[lbo-talk] Re: Identity Politics, Single Issues, and Solidarity

BklynMagus magcomm at ix.netcom.com
Wed Aug 9 14:28:41 PDT 2006


Dear List:

Yoshie writes:


> but getting involved in a laundry list of issues is
very time-consuming and doesn't easily give you a sense that you are connected to other people nationwide working on the same project with a vision of human liberation.

But is expecting to get this sense of connection a reasonable expectation? I remember at ACT UP -- people not only expected you to work with them, but to become their friends and have meals with them, etc., etc. I always found such expectations absurd.


> On the other hand, I have always been profoundly
dissatisfied with bearing witness. So are most Americans, I believe. More people would get involved in politics if they thought they could make a practical difference on big issues that matter to them, if they believed that they had a good chance of changing the nation.

I long ago reconciled myself to the reality that since everything I work on may not come to fruition until long after my oblivion, I cannot pin my level of satisfaction on whether I see a practical difference occurring because of my work. Also, having discovered that I am best at counselling and mentoring teenagers helped immensely with establishing this discipline, since teenagers rarely provide any feedback whatsoever.


> What we need, I think, is a critical mass of leftists getting
together and coming up with a medium-term strategy that clearly charts a path to power

But don't you find that many leftists are allergic to taking power/control?


> The path thus charted may turn out to be a wrong one, but
the process of charting that together in itself would be productive.

With the advantage that you can always change a wrong path.


> Religions of the Book, if interpreted most imaginatively in a
way that is in keeping with modernity, aren't necessarily a problem -- they can be a source of strength in a trying time.

Agreed. But there always seems to be the moment when they want you to believe as well.


> Gay marriage itself has suffered numerous political and legal
setbacks, but in the course of debates on and activism about it, more and more people -- even some on the Right -- have come out for civil union, equal right to employment, etc.

It is amazing how much good can evolve from a powerful hate.

Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister



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