A very deep and meaningful lesson! Ed
----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandwichman" <[email protected]> To: "RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 11:09 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] careful planning rarely changes history > 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 > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
