"The lock that consumerism has on Western so-called civilization is formidable..."

We fail to see the flaws in our headlong rush to "have stuff", yet we claim that _our_ way is _the_way_ and we have the audacity to demand that others (particulary those in the "breadbasket of civilization") MUST adopt _our_ flawed form of "civilization". People in other parts of the world don't have much by our standards, and most certainly don't have our (dwindling) "freedoms", but many of them are much happier than most Americans.

I'm very selective about the "stuff" I collect. I don't buy the latest electronic gadgets just because everybody else has one. I haven't even given in to the concept of a basic cell phone.

I have been a folk dancer since I was in high school, and I have a great respect for the vast array of cultures in the world. Much of the attraction of dance is the community that it builds and the connections to other people all over the country and across the world.

I also spent my first year and a half of school, in the early '50s, at The American School in Japan, which at the time had about 300 K-12 students. They were from all over the world. It taught me very early in life that there are people in the world who are different and there is nothing _wrong_ with being different. Today the school has moved out of Tokyo to the suburbs and has several thousand students.

Religion can be a great catalyst for social change, be it public or personal, but it shouldn't be ruled by it either. Religion can alienate people as much as it can bring people in.

It's great when people's faith motivates them to bring about progress. But not everyone has it, and that should be ok too, just like it should be ok for someone to be a Christian, Jew, Muslim. Buddhist, Wiccan and still be a leftist.

I don't think the left should be entirely faith-based nor should it be entirely secularized. Just let people have their faith if they choose to hold onto it and let those who don't have it simply be.

We need the Big Tent. That means a mega-squadron blacks, reds, yellows, whites, men, women, young, old, homosexual, heterosexual, people of any faith, people with no faith, hip-hop nationals, headbangers, punkers, goths, rockabillies, urbanites, suburbanites, rednecks, hillbillies, yuppies, college-educated, working-class, etc. The shafted in America are LEGION. Let's not leave anyone behind if we can help it, because those who are left behind either drop out or get misled into pacts with the demonic Right. There's a beautiful future ahead of us if as many of us as possible keep on the left side of the road. I know I want it, and I don't know why I shouldn't. Me simply working hard won't get me to Utopia, and the right only wants Utopia for a small clique. They 'aint lettin' me in.

Should we really emulate the tactics of the bat-shit crazies to get people motivated? If so, what sort of rituals should we have?

We could try telling people that if they don't sign this petition, they'll burn in hell. Fear is a great motivating tool on the religious right. So, why not use it, in accordance with the logic of this essay?

Or maybe it's personal. If I just light a little candle and pray, will the faithful come flocking?

Let's face it, left political movements excluded from the winner-take-all duopoly in the United States are going to depend on people gaining understanding over fear. It's a slow process. It means losing a lot on the political front. It means waiting for people to advance their consciousnesses and constantly educating people in the mean time. There aren't too many rewards under that scenario, and there's no money too.

Religious shortcuts sound good only until you look at the track records of some of the great religions. There's a down side: extraordinary violence and bigotry throughout recorded history.

Religious folks are capable of benevolent actions, and also genocidal ones. And that's why religion is a bad organizing principle. Think soup kitchens, but also think murderous Crusades. Think of Columbus and his mission to spread Christianity while sending back gold and slaves to the Spanish crown. Think of "Gott mit uns," the inscription on the belt buckles of Hitler's troops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gott_mit_uns

It's easy to lose one's way when you're fighting for the hereafter, or for God, or the fatherland. Dare say, one could end up being supportive of a Jewish state instead of larger inclusiveness.

No, the left is clear on what it wants. Religion could spread the message quicker, maybe, but it can also hideously distort that message. Isn't the religious right a huge distortion of Christianity, at least so far as Christians on the left perceive it? In theory, people on the Christian right follow Jesus, the pacifist and the first "communist."

We need clear-minded people, not zealots. The best way to not be a zealot is to avoid religion and think how to better society in the here and now.

-TIA

"The Left in it's support of killing the unborn fails the respect for life test."

Supporting reproductive freedom does not equate for a desire to kill the unborn. Abolishing reproductive freedom only creates more death and squalor.

"Denials dig the left deeper into a hole."

As opposed to The Right denying women the right to choose.

"Life is an overarching value and will not be dismissed. Respect it or everything dies."

You're right, but how about respecting the lives of children already born? You ban abortion, and you create more poverty, and with more poverty comes more death, not to mention overpopulation.

Besides, how many lefists really want women to have abortion after abortion? If anything, they'd rather prevent unplanned pregnancies to begin with. No unplanned pregnancies means no aborted fetuses.

"The left have become tokens of death."

What?

"Respecting and defending all life is a survival skill and value."

Certainly. I see The Left defending it and The Right as anti-life.

"The Left prefers Fascism to Life."

What? What's fascist about socialist democracies, personal freedoms, or an abolishment of hierarchies?

"It is the life issue that has driven moderates and conservatives to the right."

No, those people who are more interested in embyros and fetuses than children and adults are already waayyyyy to the right. But I do think they can be convinced that war, imperialism, capitalism, and environmental ruin are far more anti-life than reproductive freedom.

"End the blind hostility toward unborn human life."

No, that would describe the right. The right created a world unfit to be born into. That's hostility to the unborn.

"I always ask, would you have rather have been aborted? The answer is almost universally no! So why the disconnect? How can the Left be spiritual if the fundamental tennant of religions is, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The choice is clear."

Of course few people aside from the hopeless, fatalistic, and misanthropic would have rather been aborted. What do you expect people to say? It doesn't prove anything. The majority of Americans are pro-choice which doesn't equate with being pro-abortion.

Instead of outlawing abortions, why not make birth control a universal right under the umbrella of universal single-payer? Why not enact universal single-payer education as well as jobs-for-all and a living wage? Studies show that women who are education and not poot are less likely to have unplanned pregancies.

There are ways (enlightened ways) to reduce abortions without at all limiting or denying access to it.

The Left in it's support of killing the unborn fails the respect for life test. Denials dig the left deeper into a hole. Life is an overarching value and will not be dismissed. Respect it or everything dies. The left have become tokens of death. Respecting and defending all life is a survival skill and value.

The Left prefers Fascism to Life. It is the life issue that has driven moderates and conservatives to the right. Until the left demonstrates respect for all life we will remain on the road to Fascism. Consumerism, although important, is well down the list of needed changes.

End the blind hostility toward unborn human life. I always ask, would you have rather have been aborted? The answer is almost universally no! So why the disconnect? How can the Left be spiritual if the fundamental tennant of religions is, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The choice is clear.

Great posts. luckylefty, yourstruly, and quickstepper*, (HI SR), SVRiley,
Rad-ical you'all. Jus plain fine writin I says.
*Your posts are consistently thoughtful and move the discussions forward, right on.

Great posts. luckylefty, yourstruly, and quickstepper*, (HI SR), SVRiley,
Rad-ical you'all. Jus plain fine writin I says.
*Your posts are consistently thoughtful and move the discussions forward, right on.

"This is not nearly as complicated as people make it...you don't need the transcendentalism or fancy talk about spiritual high panjandrums...

Do you believe we should make an equal place for everyone at the table?

Do you think Humans are Food?

Do you reject constant war and the Rights of Conquest?

Do you reject Oligarchy/Kleptocracy as a social class?"

The majority of people, white, red, brown, would say "yes, no, yes, and yes."

"Then you are an enemy of everything that White America holds dear and you are subject to the full force and coercion of the State...sorry."

Complete bullshit, the white man is not Satan. Most whites are progressives also and are being held up by the same people.

"Or you could ask, "What would drive white americans out of their barcoloungers and into the streets?" You want to see hysterical violence in the streets? Not rocket science."

What's driving blacks, reds, browns, and yellows out of theirs?

"Try to eliminate white male supremacy.

Try to integrate our schools.

Try to get equal pay for women or enforce their right to terminate a pregnancy in the 85% of US counties in the US where this is not possible today.

Try to effectively end war and conquest as the only force that gives our lives meaning.

Try to restore Roosevelt Legacy taxation on the richfilth animals."

I would think most whites along with others are right on that same page. The polls bear that out.

"Left? What's left? They don't want an EQUAL place for everyone at the table any more than the richfilth animals. Look at the demographics of that "Left"."

It depends on how you define "the left." Are we talking the subculture of the left or the 99% who are at least mostly aligned with the left.

"They were the same ones who complained about those "angry uppity Black people"."

Uh, where did you see that?

"You may have noticed the 40 years of continuous ongoing failure on every front our benighted "Left" has addressed. The ones who didn't get the bullet, took the gold. Requiescat in Pace."

So you're going to blame the left instead of the elites?

"And yes, the good white folk did the two things that cost them absolutely nothing: The Civil Rights/Voting Rights Acts. After that they reversed the demographics in prison from 2/3 white (whites were 87% of the population, 80% of the crime, drug use and poverty) to 2/3 Black and Brown and quadrupled the prison population (whites are 70% of the population and still comprise 80% of the crime, drug use and poverty). White America's response to the Civil Rights movement was give the "talented 10th" a temporary promotion while incarcerating 1/3 of the black male population under policies of selective enforcement, targeted incarceration, and disproportionate sentencing. This is entirely within the frame of a genocidal people who name sports teams and automobiles after their victims..."

No the elites are guilty of that. You're throwing the Dick Cheneys in the stew along with people from the Appalachias.

No racial/ethnic group is inherently genocidal. You're playing the same game the Right likes to engage in.

"And yes, American schools are now just as segregated as they were in 1954."

Mine weren't. I went to public schools throughout all of the 80's and most of the 90's. And most of the public schools, wherever they are, are doing a disservice to children of all races.

"This country will eat its own intestines rather than make itself a society based on "Inclusion". That's why it and they are a doomed people..."

No, blame the elites for that. They create the inequality, not the ordinary and rank and file.

I'm glad you posted, because you are a living epitome of a flaw of the left: identity politics. You're also fatalistic, suicidal, self-loathing, thoroughly delight in alienating people.

People like you demonize groups also. The Right has blacks, hispanics, foreigners, jews, feminists, gays, etc. People like you on the left choose to demonize whites, men, working class folks, southerners, Christians, and anyone with an inkling of faith and a belief in a higher power. The Right wants to destroy the world for most of us, and people such as yourself just want to sit back, smoke a bowl, and watch it burn because we "deserve" it.

The left can be a danger to itself because of this sort of thing. Race hatred, misanthropy, misandry, and aspirations to martyrdom won't win the fight. The right wants us to fight with one another, cast aspersions and blame onto one another, and watch us set ourselves on fire and march into bullets and truncheons.

This is why I stopped posting here. I'll post on right-wing forums if I want to feel as if I have enemies. I KNOW the right-wingers want to put me in a grave because of who I am and what I believe. Sometimes I come here and am left feeling the same way.

This is not nearly as complicated as people make it...you don't need the transcendentalism or fancy talk about spiritual high panjandrums...

Do you believe we should make an equal place for everyone at the table?

Do you think Humans are Food?

Do you reject constant war and the Rights of Conquest?

Do you reject Oligarchy/Kleptocracy as a social class?

Then you are an enemy of everything that White America holds dear and you are subject to the full force and coercion of the State...sorry.

Or you could ask, "What would drive white americans out of their barcoloungers and into the streets?" You want to see hysterical violence in the streets? Not rocket science.

Try to eliminate white male supremacy.

Try to integrate our schools.

Try to get equal pay for women or enforce their right to terminate a pregnancy in the 85% of US counties in the US where this is not possible today.

Try to effectively end war and conquest as the only force that gives our lives meaning.

Try to restore Roosevelt Legacy taxation on the richfilth animals.

Left? What's left? They don't want an EQUAL place for everyone at the table any more than the richfilth animals. Look at the demographics of that "Left". They were the same ones who complained about those "angry uppity Black people". They haven't changed.

You may have noticed the 40 years of continuous ongoing failure on every front our benighted "Left" has addressed. The ones who didn't get the bullet, took the gold. Requiescat in Pace.

And yes, the good white folk did the two things that cost them absolutely nothing: The Civil Rights/Voting Rights Acts. After that they reversed the demographics in prison from 2/3 white (whites were 87% of the population, 80% of the crime, drug use and poverty) to 2/3 Black and Brown and quadrupled the prison population (whites are 70% of the population and still comprise 80% of the crime, drug use and poverty). White America's response to the Civil Rights movement was give the "talented 10th" a temporary promotion while incarcerating 1/3 of the black male population under policies of selective enforcement, targeted incarceration, and disproportionate sentencing. This is entirely within the frame of a genocidal people who name sports teams and automobiles after their victims...

And yes, American schools are now just as segregated as they were in 1954.

This country will eat its own intestines rather than make itself a society based on "Inclusion". That's why it and they are a doomed people...

Peace.

I found this essay interesting and thought-provoking. Although, I suggest the author's analysis of "the left" is trapped within a philosophical construct that is simply untrue. The fallacious construct is in the belief of "human progress" and civilization itself.

Some background ...

From the archeological / anthropological record, Homo sapiens sapiens, emerged (as Homos sapiens archaic) in Africa some 200,000 years before present. In time, many of our distant ancestors left Africa (as Homo sapiens sapiens) and spread to Eurasia, and finally, to the Americas some 18,000 years ago. The emergence and evolution of the Australian Aborigines is less clear. Perhaps, they evolved directly from Homo erectus. Unknown. Their evolutionary story is greatly disputed and remains an archeological mystery.

Anyway, until about 5,500 years before yesterday, nearly all of our distant antecedents lived in small (25 to 250 people), kin-related bands utilizing a scavenging, gathering and hunting subsistence. Generally, their social structures were egalitarian, meaning, the power structures were based primarily on age and gender.

The range and scale of ancestral band societies is very important to understanding our civilized cultures. For instance, even today in the West, with all the communication and travel possibilities that exist, our effective relational communities generally number between about 25 and 250 people (kin-related and kindred spirits), and still, most of our lives are spent within a 50-mile or so radius of home base.

When we extend our social band responsibilities to an entire population, as does the Progressive thinker, we begin to live an illusion steeped in romance and rhetoric not reason.

More ....

The Neolithic Revolution, brought on by the rapidly warming climate some 12,000 years ago, changed much about the way our ancestors lived. As the climate warmed and more food became available, human populations increased rapidly in a few places worldwide, ie. the Levant region (present day Syria / Lebanon). And, in order to survive, those people living on the margins of existence began to select then domesticate animals and plants. With flocks to attend and fields to cultivate, a sedentary living pattern emerged followed quickly by civilization with all it's separation of tasks, social hierarchies, the pyramid of power, organized warfare, new diseases, writing, music, the storage of foodstuffs, etc.

Here's the important point ... the process that led to civilization was not one of "human progress", rather, it was an act of human survival with consequences still unfolding today.

The most dramatic aspect of the Neolithic Revolution has been the ever-refining technology for resource exploitation. Unfortunately, that kind of progress creates an ever-increasing population of human beings wanting ever more resources.

If you examine a population graph, you'll discover the line representing human population begins to visibly increase about 2,000 years ago and rises steadily until the Industrial Revolution (about 250 years ago) then shoots straight up. As recently as 1960, the world's population was half what it is today. Since the advent of civilization, human population growth has been growing exponentially. And, likely, it will continue growing exponentially until it collapses. But when?

Hmmm ....

If all arable lands were farmed worldwide and the oceans fished out, perhaps, 18 or 19 billion people could be fed enough calories to survive, but the ecological devastation would be massive, apocryphal. That fact alone should undo the illusion of "human progress".

Humans do not progress, rather, we evolve through exaptation and by adapting to changing conditions. Most likely, humans will survive the eventual collapse of civilization and carry on.

Do not be confused by the idiocy coming from Micheal Lerner. Lerner was a leader of the Viet Nam anti-war movement. Now his purpose is to co-opt criticism of the apartheid state of Israel. Here is how Lerner justifies the ethnic cleansing of Palestine ...

"The Ashkenazi Jews who shaped Israel in its early years were jumping from the burning buildings of Europe--and when they landed on the backs of Palestinians, unintentionally causing a great deal of pain to the people who already lived there, they were so transfixed with their own (much greater and more acute) pain that they couldn't be bothered to notice that they were displacing and hurting others in the process of creating their own state."

Lerner also has a ready explanation for the Palestinian resistance to the Jews, can you guess it? Did you guess that Lerner thinks the Palestinians are anti-semites? Good work if you did. More from Lerner ...

"Their insensitivity to the pain that they caused, and their subsequent denial of the fact that in creating Israel they had simultaneously helped create a Palestinian people most of whom were forced to live as refugees (and now, their many descendents still living as exiles and dreaming of "return" just as we Jews did for some 1800 plus years), was aided by the arrogance, stupidity and anti-Semitism of Palestinian leaders and their Arab allies in neighboring states who dreamt of ridding the area of its Jews"

I really ate this article up. It got me into soulfulness. It brought me to words and ideas that encompass this work of working in the garden of the soul. Some questions that came up are; Where are you coming from? Is your purpose soulful, mindful and are you bringing up peace and bringing forth love? All work we do bears the fruit of our intent and purpose. Has humanity in any of it's divisive ego forms informed peace and love?

We name these forms, left, right, right, wrong and try to mold them into something other than what we already perceive them as. But it would be easier to see them through the lens of peace and love and then watch how quickly they mold themselves to that truth.

What could be more meaningful to our work than working in peace and love?

"American rabbi and radical Michael Lerner blames what he calls 'secular fundamentalism' -- the tendency amongst mainstream activists to stick rigidly to a rationalist and technocratic interpretation of both politics and culture."

Let me guess what YOU'RE selling.

All fundamentalism is bad, but I'm guessing he wanted to say "secularism".

I avoid the malls too and am a city-dweller myself. I used to like going to the mall when I was a little kid, but as I got into my teens, I just found them to be largely hangouts for older people and teenagers and displays of status.

"Hey look over here in this window at things you can't afford!"

Malls in Pittsburgh seem to be losing money though. I've heard rumors that they're closing Century III mall. Parkway Center Mall's just one floor now.

Maybe I just feel that cities and suburbia can coexist, if we developed alternative fuels that are clean and renewable, built more public transportation, light rails, etc. I don't want to let suburbia rot anymore than I want to let cities decay.

Years ago I wrote a dissertation about the need for a feminist theory of architecture that could unite the world and save our species from global climate change. Its called the Gaia Religion. The most radical thing we can do is build new ecological cities. You can read my dissertation online at:

http://www.lovolution.net/MainPages/gaia/GaiaOnlineBook/gaiatitle.htm

Lovolution Village
http://www.lovolution.net
http://www.youtube.com/user/doctressNeu#

The left already has a soul. I know what and were it is.

Ours is the path to peace, prosperity, and ecological balance. Ours is the path towards better lives for everyone. A majority of the American public is with us. The Right is a very powerful minority, while the Left is I think distracted and at times divided. Part of the solution lies in demonstrating just how our ideas work towards making things better for the 99%.

Who the hell would not want free health care?

Who would not want to be able to send their kids to college for nothing?

Who likes being in loads of debt?

Who likes working two jobs just to make ends meet?

How many people actually like racial and ethnic animosity?

Most people know why there are convenience store hold ups and home invasions, and it's not because some people are "bad."

Who really likes the spectre of war looming over us all?

How many people were all for the bailouts of banks and big businesses?

How many people would reject a handout from the goverment?

Would you tell the gov't to screw off if they forgave your mortgage, student loans, credit card bills, etc?

Do people like being panhandled, knowing that people are sleeping under bridges, that there are dangerous crime-ridden areas?

Do they enjoy all the chaotic, extreme weather,increasing heat, and dirty water and air?

The Left can end violence, war, crime, and poverty.

By all means we need to use an "us vs. them" mentality. It's the elites vs. the rest of us, and we outnumber them. This game is winnable.

We can have a sustainable world, and we can have it with malls, cars, pop music. People buying things isn't the problem, it's that the people and the world are being sold out. Browbeating the people about what they're buying won't do the trick. The recession's cutting into that already.

"One anecdote has stuck in my mind for over 20 years. A friend attending an international peace conference in Edmonton accompanied a group of Filipino women -- all from rural areas of the Philippines -- to the West Edmonton Mall as a "tourist" outing for the visitors. Twenty minutes into the tour the women burst into tears and pleaded with their hosts to get them out. The insanity, the grotesque over-stimulation of the place, no longer obvious to the Canadian women who had grown up with these monstrosities, was grimly apparent to the village activists."

Then why is it that immigrants are increasingly flocking to suburban areas? The last time I was at the mall, I just saw immigrants walking around the mall like everyone else.

If you want to drive a stake through the heart of consumerism, just take away the ability to consume. Teach people a lesson.

First, convince them that they have lots of money to spend. Tell them they're sitting on a fortune in equity that will always continue to grow. Get them to take out loans to take advantage of this.

Tell them it's okay to run up massive debt because the equity, say, in their homes, will allow them to pay it.

Send them pre-approved credit card applications at least twice a month.

Then cut the value of their homes in half. Let what they owe on the gold mine they've been borrowing against become more than the value of the asset.

They may still have the urge to over-consume, but they'll lose the ability to do it.

As more and more people are unable to purchase stuff the economy will grind to a halt. Without demand, jobs (those few that haven't been shipped abroad) will disappear. People won't even have a salary to purchase with. They'll need unemployment and Food Stamps just to eat and keep the power going.

Then, when they're unemployed and behind on payments to everyone, call them. Call them morning, noon and night. Robo-call them. Call and call again.

Call until they rue the day they ever saw an ad for a flat screen high-def 52 inch lcd tv. Call until even the brew from the $400. expresso machine is bitter. Call when they're watching commercials on (digital) broadcast television because they couldn't pay the cable bill. Call while the car is being repossessed.

This might be enough to kill off the urge to continually over-consume, but really, who would be crazy enough to destroy an entire society just to change their spending habits?

nostalgia, particularly nostalgia for 'community', is a product of capitalism, and the 'politics of meaning' that centers on creating 'loving community' is utterly removed from the reality of community. Community is the sort of thing dramatized in the Twilight Zone episode 'The Mosnters Are Due on Maple Street', and the religious right is 'good' at fostering community because these elements of spying on neighbors, suspicion, banding together to repel the ever-dangerous Other, are the very essence of 'community'.

I just wish all progressives were indestructible. I have a lot of enemies right now.

Will change come by having us all march into the fire? Can I or anyone else afford injury, imprisonment, or death?

It's not that would rather not bother. I can't afford this "middle-class lifestyle" anyway. I have no car, no home of my own, yet as of now, I am essentially a breadwinner.

I recall military recruiters telling a civilian in "Fahrenheit 9/11" who had a wife and kids that him being a breadwinner gave him one more thing to fight for.

But what if he ends up dead? What if I? What will my parents do?

It's not US it's THEM. They're not above massacre. They want us to all be sitting ducks. They want us to lay there so that their lackeys can beat us with their truncheons and end us with their bullets.

That's one reason why ordinary people largely don't act. They're afraid. It's the same reason people in the inner cities often keep their mouths shit when they witness crimes. They don't want to be victims.

Being a leftist puts a target on your back. The minority of regressives guns for you, and the majority is too fearful to get involved. And what I've experiences pales in comparison to what others have been through.

It's not to say that I won't do anything. I donate money, blog, argue with people face to face, defend myself physically if necessary, but those people I face share my low power levels. Can I win against an armed cop? Even if I overpower him, do I still win? And I don't feel that my level of action is enough.

Someone mentioned masculinity, and that's part of my problem. Seeing these smug cops high-fiving each other, acting like high-school jocks looking for a punching bag just makes my blood boil because we all know, sans a badge, weapons, and backup, they're nothing, especially when they're my size or smaller and younger.

I'm not going to make it to 40. I know it. My conscience is going to override my self-preservation instinct. It's telling me that discretion is by no means the better part of valor, that I should just forget about my life and those affected by it and not worry about the dozens of people who'll be cracking jokes about me when I'm being buried or carted off to jail, toasting my ruin.

"While the U.S. example does not apply as clearly here, Lerner's analysis of why the Christian right in the U.S. has been so successful has lessons for Canadian activists.

"We find thousands of Americans -- from every walk of life, ethnic and religious background, political persuasion and lifestyle -- with lives of pain and self-blame, and turning to the political Right because the Right speaks about the collapse of families, the difficulty of teaching good values to children, the fear of crime, and the absence of spirituality in their lives. The Right seems to understand their hunger for community and connection." Lerner clearly acknowledges the destructive and often vicious politics of the right but argues most people vote for the Christian right because they feel understood and cared for by it, not because of its policies."

How very typical. A religious believer arguing that only the religious believers have the answers.

Good trick ignoring that the Christian right often set up a Nemesis, an Other, whether the gays, the communists, the Muslims, the furriners in some far away country who hate America and its way of life, "Bomb, bomb, bomb", etc, that has nothing to do with community and connection.

The religious right make their appeals via hate and fear.

". And yet we see two neo-liberal federal leaders and their parties garnering two thirds of Canadians' voting intentions. Something is very wrong here."

Have you looked at your first past the post electoral system? How many of the MPs in the Canadian parliament won more than 50% of the votes? How many won the support of more than 50% of those who are eligible to vote? Yet, the first past the post system acts as if they did. As long as the "winner" wins the most votes, even if the winning total iss (far) less than 50%, the "winner" is treated as representative of all the voters' wishes.

I find this article has a message for many who vent their rage against the stupid or moronic or gullible masses or Americans or Democrats or sheeple or similar. I empathize and I have made at least my share of similar comments in private conversation despite having found over the years many opportunities to act stupidly myself.

I do not generally favor censoring such rants, but I do try to avoid producing them. That may be an insincere presentation of my emotions, but it does sincerely reflect one opinion: I think these exclamations, including my own, are almost pure bunk.

There's plenty of both stupidity and ignorance out there, and a lot of it's deliberate as well, but there's no one immune and no completely effective vaccine.

On three separate occasions in my 20's, I contacted leftist organizations and was told I would be welcome when I could "get serious." I was serious as cholera, though a fool,

Frankly, I think when you-all criticize the infamous sheeple, you make my error. You don't hate these people. You don't think they have no feelings, no ideas, or no sense. It just pains you to see them get go get themselves cut up again by some lousy con.

That's not hatred; that's not dismissal: that's love, but it doesn't come easily to your words.

I oh-so agree that the left needs to loosen up. Probably more so than even Canada, in the US, newcomers to neetings ARE made to feel unwelcome.

In the context of planning meetings for protest actions, some of this is due to the issue of police or FBI infiltrators - but it goes way beyond that. Even in social gatherings, you never know how you might offend someones sense of self-righteous left-purity. If it involves Quakers or Pax Christi types - plus many of the vegan-anarchist "sects" - never commit the faux pas of bringing beer to the event - and that's just for starters.

Much of the Irish Revolution was planned in bars. I live in a bar-packed city, and I've thought that we really need to develop a network of bars where we can plan and socialize in a relaxed atmosphere.

And I agree with porkloin, we need to develop a more aggressive rhetoric. Call out right wing opponents "suckers of capitalist-boss dicks" and stuff like that...

"The Right seems to understand their hunger for community and connection"

The religious right cultivates local communities. On the surface this seems good, due to the many benfits of localism. The secular left conversely cultivates the global community. On the surface this seems good, promoting understanding, tolerance, solidarity.

The problem is the religious right is doing localism wrong, the left is not doing localism at all, and both are engaged in destructive globalism that has nothing to do with global solidarity.

The religious right is desperate to preserve itself so it is in coalition with the elites, a pact with the devil basically, which prevents it from supporting the beneficial elements of localism. The element of localism that it does support is actualy localism's weakness - tribalism, to supply human cannon fodder for the elites' imperial enterprise.

The left, outside the far-left, is not doing localism at all, because it is fully in coalition with the elites too, fully engaged in global capitalism like its rightwing opponent, but with a vineer of global solidarity that separates it from the religious right so they can both do battle on the political stage.

The far-left has the only successful doctrine: Destruction of the elite establishment and replacement with enlightened localism, where the people build and benefit from their local communities while retaining solidarity among all their peers worldwide.

We invite all to change to our doctrine before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.

The men of the left need to find their masculinity.

The women of the left need to find their femininity.

THE LEFT NEEDS TO OVERCOME IT'S LEARNED HELPLESSNESS.

The left needs to treat the repugs like the ENEMY. We need to team up and DESTROY them; rip away their power, shout and spit in their faces, intimidate, insult, and bully them. Steal their power away.

Lives depend on it.

Follow the advice offered by the Dalai Lama: "More Festivals!!"

Co-opt the right with a coalition "Friday Afternoon Party" Party.

Except that he sees consumerism/hyperindividualism as a character flaw arising in the citizen. If you remember Bernays, you will recognize that the onus resides in the media/corporatocracy, who created this as a tool to control the masses.

Remember Chairman Mao's little red book? The media is our little red book these days with its preselection, flashy presentation and subliminal messages - fast, flashy, noisy, sugary, shiny, superficially easy to grasp. It's wall-to-wall propaganda beyond which most people are not able to see. It's often the only "voice" we hear, and it replaces our own by means of its pervasiveness and insistence.

Those Philippinas could still "read" the subtext of the mall culture because their brains hadn't been colonized yet. They must have been overwhelmed by the force of it. It wasn't the citizen who created that message delivery system, corporate claims of responding to consumer demand to the contrary; every gaudy detail of it was carefully designed to elicit beliefs and behaviors that would benefit the designers. (creating demand, creating consensus)

Put the onus where it belongs - on the creators of this mechanism, not on its subjects.

That said, the subjects really need to wake up and stop going for the bait every damn time. Who can wake them out of their trance?

We don't have a REAL left in this country. What we have is scattered and idependent groups, each one of these groups has its own issue, from gender, sexual orientation, minorities, evironment, homeless and treatment of animals etc etc.
Each group cares and only cares about its own issue and doesn't give damn about anything or anyone else.
That so called left is a PHONY left.
A REAL left will have his primary issues is protecting the common folks against the greed and abuses of the corporate powers and the tyranny of a government that these power might control.
It will be calling for jobs with living wages, safe and humane working conditions, health care for all, secure retirement, decent housing and good school etc etc.
That REAL left will be national in scope with a national media outlets. It will have a national headquarter and has a national political platform and with candidates for national and local elections.
It will be calling for civil rights and equality for ALL and not concentrating on single group.

"Secular fundamentalists find talk of spiritualism intensely uncomfortable"

What a load of unsupported rubbish.

I'm an atheist and have no trouble talking about spiritual matters, of meaning, love and life.

Nor of living a spiritual life. I don't need a belief in the supernatural to tell me what is right and wrong or that love is the greatest thing.

I use reason to choose the best way , in my opinion, to facilitate how to live a spiritual life.

There is no war between spirituality and reason.

There is something deeply disturbing about the conflation of the consumer culture with a rational explanation of the world.

True, the left needs to speak to the masses on their own terms. They are tired, angry, trampled upon and manipulated. Surely we can cook up rhetoric that stokes the fires of those emotions to a progressive agenda.

But we must understand that the emotional appeals the right has used to manipulate the Christian Right is itself part of a very logical strategy that facilitated their domination for decades.

No, for far too long there has been a general disdain for science and technical analysis on the left, a belittling of logical thought as the cloistered province of "wonks," which apparently is supposed to be a word that refers to skilled human beings.

And who was it who wrote that "peace is more than just a strategy" on commondreams recently? They are correct, but it was the strategy part the left forgot about, not all that pie-in-the-sky crap that falls flat again and again. That stuff gets trotted out on common dreams over and over again, but I can't remember a single piece that seriously discussed peace as the winning and workable strategy that it is. The Right and the corporations must love that.

Martin Luther King was one of America's greatest rhetoricians, and he understood the central importance of logical strategy, and using emotional appeals in the context of that strategy. We need a logical strategy that employs the deepest emotional longings of a frustrated and underserved people.

We need to use logic to fight the consumer culture, not abandon it.

It was a great victory for the corporate powers when they convinced the left that it was reason itself, and not reasoning relevant to corrupt and selfish values, that was their enemy. That victory has robbed the left of strategies and logical paths to building a cohesive community. And yes, they were very logical in figuring out what emotions could be evoked to break apart the hierarchies of SDS and SNCC during the 60's.

Clearly, consumerism is not logical, as stated, rather it is a form of madness. Then what is all this baloney about "secular fundamentalism"?

Like Tom Hayden, I too have a vision that all the issues are connected, that it is not only spiritually and morally bankrupt, but also strategically bankrupt, to try solving the climate crisis without also knocking out the corruption and social inequality that coexists with it, without radically changing the institutions that feed it that are rotten anyway.

Thank God these institutions are so rotten anyway! We can take care of all these things at once, but I'm sorry, you're going to need more than just feelings on your side. They are indispensable, but they are not enough and this disdain for reason among the Left is far more dangerous than many seem to realize.

The soul searching the left (as in left without a clue) needs to do is into its own ignorant arrogance in supporting an easily documented fraud and crook for president, someone obviously then and obviously now a tool of wall street, the health insurance industry, and the patriarchy.

And into its gleeful participation in the campaign's violent misogyny and caucus and election fraud.

These actions are so shameful and embarrassing you should all be hiding in caves somewhere.

If many people respond to the far right, as Mordechai says, because it uses fear tactics that "fire people up with anger," maybe that is because fear is the most primal human emotion--and therefore it provides a sense of belonging to the larger community. Dobbin said the right makes people "feel" understood and cared for, not that they genuinely are understood and cared for by the right.

I think Dobbin has pinpointed the fact that the left doesn't offer anything as powerful to people as the unifying "warmth" of shared fear and anger. Sharing fear with other people makes it a little less personally frightening. And from my own experience, I have to agree with him that meetings of left-wing groups tend to be boring, bureaucratic, and filled with a self-importance that excludes newcomers rather than making them feel they've found a home or even a shared passion. That shouldn't be, and it's important to explore it.

Revolution is where the politics of meaning is most fully realized, as anyone who experienced for however brief a time the social transformations undertaken during the 2nd half of the 20th century in Cuba, Nicaragua, Grenada, Mozambique and Vietnam. Seems that for the searching and disillusioned, nothing can be more uplifting (religion no exception) than being part of a movement that aims at building a better world. Has to do with the revolutionary high - that feeling derived from being on the upward slopes of freedoms majestic heights. An added attraction is that there are no prerequisites to one's participating, only a willingness, on the basis of one equals one, to join with others in exploring the frontiers of human progress. What's especially convenient and nice is that no pre-planning is necessary, since it's plan & build as we go.

THANK YOU Murray ! Finally, an article that gets straight to the heart of what's fundamentally wrong and what we can do about it. When people try taking too many quickie fixes deluding themselves into believing that they didn't have to do all that work to get there, what they fail to realize is that they have only set themselves up for long term loss. I wished I was a little free yesterday so that I could have responded to a newcomer on this site, benn_miller, on how to overcome that feeling of getting pied by a madman who was probably thinking he could have a quickie fun. Yes, even social conservatives can be part of the left too when you get them to open their hearts and minds on non-social issues such as the economy, foreign policy, health care, etc ... On the issue of identifying, I vote on the issues when I vote for the candidate and that means voting closer to who one identifies with rather than voting based on personality, money, electability by sellout standards, and party affiliation. And thank you Murray for exposing the lack of understanding people of different religions. Religion is often misused as nothing more than a tool to financially and physically bully and control others as they see fit. I may be a weak Christian but since I'm a peace-loving one, I'm likely to get pelted at by both sides for being one be it the war mongers or the atheists. Besides, even social conservatives can be against bloody wars and even supportive of single payer health care when they are enlightened of the details and convinced that a lot of it actually matches their beliefs in reduced government spending.

"But organizers for social change face a critical problem. Trying to mobilize people strictly on a rational basis, and in particular with uncritical acceptance of the assumptions of a consumer driven economy, is proving increasingly difficult."

-our society isn't rational, so how can they mobilize on a rational basis?

If you could just give the sheeple the facts and then have them vote, Dennis Kucinich, Nader or McKinney would be president. People aren't motivated by reason. People are motivated by spin, slogans, feel-good phrases and platitudes, words like "democracy", "freedom", "liberty", "change" and "hope" in spite of the fact they have absolutely nothing to do with the candidate.

Witness Obama running as the "anti-war" candidate in spite of having a record of supporting the war. Witness Obama running against Big Brother in spite of having voted or FISA. Witness Obama run on "change" and then select the ultimate establishment insider, Joe Biden as VP.

That is why Obama won the award for the best marketing campaign in 2008. He beat out the likes of Coca Cola and Ginsu Knives. And the sheeple bought it hook-line-&-snicker. The sad part is that 61% of the public is STILL BUYING IT.

Want to appeal to reason? Good luck.

Yes, Doinit, follow up on it.

It was very inspirational to me, when I attended the first Network of Spiritual Progressives conference in Berkeley several years ago, to see how diverse the participants were. And to experience such unity and agreement across the large group regardless of our diverse spiritual inclinations: Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, non-affiliated, Sufi, even atheist. We were all united as far as our vision for a just, peaceful and sustainable future --and one could palpably feel that unity.

Also, I discovered that many folks inside the churches are working hard to bring "the left hand of God" into their communities.

Best to you on your exploration.

Bring America Back !!!!.......!...Dobbin is most correct, and the time is now for Progressives to Act !

***The past 6 months has proven that neither the Democratic nor Republican parties can give America what it needs: Total Reformation. The US 2 major party system is a complete and abject failure ! Our faith in Obama and his lies and promises has been betrayed.

***It is time for a strong Progressive Leader and Party to step forward, take charge, and begin growing strength for the 2012 Election. I would nominate Dennis Kucinich, if he denounces the Democrats, changes affiliations to the Progressive Movement, and encourages all other minority parties to change as well ! Greens are welcome.

***As Dobbin predicts, let us strive and hope we succeed in the Reformation, and mostly that the 2 major parties, that have destroyed our Nation, never get supreme power again !! They've proven time and again, they cannot handle it !!

"... most people vote for the Christian right because they feel understood and cared for by it, not because of its policies."

The appeal of far-right (and other right-wing) movements and candidates has always been grossly exaggerated by media discourse. Most people don't vote for the Christian right - certainly not in Canada and, as evidenced in the last presidential elections, not in the U.S. at this point, either. I think it's the popularity of neoliberal figures like Obama and Ignatieff that poses the real, seemingly intractable problem for the left. And insofar as this is the case, this article does not offer any insights or arguments.

This article really strikes a chord! Time to go to the library and borrow Michael Lerners book, the Politics of Meaning. I live opposite a "Christian" church and see all the activity there. People seem very friendly toward each other and I have wondered...I imagine these people to be on the right as far as politics are concerned. I agree that those who consider themselves as on the left activists have a difficult time not feeling isolated as I do, especially in regards to religion or spiritual practice. I would love to find the key that brings us together in community, with faith that we can avoid the visible cliff without sticking our head in the sand.

Dobbin talks a talk, but he doesn't walk much. When the Green Party was trying to establish itself in Canada, Dobbin had nothing but negative things to say about it, and stubbornly stuck with the NDP (tired, old socialist party that had consistently shifted to the right and therefore irrelevance), trying to change it from within. Instead of supporting new ideas and new energy, he just trashed it.
Funny thing is, I agree with him. I just don't trust him to present or support the next big movement.

I quite agree with the assessment of Canada's NDP Party. The NDP Is not visionary any longer. It has decided that in order to gain power it must COMPROMISE with the Center and the right.

Tommy Douglas would not like what the NDP has become, nor would the founders of the CCF.

Yes, to a politics, and lives, of meaning. Yet, having studied and been involved with Lerner's work, I continue to grapple with what feels missing for me in it. Perhaps it is the over-reliance on words, concepts & ideas -- all of which are good ones, but perhaps not with enough room to encourage other unique inspirations or perspectives which could broaden, enhance and ACTIVATE the concepts.

And as Derrick Z. Jensen states on these CD pages, it isn't about shorter showers, but fundamental, systemic CHANGE.

And how we do that is a very big question, hopefully with many diverse answers, from Arundahti Roy to the "Church of Stop Shopping".

How do we balance the vision/the commondream with practical actions/lives that bring it into being?

I can't help but think of CODEPINK as an beautiful example of an organization that has grown into the kind we need. It nourishes it's members with enthusiasm, vision and amazing actions that recognize that all issues overlap. It gives it's members easy, meaningful ways to participate, even from a distance, like sponsoring a gift basket to be personally delivered with others to the women & children of Gaza, or knitting a square of a giant quilt in front of the Whitehouse on Mother's Day which stated: "I will not raise my child to kill another mother's child".

We need more organizations like CODEPINK -- or perhaps more members OF Codepink! Check it out at:www.codepinkalert.org

It's not the soul that's missing. And the inability of progressives to unify isn't caused by oversight or selfishness. The problem is that one by one, every social movement accepted its larger slice of the system's pie, and/or entrance into the system, rather than focusing on changing the system, and in so doing, ended up with a major stake in preserving the system.

Unions aren't interested in the environment, government-paid health insurance, or reductions in consumerism, car use, coal mining, or greenhouse gases. All of this conflicts with their core mission, which centers around jobs and sufficient compensation for those jobs so as to allow meaningful consumption levels for their members. Similarly, anti-poverty and most redistributive social justice efforts are overwhelmingly pro-consumption movements, as that's the yardstick for success. And consumption means garbage, resource depletion, global warming, and trade with repressive nations that actually undermine domestic employment, compensation, and environmental prospects.

What the left needs to do is face up to the fact that a century's worth focusing in almost exclusively on buy-in as success has left advocates for various issues, well, bought in, and therefore at odds with each other, and even themselves, and easily triangulated out of the electoral equation. Religion doesn't have to worry about this because their product is the afterlife. That's why they appeal to suffering people better than leftists do -- they don't pretend they can solve the problem, they sidestep that completely and offer you the prospect of eternal bliss starting from whatever point nature terminates your suffering. That's why they can be so welcoming and supportive and can treat everyone with equal love and expectation for productive capacity regardless of their capacity to understand the complexities of the mission when they first walk in the door. There is no program. You just follow instructions and in around fifty years you go to heaven forever no matter how much earthly suffering you endure between now and then.

But progressivism is centered on improving THIS world, and is therefore rational and complex, therefore not hard-wired for easy appeal to the masses, and as previously explained, in serious need of unraveling itself from its entanglements with the systems it needs to change before it can move forward. To tell you the truth, I think it's too late. It may have always been too late. All end of times prophecies and good science fiction were/are based upon close examination of human nature and its consequences, and then just charting that up a curve to its inevitable conclusion. Whether your starting point on that curve was 3000 years ago, after war was industrialized in the late 1800's, or after global warming became measurable, the end point of the curve is the same.

Very good commentary.....being on the (I guess) far left as I am, I see so many organizations that I identify with that fail to support each other!!!

For example....there is a homeless org. near me that has been advocating to overturn an illegal ordinance that bans street people from sitting on the sidewalk in a section of town where the snooty people shop. Instead of allying with like-minded orgs. they recently joined a local business association (the group that is strongly supporting the legislation) and their rationale is that they think they can convince other businesses in the association to change their minds about homeless people.

Just like the time I heard Dennis Kucinich tell me to my face that he is staying in the Dem. party because he thinks he can "change the party from within"....he is either naive, stupid or a con-man (I don't think it is the first two..personally).

Yes, to this article's message! Thank you, Murry Dobbin, for saying it.

Industrialism has to go the way of the dustbin of history.

Lerner . . . argues most people vote for the Christian right because they feel understood and cared for by it, not because of its policies.

Fear is the prevalent human emotion. People vote for the reactionary/fascist right because the black shirts scare the shit out of them and make them fired up with anger. "Understood and cared for". What bilge!

So true. The left needs to find their soul...but, so do all other political persuasions. Let it be our intention that it is NOT TOO LATE. And that will take a huge amount of intention.

Been to the Philippines lately? They have malls there, the likes of which I have never seen in this country (not that I have been all over the US). And that was Cebu (although they do have a fabulous, lush muntainous area)....I shutter to think what Manilla must be like.