[Dialogue] Minneapolis 50th Gathering & Bend History #2

[James Wiegel]

There is an old magazine ad for Dewar's Scotch.  Shows two salmon fishermen in a boat, backlit with the first rays of the morning sun, made golden as it filtered through trees on the bank and mist on the water.  The caption:  "Why would men rise before dawn to fish for salmon on Scotland's River Tweed?  Why indeed?  The good things in life stay that way."

The Fifth City model, the neighborhood experiment was a prototype innovation, launched by the Ecumenical Institute in response to mid twentieth century conditions.  Clint Eastwood said, "The old dreams were good dreams.  They didn't work out, but I am glad I had them."

Jim Wiegel
Jfwiegel at yahoo.com

“One cannot live in the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” – Carl Jung

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On Jun 15, 2012, at 12:29, steve har <stevehar11201 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Minneapolis 50th Celebration is taking up Bending History #2 this Saturday.
> 
> Editor John Epps recommended JWM's 5th City Testimony in 1968
> 
> He said a Sacramento group had a really lively study of the paper.
> 
> [Hello Sacramento -go global please and share your notes!]
> 
> When I read the 22 paragraphs I was trying to figure out how to
> distinguish 20th C "dust" from 21st C gems - what's available for no
> longer/not yet creation
> 
> To say it more simply is there anything that remains REVOLUTIONARY in
> JWM's testimony.
> 
> You're welcome to your own views of course, my notes for the future are below.
> 
> You can -for a day or 2 read the text here but BUY THE BOOK
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aYxp0CgFUM1k7dWnB_i9Pv_4KnVn-Ys2Apt5Lp7l-1Q/edit
> 
> As I re-read my notes, I'm looking for MORE revolutionary, that handle
> Arab spring and 1% 99%. I don't think detachment is going to do much.
> Engaging might.
> 
> See anything revolutionary?
> What?
> --
> Steve Harrington
> 
> Provocative Propositions for the next 50 years:
> 1 world's struggle to create a new social vehicle demanded by the
> scientific, secular and urban revolutions that define our age
> 
> 2 Chicago's West Side  three foundational problems image of
> self-depreciation inflicted upon the psyche; and the absence of local
> social structures human benefits which the modern world. People are
> deprived of any real means of participating in the decision-making
> processes
> 
> 3 The primordial problem in the city is psychological or internal
> Every person and every people operate out of a primordial self-image.
> Practical action results from that image
> 
> 4 The super city complex has destroyed older forms of local
> corporateness within its boundaries. Because suburbia still has such
> structures and the accompanying power it drains off the means of the
> good life that society at large creates.
> 
> 5 This means that people have no sense of doing anything that will
> make any difference. This refers of course to arrangement of voting
> districts, to entrenched political machinery, to the power of crime
> combines -- all of which disenfranchise in a fashion city people. The
> state of powerlessness is.
> 
> 6 We deal with people whose future is cut off and no amount of counter
> force -- which intensifies hopelessness -- can long secure them.
> 
> 7 sophisticated benevolence, never penetrating to the real issues.
> 
> 8 Chicago has developed a model of comprehensive community
> reformulation in Chicago's West Side.
> 
> 9 Comprehensive reformulation begins with a carefully defined area,
> set apart by clear boundaries. This reduces the sense of chaos created
> by the seeming impossibility of the task. Geography curtails
> dissipation and duplication of effort. Geography makes possible a
> clearer picture of the maze of problems that paralyze the citizens.
> Unless the imagination of citizen is refurbished, nothing else can
> lastingly be altered for the black disadvantaged of the central city.
> 
> 10 Piece-meal approaches never get at the real issues and cannot
> create the needed morale for action. Indeed they tend to cultivate the
> victim image.
> 
> 11 the postures of the various age groups radically influence each
> other. If the elders are neglected they will unintentionally
> communicate their images of submissiveness to the young.
> 
> 12 In creating a community large or small, a sense of commonness in
> mission must be created. Corporateness relative to task define
> community. and this is mediated through living symbols. These include
> songs, festivals from the geographical area
> 
> 13 a practical solution must be reiterated frequently:
> "comprehensiveness" has both scope and depth and timeliness. For
> example, the first four-year experimental phase has both impact and
> penetration ensuing in an awakening and commitment of a core of the
> citizenry and they establish imaginal education forms, the social
> constructs, and the community organization.
> 
> 14 imaginal education is the beginning. It is the crucial problem of
> local communities. Imaginal education  involves first of all,
> de¬programming passive, disengaged, victim conversations for no
> possibility
> 
> 15 Replacing victimology means that individuals and communities become
> proud of  and engaged in a  conversation for possibility in a new
> works of possibility.
> 
> 16 imaginal education begins early in the crib and much later with
> senior citizens, with people beginning careers, with established
> adults and the cultural images that surround them.
> 
> 17 Creating a new grassroots social contract means learning to handle
> hundreds of surface problem areas and organizng into 5 shared social
> processes of: economic, political, education, arts life style
> practices.
> 
> 18 A shared  grass roots social contract can yarn bring into being a
> web of local initiatives to deal with self-identified identified
> problems
> 
> 19 A shared grassroots social contract brings community organization
> and structural access  give to do something about unmet local needs-
> for example local health care access.
> 
> 20 Developing community is  the creative thrust of the city and
> impacts the total social vehicle. It is the force of social change
> operating from within the ordinary patterns of society that become
> extraordinary.
> 
> 21  "Iron Men,"to use a specific community image that became a symbol
> and a statue in 5th City community, Chicago are local, often not very
> visible community leaders know the neighborhood and who disseminate
> crucial information about social and individual needs which are often
> by means of a simple online community webpage -- made available to the
> Guilds of the community for proper action
> 
> 22 Over time an 'invisible collage" of neighbors  grows. People sense
> after what it means to participate in a new social contract and  the
> decisions and action that influence the destiny of their community.
> There is a living conversation for possibility in many local
> communities and diverse cultural expression.
> 
> 23 There is a living on-going sense of positive accomplishment and
> active participation in living history.
> 
> 24 community reformulation is in our opinion the only strategy for
> dealing with the tragedy and the promise  of local communities in
> cities everywhere.
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