Here’s an exercise in spiritual development and self control for yz.
Step one: Watch the movie Stolen Childhoods, from Galen Films, about child (i.e. slave) labor around the world. If you can’t watch the film you can just look at some still photos from it.
Step two: Watch the movie Rescuing Emmanuel (also from Galen Films) about the world’s one hundred million “street children”. (See stills & trailer at the site.)
Step three: Read The Big Takeover in Rolling Stone, about the (Bush/Obama facilitated) complete handover of wealth and power in the USA to the plutocrats.
Step four: Practice trying to not go insane with impotent rage.
If you dont’ burst an artery or go mad, you may reach some kind of satori. (I don’t know, myself. I’m still kind of dealing with the unenlightened insane fury.)
Below the fold: Ragtime guitarist, genius songwriter, zen master the (late) Reverend Gary Davis (whom I once saw perform in a tiny chapel just a few months before he died, thank you Jesus) lays out in song our predicament.
Lyrics below. I’ll leave it to you to go out and purchase a recording of it, which, if you’ve never heard Gary Davis perform it, you’re much the poorer for it, trust me on this one.
Samson And Delilah:
If I had my way
If I had my way
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
Well Delilah, she was a woman fine and fair
She had good looks, God knows, and coal black hair
Delilah, she came to Samson’s mind
The first he saw this woman that looked so fine
Delilah, she set down on Samson’s knee
Said ‘tell me where your strength lies, if you please’
She spoke so kind, God knows, she talked so fair
’til Samson said “Delilah, you can cut off my hair.
You can shave my head, clean as my hand
And my strength ‘come as natural as any a man.”
If I had my way
If I had my way
In this wicked world
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
[Talk, Yeah
Yeah, Talk to me
Yeah, Yeah, talk to me
Yeah, what happened then?]
If I had my way
If I had my way
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
Yeah you read about old Samson, told from his birth
He was the strongest man that ever had lived on Earth
So one day while Samson was a-walkin’ along
He looked on the ground and he saw an old jawbone.
He stretched out his arm, God knows, swung that jawbone
’round his head
When he got to movin’
There was ten-thousand people dead.
If I had my way
If I had my way in this wicked world
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
Well old Samson and the lion got attacked
Samson he jumped up on the lion’s back
So you read about this lion had killed a man with his paws
But Samson got his hand in the lion’s jaws
He rid that beast until he killed him dead
And the bees made honey in the lion’s head
Good God!
If I had my way
If I had my way
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
If I had my way
If I had my way in this wicked world
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
I know that this is a lefty blog and all and one is not supposed to even think such things, much less say them, but is there anybody here besides me that thinks Obama is looking very Delilah-ish these days?
Well, I need to disagree. First, it is important to note that he is moving fairly rapidly on a number of issues, such as closing Guantanamo and blocking mountain clearing.
Second, I generally agree with David Sirota at OpenLeft that we need a “make him do it” dynamic. http://www.openleft.com/sho… This means that I see the job of the progressive movement (such as it is) to continue to advance the banner of pragmatic (in the good way of grounded in real economics and reality) change for economic justice. Whether Obama is “really” progressive or not is irrelevant, because it is we who must drive the political agenda and create the environment in which moving in our direction is the politically rational decision.
Which means I do not frame this in terms of Obama any more than I framed things around Bush or around Kevin Martin. It is not about personalities or electing a savior. It is about civic engagement. And on that score, I give Obama high marks for helping raise up a generation of people willing to engage in the process. Yes, the Obama people expect to channel that to their political advantage. But the tools of genuine engagement they foster serve the more important overall purpose of restoring us to a nation of citizens from a nation of couch potatoes and zombie minions.
Harold,
Thanks.
I don’t think we’re far apart at all. Lord knows Obama is the most favorable political development in a long time. Had he not been elected, I would not bet taking bets on the long term survival of life on Earth, so he’s certainly better than any alternative available during the last election cycle.
I’m all about “making him do it”, and an essential first step in that process is removing from his head the halo that lots and lots of people see there.
Here on Martha’s Vineyard there are people who really are Obamabot zombies. To them, it seems to me, he’s more than a president or political leader, he’s The Promised One or something. These people, who would probably consider themselves progressives, are now an impediment to forward action, because they are letting themselves be bamboozled by Obama & Geitner, who, in terms of straightening out the financial mess & creating the infrastructure for economic justice, are indistinguishable from Bush & Paulsen — however better they may be on other issues.
Hey, I have no regrets about voting (in the general election) for Obama (I did not vote for him in the primary). He was the best candidate, by a mile.
But I’m deeply deeply disapointed in his approach to the treasury, the TARP, AIC and that whole mess. He’s the president, and he’s accountable.
A friend send a link to this apropos comic:
http://incontemptcomics.com…
Harold. It is one thing to say Guantanamo is closed and quite another that is for all practical purposes still open for business.
“Whether Obama is “really” progressive or not is irrelevant, because it is we who must drive the political agenda and create the environment in which moving in our direction is the politically rational decision.”
Here is the question of the day for you. If the American populace having seen the effects of progressivism rejects it. Are the likes of you and your followers willing to stand down?
For it you are not then your soul is not of a democratic bent.
My soul is of the Democratic bent that says it is my responsibility to engage with my fellow citizens and debate this in the body politic. One of two things will happen. Either the policies I advocate will be adopted, in which case we will see how they play out, or they will not, in which case I will continue to try to persuade folks.
I do not expect my opposite numbers to close up shop, although I rather hope they spend some time considering whether their policies really played out as they expected. They believe they have the right philosophy and approach. It is their privilege and their responsibility to engage on these in issues in a serious way, pointing to the evidence and arguments they believe supports their positions. Heck, sometimes, they even make a good argument. 🙂
Your question appears to stem from an idea that “democracy” is a one-time event where people do the functional equivalent of vote to throw someone off the island. But our democratic system is dependent on citizens taking an active interest in civic affairs, talking about it with each other, and reaching a functioning consensus in the political process.
As for followers — if I have any, they sound an awful lot like crickets. Every morning I wake up and wave to my loyal minions, the cats look up, yawn, and stretch. I like to pretend they’re bowing, but they usually spoil the effect by insisting I feed them and clean out the litter box.