![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Talkin' 'bout Revolution
Dec. 21st, 2009 09:26 amAfter much gnashing of teeth, I was able to go see a screening of Micheal Moore's Capitalism movie. But before I could get too worked up picking nits with this one filmmaker, I went to go see Yes men Fix the World. And I'm still trying (and failing) to see The End of Poverty.
Each of these films, I think, has its own weak points that could be quibbled with, and if you wanted to, you could take each argument one-by-one and defeat it somehow with mad word-fu skills, like in those martial arts movies where the bad guys come at the hero one by one- politely waiting for the hero to defeat one opponent before confronting him with another.
I've also been talking to people. A year ago, I was having a breathless conversation about Obama's ascension. thinking that here, at last, was a golden opportunity to make some badly needed changes. A lot of other people were thinking the same thing... I was reminded, though, that Obama never really made very impressive campaign promises in the first place, and he's living down to those expectations, not trying to match what we've built up in our minds.
Maybe the real opportunity arises as people stop looking to individual charismatic leaders, and start stepping up to bat on our own.
In fact, this post about why American manufacturing sucks pretty much feeds my ongoing thoughts about what the revolution needs to be about. So much activist energy is focused on those bad powerful people over there who are controlling us and making us do bad stuff and if only they were punished then the good guys would win.
What happens when you let go of the need to punish people for their misdeeds? I'm as furious with AIG as everyone else, but lashing back at those individuals isn't nearly as important as understand how they were allowed to wreak such havoc in the first place.
Face it, this has been going on for a very long time. Lincoln quipped that if the American people understood the way banking system really works, there would be bloody revolution in the street. I think the understanding part of that sentence is more essential than the bloody part.
No one really knows how to keep a complex society running for more than a few hundred years. No one knows how to transition safely between one climate state and another. We know it's been done, we just don't know the particulars.
So instead of thinking of the revolution where the bad people are spanked and the good people are given those old jobs, I'm thinking of a revolution where everyone gets to grow up a lot. Where we all get better at the stuff that needs to happen. Doesn't mean there won't be noise and violence and waste heat as part of an inefficient system, just means the goal is out there and achievable, not some will-of-the-wisp treasure on some pirate map.
Each of these films, I think, has its own weak points that could be quibbled with, and if you wanted to, you could take each argument one-by-one and defeat it somehow with mad word-fu skills, like in those martial arts movies where the bad guys come at the hero one by one- politely waiting for the hero to defeat one opponent before confronting him with another.
I've also been talking to people. A year ago, I was having a breathless conversation about Obama's ascension. thinking that here, at last, was a golden opportunity to make some badly needed changes. A lot of other people were thinking the same thing... I was reminded, though, that Obama never really made very impressive campaign promises in the first place, and he's living down to those expectations, not trying to match what we've built up in our minds.
Maybe the real opportunity arises as people stop looking to individual charismatic leaders, and start stepping up to bat on our own.
In fact, this post about why American manufacturing sucks pretty much feeds my ongoing thoughts about what the revolution needs to be about. So much activist energy is focused on those bad powerful people over there who are controlling us and making us do bad stuff and if only they were punished then the good guys would win.
What happens when you let go of the need to punish people for their misdeeds? I'm as furious with AIG as everyone else, but lashing back at those individuals isn't nearly as important as understand how they were allowed to wreak such havoc in the first place.
Face it, this has been going on for a very long time. Lincoln quipped that if the American people understood the way banking system really works, there would be bloody revolution in the street. I think the understanding part of that sentence is more essential than the bloody part.
No one really knows how to keep a complex society running for more than a few hundred years. No one knows how to transition safely between one climate state and another. We know it's been done, we just don't know the particulars.
So instead of thinking of the revolution where the bad people are spanked and the good people are given those old jobs, I'm thinking of a revolution where everyone gets to grow up a lot. Where we all get better at the stuff that needs to happen. Doesn't mean there won't be noise and violence and waste heat as part of an inefficient system, just means the goal is out there and achievable, not some will-of-the-wisp treasure on some pirate map.
