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A Time for Action - Not Servility
While Washington pundits are talking up a new civility, many progressives are bracing for the old servility -- a bipartisanship that is servile to a corporate elite that is unquenchably greedy and more powerful than ever.
But this is not a time for despair. It's a time for new activism -- built upon one of the great achievements of the last decade: the rise of independent media.
Every day, millions of people in the U.S. get their journalism from independent news outlets that expose not just the extremist antics of Republicans, but also the corporate corruption among Democrats. These informed Americans -- fearful of Speaker Boehner and alarmed by a White House now administered by a JPMorgan Chase executive -- represent a huge base ready to mobilize in new ways.
That's the basis for the launch of a new online organization -- RootsAction.org -- an initiative endorsed by such respected independent progressives as Daniel Ellsberg, Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk and Coleen Rowley.
Our first action -- in collaboration with Daniel Ellsberg -- is a petition to President Obama to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
RootsAction is a response to the quietude among many liberals that followed so many cave-ins from the Obama White House and Democratic leaders in recent years. Our strategy is based on using the Internet and social media as pathways around political discourse dominated by media conglomerates.
The Internet has spurred a flourishing of spirited indy news outlets and websites that are not only independent of corporate control, but also independent of corporate politicians of both major parties.
And the Internet gave birth more than a decade ago to a once-hopeful Netroots -- springing from nowhere to activate millions of people in a flash.
RootsAction aspires to be a new kind of online group -- one fully independent of Democratic leaders more intent on protecting Wall Street and endless war than on protecting the vast majority of Americans. Read our mission statement here.
A tragic example of why RootsAction is needed came when President Obama announced his Afghanistan escalation a year ago at West Point; major Netroots groups -- who would have raised hell had a President McCain announced the very same policy -- were largely silent or muted.
RootsAction will never be silent as Congress and the president squander billions on foreign wars while failing to meet crucial domestic needs.
Please join RootsAction so we can amplify our voices and mobilize.
RootsAction is for people who are loyal to progressive values -- peace, economic justice, equality, civil liberties, environment -- rather than to politicians who offer progressive-sounding rhetoric but so often fail to uphold those values. If you want to be part of an online campaign group that is as independent as the hard-hitting indy journalism outlets that bring you news each day, RootsAction is for you.
Jim Hightower explains his support this way: "Real change is up to us, not to Obama or the Democratic Party. They are not the progressive movement, we are. Only grassroots initiatives like RootsAction can put progress back in ‘progressive.'"
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197 Comments so far
Show AllI'll give cynicism a try as soon as it is shown to be effective...
Part of this post sounds like cynicism trying to beat out cynicism. The little cynicisms that erupt from time to time and even turn to rage and threats are not what is here, nor what this is all about, but mere dirt on the babe. Lets not throw the babe out with the bath water. The dirt is easily washed away with the right attitude and approach.
Beyond that I loved what you said at the end of your post which shows you ultimately have an earnest desire to do what is right and support it. I hope you hang around and stick with focusing on that rather than the cynicism. If you let it, it will bring you down. Been there done that.
Lets always start with optimism with a little healthy skepticism who's goal is to birth a real progressive movement for the new times we are coming into. OR own our own cynicism and leave others truths up to them to share.
re: "Part of this post sounds like cynicism trying to beat out cynicism."
Be skeptical of everything... and when that's done, be skeptical of skepticism.
Yes, I'm very cynical of all the cynicism. Our fates will not change if we simply continue to fester in doubt and pessimism. I'm tired of feeling like there are no options, like there's no hope anymore, that solutions will only come after utter disaster. Perhaps, but that's not how I roll. Let disaster come when it will, but until then I continue to believe there is a reason (or even if there isn't) for me to forge forward to a positive goal, even if others think I'm a fool for doing so. I in fact think THEY are fools for not doing so.
re: "Lets not throw the babe out with the bath water. The dirt is easily washed away with the right attitude and approach."
Yes!
re: "Lets always start with optimism with a little healthy skepticism who's goal is to birth a real progressive movement for the new times we are coming into. OR own our own cynicism and leave others truths up to them to share."
YES!
I salute you sister Salusa! :)
I am extremely optimistic about what is happening now in Europe.
Why should we be optimistic about yet one more weak attempt here to petition the White House, to "speak truth to power," to hope that "they do the right thing," and to "work within the system" and to do all of the same old actions based on the same old thinking when those have miserably failed again and again over the last 40 years?
This is not a debate between those who are cynical and those who are optimistic. It is a question of what we are enthusiastic about, not whether or not we are enthusiastic, about what we are working for, not whether or not we are doing something. There are not enough hours in a day to do what I see to do, and none of it involves the hope that "the system can work" nor that the rulers will "do the right thing."
Salusa....not making excuses but...reading all the awfulness that is happening right under our noses every day....begins to infiltrate the psyche with cynicism and negativity. Hopelessness and depression creep in. When there is no forum or platform for REAL ACTION; when one can do absolutely nothing, because everything that used to be effective (like writing letters and telephoning government officials, holding vigils, marching in protests) no longer is....and you know it; well then, one can become jaded! You are right though! Obama has betrayed us in the worse way! He has given a tiny glimmer of hope, then snatched it away. Once hope is broken, the rebound will take much much longer to heal. Now that I realize our government is rogue, conspiring against the people, interested only in military take over of the world's resources....for profit, I have disconnected from any political party. I now am interested in the people and our global neighbors people as well. THE GLOBAL CORPORATE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX must go!
re: "Salusa....not making excuses but...reading all the awfulness that is happening right under our noses every day....begins to infiltrate the psyche with cynicism and negativity. Hopelessness and depression creep in. When there is no forum or platform for REAL ACTION"
Trust me, I understand. I've had to completely pull myself away from political discourse for a few weeks based on my disappointment and lack of a resource for my involvement and participation.
Progressives themselves are to blame for not staying true to their cause and allowing pessimism to paralyze us. If it is not us that will remain the conscience of the country,
THEN WHO ELSE?
The Sarah Palins, and Glenn Blecks of the world? Or the mainstream 'do gooders' who think they stand up for real values, but who ultimately just reinforce our national consumeristic, privileged identity, like the pundits on MSNBC, or CNN, or Oprah or even those (who I still respect) like Thom Harmann, who must finally always tow the line and demand that we get on board with the Dems, because they are the only route to actual power?
They would not be where they are, this country would not be where it is now, if we progressives could actually drown out the dissonance, get our message together, ensuring it is finally well defined, and form a real movement – a movement with a specific platform, but still with broad enough goals that we can attract a wide base. When will this occur? When will progressives accept a definition that is accurate enough to march forward upon? When will we form a consolidated, unwavering and powerful voice, with a unified message? When that day comes, the world WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO LISTEN.
If we on the left are too much like cats, why can't we accept that perhaps at least temporarily, its time to start being cooperative cats, if only for our own survival, for our own safety and for the good of our own cause? I myself don't want to be part of a herd, but I certainly prefer marching in order to getting rounded up and euthanized.
No, Obama is not our leader...he has turned out to be a charlatan. But he demonstrated that with belief, we could be led to success. Now we must simply forge that belief again without false tongues to guide us. Maybe with just enough self-guidance, and with a small bit of remaining faith in our fellow humans, we can actually be the change we need and deserve. Instead of looking to leaders, lets *be leaders*, looking only to ourselves and those at our sides as our inspiration. For me, that is enough – enough to continue to forge forward, and damn the consequences! Surely it will be no better if we all stay silent on the sidelines.
Salusa...I think many of us here agree with you. How do we do this though? What medium do we use to MAKE THEM LISTEN? Where do we get the money? The Green Party has been saying many of the things we on this site espouse....yet, the Green Party remains on the fringes. I would like to be instrumental in this change.....the only way I have been able to even speak or have any voice is thru sites like this one on CD. I've written "letters to the editor" of my local paper and gotten a couple of responses, but not anything to promote "change." I feel like the time I expend is planting seeds. How can we get this tree to start growing and producing fruit?
Let's give it some leeway. Jeff Cohen has always been a decnet fellow as far as I knew. I've met him personally at a national conference on media reform. Norman Solomon whether people agree with all he says or not, should know his heart is in the right place. He produced that documentary called War Made Easy. Watch that and tell me he's just a Democratic shill. I don't believe that. I have some differences of opinion with him on this or that. But I say we need to find whatever avenue of action we can to promote a progressive agenda. As Martin Luther King Jr said in his speech on the Vietnam War, we each need to find which form of protest fits us. That's fine, but we need to let the jerks know we've had it with them. Cohen also founded FAIR, a progressive watch dog for uncovering US media bias. This was way back in the 1980s with the Gipper in the White House and that silly movie Red Dawn coming out along that time to fill the politicla atmosphere with all too much fear and BS.
The main thing here is to see as Dr King did when he made that speech attacking the Vietnam War, that Vietnam was just a symptom of the problem of the United State bieng on the "wrong side" of a "world revolution" as dr King put it since the Second Woeld War. That's what this is really all about. This country is on the wrong side of history, and we've got to get on the right side by a "revolution of values." We have to stand up for "justice for all" and mean it.
AD
Well said AD. I can't think of a journalist, pundit, spokesperson, advocate or activist that hasn't supported something I disagreed with, or failed to support a cause I believed in with all the purpose and vigor I felt was needed.
Who is perfect?
But for what its worth, I know I can get on board for the most part with my fellow progressives – Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon no less than any others – and perhaps with some successes and headway, more strident and world-shaking shifts can come that our diminished leadership currently lacks the ambition or vision to achieve.
To believe we can fix the problem by simply standing up and speaking may be somewhat naive. But to wait until we have the perfect leader that will bring us to the promised land is simply stupid. And accepting that we are finally and forever defeated, to give up – That is insane.
I'll choose being naive any day... At least that can evolve into something valid down the road.
Cheers
Great post. I wrote a letter to RootsAction to check on their position with members. I think this will tell all.
My problem with this project is that it's reinventing the wheel, it doesn't give the slightest acknowledgement to existing organizations that are already working on these issues, it doesn't offer any sort of actual program, and the only tactic that it is advocating is signing a petition, of which there are already thousands on the internet.
In other words, this is nothing -- just another online petition site where people can funnel their anger in meaningless gestures. Where is the analysis, where is the program, where is the strategy?
If they were serious, they would at least acknowledge that there are some real, actual actions coming up on the most important issues facing the country today: The January 21 actions against Citizens United (http://www.citizen.org/citizens-united-anniversary-events); the January 25 events against FBI repression (http://www.stopfbi.net/); March 19 antiwar actions (http://answercoalition.org/national/index.html), and more antiwar actions on April 9 (http://nationalpeaceconference.org/).
Instead, they just urge us to sign a petition... wow, radical.
Dear DC-CPH:
That was an interesting comment about "reinventing the wheel." That reminded me of something that I read. I think it was the Mayans, or maybe the Aztecs, but they had wheels on their kids' toys. It just never occurred to them to use the wheel for something bigger.
I suppose that with the analogy of the wheel, the point is that you have to think beyond the hub! I am going to throw down the gauntlet, and so......
Are you really against the idea of the petition or are you afraid to put your name on it? Maybe that was an unfair question, but I am wondering if the fear of making a statement and adding the name is really what keeps people away?
There was an article on CD re: the government is now promoting the movie about Mr. Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. That was very interesting, because Mr. Ellsberg supports this petition. I think then , that this is a perfect time to support this petition....Mr. Ellsberg is a part of the hub and I am signing as one of the squeaky spokes!
"Are you really against the idea of the petition or are you afraid to put your name on it?"
I am against the petition, and will not sign it, not because I am afraid (my name is on plenty of other petitions a lot more radical than this one), but because I feel that it is an insult to my intelligence. Petitioning Congress or the White House is about as useful as signing a petition against the weather. I could start an online petition against rain and ask all of those who support sunshine to sign it, and I might even get a few million signatures... but what good would that do? The rain clouds will do what they are going to do, regardless of your wishes.
There are some organizations that have really mastered the art of online petitions, such as Avaaz and Change.org, and I do support those. I signed one yesterday in fact urging the Super Bowl Host Committee to take decisive action against human trafficking and child prostitution (which is apparently a big problem during Super Bowls). When it is targeted like that at a vulnerable organization that may actually be influenced by public opinion, then petitions work. But this one against the Afghanistan war is just so silly... we are so far beyond the stage of signing petitions, all another one would do is to make us look naive.
I'm not saying that it's not worth agitating against the wars (why's no one talking about our occupation of Iraq anymore, BTW?), and indeed I have been protesting against both the Afghanistan war and the Iraq war since 2001. I also fully support the upcoming March 19 and April 9 actions, and hope to see a big turnout... but this petition? I'm sorry, this is just a waste of energy.
Tell me this: why should I sign this petition against the Afghan war and not one of the other dozens of petitions against the Afghan war? What makes this one any better than those?
Being cynical about the same failed approach being tried again and again does not mean being cynical about everything. There are far more things happening that I am encouraged and inspired by now then there are things I am cynical about.
Yes, I am one of your dreaded "hard leftists" and I am very much disaffected and disenchanted about the proponents of the progressive movement. However, I am not one tenth as negative about progressives as many of the progressives are about the Left.
I do not want the project described here to succeed - that is opposition, not cynicism. I do not want to see people herded back into safe outlets. I do not want to see people continue to suffer, I do not want to see people living in a fantasy world and trapped in delusion about reforming ior repairing or restoring the system. That ca only prolong the agony, and that will result in people being maimed and killed. Enough.
It is a very bad trade off - there are progressives and liberals, maybe 10% of the population at the most, who cannot or will not give up their dream of "America the beautiful" and "our democracy" and "making the system work" and electoral politics. They were taught this from a young age, and they deeply believe in it and find it too jarring and uncomfortable to question any of that. They are willing to trade away human lives in order to make yet another future attempt at getting reality to match up to their believed fantasies.
The suffering of many is not a price we should continue to pay for the sake of the illusions and fantasies of the few. The more we try to get the reality to conform to the "American dream" fantasies of the relatively upscale professional and educated "middle class" liberals and progressives, the more suffering others will have to endure. Enough.
Enough. No more cute fluffy bunny rabbits, It is time to fight back, and to fight back as though out lives and the lives of millions depended upon that. The lives of millions do depend upon that.
Enough.
Sorry, but you are slaying cute bunny rabbits and then producing nothing but dust bunnies to replace them with.
How can we know this is the same old fluff? It just got started today.
Can we not have some optimism, instead of pessimism and dismissals right out of the gate?
This is not simply just another call for petitioning the president, but that is a valid small step to start with. Just because its not the challenge that will fell the tyrant doesn't mean it deserves no credibility at all.
I mean, people, can you not see that we will never achieve what is happening in Europe, which is apparently so optimistic to you TA, without believing in SOMETHING getting traction here. In Europe, at least the people get up and get active, and whatever their excuse to do so, we should emulate that here.
No matter what the smart, and ideologically 'pure' posters want to post here, if its naysaying towards the people on our side, no matter how ineffectual we may deem it to be, its hurting what small chances we may have. You say, 'enough' TA, but to what do you refer? Enough trying at all? Enough of anything that isn't a fully formed alternative?!
As I posted below, there is but ONE CHOICE:
Irrational futility, or irrational optimism.
There really are no other options.
Cheers TA
I don't think you read my post.
Sure I did. I always do (at least I read all of your responses to me).
You said we have to fight with more tenacity than ever. But how? As an army of self-guided, but instinctually in-sync activists? What makes you think I missed your point? It was, as usual, full of nuanced reasons to reject this latest attempt du jour to rally the left, progressives and liberals into a recognizable cooperating entity.
No disrespect, but apparently I'm not getting the point, because I don't see your rejection as producing a viable alternative. I don't even see valid reason to suspect that those presenting this article should be placed into a circle of doubt – other than the accusation that many of them have had to take compromised positions in order to effect pragmatic change on the ground.
Perhaps in retrospect, some of this compromise has conceded precious political territory, but I'm sure at the time, that pragmatism seemed too palpable to ignore. So perhaps now, these people have evolved. Perhaps this latest incarnation of progressive organizing isn't the sell-out we might suspect it to be. I find its pedigree (based on its initial support) more than acceptable to at least give it my blessing before I verbally dismantle it.
What am I missing TA?
You missed the entire point.
If you agree with the co-author, who a mere two weeks ago was shilling for the Democratic party, who thinks Obama is a poor victim of the right wing, that we need to work within the party, then yes of course you would want to be a part of this. But you have to know, if you read CD at all, that m,any of us do not agree with him about that. If we did, we may as well all just start supporting Obama and the Democratic party. So why are you surprised that people here are not impressed with this? Why would you expect them to be supportive of positions that they do not in fact support?
Or does it not matter, are we just to join any organization that is "doing something" - since you would have us believe that all who disagree with you are doing nothing (that is false) or are negative and cynical (that is true for some, not for others) - regardless of what it stands for?
You are making the "pragmatic" and "practical" and "realistic" lesser of two evils argument to promote the Democratic party. Why do you expect all of us to agree with that, and why are you trotting out all of the usual smears against the Left to use against those who disagree with you?
Please read a few of my other posts in this thread where I mention the same slippery slope concern you speak of.
I'm willing to accept that you and I just see things differently about approaches, but ultimately, we share similar ends. They may not be exact, but on many occasions I have found our grievances to be exercises in futility.
We should agree to be recruitment agents for two sides of the same movement. You take the more disenfranchised elements – the poor, and those who are specifically victims of labor exploitation – and I will stick with the liberals worth working with, those who believe that art, our passion and science will bring us to a better place, speaking the language of those whose *intrinsic value*, not their labor, is most important: The elderly, children, minorities, women, the disabled, the LGBT community, and lets not forget the voiceless animals. That is more my realm of interest and expertise.
You stick to promoting a label-free future, where we trust all our options are safe and valid, and I will promote better label standards, promoting more choice, and consumer information.
Different approaches, slightly different aims... but not in direct opposition to one another. The only ones we directly oppose are our shared enemies: Multinational monopolies, imperialists, the war-profiteers of the MIC, corporate personhood, GMO crops, a brave new world... The Bush Administration and all its cronies... and the Obama Administration and all its cronies.
We chat too much to not get past our differences and onto our shared interests.
You have simply reached your limit where it comes to organized, less than stringently pro-labor movements. But I am not able to share your unbreakable skepticism... Call it naive, but I believe that the future cannot be built on skepticism – only on well placed optimism. You don't like Norman Solomon, and consider optimism here poorly-placed.
I see his positions as being compromised, but understandable, and have considered him a valid perspective for years. There was a time until recently, that I honestly did believe change was possible – only possible – by taking the Dems over from within.
Until recently, this was a plausible strategy. Until 2010, I thought it was not only possible, but that is was likely the most hopeful route. A separate movement was not going to achieve the results we needed. Now, after the elections, I think that scenario has changed, and I believe any progressive worth his or her salt is also beginning to realize this. This is a time of evolution and possibly a new direction yet unexplored.
Why are you so certain it is not?
You say "you have simply reached your limit where it comes to organized, less than stringently pro-labor movements."
Nothing progressives have been doing over the last 40 years qualifies as "organized" nor as a "movement."
Not sure what you mean by "stringently pro-labor."
I am not quite sure that I am following what you are saying here. Are you saying that previous to the recent elections you thought that supporting the Democrats was a waste of time, but now you have changed your mind?
I advocate for the working class. Working class does not mean merely workers.
You say that we can not build on skepticism - as though some were skeptics and some were not. That is false. Some are skeptical about these particular people, and some are not. Your post is full of skepticism about Labor organizing and about the Left. I am not skeptical about that. Your post is full of optimism about this new organization. I am not optimistic about that. So, the difference here lies in what we are skeptical about, not whether or not we are skeptics.
We are not recruiting for the same movement (I am not recruiting at all, and there is no movement) from "two sides" if one of the groups is recruiting for the Democratic party, for working within and saving the system, and the other is not. We are working in opposite directions.
What do I base this is on? Labor organizing has worked, progressive self-expression has failed.
re: "Nothing progressives have been doing over the last 40 years qualifies as "organized" nor as a "movement."
Exactly. Time to do what was being done 40 years previous to now, only aligned to today's realities.
re: "Not sure what you mean by "stringently pro-labor."
Then I think I misunderstood everything you ever wrote here.
re: "I am not quite sure that I am following what you are saying here. Are you saying that previous to the recent elections you thought that supporting the Democrats was a waste of time, but now you have changed your mind?"
Why is this always so difficult? All over this thread I have blatantly and repeatedly posted the exact OPPOSITE.
re: "You say that we can not build on skepticism - as though some were skeptics and some were not. That is false. "
NO. That is correct. You cannot build on doubts, but on hoped-for, expected outcomes - i.e. optimism.
re: "our post is full of skepticism about Labor organizing and about the Left. I am not skeptical about that. "
I am a skeptic. A real one who maintains ample skepticism for ceaseless skepticism itself.
re: "Your post is full of optimism about this new organization. I am not optimistic about that. "
Veiled optimism. I have made that clear. I will maintain an optimistic approach to what I can believe may turn into a good thing. I will wait before I am satisfied and convinced that my support is earned. But at first I will give my compatriots a CHANCE.
re: "I am not optimistic about that. So, the difference here lies in what we are skeptical about, not whether or not we are skeptics."
That is correct.
re: "We are working in opposite directions."
Fine then I will consider you my enemy, and working for anti-progressive causes. It will not be pleasant between us if this happens, I assure you. You will do well to keep me on your side.
re: "What do I base this is on? Labor organizing has worked, progressive self-expression has failed."
And you can't understand what I mean by "stringently pro-labor"?! If you are against 'self-expression' than you and I may not be on the same side. I support labor rights, very much so, but at the heart of those rights is one that is prominent over all others in my opinion: The right to self-expression.
If you are against it, than I wish you nothing but failure.
Two Americas,
I think that perhaps we are all missing the point, and isn't that the point? The only way the structure stays in place is if we all miss the point. The claim being made by these folks is action over servility, lets test their claim. Don't sign their petition when you are not sure of it. Contact those who wrote it and want you to sign it and check them out. Take action with me so we can be done with this discussion and move on to more important matters. If you get no response from them or if you get a form letter in regards to your input or questions, what more do we need to wonder about regarding their merit or intentions. This network for action can easily be tested for viability. It's not rocket science to test their ability to relate to us, those they would like connect with and to represent.
This article looks like just another work within the Democratic Party advertisement and Smitty88 nailed it on this petition Obama thing. But more to the point, I have a bigger issue on this article. The Internet may have given us Netroots but what good is that when all that happened over the years was degenerating into another partisan meetup site? I appreciate the fact that the Internet has enlightened lots of people and even turned a few Bush/Limbaughian Republicans into pure libertarians but it has had no effect on steering the Democratic Party to the left so far this millennium. I'm gonna wait until Rootsaction is at least a few years old before giving them my endorsement.
Simple solution would be to register as an INDEPENDENT othewise known as "no party" on the voter registration form and no longer be taken for granted.
Like Bernie Sanders, perhaps many more will start as Independents.
"no party" - "no message".
Going from Democrat to Independent reads as a move to the Right, or as "I don't care."
Only if you register with a truly progressive party, like the Greens, is there any effective message.
Even Libertarian would be better.
Max Keiser: "Crash JP Morgan, buy Silver"
That will be non-violent direct action that gets the Bankster Mafia's attention.
Google: "Crash JP Morgan buy Silver"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/12/06/benzinga668905.DTL
www.maxkeiser.com
Unexceptionable and, as long as they're petitioning Obama or the Dems in Congress, perfectly useless. Why would they care, unless you're prepared to vote for someone else?
Compare this with Greenwald's article, just below.
Correct, and we should be voting for someone else. Third party. Roots Action should be used to organize electoral opposition. So far that I've seen, though, it won't be used in that way. Consequently, it will fail or be ignored.
-TIA
Does anyone else find it ironic that this article is celebrating "one of the great achievements of the last decade: the rise of independent media," on the day that the Comcast-NBC merger was approved by the FCC?
Perhaps not. Perhaps this is a sign that in the marketplace of ideas, competition for the megaphone can no longer be allowed to exist – for it has become too dangerous. In essence this reveals the vapid, bankrupt nature of the corporate/mainstream dialog – and its inherent weakness: If any challenge is allowed to stand, it likely will provide the fracture which can bring the entire monolith crashing down.
The emergence of anything representing a true independent media or public outlet of expression is all the more necessary at this time, and should not be undermined by doubt, circumspection or naysaying – it must be amplified and maintained by the steady stream of our own emboldened, growing and persistent voices demanding the real solutions, the real analysis and the real frames that only we in the progressive camp seem capable or willing to offer to the American people.
I see all this consolidation and prolonged effort to staunch the *Voice of The People* as the elites forming a defensive circle of wagons -- it is a symbol of their besieged illusions, their message cracking at the seams, and hollowing out at the core. The elite will put forward a strong face, a seemingly unbreakable confidence until their memes are shattered and their ploys revealed. They will consolidate and obfuscate, erecting fears and bogymen to keep us confused and divided.
But don't buy the lie. They have nothing anymore, just insanity posing as heroism, as fiscal responsibility, as concern, as ideals and morals. They can build the biggest monolith they want, let it tower over the world, but if it represents false power, and more of the same tyranny humanity has fought for ages, it too will join Ozymandias in the sands of history. Believe it.
The Indymedia Center website in my city opened just after Seattle to great promise and through the Iraq Invasion, and under the slogan "everyone is a journalist" it was an excellent resource for grassroots news.
But now, it has been abandoned and is filling with spam. The original webmaster (Matt Toups) left town with the administrator password, so no one can get it cleaned up and running again. A handful of young people still put on the Indymedia radio program "Rustbelt Radio" - on a handful of local college stations - once every two weeks. In deference to the anarcho-activism lifestyle, the program is put on anomynously, and the Indymedia e-mail address goes unanswered, so there is no way for any interested person to get involved unless they are members of a small insider anarcho-clique, that spends all their time on their "facebook" pages.
This is the problem with activism in the US in a nutshell.
I'm not sure what the point of all of us blogging anymore is...a little venting, I suppose. I would like to see less organizations this year, not more. We sure know how to Balkanize ourselves! I get emails from half a dozen orgs dealing with pollution & climate change alone. Several more dealing with human rights. On and on. They all want money. I would be sending out about $100 a day if I answered all their pleas. Hello - all these problems, environmental, social class war, endless war to protect the interests of the wealthy, have the same root cause. They are all being pushed by the plutocrats. So why are we fighting them with 100 different organizations?
The largest unified (sort of) force in this country right now, the incoherent tea party formed and/or co-opted by the Koch's and other wealthy interests, has marshaled all that anger in the wrong directions. Now big oil, agri-chem, pharma has elected a bunch of these folks and the misled T-partiers actually think they won. There's a lot of revolutionary talk going on in this blog. But, given the divisiveness in this country, tell me, who would be fighting whom, to achieve what? There is a pretty clear vision of what's going on amongst a lot of segregated people: "our" gov't is about helping the plutocrats suck the last wealth out of this society, while it protects their interests with the military. That's it. Doesn't matter whether a Dem or Repub's in, except as a matter of style.
So how do we do two things. One, unplug from this murderous culture and create and retain local wealth (not necessarily money), and, how do we get this rather simple and easy to understand picture out, so that there is a consensus concerning what we oppose and what actions to take?
No, I don't expect a blog comment to answer this, anymore than I expect a petition to Obama to effect anything. Just thinking on the keyboard.
Ideas?
Folks, liberals/left/progressives have never been able to agree on everything; that's simply a consequence of having people who actually think. Going back to my own grandfather's day in the 1930s, progressive politics has been most untidy, disorganized, sometimes exasperating -- but right. It has always been right because it has always valued human beings above money, justice above power. Now stop fretting about it.
Obviously, the consequences of 30+ years of conservatism/Reaganism are all around us today. We're faced with complex, multi-faceted problems, and there is no single answer to any one of these problems. There may well be times when a more militant approach is the only appropriate one. Sometimes passive protest is appropriate, sometimes active engagement. Usually, more than a single approach is necessary to effect legitimate change.The point is, we see the right wing poised to take over. Note that they are not asking permission to do this. All along, they have not asked for permission to change US laws and policies to build the structure that has taken this country down. Did you think you had to seek permission to try to reverse this disastrous course we've been on?
Much of the international community now regards the US as a country on the verge of collapse, and that might well be true. Doing nothing simply isn't an option any more. Moving forward, saving our own butts, will require a full range of approaches and strategies, but the only way we can lose now is if we do nothing.
Excellent and true. We have two choices: Irrational futility, or irrational optimism.
What is rational about either certain defeat, or victory? Nothing. Nothing is certain, nothing a foregone conclusion. But at least with irrational optimism we have a real and fighting chance to be the difference when the chance arises for us to be it. When has futility, reasonable or not, ever effected the real change we need to see come to pass in the world?
Never.
I just signed the petition because I want the wars to end. Will it make a difference? I don't know, but it could.
Doing nothing results in nothing. I am counting on a lot of butterfly wings flapping at the same time, and maybe a hurricane of enough thoughts can make a difference.
I also like reading the thoughts of those who started this. Will it be Shay's Rebellion, or the Second Coming of America? I don't know, but I just finished reading about the Heisenberg Uncertainity Principle, so doing this action could make a world of difference, and a difference in the world!
I signed it too.Keep the faith baby.
peace
Petition? Fiddle Faddle. Jeff and Norman, get together the most respected and well-known members of the outlier class from all ethnicities and walks of life and organize a 5 million citizen non-violent march to Wash,D.C. Surround the White House, Capitol building and Supreme Court and refuse to leave until the government resigns in order to create a non-corporate, non-violent non-imperialist republic , of, for and by the people. Take the Tunisian road. Petition? Too late. Utter waste of time.
Maybe your idea is on the agenda for the future.
Perhaps a petition is a good way to get people initially involved, informed and activated so that a multi-million man and woman march will actually work.
Doesn't a big movement have to start out small in the beginning?
Did John Steward and Stephen Colbert get their March for Sanity together within the first week of their shows airing?
I understand that a petition solves nothing on its own – but the reality is that petitions are what forms movements. Its the starting place.
I'm beginning to suspect right-wing think tanks of planting deep seed-memes of doubt concerning petitions. The reactionary response to them here is truly hard to fathom. The hostility to real action that people here can actually take as a means to transition to more powerful actions is amazing.
This is a common sense approach that humankind simply cannot or will not get past...We are all human, color, religion, misunderstandings, past wrongs or rights, and all that impairs us from being truly "human beings" is the answer. We are all on an ever-changing planet with resources decreasing each and every day with a population that Mother Earth cannot handle or we cannot handle. Sad but true. We need to figure out how to exist together...no matter what!!
Given Barack the Betrayer's formerly stealthy but now blatantly obvious role in imposing the New Paradigm of U.S. governance at all levels -- absolute power and unlimited profit for the Ruling Class; total subjugation and genocidal poverty for the rest of us -- the one truth made undeniable by the aftermath of the 2008 election is that "hope" is not "audacity" but imbecility: that "action" accomplishes exactly nothing.
Most "action" is ignored (and therefore reduced to meaninglessness); any potentially effective local "action" is promptly crushed. The unmistakable message is that any broader such "action" would be greeted with open declaration of war on dissent -- public acknowledgement the United States is now (and forever shall be) the global equivalent of a Fourth Reich, murderously dictatorial at home, murderously imperialistic abroad, the capitalist weeds of Nazism and fascism now openly growing from capitalism itself.
Such is "change we can believe in."
One of the more significant axioms of genuine radicalism is derived directly from Sun Tzu: the principle that when victory is impossible, one should not squander one's resources by fighting.
Another principle articulated in Sun Tzu's "Art of War" is that one must always know one's enemy -- which in this case means acknowledging the Ruling Class is possessed of technologies of surveillance and mass murder so godlike (and therefore so alien) they have no precedent anywhere in human experience.
"Action" in the face of such powerlessness is therefore not heroic; it is not just suicide for the activists but the sociopathic endangerment of all one's families and friends with the likelihood of imprisonment and death.
In this case the best advice is indeed servility, precisely as spelled out by the 36th Hexagram of the I Ching: "Darkening of the Light...thus does the superior man live with the great mass; he veils his light, yet still shines."
Its corollary is to be found in the words of an Ernest Hemingway title: "The Sun Also Rises."
LOREN: I always appreciate your profound posts.
I would add that all through the I ching is the realization of how cycles operate. We are told to be like the tree that withstands the floodwaters; and that on the darkest day of the year, we can be assured of the increasing return of light.
My point is that horrible as the times appear to be, with growing challenges for many, this, too, SHALL pass.
From the perspective of the astro-logos, every repression tied to the Saturn-ruled sign of Capricorn (that which represents supreme state power) works in composite to spring liberty forth once more. Like a rubberband stretched to its bursting point, those who have known freedom will only take so much repression before a collective surge transpires.
I was told by a trance medium that there will be silicon chips in our roadways, that all of our moves WILL be watched and recorded... but I was also told that in the long run, this would lead to something else, something that would be of value, and serve mankind.
Until we all realize the chains that bind us, how can we collectively raise our wrists to burst them? The new Comcast law represents yet another of those chains. The pressure round more and more of our "wrists" is growing.
We can predict the effective life-span of this new alignment. To what extent will its policies jar the Jewish state?
This is a dynamic situation. Even a year ago a withdrawal from Afghanistan would have seemed threatening to the Jewish state (viz. MoveOn.org's stances on the issue over the past five years).
As Israel grinds itself into dust, the information-security perimeter is being pulled in. The dark hope that "war" in Afghanistan would distract both world attention and "Islamists" eastwards is fading in the rising glare of the regional focus on democracy and human rights. So we enter a new cycle of J-Street-type activism with its goal of a Jewish-State-Lite. But as soon as that paradox properly asserts itself again, the dynamism will collapse back into circling the wagons. From TOI today: "Avraham Burg - Ynet - Say it clearly: Full Jewish-Arab partnership, without any 'buts.' Democracy for all citizens. A complete end to the occupation, without any deals and sophisticated formulae, without blocs, and without leftovers. And a truly social economy. Turn your backs to Barak and establish the Labor-Meretz-Hadash coalition." This is Lite--any two-state-solution=racism. And "servility" is still the apt term.
The Left doesn't do lockstep well.
FREE AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY
SERVILITY
"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who have not got it."
--George Bernard Shaw
"Accessorize your rebellion."
--Andrew Boyd
"One day the truth will emerge, like a corpse in the water."
--Wieslaw Brudzinski
Burble burble burble- - -
In October 2008 assholes killed the =United States of America=. It was like a bank robbery where nobody was supposed to die. But everybody in the bank died, anyway. Jeepers!
We have spent two mind numbing, coffer-emptying years flogging a dead horse. It's still not moving. Today we have decided that flogging it alphabetically is wrong - - and the answer is to regroup and flog it by SSN (a petition ought to do it). Elizabeth Warren should keep saying: "That's a good horse, you can get up; c'mon, get up for Momma." Then this late horse will rise, blink its eyes, and be the same old Dobbin it was whack whack whack slap slap slap.
The United States of America is not a Land. The United States of America is not a People. Those days are gone forever. We are TWO Peoples who loath each other so much we'd almost like to see each other stuck into gas chambers. This circumstance is ex-Constitutional because that document was written for One People. And the framework of American government cannot fix this by political process. Not now. Not next election. Not ten years from now. Not ever. Its like side by side teamsters, fighting to the death for the reins while the mules run pell mell for a cliff.
The Afghanistan War et al is diverting attention from the SECOND AMERICAN CIVIL WAR in which we Citizens deny we are unendingly engaged. This time, there's not going to be a winner to carpet bag the loser. This time we're ALL going to lose.
I think that our choices resolve to either political Meiosis or Mitosis, if our descendants located between Canada and Mexico are going to have chance at a Life. We need to split and go our separate political ways by creating TWO separate visions of THE COUNTRY OF WHICH I WANT TO BE A CITIZEN. The alternative, I fear, is for us to start killing each other, literally.
Absurd? Unthinkable? At six I read the newspaper headline announcing the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi. Thus I'm old enough to remember when India and Pakistan were one country. Realistically, the USA nearly died during the Vietnam War and was on life support until a President with Alzheimer's began pulling out plugs.
If we don't soon start thinking Outside-the-Box we are going to fade away inside it. I make every effort I can not to be servile to folks who can only think Inside-the-Box.
I choose how to live a life I didn't choose.
--Andrew Boyd
TRYLON
I've read through all of the excellent posts, and I think that right at the end phermes56 & Amurkan cut to the chase: We have to figure out how to get all of our collective wisdom & knowledge out to the people in an easily understood and digested form,to counter the daily lies and distortions of the MSP. We have to disconnect ourselves from working within the current political framework (which we know is a complete waste of time, e.g., the petition to Obama on Afghanistan). But then we use our precious time wisely to figure out how we can get to the point where we can mobilize lots of people to take our elected officials outside of their comfort zones, culminating in Amurkan's vision of many thousands of people surrounding the White House and DEMANDING
the change we need.
The current system is hopelessly rigged, and we do well to refuse to play in that game. Any candidate who ascends to the office of President of the USA is taking the job of CEO Of The Empire; and he or she knows exactly what the job description entails.
I can't help but feel that petitioning Obama is just silly. I did find real hope and encouragement today, though, in another Common Dreams article, the one about the young environmental leaders. The link is http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/18-7
As has been said, a petition ain't gonna cut it. It would be better to buy a good pair of tennis shoes and be ready to march, march, and march. Petitions were not the bedrock of civil rights change and it will not be any different this time. It is better to wake everyone you can up and ready them to stand up for a just world of and for the people. We must demand from within the best inside our hearts what is rightfully ours.
"Spiritually and mentally, many people are bankrupt. They know only how to get up in the morning and go to work. They come home and go to bed. They have been conditioned by politics and religion and condemned to spiritual and mental imprisonment. Maitreya’s Swamis have a message for their fellow beings that everything around them has been created by nature, but disasters, destruction, depression and disease are man-made. The people you must demand an answer from are your leaders, those who have conditioned you and prevented you from enjoying a life of bliss and peace, said the associate."
- World Teacher Maitreya through an associate as reported in Share International
Here's something everyone who owns, or has access to, a "patch" of any size, can do. Grow something to eat. Start with just one tomato plant if that's all you've got time for, but grow something, and do so with the sure knowledge that you have struck a blow, albeit, a deceptively small one, to the biggest corporate abusers of all, the industrial agriculturists. And also keep in mind that if you are unable to provision yourself in the most basic ways as this system collapses, as it most surely is doing, you will be swallowed up in the chaos. Eventually, the streets will start to fill, but the shouts will be coming from hungry, starving people as our hyper oil-dependent food system can no longer maintain the three-day supply of "cheap" food on America's grocery shelves. Soft hands never win revolutions, ever!