Mark Sommer: Life-affirming responses We haven't suffered enough to really demand change. Things have to get worse before they get better. It's time for Christ-consciousness.
In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman
Jesus said in reply,
"The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,' or, ‘There it is.'
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you."
Luke 17: 20-21
----- Original Message ----- Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 2:25 PM
Subject: Mark Sommer: Life-affirming responses
Dear friends,
Like most of you, I'm sure, in the days since the election I've passed through all the phases of mourning one experiences with a death in the family or a devastating loss. What's surprised me is how quickly that grief has turned, for me as for many others, from dread and despair into passion and determination. And more than that, for me it's been a welcome relief from almost unbearable tension of the run-up to the election, bringing a new clarity of vision about both where we stand and what we must now do. Most of all, quite despite but not in denial of what has happened, I feel a surge of positive energy. I sense that paradoxically the deepening contradictions of our current course only hasten the collapse of the old order. The real challenge for us at this moment in history is to create a new, more life-affirming way of being that can grow and thrive in place of a desperate, dying regime.
As we approach this challenge, I'd like to share several thoughts and experiences that have given me a clearer sense of how to use this apparent reversal of fortune to positive effect.
* Despite appearances, the re-selection of George W. will only hasten the end of American empire. As my daughter Maya put it in a consoling letter to a sixth-grade classmate the day after the election, "Look at it this way: if Kerry had won, he would have faced a hostile Congress and would have been blamed for all the crises that are going to occur as a result of what he did in his first term. With Republicans holding all the reins of power for the next several years, Bush will be forced to simmer in his own problems." In the near term, the increased margin by which Republicans won the presidency and Congress would seem to give them free rein to pursue their imperial dreams. And they'll undoubtedly take it as such. But a host of factors beyond their control -- and increasingly altogether out of control -- threatens not only to slow their momentum but to bring the empire to an early end. This election did not erase the divisions that now run like a Grand Canyon through American politics and culture; indeed, it only intensified the determination of the opponents of empire on both left and right to bring a halt to what they see as a suicidal pursuit of dreams of permanent global dominance. In its wake, the Bush regime is likely to experience still more intense isolation, becoming a superpower superpariah among nations. And finally, the accelerated pursuit of empire, with its ever-growing financial burdens, will devastate a U.S. economy that has already disinvested in its own future by funneling the lion's share of its resources into counter-productive military spending, governmental malfeasance and corporate corruption.
While some economists and political observers see a collapse of American empire occurring in twenty to thirty years, the pace at which these trends will develop in a second Bush term could substantially accelerate that time-line. In his first term, Bush sought, somewhat successfully, to defy the laws of gravity. In his second term he'll seek to repeal them altogether, a much more daunting task. The urgent question for the rest of us, both in the U.S. and around the world, is how to manage the implosion of American empire in such ways that it harms the fewest people and does the least collateral damage to the environment. To deflate American empire through deliberate devolution will require a process led by publics rather than politicians. And it will require cooperation between a principled left and right in the U.S. as well as active partnerships with democratic nations, movements and institutions worldwide. We can already see these forms of cooperation beginning to occur. And it's our task to use the media in creative new ways to broaden and deepen this cooperation.
* Realize that resistance to change can actually accelerate change. The morning after Terrible Tuesday, I sat down to conduct an interview on hybrid vehicles with a top Toyota engineer. It was the last thing on my mind as I stewed over the results of the election. But as we discussed the principle behind hybrid technologies it struck me that the elegant simplicity of the concept might offer an intriguing clue as to how to use resistance to forward movement to generate fuel for further progress. The essential mechanism behind hybrid vehicles is a marriage between an internal combustion engine that powers forward movement and an electric motor that also becomes a power generator whenever the vehicle is braking or coasting. In effect, then, the hybrid is able to use any resistance to or slowing of its forward movement to its advantage by transforming what the Toyota engineer calls "free energy" into fuel for the next lap of the journey. If we think of a hybrid vehicle as a social change vehicle, then any opposition or resistance we encounter to our forward movement, once transformed by a hybrid, "both/and" approach, can become an impetus to further social change.
The first step in transforming this resistant energy is realizing that it is not inherently contrary and that, rightly understood, it contains energy that is essential to further progress. I suggested, and the Toyota engineer agreed, that hybrid technologies are essentially a form of mechanical aikido, harnessing resistance to forward movement to move further forward. Or, in the metaphor of social change, it is harnessing your opponent's attacking energy to take both of you where you want to go. I can't claim to understand just how to achieve this transformation in every instance, but we've already seen that George Bush's ascendancy has brought new energy and clarity to our collective work and has united most of the world in opposition to his policies in ways that, unfortunately, no progressive leader could have done on his or her own.
* Secede and unite. Just before heading for bed on Tuesday evening, I wrote those three words on a post-it note. Having done so, I could then sleep soundly. It seems to me that this simple phrase encapsulates the two-step dance we'll be doing in response to the discordant harmonies of the second Bush term. By "secede," I mean that life-affirming people across the political spectrum, in this country and around the world, need to declare our independence from this illegitimate, death-dealing regime, withdrawing our consent to be governed by it and devising myriad inventive ways of expressing this noncooperation. We need to develop both small steps that can be widely adopted by those who are new to such gestures and large steps for those ready to pay a higher price for their resistance. We should encourage any and all forms of noncooperation that are nonviolent, including those that use humor as a source of satire and ridicule. By using the word "secession," we can harness the potent energy and mythology behind the Southern rebel's fierce, rousing refusal to accept what he saw as illegitimate rule while standing its animating mission on its head (i.e., liberation rather than slavery). Returning to the Declaration of Independence, we can locate a more august tradition in which to vest our secession, declaring our independence from the madness of King George and our withdrawal from a dysfunctional political process.
It's equally important, however, that in seceding from an obsolete and self-destructive regime, we declare our unity with one another and with all those at home and abroad who embrace a more inclusive, egalitarian, and life-affirming vision for human development. More than that, it's essential that we start to enact that vision in practice by engaging together in a pragmatic problem-solving process that our governments have abandoned in their pursuit of power for its own sake. This means grappling with problems where they occur with whatever tools come to hand and not expecting governments to fix them for us. It also means reaching across longstanding divides to those on the other side of the political spectrum with whom we may share more than we realize. In particular, we need to reach out to those in Middle America whom we have so long dismissed as "flyover" and who, sensing our contempt, dismiss us as elitists. Having grown up in the epicenter of this year's disastrous elections, in the very state and county where Bush's apparent success was "delivered" by Diebold, I know that Middle Americans are better and brighter than their voting habits would indicate. But we'll never discover that better part of them unless and until we approach them with less judgment and greater openness.
* Approach the future with confidence, knowing that we're on the right side of history. This is not the same as saying "God's on our side." If there's a God, he/she probably doesn't choose sides. But the winds of history and evolution do blow in certain directions and if we navigate skillfully we can use their natural flow to take us where we want to go. The greatest impediment to constructive cultural evolution is the fear of change, a visceral anxiety about the unknown and untried. We've all felt it at one time or another; I felt it in the form of dread on Tuesday night as I contemplated another four years of Bush II. We usually think of hope as the antidote to fear, but I've come to feel that hope is a fragile reed on which to base a long-term commitment and not a very compelling approach with which to persuade skeptics. I choose to ground my efforts instead in confidence that, if we move skillfully and forthrightly in the direction of our dreams, we can achieve more than we imagine and far more than we can with hope alone. Hope stands by the water's edge wondering if it's warm enough to jump in. Confidence jumps right in and does what it needs to do to stay afloat and get where it wants to go. Or again, hope is like standing on the edge of a thicket (say, a thicket of thorn Bushes) trying to figure out how to get through it -- and not at all sure it's possible. Confidence is envisioning yourself already on the other side, knowing you've gotten there and looking back to see what it took to get through. I choose to cultivate a fierce joy, a passionate embrace of the struggle, knowing that this is the reason why I'm here on earth and the fulfillment of my being. For all their terror, I'm grateful to live in these times and appreciate that I'm given the opportunity to address challenges of such scale and historic import. No boredom here!
* Remember that it's darkest before the dawn. Some of you may know Pete Seeger's lovely song, "Quite Early Morning." It begins:
They say it's darkest before the dawn
This thought it keeps me movin' on
If we could heed this early warning
The time is now quite early morning
Emotionally and spiritually, our darkest hours are late in the night, three to four a.m., during what some have called "The Hour of the Wolf." These are the moments when our bio-rhythms slow and we become most vulnerable to lacerating self-doubt. Tossing in bed like a dinghy in a typhoon, we are exposed to our deepest fears and anxieties. In recent years I've learned to get out of bed at times like this. I fold my legs and meditate, following my breath to bring the terrorizing tempests to ground in the steadying cycles of life. Sometimes I've sat this way till first light. It's comforting to know that these most trying moments are but a prelude to the promise of a new morning. I'm confident that what we're now living through is the break-up of an old order that no longer serves humanity or nature and the breakthrough to a new way that, though far from perfect, will be better suited to the world we will inherit. Our task is to be midwives to the emergence of this new era and to assure that its birth brings more joy than sorrow.
Mark
Mark Sommer, Executive Director
The Mainstream Media Project
Host, "A World of Possibilities"
854 9th St. Suite B
Arcata, CA 95521
PH 707-826-9111, ext. 12
FAX 707-826-9112
msommer@mainstream-media.net
www.mainstream-media.net
www.aworldofpossibilities.com
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home