Posted in reply to the post by theindependenteye:
Friends--
For whatever it's worth: Sorry that I don't have time to immerse myself in KPFA politics. We gave them a program, free, for four years, and contribute regularly, but that's it. But I'm moved to say this.
I've seen two progressive organizations that we had a deep stake in -- one artistic, one spiritual -- go belly-up in recent years. Or I should say, maybe, belly-blown-all-over-the-walls. In both cases, they were classic examples of the left-wing circular firing squad. In both cases, the people who were vehemently at each others' throats were dear life-friends of ours. It was horrible to see, and it was a grievous loss, to us and IMHO to the planet.
What I submit that's relevant to the situation with KPFA, perhaps (and I just urge all parties to give this some serious and something-like-prayerful thought, and to forward it to anyone who's actually going to raise a voice), is that in both cases, (a) each side demonized the other, exactly as if the other was utterly self-serving, corrupt, and financed by the Koch Bros.; (b) each side had a long history of feeling persecuted and marginalized by the world at large, with well-earned battle scars; (c) each side truly felt that it alone was carrying the banner for survival of the profound ideals of the group's vision; and therefore that (d) any form of compromise, even listening with an open heart to what the Other was saying, was tantamount to betrayal.
Does that ring any wind chimes?
Right now, I can't remotely imagine that any human being could fill the post of station manager or program director or dog-catcher at KPFA without being institutionalized after a year on the job. Activists of all stripes are accustomed to absolutes, to being on the receiving end of police batons and mace at the very least, of standing up in the face of overwhelming odds. That's the survival modality. And that amazing virtue is what makes them suck, absurdly, in the simple grubby process of getting along together.
If all your opponents, tomorrow, died of a stroke, would the problems be solved? IMHO, not. The hungry ghosts will sit at table, utensils ready.
Spare me the "No, you don't understand: George did this, Martha said that!" I've heard it too many times, and if you're totally honest with yourself, so have you. This shit can never be truly resolved unless all parties get rid of the idea of WINNING and actually commit to doing this TOGETHER, it's done for, my friends, it's fucking dead in the water, dead on the seashore, beached like a big stinking whale.
Talk to the people you can't stand talking to. Listen to their bullshit and, in the idiotic Quaker term, for what's true and valid in it. Give up all your favorite terminology of characterizing the Other. Someone a helluva lot wiser than I said this: What your enemy says about you is mostly true. What you say about your enemy is mostly true. What you say about yourself, and what he says about himself, is largely bullshit. The Commies and the Capitalists, the Radicals and the Reactionaries, the Israelis and the Palestinians, the Christians and the Pagans, the Straights and the Gays -- think about it. Can you learn from them? Can you kill them, or should you talk to them?
Rant mode off. Right now we're in Hungary at a theatre festival. These people are doing extraordinary work, and in the face of a right-wing nationalist government, that again, as True Believers, wants to renew the "Magyar spirit" by force of power, are surviving. Makes KPFA look like a little hermit crab on the beach. And yet it's a hermit crab I love, and goddamn I hope it survives.
Clasp hands with your "enemy," my loves, and direct your rage where it truly matters.
Peace & joy--
Conrad Bishop