procrastinate more!
I agree that this is a problem--at the outset of the Bush/Cheney Iraq adventure, I sensed that the old style of protesting just didn't matter. "Fuck the people!" is more the order of the day when millions of protesters are dismissed as a focus group. They altered the script so that large-scale public actions are viewed as a relic of the Sixties, evidence that the Democrats' day is over.
IMO, change is more likely to be effected now by conversation in more private spheres in addition to affinity group organization and linking for less visible action, e.g. finding common cause and working together to upset the headlock the Repubs have us in. Also, I can't underrate the responsibility of the individual to do some deep navel gazing and make changes in his/her actual life so that it reflects what s/he values. We have to truly know that we are more than what we buy, worth more than what we earn. Consciousness is a force, and so far that has been dismissed as an arena for action. That's a mistake.
Working-class identity is anachronistic in this new paradigm. It's more like, "You're either with the corporation, or you're with the dispossessed!" Lower- and middle class folks, the elderly, the religious and racial minorities, the queers, military grunts, and the chronically underemployed have more in common than not. Too bad we're scratching each other's eyes out instead of looking for ways to activley protect each other.
Right -- maybe "working-class" is not the right word. When I mentioned the ISO's big tent I meant that they consider me to be in the same class as a homeless person -- ie anyone who is not part of the ruling class, which they think of as a very small bunch. "The dispossessed" has a nice ring to it, but I'm not sure I'd qualify, being a homeowner (even in a very small way!). Perhaps "the voiceless."
But I'm not so sure about the idea of affinity group organizing. I mean, on the one hand I find it very appealing and very effective. But I am never going to have a personal conversation with anyone who thinks George Bush is taking us in the right direction unless I go out of my way -- WAY out of my way -- to do it.
And as far as consciousness is concerned, this worries me a little. It sounds altogether too much like the direction The Movement took after the end of the 60s -- which was (to my mind) excessively inward-looking. It might not be too big a step from there to exactly the kind of worrisome self-congratulatoriness that I'm afraid of.
My Thai friends would disagree, however, and tell me I'm too Western, too impatient for outcomes...
Consciousness is only self-absorbed if you don't act on what you learn. It's not an excuse to hang out at the ashram and listen to windchimes. It's more of a "put your own house in order" ethic, in my mind. One of the reasons I own a house is because I realized it was important for me to be attached to some place in order to make it better.
When I think of affinity groups, I mean people who have a common interest. An example would be pro-choice Republican women who are campaigning for Kerry in Arizona! I would talk to them. And if you had a freeper in your family, like I do, you would HAVE to talk to someone who loves the Chimp.
My point is just that the old ways are not working--marching in the streets, etc. Time to take a new approach to changing the dynamic, and to quit assessing the old actions by the new measuring stick.
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