> The reason why building the movement in the way Carrol says matters is that
> people will become creative and noble, not that they aren't already, when
> their circumstances and the social milieu within which they work together
> with others on a common goal demands it of them. When they feel they can no
> longer situation as it is. It's happened to me a couple of times. I've
> watched it happen. People step up to the plate when it matters and trying
> to force the situation -- and berating people for not being noble and
> risk-taking enough now -- seems pointless. It requires a level of
> judgmental bullying that I find problematic, because the people attracted
> to such moralizing, humilation inducing language too often do so because
> they're attracted in a narcissistic way. Because they want a leader to tell
> them who they are and what they ought to do. Because they too willing give
> up themselves in order to become something someone or group exhorted them
> into being. It seems to me a very weak and tenuous relationship to a social
> movement and, thus, a recipe for failure.
>
> I'm re-reading Hirschorn's The Workplace Within and a lot of the stuff he
> talks about in there can be applied -- hence the psychoanalytic language.....
>
> The examples Doug provided in response to WD are examples I think are good
> ones: the type of movement building, community education, and solidarity
> building activities that can sustain and slowly grow a movement.
I don't think we disagree about all that much. I agree that movement building takes time, and that a strong movement needs a strong social, cultural and intellectual infrastructure to survive and thrive. I also agree that it's unproductive to berate folks about their unwillingness to take risks, engage in noble bad assery, and so forth.
The thing is, if you only focus on growth and movement building, you lose sight of the entire purpose of the movement, which is action (informed by theory). You say -- without any qualification -- we don't have the numbers. But the latest WSJ poll says 26% of Americans are in favor of immediate withdrawal and a lot more are in favor of withdrawal relatively soon. Of course it would be better to have higher numbers, but don't you find those at all encouraging? Can't you do something huge and bad ass with a quarter of the population on your side? And if these numbers aren't good enough to get you to agitate for a major escalation of tactics, what numbers will be?
There's something deeply disempowering and spirit-crushing about late capitalist society, as evidenced by the popularity of things that promise people control over their lives: weight loss products, Oprah's The Secret, evangelical Christianity (you can't change the world, but you can change yourself by abstaining from _____) and so on.
My hypothesis is that people are eager for a way to wield genuine power, and that civil disobedience is one of those ways: Civil disobedience, by its nature involves a disruption in the ordinary course of life -- and isn't that what people really want? (why are disaster movies are so popular?) If we can pull off something really big (simultaneous take-overs at 50 recruiting offices in one day, having a sit-in on the floor of the state legislature building in ____, stopping a few shifts of production at X weapon manufacturing plant...) that has the potential to light a fire under people's asses (hell, smaller actions like Rosa Parks' or the Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro accomplished a lot). And I would argue that even brainstorming about potential actions can be empowering -- it reveals the gaps in social control mechanisms.
And let's not forget that the need for action is urgent _today_. My opinion is that, for the American left to become a really formidable force, we ultimately need a movement that bears a structural resemblance to the Evangelical movement: we need day care centers, summer camps, neighborhood places where people can meet, social gatherings, concerts, etc. But at best, it will take a generation to build this. But we cannot afford to wait a generation. What're we going to do in the next six months?
-WD __________________________ thevanitywebsite.blogspot.com