Octavia's Message to the Grassroots

Octaiva Butler's novels Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents are thick with messages, lessons, and commentary geared toward the contemporary audience. Many of those still apply.

These novels center around the life and actions of the founder of the Earth Seed movement in a post-apocalyptic America. Danger, uncertainty, and harsh living conditions are constant. Still the grass roots movement that the protagonist organizes survives disaster, thrives, survives disaster again, disappears, revives, and thrives again. Maybe these messages will help out you struggling grassroots organizers.

Here are some lessons from the Earth Seed doctrine:

• Change is god, god is change. Change is a virtue. Change is the way to survive.
• Manage the size of community
• Share and accept but don’t impose
• The past is an abyss that seduces with nostalgia and devours
• Knowledge is survival, shared knowledge is power
• Communication  is king
• When the opposition threatens to destroy your group its okay to dismantle and hide. When the storm clears you can start anew.
• Dystopia and utopia are inseparable
• Empathy is a burden as much as it is a gift. It is unreliable as a unifying factor.
• Self-interest is the greatest organizing force
• There is no perfect solution, just workable ones.

These are great novels. check them out for yourself.