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