From Outrage to the Discipline of Showing Up
Turn outrage into sustained attention; change is built by those who keep showing up. — James Baldwin
Outrage as Spark, Attention as Engine
Outrage can ignite a movement, but it rarely sustains one. Baldwin’s line reframes fury as the starter fluid, not the motor: turn heat into focus, then keep that focus alive. In practical terms, sustained attention means returning—again and again—to the site of harm until conditions materially shift. His companion maxim, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced” (Baldwin, 1962), clarifies the path: repetition, not eruption, moves institutions. This is less about catharsis than continuity, and it sets the stage for an ethic of witness that translates feeling into presence.
Baldwin’s Ethic of Witness
Building on that premise, Baldwin modeled attention as witness: the repeated act of seeing, naming, and returning. In The Fire Next Time (1963), he sits with America’s contradictions long enough to make them undeniable, while in No Name in the Street (1972) he tracks the aftershocks of assassinations with a stamina that refuses amnesia. Even his 1965 Cambridge debate with William F. Buckley Jr. shows this posture: not a one-off performance, but one chapter in a long labor of public truth-telling. Thus, “showing up” is not mere attendance; it is a disciplined presence that compels accountability over time.
Movements Built on Repetition
Moreover, history confirms that durable change rides on routine. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days (1955–56), sustained by carpools, church basements, and nightly meetings—mundane logistics that transformed outrage into a civic habit. Likewise, the 1960 sit-ins and SNCC trainings repeated the same nonviolent script until lunch counters cracked. Ella Baker’s counsel—“Strong people don’t need strong leaders” (1964)—captured this infrastructure-first approach: build local capacity so people can keep showing up without waiting for a spark. Repetition, then, is strategy, not drudgery; it converts moral urgency into social muscle.
Turning Emotion into Habit
In turn, psychology illuminates how to make showing up stick. Habit research suggests that consistent cues and small, repeated actions create automaticity; Lally et al. (2009) found many behaviors stabilize after weeks of steady practice. Implementation intentions—if-then plans like “If it’s Tuesday at 6 p.m., I join the tenants’ meeting” (Gollwitzer, 1999)—bridge intention and action. Pair that with social accountability and feedback loops, and outrage becomes a calendar, then a rhythm, then an identity. By shrinking the action and fixing the time, we make persistence easier than dropout.
Outlasting the Issue-Attention Cycle
Meanwhile, movements must navigate a media environment that inflates spikes and forgets the rest. Anthony Downs’s “issue-attention cycle” (Public Interest, 1972) shows how public focus surges, then wanes; agenda-setting research (McCombs & Shaw, 1972) explains why visibility shapes urgency. Groups that prevail counterprogram the cycle: ACT UP’s sustained die-ins and FDA confrontations (1987–90s) reintroduced urgency until policy shifted; the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have marched weekly since 1977 to make disappearance unforgettable. The lesson is clear: schedule the return before the spotlight dims.
Practices for Converting Anger into Attendance
Finally, the craft of showing up is practical. Set a recurring cadence; define small, durable roles; rotate tasks to prevent burnout; and measure progress so effort becomes legible. Pair protest with infrastructure—legal aid, mutual aid, canvassing lists—so each gathering deposits capacity into the bank. Close the loop with reflection, as Baldwin did in essays that turned experience into shared understanding. In this way, outrage doesn’t dissipate; it matures into attention, and attention into institutions. Change, then, belongs to those who keep arriving—until the world must answer.