For our third essay, we were tasked with writing a piece on social change and climate change from three experts: Bill McKibben, Charles Duhigg, and Kathleen Dean Moore. While reading both Do The Math featuring Bill McKibben and “From Civil Rights to Megachurches” by Charles Duhigg, it became apparent that both experts believed we should approach climate change with the mindset that something needs to change, yet they had very different ideas on the methods with which we should approach it. While reading both pieces I annotated and made connections, specifically between the two experts’ ideas. Below are my annotations for Do The Math and “From Civil Rights to Megachurches” respectively. From page 87 (Duhigg), I used the quote “A movement starts because of the social habits of friendship and the strong ties between close acquaintances” to strengthen my essay; this quote sets up the necessary connections needed within a community in order for change to occur. After reading both pieces, I wrote my response to connect the two methods which I’ve put below my annotations. In order to connect them, I explained how each idea was different, but then went on to reiterate that despite being different, both ideas for approaching climate change are applicable. Although I feel like my annotations are helpful, I want to be able to go through and pull out important quotes, ideas, etc. related to the topic of my essay rather than quotes that just seem important.
Do The Math annotations
“From Civil Rights to Megachurches” annotations
Blog Post #16: Both Charles Duhigg, author of “From Civil Rights to Megachurches,” and Bill McKibben, featured speaker and climate change activist in Do the Math, have very opposing views on how exactly to go about initiating social change. Duhigg observes social change occuring in a three-step process; the process begins with close friends speaking out, then acquaintances or members within a community, and finally people who are complete strangers. Bill McKibben approaches social change much more directly with his acts of civil disobedience and protests. In Duhigg’s article, he discusses the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the power that strong and weak ties within a community can contribute to social change. He writes “it began with Rosa Parks, because she had a large, diverse, connected set of friends…”(90) which effectively illustrates the importance in having connections, whether they be strong or weak, in order to create a more powerful social movement. Paradoxically, McKibben believes in a more violent approach such as civil disobedience. In his documentary series he mentions, ”…I’ve been kind of forced to go against my sense of who I’m most comfortable being. It seems like it’s the thing that’s required now… Be a little uncomfortable. Push other people to be a little uncomfortable”(1). This quote explores the idea of pushing our own and other peoples limits in order to create change. In other words, if you show that you’re okay with being uncomfortable, then other people will start to be okay with it, too. A combination of both Duhigg and Mckibben’s approaches may be the ultimate recipe for social change.
