Words to Keep in Mind

Dissident political organizing must take into account the fact that contemporary America is deeply delusional. Our collective life is shaped by a propaganda-driven political system that ignores and evades. Political leaders -- from the reactionary right of the Republican Party to the liberal left of the Democratic Party -- are not interested in creating new systems to face these challenges but instead are mired in trivial debates about how to duct-tape together the existing social, economic, and political systems to allow us to live in our delusions a bit longer.

In addition to critiquing the delusions of the dominant culture, we dissidents have to make sure we don’t absorb those same delusions. We have to be honest not only about the promise of social movements but their limits. My fear is that many -- maybe even most -- people who identify with progressive/left/radical politics are in denial about the depth of the crises and, therefore, prone to misjudge the potential of traditional social movements. Those of us who define ourselves by our commitment to social justice and ecological sustainability -- those who want to make the world a better place -- have to be careful to avoid delusions of our own. Here’s how this often plays out:

A dissident speaker offers a critique of some aspect of the dominant culture’s political, economic, or social systems. The task of taking on those systems seems overwhelming, and someone in the audience asks, “Is there any hope that we can change things?” The speaker acknowledges the difficulty of the task, but points out that social movements in the past have faced great challenges, lost many battles along the way, and persevered to make the world a better place. In the United States, the speaker often cites the civil rights movement as an example: Courageous people organizing over centuries to challenge the deeply entrenched white supremacy that defined the country, ending first slavery and then formal American apartheid. The speaker reminds the audience that the work of popular movements remains incomplete and that we owe it to generations past and future -- and to ourselves -- to press on.

I’m familiar with that exchange because I’ve both been in those audiences and also been the speaker offering that analysis. It’s an honest response -- historically accurate and morally defensible -- but these days I’m less comfortable with that stock answer. Yes, we must remember the promise of social movements, inspired by past successes. But we also need to be clear about their limits in the present and future.
~ from The Power – and Limits – of Social Movements by Robert Jensen ~

I certainly understand what this author is getting at. For a period of 15 years or so, I was very involved in peace, human rights and environmental activism as well as third party politics. I was often accused by some of being too skeptical or cynical simply because I was trying to look at the socio-political landscape as it is, not at how many wanted it to look.

If we look at the current lay of the land, things look really darn bleak! In my mind's eye, that isn't a pessimistic view -- it's based on reality.

We are despoiling our planet at breakneck speed. War dominates vast swaths of territory. Gross economic inequality is rampant and grows worse by the day. Social programs in this country and many others are being slashed to the bone. Average people are growing restless and, in some cases, violent. And the shock doctors of disaster capitalism are generating crises the world over in order to suck the very marrow out of the lifeblood of most of humanity.

The cards are stacked against those of us who envision a different kind of world. Whatever resistance we are able to muster, the odds are that we will lose and our losses will be painful.

This is not an excuse to remain on the sidelines and do nothing.

It is not an excuse only to go-through-the-motions of advocating progressive change.

It is not an excuse to accept defeat.

It simply is the way things are.

We must fight on, nonetheless.