Harper's Magazine
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Any strike, whether it happens in a factory, a nation, or a marriage, amounts to a reaffirmation of consent. The strikers remind their overlords—and, equally important, themselves—that the seemingly perpetual machinery of daily life has an off switch as well as an on. Camus said that the one serious question of philosophy is whether or not to commit suicide; the one serious question of political philosophy is whether or not to get out of bed. Silly as it may have seemed at the time, John and Yoko’s famous stunt was based on a profound observation. Instant karma is not so instant—we ratify it day by day.
The stream of commuters heading into the city, the caravan of tractor-trailers pulling out of the rest stop into the dawn’s early light, speak a deep-throated Yes to the sum total of what’s going on in our collective life. The poet Richard Wilbur writes of the “ripped mouse” that “cries Concordance” in the talons of the owl; we too cry our daily assent in the grip of the prevailing order— except in those notable instances when, like a donkey or a Buddha, we refuse to budge.
The question we need to ask ourselves at this moment is what further provocations we require to justify digging in our heels. To put the question more pointedly: Are we willing to wait until the next presidential election, or for some interim congressional conversion experience, knowing that if we do wait, hundreds of our sons and daughters will be needlessly destroyed? Another poet, Cesar Vallejo, framed the question like this:
A man shivers with cold, coughs, spits up blood.
Will it ever be fitting to allude to my inner soul? . . .
A cripple sleeps with one foot on his shoulder.
Shall I later on talk about Picasso, of all people?
A young man goes to Walter Reed without a face. Shall I make an appointment with my barber? A female prisoner is sodomized at Abu Ghraib. Shall I send a check to the Clinton campaign?
3.
You will recall that a major theme of the Bush Administration’s response to September 11 was that life should go on as usual. We should keep saying that broad consensual Yes as loudly as we dared. We could best express our patriotism by hitting the malls, by booking a flight to Disney World. At the time, the advice seemed prudent enough: avoid hysteria; defy the intimidations of murderers and fanatics.
In hindsight it’s hard not to see the roots of our predicament in the readiness with which we took that advice to heart. We did exactly as we were told, with a net result that is less an implicit defiance of terrorism than a tacit amen to the “war on terror,” including the war in Iraq. Granted, many of us have come to find both those wars unacceptable. But do we find them intolerable? Can you sleep? Yes, doctor, I can sleep. Can you work? Yes, doctor, I can work. Do you get out to the movies, enjoy a good restaurant? Actually, I have a reservation for tonight. Then I’d say you were doing okay, wouldn’t you? I’d say you were tolerating the treatment fairly well.
It is one thing to endure abuses and to carry on in spite of them. It is quite another thing to carry on to the point of abetting the abuse. We need to move the discussion of our nation’s health to the emergency room. We need to tell the doctors of the body politic that the treatment isn’t working—and that until it changes radically for the better, neither are we.
PeakOil is You
Specific suggestion: General strike
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Specific suggestion: General strike
by TWilliam » Thu 27 Sep 2007, 18:23:09
More at the link above...
"It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, because Kansas? Is goin' bye-bye... "
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Re: Specific suggestion: General strike
by roccman » Thu 27 Sep 2007, 18:36:47
It IS time to drive your picket pin in the ground.
It IS time to jump off the train.
It IS time to gather ourselves and build a boat.
We WILL NOT come this way again.
Rise up...the time is NOW!!!
It IS time to jump off the train.
It IS time to gather ourselves and build a boat.
We WILL NOT come this way again.
Rise up...the time is NOW!!!
"There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins
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Re: Specific suggestion: General strike
by RdSnt » Thu 27 Sep 2007, 18:49:56
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', '[')url=http://harpers.org/archive/2007/10/0081720]Harper's Magazine[/url]
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')and that until it changes radically for the better, neither are we.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')and that until it changes radically for the better, neither are we.
More at the link above...
What I want to ask is ,What does "better" mean? In the context of North American society what is going to convince the general population that there is something better.
Currently, the vast majority of US citizens are of the firm, even fanatical, belief that there is no better place, no better life, than in the US.
What is it that you can tell these people, who live very easy lives, who have most any comfort they wish, who are over fed, well entertained; that will convince them to give it up.
Even in the worst ghettos, among the most impoverished of Americans, they live a better life than the average Chinese, the average Indian, the average Iraqi. What's more, even they are convinced that the American dream exists. That just with a little luck they too can achieve the dream of American exceptionlism.
Gravity is not a force, it is a boundary layer.
Everything is coincident.
Love: the state of suspended anticipation.
To get any appreciable distance from the Earth in
a sensible amount of time, you must lie.
Everything is coincident.
Love: the state of suspended anticipation.
To get any appreciable distance from the Earth in
a sensible amount of time, you must lie.
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Re: Specific suggestion: General strike
by TWilliam » Thu 27 Sep 2007, 19:11:10
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RdSnt', 'W')hat I want to ask is ,What does "better" mean? In the context of North American society what is going to convince the general population that there is something better.
Currently, the vast majority of US citizens are of the firm, even fanatical, belief that there is no better place, no better life, than in the US.
What is it that you can tell these people, who live very easy lives, who have most any comfort they wish, who are over fed, well entertained; that will convince them to give it up.
Even in the worst ghettos, among the most impoverished of Americans, they live a better life than the average Chinese, the average Indian, the average Iraqi. What's more, even they are convinced that the American dream exists. That just with a little luck they too can achieve the dream of American exceptionlism.
Currently, the vast majority of US citizens are of the firm, even fanatical, belief that there is no better place, no better life, than in the US.
What is it that you can tell these people, who live very easy lives, who have most any comfort they wish, who are over fed, well entertained; that will convince them to give it up.
Even in the worst ghettos, among the most impoverished of Americans, they live a better life than the average Chinese, the average Indian, the average Iraqi. What's more, even they are convinced that the American dream exists. That just with a little luck they too can achieve the dream of American exceptionlism.
(Unfortunately) valid points, one and all RdSnt. And also unfortunately, I have no answer for them, as you are of course correct. Until a large percentage - if not, indeed, the majority - become conscious not only of the ever-tightening bonds their "comfort" represents, but are able to at least dimly perceive where that bondage is ultimately leading them, I fear few will actually take action to impel change. In fact even with the elephant standing in the living room, as long as it hasn't destroyed their TV and isn't blocking the view or their ready access to the beer in the fridge, few people even pay much attention to the steaming piles it leaves all over the floor.
Be that as it may, I believe it's still necessary to continue beating the drums and sounding the bells...
"It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, because Kansas? Is goin' bye-bye... "
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