>Jenny Brown wrote:
>
>
> > She was defending the SCHIP program against Bush's veto but the
> > appeal was entirely for "the
> >children," playing on the idea of children being innocent, deserving
> >etc. blah blah.
> >Why did she not throw in somewhere that this SCHIP things is a horrible
> >half-measure and what we really need is national health care?
>
>
>
>Mandatory public-momism. That's what this is called in "Avoiding
>Politics" a book by Nina Eliasoph that came out a few years
>ago. Bitch probably knows this one. I think I heard about it from
>her to begin with.
>
>
> >To test her theories, Eliasoph participated in three different types of
> >groups in the atomized suburbs of the San Francisco Bay area: Political
> >activists, "volunteers," and a country-western dance club.
> >In her book, she shows how activists avoid analytical, idealistic, political
> >talk in public settings * even in their own meetings.
> >The political group Eliasoph studied opposed construction of a toxic waste
> >incinerator, and came to be knowledgeable about the military's role in
> >toxics production, the place of profit in incinerator construction, and the
> >stonewalling of government officials. And yet they were always afraid that
> >such discussion in their meetings * as opposed to during a poster-making
> >session or over breakfast * was "going off on a tangent." They would even
> >apologize for bringing up such topics.
> >When it came to speaking at a rally or to the press, their statements of
> >concern focused on property values, amorphous fear, or what Eliasoph calls
> >"mandatory public Momism."
> >The discourse would often shift the very moment reporters turned on their
> >cameras, and shift back again the moment cameras went off. One older woman,
> >an activist since the civil rights movement, always dumbed down her response
> >to reporters: "She's a new mom and I'm an old mom. That's why we're in it.
> >We're worried."
>
>http://www.metrotimes.com/19/42/Reviews/culWho.html
>
Never heard of it, but it's on my reading list. It confirms my own research on "political talk" among activists and I'd expect that it is also buttressed by the work of Robert Bellah et al. in Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.
what's interesting about this excerpt is that my own research was on political organizing in response to the siting of a radioactive waste dump in two communities and, later, the antiwar movement during GWI. Even more interesting was the fact that we'd organizing "town hall" meetings that were aired by a local ABC affiliate, so I observed how they behaved (and thought about politics) both on and off camera. Interesting that there is so much in common.
Thanks for the heads up.
bl
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