Beautiful! On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 7:42 PM, Darryl or Natalia <[email protected]> wrote: > > Sam Smith's review, Undernews, Nov. 10, featured an essay on how Americans > might get out of the mess the elite have put them in. Below is the latter > half, starting with an exploration of how the Solidarity movement came to > pass. I thought some might wish to comment upon his observations. > > Natalia > > GETTING THROUGH THE BAD TIMES > > "It is the struggle of a state in ludicrous pursuit of a nation that it > cannot seem to find. And, it is the struggle of a nation trying to find a > way to meet the state, not in the posture of supplicant or avenger, but in > the posture of free citizen." > > Rensenbrink tells me that some of Solidarity's early organizing took place > on the trains that many of the workers rode to the shipyards, where they had > time to drink coffee and talk. In our own history, there are innumerable > examples of change owing a debt to the simple serendipity of people of like > values and sensibilities coming together. For example, the rise of Irish > political power in this country was aided considerably by the Irish bar's > role as an ethnic DMZ and a center for the exchange of information. > > CS Lewis says somewhere that we read to discover that we are not alone. That > discovery is a necessary for change as well. Part of the dreadful force of > southern segregation, for example, was that it prevented poor whites and > poor blacks from discovering how much they had in common. > > We tend to discount the importance of unplanned moments because of our > fealty to the business school paradigm in which change properly occurs > because of a careful strategic plan, an organized vision, procedures, and > process. During the past quarter century when such ideas have been in > ascendancy, however, America has demonstratively deteriorated as a > political, economic, and moral force. In reality, many of the best things > happen by accident and indirection. While it may be true, as the Roman said, > that "fortune smiles on the well prepared" part of that preparation is to be > in the right place at the right time. In other words, it is necessary to > create an ecology of change rather than a precise and often illusory > process. > > The beat generation understood this. Unlike today's activists they lacked a > plan; unlike those of the 60s they lacked anything to plan for; what > substituted for utopia and organization was the freedom to think, to speak, > to move at will in a culture that thought it had adequately taken care of > all such matters. To a far greater degree than rebellions that followed, the > beat culture created its message by being rather than doing, rejection > rather than confrontation, sensibility rather than strategy, journeys > instead of movements, words and music instead of acts, and informal > communities rather than formal institutions. > > The full-fledged uprisings that followed could not have occurred without > years of anger and hope being expressed in more individualistic and less > disciplined ways, ways that may seem ineffective in retrospect yet served as > absolutely necessary scaffolding with which to build a powerful movement. > > One of these ways, for example, is music. Billie Holiday was singing about > lynchings long before the modern civil rights movement. And Rage Against the > Machine was engaging in anti-sweatshop protests some years before most > college student had ever heard of them. > > Another way is found in the magic of churches. During the 1960s I edited a > newspaper in a neighborhood 75% black and mostly poor in which I came to > assume that churches were the sina qua non of positive change. We had over a > 100 of them in a two square mile area and you just came to rely upon them as > part of the political action, including the Revolutionary Church of What's > Happenin' Now and the Rev. Frank Milner, part-minister and part-taxicab > driver who would come to community meetings in an outfit complete with > clerical collar and a metal change-maker on his belt. > > How important one church can be is illustrated with a little known story > from Birmingham Alabama. Responding to Rosa Parks' mistreatment, sleeping > car porter E.D. Nixon called up a young preacher and asked if he could use > his church for a meeting. The minister said he would think about it. A few > days later, Nixon called back and the minister agreed. E.D. Nixon's reply > was something like this, "Thank you Reverend King, because we've scheduled a > meeting at your church next Monday at 6:30 pm." > > It is for such reasons we must learn to stand outside of history. Quakerism, > for example, prescribes personal witness as guided by conscience - > regardless of the era in which we live or the circumstances in which we find > ourselves. And the witness need not be verbal. The Quakers say "let your > life speak," echoing St. Francis of Assisi's' advice that one should preach > the gospel at all times and "if necessary, use words." > > There are about as many Quakers today in America as there were in the 18th > century, around 100,000. Yet near the center of every great moment of > American social and political change one finds members of the Society of > Friends. Why? In part because they have been willing to fail year after year > between those great moments. Because they have been willing in good times > and bad -- in the instructions of their early leader George Fox -- "to walk > cheerfully over the face of the earth answering that of God in every one " > > The existentialists knew how to stand outside of history as well. > Existentialism, which has been described as the idea that no one can take > your shower for you, is based on the hat trick of passion, integrity and > rebellion. An understanding that we create ourselves by what we do and say > and, in the words of one of their philosophers, even a condemned man has a > choice of how to approach the gallows. > > Those who think history has left us helpless should recall the abolitionist > of 1830, the feminist of 1870, the labor organizer of 1890, or the gay or > lesbian writer of 1910. They, like us, did not get to choose their time in > history but they, like us, did get to choose what they did with it. > > Would we have been abolitionists in 1830? > > In 1848, 300 people gathered at Seneca Falls, NY, for a seminal moment in > the American women's movement. On November 2, 1920, 91 year-old Charlotte > Woodward Pierce became the only signer of the Seneca Falls Declaration of > Sentiments and Resolutions who had lived long enough to cast a ballot for > president. > > Would we have attended that conference in 1848? Would we have bothered? > > Or consider the Jewish cigar makers in early 20th century New York City each > contributing a small sum to hire a man to sit with them as they worked - > reading aloud the classic works of Yiddish literature. The leader of the > cigar-makers, Samuel Gompers, would later become the first president of the > American Federation of Labor. And those like him would become part of a > Jewish tradition that profoundly shaped the politics, social conscience, and > cultural course of 20th century America. While Protestants and Irish > Catholics controlled the institutions of politics, the ideas of modern > social democracy disproportionately came from native populists and immigrant > socialists. It is certainly impossible to imagine liberalism, the civil > rights movement, or the Vietnam protests without the Jewish left. > > These are the sort of the stories we must find and tell each other during > the bad days ahead. But there is a problem. The system that envelopes us > becomes normal by its mere mass, its ubiquitous messages, its sheer noise. > Our society faces what William Burroughs called a biologic crisis -- "like > being dead and not knowing it." Or as Matthew Arnold put it, trapped between > two worlds, one dead, the other unable to be born. > > We are overpowered and afraid. We find ourselves condoning things simply > because not to do so means we would then have to -- at unknown risk -- truly > challenge them. > > Yet, in a perverse way, our predicament makes life simpler. We have clearly > lost what we have lost. We can give up our futile efforts to preserve the > illusion and turn our energies instead to the construction of a new time. > > It is this willingness to walk away from the seductive power of the present > that first divides the mere reformer from the rebel -- the courage to > emigrate from one's own ways in order to meet the future not as an > entitlement but as a frontier. > > How one does this can vary markedly, but one of the bad habits we have > acquired from the bullies who now run the place is undue reliance on > traditional political, legal and rhetorical tools. Politically active > Americans have been taught that even at the risk of losing our planet and > our democracy, we must go about it all in a rational manner, never raising > our voice, never doing the unlikely or trying the improbable, let alone > screaming for help. > > We will not overcome the current crisis solely with political logic. We need > living rooms like those in which women once discovered they were not alone. > The freedom schools of SNCC. The politics of the folk guitar. The plays of > Vaclav Havel. Unitarian church basements. The pain of James Baldwin. The > laughter of Abbie Hoffman. The strategy of Gandhi and King. Unexpected > gatherings and unpredicted coalitions. People coming together because they > disagree on every subject save one: the need to preserve the human. Savage > satire and gentle poetry. Boisterous revival and silent meditation. Grand > assemblies and simple suppers. > > Above all, we must understand that in leaving the toxic ways of the present > we are healing ourselves, our places, and our planet. We must rebel not as a > last act of desperation but as a first act of creation. > > Portions of this talk come from Sam Smith's book " Why Bother?," which deals > with getting through the bad times including chapters on despair, rebellion, > personal witness, and guerrilla democracy. > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > >
-- Sandwichman _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
