30 May 2004
The Personal is PoliticalNothing would prove more disastrous to ou® ideas, we contended, than to neglect the effect of the internal upon the external, of the psychological motives and needs upon existing institutions. (LML1,p. 402)
While working to build a new society and struggling to tear down old oppressive structures, our means become our ends. We cannot set aside our psychological issues and march to revolution. Our internal issues, our striving to be free, not only of oppressive social and political structures, but also of our own internal baggage—these are not two separate tasks. We can't postpone personal growth until after victory is one. Rather, that personal growth empowers us to create a victory with less baggage. A victory that creates liberating political and social structures, just as the process empowered our own personal liberation.
Our new society will consist of members of our struggle as well as others who have not joined us. We need a psychological revolution in order to create a revolutionary new society.
Posted by Elderbear at 4 : 30 am | Leave a note | E-Mail this entry {3}
10 March 2004
Wake Up!But the people are asleep; they remain indifferent. They forge their own chains and do the bidding of their masters to crucify their Christs.
(LML1, p. 304)
And so the great media issue about “Who Killed Christ” seems to be well answered. People indifferent to their own chains, who do the bidding of their masters, who allow the political hype to overwhelm their sleeping minds. Perhaps it was Jewish people 2000 years ago. Now it's American people, too busy watching Jerry Springer and the latest “Reality” TV shows to notice that the chains are being wound tighter and tighter.
I expect that come November, our next president will be a matter of who pulled the most invisible rabits out of virtual hats. Who had the cutest smile. Who's record gets slimed the worst.
Few will consider that the entire system is broken. That whether we get four more years of Bush or four years of Kerry, the State will continue to tighten its grip, workers will see their jobs and benefits evaporate, and the parasitic class of owners, investors, bosses will get richer while the rest of us struggle harder.
But that's a nightmare! The very idea that we must exercise our minds, consider alternatives that aren't on pre-printed ballots, is too much for most of sleeping America to grasp. It's far easier to be lulled to sleep with pat sound-bites and political fnords like "terrorism" or who served the country where and whether or not they showed up for duty or betrayed their uniform by protesting.
Wake up!
Posted by Elderbear at 6 : 24 am | Leave a note | E-Mail this entry {3}
06 March 2004
War is a Quarrel between Two ThievesEmma Goldman spoke at an anti-war (Boer War) meeting in England. The “patriots” in the audience booed and jeered at her as she took the stage.
“Your behavior tonight hardly sustains my belief in the superior culture and breeding of your country ... or is it that the fury of war has so easily destroyed what it has taken centuries to build up? If that is so, it should be enough to repudiate war. Who is there who would supinely sit by when what is best and highest in a people is being throttled before his very eyes? ...”
I concluded with the gist of Carlyle's idea of war as a quarrel between two thieves, themselves too cowardly to fight, compelling boys of one village and another into uniforms with guns in their hands and then letting them loose like ferocious beasts against each other.
The house went wild. Men and women waved their hats and shouted themselves hoarse in approval. Our resolution, a powerful protest against the war, was read by the Chair and adopted with only one dissenting voice. I bowed in the direction of the objector and said: “There is what I call a brave man who deserves our admiration. It requires great courage to stand alone, even if one is mistaken. Let us all join in hearty applause for our daring opponent.”
(LML1, p. 256,7)
Emma makes a number of important points in these few short paragraphs. War destroys the best of a civilization, not just on the battlefield, but in the hearts and minds of the citizens who succumb to war fever. The virtues of tolarance and liberal-mindedness fall by the wayside. Flag waving seems to numb the higher sensibilities of people, be they English or American. When Mr. Bush proclaims himself a “War President” he capitalizes on this, just as did Adolph Hitler. In the pseudo-patriotic insanity that sweats out of war fervor, the facts get lost in the gleaming rhetoric of national pride. Individuals give away their identities to join a mass-mind of sloganeering and hatred. To join in such a cause, while feeling empowering, is spiritually, morally, and psychologically deadly.
Emma Goldman, the peace agitator demonstrates the respect and tolerance due to other human being by applauding the dissenter. In avoiding war hysteria, the best human values are preserved. Leaders who command the mass attention with pseudo-patriotic hypnosis of their people destroy individuality and frequently the right of dissent. Rarely is the contrast between anarchism and government control seen in such relief as Emma portrays it here.
Since the real issues for which nations go to war are of little or no actual consequence to the participants, the leaders who make war are thieves. Warfare is generally an attempt to steal from another nation that which could not be extorted by diplomacy. Yet our leaders do not pay the price of this theft. Young boys pay with their life blood; families pay with funerals and bereavement. Sadam Hussein has paid little for his warmaking, whatever penalty is imposed will pale aside the destruction his forces inflicted. George W. Bush will pay even less. He dodged one war using privilege to escape the battlefield. Now he has cost the lives of over 500 Americans and countless Iraqi civilians.
Both are cowards of the worst kind, hiding their cowardice behind a facade of nationalism and fearmongering. Both lied to create a national will to go to war. Both stand condemned by their own behavior.
Posted by Elderbear at 9 : 14 pm | Leave a note | E-Mail this entry {0}
03 March 2004
Free Yourself before “Liberating” OthersAmerica had declared war with Spain.... It did not require much political wisdom to see that America's concern was a matter of sugar and had nothing to do with humanitarian feelings. Of course there were plenty of credulous people, not only in the country at large, but even in liberal ranks, who believed in America's claim. I could not join them. I was sure that no one, be it individual or government, engaged in enslaving and exploiting at home, could have the integrity or the desire to free people in other lands.
(LML1, p. 226)
Jesus once said “Remove the timber from your own eye before removing the sawdust from the eye of another.” True democracy and freedom must start at home, otherwise it cannot be exported. Liberty begins in the life of the individual, spreads to his or her family, then to the community, then to the nation. Only then does it exist to be exported to another land. Until that point, military adventures, even in the name of spreading "Democracy" degrade into imperialism and oppression, harming the target nation as well as America.
We would do well to consider the invasion of Iraq in this light, as well as our military action in Haiti.
Posted by Elderbear at 1 : 01 pm | Leave a note | E-Mail this entry {0}
01 March 2004
Killing in the name of ...Emma Goldman was speaking to a church audience and was questioned about her beliefs in free love, the existence of God, and if she was in favor of killing off all rulers. Here is a portion of her reply:
“Ladies and gentlemen,” I began, “I came here to avoid as much as possible treading on your corns. I had intended to deal only with the basic issue of economics that dictates our lives from the cradle to the grave, regardless of our religion or moral beliefs. I see now that it was a mistake. If one enters a battle, he cannot be squeamish about a few corns. Here, then are my answers: I do not believe in God, because I believe in man. Whatever his mistakes, man has for thousands of years past been working to undo the botched job your God has made.“ The house went frantic. “Blasphemy! Heretic! Sinner!” the women screamed. “Stop her! Throw her out!”
How difficult it is to address those who share a different belief system, especially when one is already notorious. Pandering the the presumed attitude of the audience is a dangerous tactic, as Al Gore proved in 2000. Emma learned the hard way that the message is delivered more directly and with fewer useless arguments, when one speaks with integrity, and doesn't try to blend in to the audience ... “Oh, we're just like you except for this economic stuff ...” will ultimately backfire. “I don't believe in God because I believe in man.” — that's a strong statement.
Because God and the Gods have been used for so many millenia as a means of controlling and exploiting the masses, Emma tossed the divine baby out with the religious bathwater. This is one of the few places where I find myself in disagreement with her. Of course, I've had the advantage of reading Oscar Romero and other Liberation Theologians, who claim that God's Chosen People are the poor and the outcast. Taking this viewpoint, makes it much easier to believe in man without throwing away the opportunity for the experience of the Beyond. (Sort of like saying: “If I can't have my mysticism, I don't want your revolution!”)
“I don't believe in God because I believe in man,” becomes more of a declaration of independence. “I'm not going to sit here twiddling my fingers while I wait for God to set things right, I believe in my fellow man, that when properly educated, when he has gained the right perspective, he will take appropriate action and join me in setting things straight.” Of course, this is what the liberationists have been saying all along. We're on our own, we need orthopraxis to face the oppression of our people. I would say that Emma misses the opportunity to see the face of God incarnate in a comunity of people working together for liberation.
Yet, when she came under fire, she rediscovered her courage and spoke plainly. She took a stand of integrity, and her message remains, her name remains today. Nobody remembers who those screaming masses were.
When order was restored, I continued: “As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian tsar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as an American president, it is hardly worth the effort. There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry — the most sinister and tyranicall rulers on earth....
(LML1, p. 207.)
I don't agree with killing the Tsar. Another ruler would take his place, a few dissidents would have been shot, and it would have been business as usual. As the Russian Revolution proved, our means become our ends. Therefore we must hold our processes of liberation to a higher standard than the behavior of our oppressors.
But in order to liberate, to be liberated, to self-liberate, three enemies must be struck down: Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry. So often, one or more of these three convinces us not to hear something new and take it in. So often our socialized comfort with the status quo keeps us deliberately ignorant, superstitiously voting for the opponent of our least favorite candidate, and allowing our bigotry to keep us standing idly by while the Government passes mandatory minimum sentencing legislation, while we avoid those fighting different aspects of repression than we do.Posted by Elderbear at 7 : 43 am | Leave a note | E-Mail this entry {3}
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