not, changing the world is not going to be a sprint for anyone. It might not even be a marathon. It may be a triathlon, and even more.
In that case, success in achieving change is going to be dependent upon the training and preparation put in, more than anything else. So, to really understand what has to be changed, perhaps the most important thing to do is to observe and understand as much as possible about just exactly what it is that you don't like. Unless you do that, you cannot, in my opinion, be a successful campaigner. Successful campaigners do not just oppose things. Anyone can do that. Successful campaigners can work out what can be done to make things better, and such people are rare and invaluable. That is why training and commitment to a cause that might last a lifetime are required.
I very strongly suggest that this does not require postgraduate study at a university. If you want to be an academic, doing that makes sense. But the vast majority of academics in social sciences, at least, change very little, except the relative rankings on Google Scholar. They like to think that what they're doing is impactful, but to be candid, it very rarely is. Academia is a game played from well behind the stands, if you want a football metaphor, or the pavilion, if you want a cricket one. Academics rarely get onto the field of play, so remote are they from the action.
Instead, what I suggest is that you get some practical training that will provide a basis for proving expertise to future potential employers, or people to whom you will want to prove your credibility. This might sound boring, but training as an accountant is a really good way to do this, so long as you do not get hooked on the income prospects that it provides, because as a campaigner, you will never have such prospects again.
Alternatively, if you can stand it, you could train as a lawyer.
Another option is to apply for a management training scheme in a large corporation, the civil service, local government, or even HM Revenue & Customs.
These are all, of course, very conventional career choices. And that is precisely my point. Unless you know how the system works, you really cannot critique it. That is precisely why the world ignores the vast majority of what those in think tanks, campaign groups and NGOs have to say, because their claims cannot, all too often, be backed up by any real-world experience to justify what they say.
What I cannot stress enough, however, is that you must do this knowing that you are using the training that any such organisation might provide for your own purposes. If you do not embrace that approach, these schemes might drive you close to insanity. They will, very largely, demand that you learn skills that are completely pointless because their real intention is to make you a cog in the neoliberal machine, to which it is their aim that you become addicted. That is exactly why you need to remember your own agenda, which is that you are going to learn these skills precisely so that you can criticise what is wrong, with the aim of working out how to make things better.
If you survive this process, you will have three invaluable qualities.
First of all, you will have more expertise. You might not be an expert as yet, but you will be better qualified than most. That means that you will have something that you can talk about with some authority, which means that people will have a reason to listen to you.
Second, you will either have realised just why you utterly dislike the system, or you will have embraced it. If you have embraced it, you will become one of the many. If you have still rejected it, you will become one of the few, and so will be valuable.
Third, based on your expertise, you are more likely to find someone who wants to employ you, and so give you the chance to begin to change the system. Many people in NGO, think tanks, and elsewhere do this on the basis of academic qualifications, but you will have something so much more valuable, which is real-world experience of exactly what is wrong and what is required to put it right.
However, once you have arrived in the NGO, campaigning or think tank world, let me offer you another word of warning. A great many of those in this sector long ago forgot what they were angry about or wanted to change. Instead they too have been sucked into a career path, where they deliver transferable skills, saving the environment this week, campaigning on baby formula next week, and disability issues the week after. All these are worthy things, but these people do not bring conviction to any of these things. The campaigns they are involved in are just the latest on their own professional career trajectory, which in the end looks very neoliberal in its own right, and might even be framed by the organisations they work for in that way, with a corporate model all too commonly in use. These organisations do not, I stress, exist to change anything. After all, if they solved poverty, what would all those campaigning on that issue do? This is another reason why you need your own convictions to remind you what you really need to do, and to keep at it, and your own professional skills; they provide you with the detachment to be a good campaigner. This is incredibly important, or at least it has been to me.
I have no idea if this is what anybody who wants to change the world at the age of 21 wants to hear, but from the perspective of someone who has been trying to achieve just that for longer than I care to remember, this is the best advice that I can give. And, what is more, if things don't work out, you might still have something to fall back on if you follow my advice, and maybe that's no bad thing.
And one last thing that I should have mentioned, because it is absolutely critical. Hone your writing skills. You will need them. Write continuously, even if you are not sure why you need to do so. Publish a blog, even if no one reads it. And for exactly the same reason, in the era in which we now live, learn how to talk to a camera. It might only be your phone. Put the resulting video on that same blog. No one but your mum or ex might read it, but do not worry. The skills that you will gain will be invaluable in your future career, and by doing these things, you will have overcome the embarrassment involved in these processes, because initially they are real.
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Richard,
Good ideas.
Its clear reading your work that you understand whats happening because of your accountancy training.
Ditto Gareth Dennis – a Railway Engineer first campaigner second
https://garethdennis.co.uk/
So could I add Railway Engineer to the list of possible jobs to train (groan, no pun intended) before becoming a campaigner?
Agreed. Why not, especially if the campaign is on issues in engineering and anything related to it, and why shouldn’t it be?
As a mining engineer I learnt most of my knowledge and expertise from talking to experts in their fields and they were always only to happy to explain things. I did find some very good books on blasting and conveyor design but am still concerned that the internet was and still is very unhelpful. One tip, I always do my engineering calculations on a spread sheet carefully laid out and have even including drawings so it can be checked by a colleague or consultant.
My last job was the site engineer for rehabilitating the tailings dam and was very pleased to have the tailings dam designated as a nature reserve.
John Boxall
You’ve made my day – great link to Mr Dennis – right up my permanent way that is – and he is right, so much has been done to destroy rail born mass transport over the years in favour of the car. I cycle a lot and the air that I breath is foul because of cars and I have nasal drip because of that – the refurbished trains the East Midland Railway has put on my line has room for only two bikes, yet every morning, commuters are bringing more and more bikes on the train – or are trying to. Travel policy is still a mess, driven by pandering to the car lobby.
Thanks again.
Might one add personal attitude management skills, not least resilience and occupation flexibility robustness as obstruction by filtering to one side or filtering out may be experienced, not least by those who are becoming to be effective campaigners/effective in heterodoxy?
Developing positive questioning attitudes and skills helps.
“Asking questions is the first way to begin change”
(Kubra Sait)
And enjoy the struggle much of the time!
I would suggest that future campaigners read around their subjects, not accepting the conventional wisdom at face value.
To quote Roger Waters: read, read, and read some more. And then read opposing and alternative views, so you can understand the other side. Then the rest is simple: you do the right thing.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntovT27d3Ew
You are quite right IMO. I had a similar conversation with a young person last Xmas.
I also advised to be prepared to read and talk to people who think very differently to them.
Gaining qualifications in two or even three very different disciplines helps. You will find perspectives that completely elude many others, and be valuable as a potential recruit once you have your second qualification. An establishment example: Ursula von der Leyen, who has an economics degree, then qualified as a medical doctor specialising in public health, then turned to politics and governance.
Also live in another culture – sadly now much harder for Brits.
And practice public speaking to a live audience. Discover how you win by having extra knowledge to draw on when you get asked questions in public. Learn to think on your feet. The best teachers are good at thinking on their feet and understanding their questioners’ points of view.
Thank you.
Kauders: “Also live in another culture – sadly now much harder for Brits.” With regard to the EU, yes, but there are opportunities in Africa, Asia and Latin America where skills and enthusiasm are most welcome.
Write for “right” – last paragraph, third sentence!
I would also add look at what works.
Socialist Zohran Mamdani could be New York’s next mayor
Despite the tens of millons of dollars raised to support his oponent Cuomo, despite the constant smears and lies from right wing MSM.
Mamdani ran a campaign with clear & constant messaging to redirect anger from the disenfranchised to the economic elites.
His three main pledges if you like were “Fast and free buses, freeze the rents, free childcare” simple, and super popular.
As for the media his team made dozens of short sharp even funny videos but all carrying his three core pledges, and put them onto as many platforms as possible not just TikTok and Instagram.
Movement!! The videos raised an army of door knockers who went into areas democrat establishment types had decided were a wate of time, they also went into areas with traditionally low turnouts and low voter engagement.
Jeremy Corbyn built the Labour party membership into the largest Socialist Party in Europe with over 600,000 members but eschewed corporate donations.
It does help to be charismatic in politics you can be a bloody idiot and a liar and still be elected (Boris Johnson Lizz Truss Etc).
You will need to have a true and genuine deire to improve the lives of the vast majority of people, and not just be there for your own career, otherwise your lack of genuine political belief, and concern for people will group you with the majority of faceless useless politicians, (Starmer Streeting Jenrick) the UK already has.
Another approach is to overtly campaign after leaving school, college or university.
In universities particularly students learn practical politics from partition in specialist societies; the really interested get involved in student union politics, which helps develop time management, writing, organisational and public speaking skills, all useful for future campaigning.
This link to a degree (in the US Commencement ) ceremony, of a young economics and statistics high flying US student, Cecilia Culver, from Chicago, who used her platform to go off-script and support Palestine and attack her university ( George Washington in DC) for its investments in Israel. Her brave and bold speech is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb6kR79OXYc
You are a retired accountant living in a middle class house in leafy middle england. And you see yourself as a role model for the radical young? That is so funny.,
A person at the University of Sussex asked me. I made the video. I didn’t say I was a role model. He chose to ask me. What is your problem with that? You don’t think young people ask people who know a bit about the world questions? Really? What planet do you live on? Or are you as bitter and twisted as you sound. When did someone last ask you for advice?
You forgot to include your CV, so I can compare it to Richard’s.
Odd that, isn’t it.
I have written this standard response to people like this (I use a macro system for doing so):
“You are right to criticise me, of course. Without you having offered any explanation for your expertise, or your qualification to comment, you have implied that I am terrible at what I do, with no opinion of worth. I am, of course, necessarily obliged as a result to agree that is the case.
After all, that is why I am a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, one of only 10 accountants to have ever been elected to that body.
It is also why I was ranked as high as seventh in the world in taxation by the International Tax Review over a period of more than 12 years, over which period they included me in their world top 50.
That is also why I was described as social media accountant of the year for five years in a row by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
In addition, precisely because I am so bad, two universities have appointed me to full professorships, and a third has done so to a visiting professorship, whilst three others have appointed me as a visiting fellow.
It’s also why I have a Google Scholar research ranking that lists more than 3,400 people referencing my research work.
But let’s ignore all of that. You, without any apparent qualifications at all, say that I am completely rubbish at what I do and ask that everyone accept that you are right. So, why on earth wouldn’t we? All those others must be wrong.
Thank you, Steven.
What a ridiculous thing to say.
I have spoken to the radical young and not so radical young at some events and have not found age to be a barrier.
There are many retired or soon to retire radicals from Whitehall (Mrs Smithers, aka mum), the City (me), the military (dad) who are informed, passionate and want a better life and planet for their children, grandchildren and other people. They have some financial security and time and insight.
I don’t have children, but plan to fight for a better life and planet for my godchildren, nephews and nieces, and children of my beloved Yorkshire Rose.
We share a mission….
Two things I heard or read last week, which may relate to campaigning.
Brad de Long (https://substack.com/home/post/p-167052385) drew attention to a comment that in debate Mamdani behaved as the only adult in the room, sticking to his policies rather than attacking his opponents . Perhaps outraged invective is no longer the best way to win the argument?
At a Palestine meeting I heard a talk by a Quaker from EAPPI (https://www.quaker.org.uk/action/palestine-and-israel/eappi). The organisation sends “Ecumenical Accompaniers” to Israel to provide eye witness accounts and personal stories of what is happening on the ground. The message I took home was that personal accounts carry far more weight than sophisticated analyses. And descriptions of everyday life under apartheid carry more weight than the counter accusations of antisemitism.
The hardest problem is when a wrong idea is so strongly entrenched that people cannot begin to think beyond it. Richard faces this with the “household budget” and its Trumpian corollary that everything is a zero sum game. Listening to interviewers on the Labour rebellion, they regarded it as axiomatic that you cannot help a disabled person without hurting someone else. We have a desperate need for a simpler everyday starting point before moving to reality-based economis.
Thanks
Alternatively, if you want to help people in a neighbourhood at hyper local level, you can train as a Community Organiser and still have a career as an accountant, lawyer, engineer, architect etc and use those skills to make a direct impact where you live. Who was it that said “we wanted to change the world but found that we could, just about change a neighbourhood in a lifetime”..
That’s good..
Different horses for different choices! 27 years ago, the people of Perth in Western Australia, saved the last first generation forest from an area 3 times the size of the UK. It was sold to a company for wood pulp and a million people stopped that! I spent 4 weeks in a tree whilst their , protecting what felt right for me and the people.
You have to start at the beginning and follow your conscience!
I went to law school at age 43 after being an investigative journalist. Had some GREAT and progressive profs. Then taught law for 15 years.
Both studying and teaching law + reading a lot of socialist literature gave me a lot of skills ( to be modest!; I am not British ) in writing and talking.
Still a campaigner and activist at age 77.
Alan Story THE LEFT LANE
I like that, Alan.
I hope to redoing this in ten years and more.
Lots of wisdom here Richard – from someone who has actually ‘done it’ – detractors please note. Thank you.
Really good. For me add people skills: the ability to communicate, influence , build relationships and have empathy and develop an understanding of other peoples views. A good moral compass in an age of greed is valuable.
Thanks
At 21 I didn’t have a clue about the meaning of ‘freedom’, ‘power’, ‘authority’. If you want to be an actor in the game to change these things, then you need to know what they are. I spent a lot of time alone thinking what these things are. I still do today. I have philosophical inclinations. I am not an economist. I am compelled to thought rather than action. And it is the mastery of thought that causes changes. Otherwise you are a cog in a machine determined by someone else’s thinking.
Much to agree with