> Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>> On Nov 8, 2007, at 6:50 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:
>>
>> > Joanna is probably correct here, but still I think it best for
>> > political
>> > reasons always to emphasize systemic elements rather than individual
>> > criminality.
>>
>> On some level I agree with you, but most people don't get this
>> systemic stuff. They only get individual criminality. I say that from
>> more than 20 years of experience in trying to talk systemically.
>> People get bored. They want to hear about thugs and scumbags.
>>
>
> Which brings me back to my point that people are changed (a) by
> conditions which cause them to look for something to change to and (b)
> personal conversation, not books or radio broadcasts or journals. That
> is why an organizer/agitator talks only to people who already _on some
> one point_, agree with him/her. That one point can be something like
> individual criminality.
=====================================
My own view is that, like everything else, it's best seen a process. People
become active, as Carrol notes, only when their conditions require it -
almost always as participants in single-issue campaigns around specific
demands which address their immediate needs, eg. for jobs, for equal rights,
union recognition, ending a war, defence of their communities, against
foreclosures, access to land and credit, etc.
Because their activity is aimed at reform rather than overthrow of the existing system, it's invariably accompanied by criticisms of individuals - "corrupt" and "incompetent" politicians and "greedy" businessmen and bankers - who have "exploited" or "mismanaged" the system in such way as to subvert its ideals and threaten its existence.
The initial impulse is always towards reform, and it's only if and when the state appears clearly unwilling or unable to satisfy their demands, that the indictment broadens from individuals to encompass the system as a whole. I also agree with Carrol that it is direct experience in these movements which contributes most to political understanding - usually acquired from discussions and the reading material circulated within, but not, I would say, to the exclusion of a heightened interest in acquiring information from wherever else it can be obtained.