A SECOND TAKE ON ACTIVISM
This time Sinead O’Connor shares how crazy and scattered activism can be, as she reflects from the “other side”.
A couple weeks ago I posted a message from Susan Sontag, another lifelong activist and what she had to say about the folly of activist in making snap judgments, especially about people. It was a compelling message.
Today, someone else is here.
Sinead O’Connor (1966-2023) was an Irish singer and songwriter who spent her life advocating for multiple issues. Her professional career was impressive selling over seven million copies of her 1990 album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got and her first album, The Lion and the Cobra, which also received international success. But it’s her personal life not her professional one that laid the groundwork for the causes she pursued. It’s her personal story that reveals what drove her.
As an activist, she appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 1990 tearing up a photograph of Pope John Paul II to protest abuse in the Catholic Church. Her background, punctuated by various events, may have shaped some of her opinions since she was regularly beaten by her mother who taught her to steal from the collection plate at Mass. In addition, she struggled with her own mental health issues, was married multiple times, had four children and converted to Islam in 2018. Although receiving several music awards, she wouldn’t attend to accept them, smoked marijuana for 30-years and eventually died from COPD at 56.
Sinead O’Connor was someone who always struck me as a radical. Perhaps she was, but what she had to say this time, from the soul level, was deeply introspective and insightful about the subject that dominated her life—being an activist.
“Thank you for receiving me, Sandy. I was a woman on a mission. The interesting part of that journey is when a person is spun around and around in childhood before taking that first step toward your adult destination, it’s nearly impossible to recognize where you are headed. You’re dizzy, confused, and unsteady.
“Perhaps that’s why I gravitated to music, an anchor for me that allowed me to express my frustration and to clear my head. Music was part of my mission and when I focused on the first flashy object in front of me, I’d look at it critically. Sometimes seeing the hypocritical behavior in others and then I’d call it out. Kind of like spinning a roulette wheel in life, landing on a number and saying, “a-aha”. When I gravitated to smoking pot, I think it helped calm my messed-up emotions—and give me a sense of grounding.
“I was a mess. I didn’t understand what love really was, so my marriages were never successful and I’m not sure I was even a decent mother since I had no role model for that. Islam gave me some spiritual touch point since Christianity had disappointed me from my first distorted perception of it as a child. “
Then she explained why she came to share.
“The reason for this message is to give you a better understanding of what I believe an activist is. Not all have pure intentions nor are all grounded in any form of reality. It’s one thing to have an opinion, even a strong opinion about a subject but it’s another to take action and fight for one cause after another. Some do that to fill a void, express their frustration for a lack of a greater understanding, or to counter their own inability to make a difference in more positive way for others.
“Yes, some activists have a pure heart, but others jump all over the place, advocating for this and for that—merely following all the other lemmings in their cult (which can also include the gang member life) because their own family of origin was flawed and provided few healthy tools to build their own loving family.
“Yes, I’m critical—mainly because I’ve looked at my own life and realize that I couldn’t have been taken seriously by anyone with a lick of common sense, mature judgment, or anyone who was grounded in reality. I was a freak, but I thought I was noble. Boy, did I ever learn a lot when I arrived here. Ha
“So, I don’t seem too critical, let me explain that Rock and Roll isn’t bad. Being an activist isn’t bad. Having a lousy childhood doesn’t make one bad. Doing drugs (including alcohol) doesn’t make one bad, either. But lump those all together in a weird, hybrid mix and the odds of living a normal, healthy life decline. I’m just saying.
“So, I came today, as a form of confession and in a sincere desire to help others who are still living. We all know when our lives are a mess, and we’ve contributed to that. So, my advice is this. It’s not too late to fix a few things while we still have time to make amends, change our behavior and adjust our attitude. There are folks to help with that, if you just look around! It sure beats waiting until we get over here. Then, it’s too late to tell others we’re sorry, help others with the same issues, or get credit for our improvement.
“I had to wait for someone like Sandy to be open to hearing what I have to say. Could be a long wait for others not as lucky as I was. Humbly, Sinead.”
What I loved about what Sinead had to say is that she didn’t just reflect on her own life, she included observations about others in her message and best of all, provided a few helpful steps for those readers who might recognize they also have healing to do.
Reflecting on our past history, from the beginning, provides a good indication of what we may be lacking in our lives today. It’s not about blaming parents or feeling sorry for ourselves but rather if we can reflect objectively, it could reveal what motivates us today.
Such reflection can help us identify why we charge at windmills, how well we do in finding or keeping quality relationships, why we live with long-standing anger, and why we believe our glass is half empty instead of half full.
Reflection is good. Who’d have thought we’d get a message with such a meaningful analysis about life from someone like Sinead O’Connor?