The September focus of the Great Transition Network forum is an essay by Guy Standing, “The Precariat: Today's Transformative Class?”  Standing’s essay and the comments on the forum address an important issue: economic insecurity. Unfortunately, with one exception, those comments echo Standing’s economic determinism. They neglect the need for personal, social, and cultural transformation that could proceed prior to and concurrent with economic transformation.  

Standing’s proposed solution is to impose taxes on profits from the use of common resources --”natural, social, civil, cultural, and intellectual” -- and use that revenue to guarantee everyone a basic income. He argues that approach “would enhance personal and ‘republican’ freedom..., provide [insecure workers] with basic security, and strengthen social solidarity.”

Economic security is essential. But toward what end?

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Racism -- the belief that a particular race is inherently superior -- is thoroughly interwoven into our social system. It’s a prime example of how the System nurtures domination and submission. Undoing racism and transforming America will require multi-dimensional personal change as well as social, cultural, and political change.

That work needs to be careful and compassionate. Some change efforts backfire. Clarity about “race,” racism, and systemic racism can help.

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Most Americans would like to be less judgmental and more compassionate. They’d like to love their “enemies.” They want to engage with others as equals. They know that trying to relieve suffering can be rewarding. When they think deeply about it, Americans realize:

The individual and the community are interwoven. What affects one individual affects every individual.

What serves the individual serves the community, and what serves the community serves the individual.

The Earth is a spaceship and yes, all humanity is in this together.

There’s no irreconcilable conflict between self-interest and community-interest, though there’s often a tension.

Building an effective compassionate, transformative movement will require activists to liberate those innate instincts. As James Baldwin said, “The things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”

For various reasons, however, most people are not committed to ongoing self-improvement. Instead, they reflect one or more of the following characteristics…..

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Two recent columns in the Times echoed each other on a key aspect of our condition and Trump’s role in it. “The Devil in Steve Bannon” by Frank Bruni features an interview with Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris about his new movie, “American Dharma.” Bruni describes the film as “essentially one long, transfixing interview with B:annon.” Morris tells Bruni:

The question is: How resilient is our democracy? Was de Tocqueville right that we would just disappear into silos of self-congratulation and self-interest, or can we hope for something better?

The second column is “How Far America Has Fallen” by Roger Cohen. It concludes:

Trump was a symptom, not a cause. The problem is way deeper than him.

For William Steding, a diplomatic historian living in Colorado, American individualism has morphed into narcissism, perfectibility into entitlement, and exceptionalism into hubris. Out of that, and more, came the insidious malignancy of Trump. It will not be extirpated overnight.

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The August 13 “The Daily” podcast from The New York Times, “A Year of Reckoning in Charlottesville,” was disturbing. Though anti-racist protestors now hold most positions of power, including the Mayor’s office, it seems in Charlottesville “the left is eating itself.”

Wanting to find some alternative analysis of Charlottesville one year later, I googled the issue and found very little. But I did find a substantial July 21 Times article,  “Year After White Nationalist Rally, Charlottesville Is in Tug of War Over Its Soul.” That article includes:….

All that indicates the need for new strategies. Fortunately, an August 15 article, “‘Let Us Have a Childhood’: On the Road With the Parkland Activists,” illustrates an alternative…..

The wisdom of that strategy is reinforced by “The High Table Liberal,” a review by Sean Wilentz of a new biography of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., …

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A Brain Pickings essay about Pema Chodron prompted me to shift my self-image. Some elements in Maria Popova’s post, “When Things Fall Apart,” that hit me hard include:

• Use fear to dismantle old ways of thinking.

• Don’t hold on to arrogant ideas.

• Face unsettlement with openness to possibility.

• Get the knack of catching yourself.

• We can be with what’s happening and not dissociate.

• Awakeness is found in pleasure and pain.

• Let concepts and ideals fall apart.

• Loneliness, fear, and feeling misunderstood and rejected is the heartbeat of all things.

• When we feel ready to give up, healing can be found in the tenderness of pain itself.

• Only through self-compassion to our own darkness can we offer light to others.

Those affirmations led me to deepen my commitment to drop my 50-year-old identity as a community organizer.,,,

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Personal,
Social,
Cultural,
Political,
Global
Transformation.
The overwhelming majority of people
In most nations
United,
Grounded in compassion,
Loving themselves as they love others,
Avoiding both self-sacrifice and selfishness,
Treating others as they want to be treated,
Setting aside destructive instincts,
Liberating their higher angels,
Realizing their nation’s highest ideals,
Helping to transform their nation
Into a compassionate community
Dedicated to the common good of
All humanity,
Their own people,
The environment,
And life itself --

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The most popular topic recently on the Great Transitions Network forum was “How Do We Get There? The Problem of Action.” In their 45 comments, the contributors made many points that grabbed me, sharpened my thinking, or introduced me to new ideas about how to advance global transformation. Some of the comments with which I agree are posted here.

However, the forum disregarded the emotional world. Words such as “feelings” and “emotions” were rarely used. Merely influencing thinking is insufficient. Feelings shape ideas. Progressive activists need to learn how to connect on deep emotional levels.

More specifically, from my perspective, the discussion was weak with regard to open-ended mutual support for personal transformation.. As Asoka Bandarage has said, "Transformation of the self and the society are inseparable.”

There were some exceptions to that neglect of emotions….

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…I found the following statements in the lead essay to be particularly compelling:

• Nuclear weapons, unique in their power and capacity for destruction, pose an existential threat to humanity.

• ...celebrating technological achievement, serves to keep the nuclear arms race alive.

• The only way to change direction is to build a strong popular movement,...

• The nuclear abolition movement must join with other movements seeking systemic global change…,

• Change ultimately begins with individuals.

Seeking a movement focused on nurturing the Beloved Community and believing "transformation of the self and the society are inseparable," as Asoka Bandarage put it (see “A Holistic Masterpiece”), I submitted the following comment to the Great Transitions forum.

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Positive words benefit the brain. As reported by Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Waldman,” thinking, hearing, speaking, and reading positive messages lowers stress and helps people respond quickly, deal with problems, live longer, develop satisfying relationships, be flexible, and become more caring.

An intuitive awareness of those recent scientific discoveries may have contributed to these historical events.

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The word civil has many meanings. Trump critics who recommend civility don’t counsel patience, deny righteous anger, or oppose all disruption. To say they do is to attack a straw man.

But they do reject demonizing. One synonym for civility is respect. That’s what they mean. They recommend respecting opponents’ essential humanity.

Critics of civility who call on the moral authority of Dr. King usually do so selectively, while neglecting key elements of his philosophy. According to the King Center:

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Americans are self-centered and fragmented. Until an overwhelming majority of Americans commit to the common good, unite, and stay united, we face a terrible future.

What’s in it for me. You can be whatever you want to be. Someone must always be in charge. Winning is everything. My people, we have the answer. Those are key beliefs in the American credo.

Until Americans set aside those beliefs, drop their abstract ideologies, and push for concrete improvements in unison, we face a terrible future.

Change agents must change themselves as well as the world. If we learn to avoid divisive behaviors, we’ll be able to transform this nation into a compassionate community dedicated to the common good of all humanity, ourselves, the environment, and life itself.

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…

Change Myself, Change the World:
A Commitment
(Draft)

I commit to:

• Pay attention to, control, and strive to change thoughts and feelings that can lead to oppressive or counterproductive behavior.  

• Acknowledge my mistakes and resolve to avoid them in the future.

• Become a better human being.

• Talk about my efforts with close friends and listen to them talk about their efforts.

• Support the development of social structures that nurture personal and community empowerment.

• Help transform my nation into a compassionate community dedicated to the common good of all humanity, our own people, the environment, and life itself.

• Help improve my nation’s public policies….

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…A recent essay by Stanley Fish, “‘Transparency’ Is the Mother of Fake News,” is a critique of the claim that the unfettered, free flow of information on the Internet will benefit society. Fish’s argument applies to other realms as well, such as education, personal growth, creativity, and spirituality. …

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A systemic worldview exposes root causes, clarifies how issues are interconnected, avoids divisive scapegoating, and affirms that the primary problem is the self-perpetuating system, not particular individuals. While acknowledging individual responsibility for reinforcing the system, systems thinking cultivates humility, respect, and mutual understanding.

A holistic approach encourages the development of communities whose members support one another in their efforts to both become better human beings and help transform the system. It acknowledges that the subjective world changes the objective world and the objective world changes the subjective world. It encourages us to integrate personal, social, cultural, and political growth. By overcoming counter-productive thoughts and feelings, we become more effective.  

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Personal, social, cultural, and political changes headed in the same direction are contributing to social transformation. Self-empowerment, community support, cultural shifts, and political action are reinforcing each other. No one predicted legislatures would adopt gay marriage so quickly, the Florida legislature would pass a gun control bill, or the West Virginia teachers would win their strike. Evolutionary revolution is underway.

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