What drives people to perform outside of the margins that their lives have constructed them to act within? What motivates someone with a stable home life, fulfilling career, and satisfying hobbies to take on a role as an activist or an organizer? It takes not only a worthy cause, a visible problem, and a progressive personality. An activist also understands the risk of standing up to oppressive institutions and organizations, shrugs, and advances their ideology as being of higher moral and logical standing.

Love, peace, justice, knowledge, freedom, truth, preservation and conservation, and equality are often chief moral positions to take when embarking on an activist path. Activists are not by any means the only people who value these ideas, so what pushes them from their couches into the streets? What drives the activist spirit?

Looking at activists of the past and present may lead to some clues. I have chosen three different, but effective, activists to look at in an attempt to isolate some of their driving personality traits:

Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz was a tech-prodigy, Reddit co-developer, entrepreneur, and political activist/organizer. Swartz took an early interest in learning whatever he could get his hands on to the extent where he could teach the subject back to his other siblings. Swartz became quickly invested in his computer crafting pre-Wikipedia editable databases, ATM prototypes, and "Star Wars" trivia games. He wanted to make knowledge accessible and unrestricted. Aaron founded a number of organizations in his life which still operate today, namely Demand Progress and Watchdog.net. His organizations and activism were mainly focused on Internet freedom, information accessibility, government accountability, and transparency. Following his arrest for downloading research and journals from database JSTOR and subsequent stressful two-year-long trial, Aaron was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment. On Jan. 11, 2013 he had committed suicide due to the stress and apparent cyclical motion of the trial. Aaron is remembered as an example to those who stand up to abusive powers and as someone who demanded information be accessible and public.

Julia Hill

Many children in rural areas spend some time in homemade tree houses. Julia Hill lived in a redwood tree marked to be cut down for a jaw dropping 738 days straight. Hill was born Feb. 18, 1974 to a family that traveled almost nonstop in a camper. In August 1996, Julia was involved in a car accident where the car she was driving was rear-ended, sending its steering wheel straight into her skull. It took her almost a year to fully recover from the accident with therapy, slowly regaining the ability to speak and walk correctly. This accident reorganized Julia’s priorities and shifted her focus from her restaurant manager position to environmental work and activism. She focused primarily on forests, gas and oil pipelines, and tax direction. Hill remains a prime example of dedication and determination; traits which she helps foster in emerging leaders through organizations such as the Engage Network, which she co-founded.

Anonymous

Anonymous is a Guy Fawkes-masked "hacktivist" group operating solely online. Hacktivism is a form of computer hacking which serves the progress of an activist movement, not entirely dissimilar to white hat hacking wherein cyber security experts improve the security of an organization’s information system by first hacking into it so as to pinpoint the weaknesses. Anonymous is a global group which remains open to anyone who wishes to be a part of it and entirely devoid of official leadership. Their canon reads as follows: “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.” The group is known for its attacks on Fox News, The Church of Scientology, and the RIAA. More recently, Anonymous has launched attacks on ISIS, Turkey for its alleged support of ISIS, and the Ku Klux Klan. Anonymous is morally charged and launches unrestricted online offensives on injustice, and all without a name.

Activists come in many different forms. From hacktivists to tree-huggers, extremists to moderates, authors to monkey-wrenchers, and everything in between. What is most important to learn from the likes of Aaron Swartz, Julia Hill, and Anonymous are that they do not just make Facebook statuses and start yelling at friendly get-togethers about their issues. They take their anger and demand results—they initiate proactive change. They work toward a brighter world. Aaron Swartz led the charge to take down the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which would have “taken a hammer to an issue that required a scalpel." Julia Hill did not just save Luna the redwood tree but she protects the wellbeing of the environment. Anonymous confronts the most oppressive and dangerous people and organizations in the world head on (and ostensibly just for the “lulz”). Activists do not simply want change, they create it.

Maybe peoples' opinions on important topics are worth a listen. No?