shellcollector:

Honestly I think one of the things that I find so heartening about Les Mis is the idea that you can be useful to The Cause even if your skillset is not ostensibly one that lends itself to fighting. Often when you have a ragtag team they all have complementary useful skills, whereas Les Mis encourages me to believe that you can be a helpful political activist even if you:

– would really like to do everything gradually and peacefully and are not sure if this is even the right way to be fighting this fight but can’t bear to sit around and do nothing

– are a stammering gentle willothewisp who keeps pot plants and can’t always talk to people

– have to fit your activism around actually working for a living, unlike seemingly everyone else

– are embarrassingly posh and give people the impression you just want to fuck around and have fun

– have poor impulse control and can’t even make a budget

– just have the worst luck in the world and can barely manage your own life and would be homeless if it weren’t for your friends

– are extremely anxious and frequently distracted by your own health concerns

– are a colossal fuckup and human disaster whose mental health problems have led them to let people down again and again

– are the Pontmercy friend, even, and can’t help Pontmercying around and embarrassing everyone

Not everyone has to be Enjolras. You just have to turn up and do your actual best. That’s a really good message to internalise. I think it’s actually helping me to think about doing more activisty stuff, even though I almost never feel like The Best Person for the job.

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