[Dialogue] The Transestablishment Stance

[Terry Bergdall]

Good question, Carleton. These are easy days for falling into despair which
is what I often do. Beyond the “transestablishment” image. in my more
positive moments, I also totally believe that an indirect focus on culture,
rathere than direct efforts on the political or economic, still makes total
sense. So how is it to be done? That’s the rub, of course.

I personally have found inspiration in Margaret Wheatly who, I discovered,
has had her own bouts with serious despair. She said she used to think it
was a matter of enabling people to see the wisom in objective scientific
data, especially in regards to climate change. Then she realized that
people simply put on their blinders and deny it. She says such stubborn
clinging to that which is passing away means we find ourselves living in a
“sea of insanity.” Rather that beating our head against rocks trying to
convince others to correctly read the signs of our times, she suggests that
the job of awakened people (that might be my words not hers) is to create
“islands of sanity” within that dominant “sea of insanity.” This is what
give me courage to continue with my personal investment through time,
energy, talents, and financial resources, etc., in endeavors like Acclerate
77 and its heir, the Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network, and the
transformation of an old broken-down building, which marks its centennial
in 2021, into the GreenRise Learning Laboratory, i.e., a demonstration.
Local action has never been more urgently required than now.

For what it’s worth, that's the story and active engagement that keeps me
going.

Terry

On Thu, May 30, 2019 at 12:31 PM Carleton Stock via Dialogue <
dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

> I have been thinking a lot about this lately, especially with The Donald
> in the White House and Congress in dysfunctional mode.  We know how to be
> the establishment dimension by supporting the status quo and we know how
> to be the disestablishment dimension by being critical of the
> establishment.  Those of us on the Left do a lot of shouting at screens
> these days.....anger and frustration with the way things are going in the
> government.  Personally, I have been more engaged in politics since
> November 2016 than I ever was, sometimes jumping into the mud pit to take
> on the other side.  But what about the third dimension, the
> trans-establishment, that we talked so much about in the Institute over the
> past 50 or 60 years?!  That was the correct stance we said.  But what does
> it mean to be trans-establishment in the Trump Era when things we love and
> care about are being dismantled?  I didn't worry too much during the Reagan
> or Bush years though they were conservative Republicans.  We knew this too
> would pass, hopefully after the next election.  But during the Trump years
> I worry about lots of things, not the least of which is the survival of
> democracy, the survival of life on the planet, White Supremacists in
> power, human rights for minorities and people of color, women,
> unconventional life-styles, etc.  The list goes on and on but you get my
> point.
>
> Is the trans-establishment stance still viable in these times and if so,
> what's it mean to live it out as a Movement Network and in individual
> families and in faith communities and other groups?
>
> Any wisdom on this matter would be much appreciated.
> Carleton Stock
> St. Louis, MO
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