Shepherd
06-09-2008, 06:45 AM
Now that Obama is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, we need to have a different kind of discussion. The lack of adequate attention to the real issues during the Party's recent process was disappointing. As my friend Yen Chin from Hawai'i indicates below, we need to talk about the occupation, energy, race, and related issues. I like his invitation to a conversation on these important matters.
I am glad that Obama has won and will vote for him. Then another kind of work will be necessary. His corporate-sponsored responses to the excesses of Empire will not be enough, in my opinion. My own hope is that he will manage the decline of the Empire in a better way--as we approach a Depression and possible collapse--than the other more bellicose options, but perhaps I am being naive.
The question for me is not whether or not the Empire will fall, because it seems clear that it is falling. The questions include if it can do so with some grace and minimal damage, will we be left with a Republic, and what happens after the U.S. begins to pull its multiple tentacles out of its colonial outposts around the world.
I recently went to a meeting of Transition Cotati at Frogsong Co-Housing in which a woman reported on a recent trip to the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland and two other events in the British Isles that dealt with energy issues and ecovillages. The gathering was inspiring. She talked about the importance of residing in the place of not-knowing, which can be difficult. She talked about building resilience, so we can withstand shocks. In addition to dealing with post-traumatic stress, we could benefit from considering pre-traumatic stress and do pre-traumatic counseling. There are now some 700 transition towns around the globe. This is heartening.
Shepherd
From: [email protected]
Subject: Obama
Date: June 8, 2008 11:58:09 PM PDT
Hi Folks,
In my youth I embraced an idealism that some people found refreshing. Others thought otherwise and had no reservations about sharing their thoughts. Now that I look back on those days of a Yen filled with grand dreams and largely empty of patience I marvel at the naiveté of the person and the times. Oh, I still have great dreams; why bother trying to live if we don’t have aspirations and hope for the future? However, I no longer expect to wake up tomorrow and find that the new world has arisen full-blown out of the ruins of the old. I no longer expect to ride the wave change to glory. I expect to get my hands dirty, to have large measures of disappointment mixed into small triumphs, to find contentment in the knowledge that I try to do what’s right rather than seeing a measurable change for which I can claim credit.
I suspect and hope that Barack Obama views the world in a way similar to the me of today, but I fear that many of his supporters more closely resemble the me of 1966. I fear that they suffer from the same ignorant assessment of what’s possible that I did as a youth, and I especially fear that they believe that their man can deliver the impossible. Even though he has spoken of the need for citizens to participate in making the future, I fear that this part of his message goes largely unheard or misunderstood.
The real trouble with this kind of optimism lies not in the sloppiness of its analysis but in the laziness it breeds. Rather than accepting the invitation to engage in a nuanced and complex discourse on race, an exploration that everybody will find discomforting, it’s far easier to arrive at a conclusion, any conclusion and move on to another topic. That’s what I saw happen in the wake of the Reverend Wright affair, and I mourn the loss of the opportunity. If we as a society continue to squander such opportunities, we insure our demise.
In this country, voting itself encourages such squandering of opportunities because people commonly see it as the end of a campaign rather than the beginning of a new project. Voting as a singular act serves as the lazy person’s means of discharging civic responsibility. Pull the lever and gain a reprieve from political responsibility for another four years, and gain the right to complain if the national affairs go badly. Even actively participating in campaign does not inoculate one against the slide backward into passivity because the goal of electoral victory becomes the ultimate rather than a true stepping stone to greater participation, and greater participation lies at the heart of Obama’s stated message.
I well understand the desire to stay on the sidelines or move to the sidelines once a task is accomplished. I feel it strongly myself. I currently live a life that already contains more demands than I like. Adding the burden of making a new society can appear even more daunting than completing the house Patricia and I are building or bringing the landscape into a more productive and visually pleasing form or resolving the legal dilemmas of our homeowners’ association. Besides, I’ve done my time on the political front lines both in electoral politics and protest politics. Other people need to step up for a change. I deserve a break. Don’t I?
Yes, yes. Other people do need to step up, but so do I. I do deserve a break, but deserving does not mean I can afford to take one. However, stepping up does not have to mean lashing myself to a crushing burden. It can and should mean changing the way in which I/we now approach the tasks I/we already have. For example, we chose to install a solar water heater in our house. We could have done so and assumed that we could treat the system just like we would a conventional water heater, which means connect it and forget it. Or we could treat it as a piece of different technology that invites us to learn how it really works and how to maximize its benefits.
In choosing the latter approach we connect ourselves more closely to our immediate environment and that connection opens the way for other forms of awareness. In the beginning, I watched the temperature gauge on the storage tank and fretted about having enough or too much hot water. But as I learned more about the system, I began to develop a knowledge about how the amount of sun correlated to our ability to draw hot water and about the flexibility of the system, a knowledge that allows me to relax and enjoy the wealth of hot water we now enjoy for almost no additional cost. In nearly two months we have used no electricity to heat our water.
In another example, I try to deepen my conversations with my friends. Instead of exchanging trivial pleasantries, I look for ways to explore more important questions. I find this change more difficult because it invites disagreement over matters of substance. It also puts me in a situation in which I might need to change my viewpoints. But opening myself to changes in me has always been an essential part of encouraging change in the world in which I live. And purposeful opening constitutes participation and invites unexpected events.
There will probably be times when I have to take on an additional task or two, times when I will feel taxed beyond my energies. But that need not be my normal state. Indeed it should not be my normal state because I can’t sustain such a pace for very long. And the road ahead stretches further than I can now see, and we need to accept the long haul. However, in foreground I can see the need to elect Obama and the need to work to capitalize on the opportunities his election will provide. We must influence the situation so that he works for us to foster changes that we need rather than descend into making nice-sounding uttering while serving the powers that be.
Recently, as Obama moved from Democratic hopeful to Democratic nominee, he spoke words that troubled me, words in support of Israeli policies, words that soften his pledge to end the occupation of Iraq, words that he probably thinks improve his chance of winning the election in November. Reverend Wright spoke correctly when he noted that Obama is a politician who, out of necessity, says thing he does not believe in order to get elected. I can only hope that he crafts his deceptions to protect a truly progressive agenda rather than simply to gain a hold on the reins of power. I can hope and do my work that helps make a better present and a better future possible and helps bring out the better person in everyone.
Shall we have an honest conversation about race? Or the occupation? Or about energy?
Aloha,
Yen
I am glad that Obama has won and will vote for him. Then another kind of work will be necessary. His corporate-sponsored responses to the excesses of Empire will not be enough, in my opinion. My own hope is that he will manage the decline of the Empire in a better way--as we approach a Depression and possible collapse--than the other more bellicose options, but perhaps I am being naive.
The question for me is not whether or not the Empire will fall, because it seems clear that it is falling. The questions include if it can do so with some grace and minimal damage, will we be left with a Republic, and what happens after the U.S. begins to pull its multiple tentacles out of its colonial outposts around the world.
I recently went to a meeting of Transition Cotati at Frogsong Co-Housing in which a woman reported on a recent trip to the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland and two other events in the British Isles that dealt with energy issues and ecovillages. The gathering was inspiring. She talked about the importance of residing in the place of not-knowing, which can be difficult. She talked about building resilience, so we can withstand shocks. In addition to dealing with post-traumatic stress, we could benefit from considering pre-traumatic stress and do pre-traumatic counseling. There are now some 700 transition towns around the globe. This is heartening.
Shepherd
From: [email protected]
Subject: Obama
Date: June 8, 2008 11:58:09 PM PDT
Hi Folks,
In my youth I embraced an idealism that some people found refreshing. Others thought otherwise and had no reservations about sharing their thoughts. Now that I look back on those days of a Yen filled with grand dreams and largely empty of patience I marvel at the naiveté of the person and the times. Oh, I still have great dreams; why bother trying to live if we don’t have aspirations and hope for the future? However, I no longer expect to wake up tomorrow and find that the new world has arisen full-blown out of the ruins of the old. I no longer expect to ride the wave change to glory. I expect to get my hands dirty, to have large measures of disappointment mixed into small triumphs, to find contentment in the knowledge that I try to do what’s right rather than seeing a measurable change for which I can claim credit.
I suspect and hope that Barack Obama views the world in a way similar to the me of today, but I fear that many of his supporters more closely resemble the me of 1966. I fear that they suffer from the same ignorant assessment of what’s possible that I did as a youth, and I especially fear that they believe that their man can deliver the impossible. Even though he has spoken of the need for citizens to participate in making the future, I fear that this part of his message goes largely unheard or misunderstood.
The real trouble with this kind of optimism lies not in the sloppiness of its analysis but in the laziness it breeds. Rather than accepting the invitation to engage in a nuanced and complex discourse on race, an exploration that everybody will find discomforting, it’s far easier to arrive at a conclusion, any conclusion and move on to another topic. That’s what I saw happen in the wake of the Reverend Wright affair, and I mourn the loss of the opportunity. If we as a society continue to squander such opportunities, we insure our demise.
In this country, voting itself encourages such squandering of opportunities because people commonly see it as the end of a campaign rather than the beginning of a new project. Voting as a singular act serves as the lazy person’s means of discharging civic responsibility. Pull the lever and gain a reprieve from political responsibility for another four years, and gain the right to complain if the national affairs go badly. Even actively participating in campaign does not inoculate one against the slide backward into passivity because the goal of electoral victory becomes the ultimate rather than a true stepping stone to greater participation, and greater participation lies at the heart of Obama’s stated message.
I well understand the desire to stay on the sidelines or move to the sidelines once a task is accomplished. I feel it strongly myself. I currently live a life that already contains more demands than I like. Adding the burden of making a new society can appear even more daunting than completing the house Patricia and I are building or bringing the landscape into a more productive and visually pleasing form or resolving the legal dilemmas of our homeowners’ association. Besides, I’ve done my time on the political front lines both in electoral politics and protest politics. Other people need to step up for a change. I deserve a break. Don’t I?
Yes, yes. Other people do need to step up, but so do I. I do deserve a break, but deserving does not mean I can afford to take one. However, stepping up does not have to mean lashing myself to a crushing burden. It can and should mean changing the way in which I/we now approach the tasks I/we already have. For example, we chose to install a solar water heater in our house. We could have done so and assumed that we could treat the system just like we would a conventional water heater, which means connect it and forget it. Or we could treat it as a piece of different technology that invites us to learn how it really works and how to maximize its benefits.
In choosing the latter approach we connect ourselves more closely to our immediate environment and that connection opens the way for other forms of awareness. In the beginning, I watched the temperature gauge on the storage tank and fretted about having enough or too much hot water. But as I learned more about the system, I began to develop a knowledge about how the amount of sun correlated to our ability to draw hot water and about the flexibility of the system, a knowledge that allows me to relax and enjoy the wealth of hot water we now enjoy for almost no additional cost. In nearly two months we have used no electricity to heat our water.
In another example, I try to deepen my conversations with my friends. Instead of exchanging trivial pleasantries, I look for ways to explore more important questions. I find this change more difficult because it invites disagreement over matters of substance. It also puts me in a situation in which I might need to change my viewpoints. But opening myself to changes in me has always been an essential part of encouraging change in the world in which I live. And purposeful opening constitutes participation and invites unexpected events.
There will probably be times when I have to take on an additional task or two, times when I will feel taxed beyond my energies. But that need not be my normal state. Indeed it should not be my normal state because I can’t sustain such a pace for very long. And the road ahead stretches further than I can now see, and we need to accept the long haul. However, in foreground I can see the need to elect Obama and the need to work to capitalize on the opportunities his election will provide. We must influence the situation so that he works for us to foster changes that we need rather than descend into making nice-sounding uttering while serving the powers that be.
Recently, as Obama moved from Democratic hopeful to Democratic nominee, he spoke words that troubled me, words in support of Israeli policies, words that soften his pledge to end the occupation of Iraq, words that he probably thinks improve his chance of winning the election in November. Reverend Wright spoke correctly when he noted that Obama is a politician who, out of necessity, says thing he does not believe in order to get elected. I can only hope that he crafts his deceptions to protect a truly progressive agenda rather than simply to gain a hold on the reins of power. I can hope and do my work that helps make a better present and a better future possible and helps bring out the better person in everyone.
Shall we have an honest conversation about race? Or the occupation? Or about energy?
Aloha,
Yen