Social movements function like controlled burns that rejuvenate democracies.

Evidence

Indeed, that is what social movements are, as she sees it—a mechanism for confronting the “politics of despair.” Her metaphor is rousing: Foresters use controlled fire to clear the constricting undergrowth that can imperil woodland ecologies; the term for lighting, tending, and steering such rejuvenating conflagrations is “swailing.” Social movements are best understood as a way of swailing unhealthy democracies. It’s the perfect image: careful fires that aim to make positive change by burning through the bad stuff—to give new life. — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 226

And it is precisely such conditions that give rise to, and require, in Woodly’s account, social movements. Indeed, that is what social movements are, as she sees it—a mechanism for confronting the “politics of despair.” Her metaphor is rousing: Foresters use controlled fire to clear the constricting undergrowth that can imperil woodland ecologies; the term for lighting, tending, and steering such rejuvenating conflagrations is “swailing.” Social movements are best understood as a way of swailing unhealthy democracies. — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 226

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: The swailing metaphor could seed a narrative about a movement leader who brings destruction-as-rebirth.
• DEFINE: Introduces Woodly’s definition of social movements via the ‘swailing’ metaphor.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!: A Manifesto of the…, 226