June 2012 - Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

Hack job.
by R Williams 08 Jun '12

08 Jun '12

Just wanted to let everyone know my email has been hacked. I will never send anything with (no subject) in the subject line. Sorry for the inconvenience. "Listen to what is emerging from yourself to the course of being in the world; not to be supported by it, but to bring it to reality as it desires." -Martin Buber (adapted)

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(no subject)
by R Williams 08 Jun '12

08 Jun '12

http://mamendiazalersi.com/wp-content/themes/thecoy/myinfo.php?string207.jp…

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(no subject)
by R Williams 08 Jun '12

08 Jun '12

http://dingding.biz/wp-content/themes/garland-revisited/work.php?touch207.p…

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Visionary Organizing (Bill Parker)
by steve har 08 Jun '12

08 Jun '12

Regarding Visionary Organizing Randy Williams found an equally interesting piece here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SjhNrNX34Ctl9EcWuafNN4W1oDIYlnL0PT0qm2Z… 1st 2 sentences "Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible. This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future". There is a related point not either/or either onsite or online but onsite<--->online. Doing a program in one little corner of the universe without sharing it is just plain parochial or worse a little bit stingy. Here is an example of local<->global sharing where someone picks up on ICA's work with participatory methods on the West Side of Chicago and contrasts it with Saul Alinsky's organizing. http://the99percent.com/articles/7175/99-Conference-2012-Key-Takeaways-On-M…. Seem's like it might be a useful public reference point for the Accelerate 77 Neighborhoods Program sponsored by ICA-USA this summer. Really interesting exchange Harper & Parker. Hope you guys aren't so busy that there is no space or imagination to share stories and pictures. -- Steve Harrington

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Any one out there . . .
by Lee Early 07 Jun '12

07 Jun '12

. . . have a copy of Daj Hammarskjold's poem from "Markings" on not giving up? Lee

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Re: [Dialogue] Go Gordon!
by David Walters 07 Jun '12

07 Jun '12

Two quations: 1. Can Gordon or some one tell more about the commotion Gordon caused at the ToP meeting. Any video available. 2. What does a 69 year old fart look like? -David Walters --- stevehar11201(a)gmail.com wrote: From: steve har <stevehar11201(a)gmail.com> To: dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net Subject: [Dialogue] Go Gordon! Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2012 12:25:35 -0500 What a mensch Gordon is! Still practicing being in the game being a social pioneer even with -- gasp 20 somethings. Shades of HR Neibhur addressing the needs of the times. Still willing to have integrity Integrity. Yes, that Joe Mathews Invention. My personal working definition: what you say is what you do; what you do is what you say, except when it isn't and then I get to clean up the mess, --- 100% free, a100% responsible. Gordon It must be exhilarating being with 20 somethings engaged, fearless. Tell us a STORY! Better yet make a YouTube or a VoiceThread.com, 21st C style. Make the local story sing a global song. By the Way...Ellie Stock is working on an Internet story about Dreaming the Dreamer and it isn't going to live in an email or a text thread. For me, is exhilarating being with 20 somethings on my Stanford University Project Team. They are all about engagement not detachment. On my team are all about making something happen -- not having a bigger better gestalt or a better plan. They are fearless. They are making a software product they don't do "Rusty" they do Jane style we're in this together making something happen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDDO3ob-4ZY They respect this 69 year old fart when I row the boat as well as they do and when I get tasks done like everyone else. Sometimes they ask me to "navigate" from experience, but they sure don't want some one to "facilitate" from the sidelines, they want someone fully engaged in the task at hand. Here is a piece of their work: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yNi_WmF_qNddSLulOxc1yOYXUeBR72n02wi… Re-reading Jon & Maureens book -the 9 Disciplines of a Facilitator Ch 12 - this morning they say [paraphrasing] If awareness is is about understanding, action is about accomplishing [there are] three issues facing facilitative leaders They all have to do with effective action: -intent [which has do do with changing not planning], -implementation, -impact Re Lee's Dag quote: If you get past the nostalgia and the romantic/poetic words, what you see is a guy who is fully engaged and taking the risks he chooses to take [and in conversation with himself about it]. One time in NYC I met Kofi Annan on his very last day as Secretary-General of the United Nations at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Another guy with an intact value system who chooses to navigate in unsettled waters. Still in the game, long since retired. Thank-you Gordon for your leadership example, for being a guide, a navigator. Hunting for some stories of women navigators - not people of the peanut gallery but people who have an intact value system and lead in un-chartered waters. like the navigators in the Marshall Islands who used to navigate with stick charts and according to Wiegel bounced the babies on their knees and sang songs, teaching the young ones the sound of the wind and the waves. Grace Lee Boggs is a heavy hitter. Wish I could hear a 1st hand story of someone I know. Someone out there like Gordon. If you look at Kaze Gadway, she is hanging out with young-ones too. She might be achieving "universal grandmother status" Anyone know any other female navigators, any other female guides like Kaze? It would be powerful to develop some new leadership examples beyond the stale ones that get shared over and over again. We should do this kind of work now with and for 20 somethings -- and stop trying to amuse ourselves with one more client, just one more consulting contract, just one more set of custom workshop procedures from an unnamed but paying client. The role of Elders is to pass on practices worth practicing not nostalgia and opinions about the way it ought to be. It is past time to pay it forward. I'm getting older by the minute. How about you? -- Steve _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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Re: [Dialogue] Undocumented immigrants
by KarenBueno＠aol.com 07 Jun '12

07 Jun '12

Thanks, Carl. I agree. Karen Bueno In a message dated 6/6/2012 11:13:38 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time, carlandruth(a)earthlink.net writes: Dream Act elligible youth should not be deported. Carl Larsen ----- Original Message ----- From: _KarenBueno(a)aol.com_ (mailto:KarenBueno@aol.com) To: _oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net_ (mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net) ; _dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net_ (mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net) Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 4:04 PM Subject: [Dialogue] Undocumented immigrants What are you all thinking about undocumented immigrants these days? I have been given the opportunity to lead 15 minutes of a workshop on immigration for some 500 lay people of Rocky Mountain United Methodist Annual Conference in Denver next week. Many will be those in the ranks of "just send 'em all back" persuasion. Any pertinent points I should be sure to speak about? Karen Bueno Here's a new item: June 5, 2012 - Press release Undocumented Youth Risk Arrest in Denver to Demand Executive Order at Obama Office 'Coming out' action in Denver DENVER – Undocumented immigrant youth walking from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. will protest outside of the Obama campaign office today on 9th Avenue. They will ask that his administration stop the deportations of DREAM Act-eligible youth by signing an executive order. “With Deportations on the rise and Secure Communities recently implemented in the state of Colorado, We cannot just sit back and wait!” said Veronica Gomez, an undocumented student with Campaign for an American Dream (CAD), which is walking across the country to raise awareness about immigrant rights. “The immigrant community in Colorado needs to know that we have a voice in this country, that we are not criminals, and we deserve a pathway to legalization.” CAD, along with the group Colorado, Organize, Resist, Escalate (COORE) will deliver a letter to the Obama Campaign office followed by a “Coming out of the Shadows” rally where undocumented immigrants will publicly declare their status. “If they want the Latino vote in Colorado, they must show the community what they are doing for us. We are asking them to stop the deportation of all DREAM eligible youth!” said Javier Hernandez, an undocumented immigrant living in Colorado and member of COORE. Despite the memo authored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton explaining that ICE is supposed to focus its resources on deporting criminals, DREAM-eligible youth are being put in deportation proceedings nationwide. We need the strength of an executive order to stop our deportations. ### CAD’s mission is to walk across the nation from San Francisco to D.C creating dialogue around the passage of the DREAM Act and fixing our broken immigration system with the values of equality, unity, and diversity. CAD believe’s all people are equal, all those who are oppressed should be united, and our daily lives and the Campaign itself highlight diversity. http://thedreamwalk.org ____________________________________ _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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Go Gordon!
by steve har 07 Jun '12

07 Jun '12

What a mensch Gordon is! Still practicing being in the game being a social pioneer even with -- gasp 20 somethings. Shades of HR Neibhur addressing the needs of the times. Still willing to have integrity Integrity. Yes, that Joe Mathews Invention. My personal working definition: what you say is what you do; what you do is what you say, except when it isn't and then I get to clean up the mess, --- 100% free, a100% responsible. Gordon It must be exhilarating being with 20 somethings engaged, fearless. Tell us a STORY! Better yet make a YouTube or a VoiceThread.com, 21st C style. Make the local story sing a global song. By the Way...Ellie Stock is working on an Internet story about Dreaming the Dreamer and it isn't going to live in an email or a text thread. For me, is exhilarating being with 20 somethings on my Stanford University Project Team. They are all about engagement not detachment. On my team are all about making something happen -- not having a bigger better gestalt or a better plan. They are fearless. They are making a software product they don't do "Rusty" they do Jane style we're in this together making something happen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDDO3ob-4ZY They respect this 69 year old fart when I row the boat as well as they do and when I get tasks done like everyone else. Sometimes they ask me to "navigate" from experience, but they sure don't want some one to "facilitate" from the sidelines, they want someone fully engaged in the task at hand. Here is a piece of their work: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yNi_WmF_qNddSLulOxc1yOYXUeBR72n02wi… Re-reading Jon & Maureens book -the 9 Disciplines of a Facilitator Ch 12 - this morning they say [paraphrasing] If awareness is is about understanding, action is about accomplishing [there are] three issues facing facilitative leaders They all have to do with effective action: -intent [which has do do with changing not planning], -implementation, -impact Re Lee's Dag quote: If you get past the nostalgia and the romantic/poetic words, what you see is a guy who is fully engaged and taking the risks he chooses to take [and in conversation with himself about it]. One time in NYC I met Kofi Annan on his very last day as Secretary-General of the United Nations at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Another guy with an intact value system who chooses to navigate in unsettled waters. Still in the game, long since retired. Thank-you Gordon for your leadership example, for being a guide, a navigator. Hunting for some stories of women navigators - not people of the peanut gallery but people who have an intact value system and lead in un-chartered waters. like the navigators in the Marshall Islands who used to navigate with stick charts and according to Wiegel bounced the babies on their knees and sang songs, teaching the young ones the sound of the wind and the waves. Grace Lee Boggs is a heavy hitter. Wish I could hear a 1st hand story of someone I know. Someone out there like Gordon. If you look at Kaze Gadway, she is hanging out with young-ones too. She might be achieving "universal grandmother status" Anyone know any other female navigators, any other female guides like Kaze? It would be powerful to develop some new leadership examples beyond the stale ones that get shared over and over again. We should do this kind of work now with and for 20 somethings -- and stop trying to amuse ourselves with one more client, just one more consulting contract, just one more set of custom workshop procedures from an unnamed but paying client. The role of Elders is to pass on practices worth practicing not nostalgia and opinions about the way it ought to be. It is past time to pay it forward. I'm getting older by the minute. How about you? -- Steve

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6/07/12, Spong: "Think Different-Accept Uncertainty" Part XI: Beginning a Probe of the Miracles Attributed to Jesus
by Ellie Stock 07 Jun '12

07 Jun '12

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR "Think Different-Accept Uncertainty" Part XI: Beginning a Probe of the Miracles Attributed to Jesus Deconstruction is always easier to do than reconstruction, but it is not nearly so important. It is never enough to say who or what Christ is not, but we must move on to say who or what Christ is. The task is complicated, however, by the very fact that the Jesus story, as related in the gospels, has been literalized for so long that breaking through the literal window to establish some new possibilities is quite difficult. This is especially true when we realize that the old mindset, no matter how dated or nonsensical it is, is nonetheless reasserted in the hymns we sing, in the prayers we pray in our liturgies and in the sermons we hear in church every Sunday. All of these activities assume a pre-modern frame of reference that most educated men and women today simply can no longer affirm. So I have to approach this task piecemeal, week by week, in order to lay the groundwork for a radically different perspective. There is no silver bullet of understanding that can be fired to create in us this new point of view. So, today I will begin a unit in the series “Think Different-Accept Uncertainty” that will look at the miracle stories in the gospel narratives. Did the miracles really happen? If they did, do they still happen? If they did once, but no longer happen why did they cease? As one person tried to explain, “Perhaps ‘the age of miracles’ is over.” To which I need to respond, “Perhaps there never was an ‘age of miracles’ and the things we once called miracles are now understood in a very different way.” Those are the possibilities. I begin this unit by probing the level of reality that still remains among my readers in regard to the miracles recorded in the New Testament. I ask each of you to do a test just with yourself, aimed at discovering whether or not you really believe that miracles can or did happen? Here are the questions: Can a star really wander through the sky so slowly that wise men can keep up with it? Can that star really stop in its journey, first over the palace of King Herod for the wise men to get additional directions and then over the house in Bethlehem where the baby Jesus lives with his mother? Can a virgin conceive? Are there really angels that can break through the midnight sky to sing, presumably in Aramaic, the only language that the shepherds understood, about the birth of Jesus? Could these angels really send these shepherds in search of this child, armed with only two clues: he would be “wrapped in swaddling clothes” and he would be “lying in a manger?” Do you think that anyone can literally walk on water? Do you believe that anyone can feed a multitude of 5,000 men, plus women and children, with five loaves and two fish? Can one curse a fig tree and cause that tree to wither down to its roots and die? Can one still a storm by speaking to it and commanding it to cease its fury? Can one raise from the dead a man named Lazarus, who has not only been dead for four days, but who has also already been buried? Can a blind man be made to see by the laying on of hands or the anointing of the eyes with clay? Why did this procedure not work in one gospel episode until there were two applications? Is it any harder to bring sight to a blind man if he was born blind? Can the mentally ill or those suffering from epilepsy be cured by casting out the demons that cause them to be other than “normal”? Can the mute be enabled to hear and to speak if the healer can only get Satan to stop binding the tongue of the victim? Can a withered hand be restored to fullness of operation or a man crippled for 38 years be enabled to walk by another’s command? Can water be turned into wine to keep a wedding party going? Why was it necessary, as the Bible states, to create on that occasion 150 gallons of wine? All of these are questions that arise from actual stories that are included in the gospels and all of them are attributed to Jesus. Did any of them literally happen? If you are convinced that all of them happened, can you explain how those feats were accomplished? If they did not literally happen, what does that do to our understanding of Jesus? Is the concept of God as an invasive, supernatural force necessary to the maintenance and certainty of the Christian story? Does Christianity really live or die, as many claim, on the one supreme, supernatural event that all the gospels record as the climax of their narratives, namely, that a man dead from sundown on Friday, is restored to physical life by Sunday morning in such a way that he could walk out of his tomb and invite his followers to handle his flesh and even to finger his wounds? Many people cannot imagine Christianity surviving without these things being literally true. Many other people cannot imagine any of these things ever being literally true. That is the dilemma facing Christianity today. Believers become more and more literal and fundamentalist, while those who cannot and do not believe any of these things can find no place in the life of the church for them and have no desire to continue as part of a worshiping community that pretends that these things really happened. So how can we understand miracles and how can we understand the role they played in the original telling the Christian story? That will be our task in this series over the next few weeks. First, some biblical observations. There is no unanimity in the New Testament about most of these miracle accounts. For example, there are only two miraculous events that all four gospels record. Gospel unanimity exists only on the resurrection of Jesus and the expansion of the loaves and fishes to feed the multitude. Yet when one looks at the texts of each of the gospels the details surrounding both of these narratives vary enormously. In regard to the resurrection, Mark, the earliest gospel to be written, has a messenger instruct the women at the tomb to tell the disciples that the risen Christ will meet them in Galilee. None of the women ever sees Jesus in this first gospel and Mark records no account of Jesus ever meeting with the disciples in Galilee. So in Mark no one ever actually sees the risen Christ. In Matthew the women are said to have seen the risen Christ quite literally in the garden on Easter morning and the disciples, or at least eleven of them, were said to have seen him on a mountain top in Galilee. In Luke the women do not see him at the tomb on Easter morning and no disciple ever sees him in Galilee. Then Luke says that two disciples, but not members of the twelve, see him in Emmaus, but he disappears into thin air. Later the twelve do see but only in Jerusalem. When we turn to John we read that Mary Magdalene alone sees the risen Christ at dawn on the first Easter and then the disciples, minus Judas and Thomas, see him in the upper room in Jerusalem at the time of the evening meal. In both instances, this gospel tells us that they conversed with him. A week later, John writes that the disciples see him again this time with Thomas. Finally, months later, John says seven of the disciples see him in Galilee, but not on top of a mountain as Matthew claimed, but beside the Sea of Galilee. There is no consistency in the details of these sightings. In regard to the stories of the miraculous feeding of the multitude, Mark and Matthew give us two versions. The first one has 5,000 people fed with five loaves and two fish, the second has 4,000 people fed with seven loaves and a few fish. Each feeding takes place on a different side of the lake. Luke and John reduce the feedings to one. There is, thus, no gospel unanimity in this episode either. Then to complicate the picture still further, Luke alone has Jesus raise a widow’s only son from the dead. John alone has Jesus turn water into wine. The witness of the gospels to the reality of miracles is thus far more confused and ambivalent than most Christians realize and more than most of them can believe when it is spelled out for them. We add to that complex analysis the fact that as far as we are able to discover or to read no miracle was ever associated with Jesus before the 8th decade when Mark’s gospel came to be written in the early seventies. Paul, who wrote between 51 and 64, never mentions a miracle in association with Jesus. The Q document and the Gospel of Thomas, which some, but not all, scholars believe might be pre-Marcan sources, do not mention a miracle being associated with Jesus. The Virgin Birth does not enter the Christian tradition until the 9th decade of the Christian era or some 55-60 years after his death. The physical resuscitation of the deceased body of Jesus as the way resurrection is to be understood does not enter the tradition until the 10th decade or some 60-70 years after his crucifixion. These are the factual data about the miracles of the New Testament. It is not the stable picture that believers claim and that skeptics reject. It is also not a simple study. This is enough, however, to raise the subject to our consciousness, to allow it to play upon our minds and our imaginations, to stimulate our interest. I also hope it is enough to bring you back to this column in succeeding weeks when we begin to unravel this material. So stay tuned! Same time, same place! ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Bishop Spong's Summer Session at the Pacific School of Religion! Re-Claiming the Bible in a Post-Christian World Instructor: John Shelby Spong Dates and Times: One week: July 16-20, 9am - 1pm Description: Can the Bible, written 2000-3000 years ago, speak in any meaningful way to the 21st century? If it cannot, then is Christianity at an end? If it can, will Christianity look anything like what we have known in the past? Since creeds and doctrines are all constructed on the basis of what was believed to be "Biblical Truth," can any of the current formularies stand? Since liturgy is based on biblical definitions of sin, salvation and God, none of which make much sense to 21st century people, can Christianity tolerate the revolution that it faces? This class will be taught by one who has been a priest and bishop for 56 years with one foot in the institutional church and the other in the academic world of new insights. It is specifically designed for clergy and questing lay people. Course Credits & Cost: 1.5 credits - $990; audit - $495; 2.0 CEUs - $350 Course Number: BS-2117 (credit); BS-0003 (CEUs) Required Text: John Shelby Spong, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, 2011 HarperCollins, San Francisco. Purchase here. Syllabus: Re-Claiming the Bible in a Post-Christian World Register Question & Answer Gretchen from Seattle, Washington, writes: Question: The scholar philosopher, Thomas Aquinas, defined God as the “Uncaused Cause” and “the Prime Mover.” I keep wondering what came before the Big Bang – what do you think? Answer: Dear Gretchen, When I get this kind of question, I wonder first, what makes anyone think that another person in any walk of life has the capacity to answer it! Second, I wonder why anyone would think that even if this question were answerable that it made any difference. Who do you suppose was present to record the beginning of history before the “Big Bang?” How did that person communicate his or her findings? In what language was this narrative recorded? To which other person was the story passed on so that the record was kept alive? I suppose it is flattering for me to think that you attribute such a capacity to me. For the record, however, let me say that the “Big Bang” is now estimated to have occurred somewhere between 13.7 and 13.8 billion years ago. Life made it first appearance on this planet earth about 3.8 billion years ago. Human-like creatures did not arrive on this planet until about four million years ago and self-conscious, fully human life may be no older than 100,000 to 250,000 years. To go beyond these few known facts about the origins of the universe is little more than idle speculation. Astro-physicists now believe they can get within the first minute after the “Big Bang,” but no one can venture beyond the Big Bang, since both time and space result from that moment also. I am reminded, however, of a story, apocryphal I’m sure, told about St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, in Northern Africa (and probably about other particularly wise men and women). Someone is supposed to have asked him what God was doing before God created the world. His answer was that God was creating hell for people who ask questions like that! Enjoy the present and do not worry about how you got here. You will be a happier person because of it. ~John Shelby Spong Announcements Read what Bishop Spong has to say about A Joyful Path Progressive Christian Spiritual Curriculum for Young Hearts and Minds: "The great need in the Christian church is for a Sunday school curriculum for children that does not equate faith with having a pre-modern mind. The Center for Progressive Christianity has produced just that. Teachers can now teach children in Sunday school without crossing their fingers. I endorse it wholeheartedly." Subscribers, please remember that your subscription is automatically renewed. You can unsubscribe at any time. Simply login to access your profile page and cancel your account Login to be able to comment directly on the website. Join in the discussion! Look for Bishop Spong on Facebook and LIKE the Facebook page for ProgressiveChristianity.org! You can also follow Bishop Spong on Twitter. Thank you for taking this journey with us! Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. forward to a friend Copyright © 2012 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 4916 Pt Fosdick Dr, NW #148 Gig Harbor, WA 98335 Add us to your address book

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Visionary Organizing
by LAURELCG＠aol.com 07 Jun '12

07 Jun '12

Thank you for sharing this, Jim. Really revolutionary, it seems to me. Is anyone you know going to Detroit in July? What an opportunity for young(er) facilitators. Jann In a message dated 6/5/2012 8:04:59 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com writes: Visionary or protest organizing? Living by the Clock of the World: Grace Lee Boggs’ Call for Visionary Organizing By: Matthew Birkhold Date Published: April 17, 2012 In response to a question regarding advice for young activists, 96 year old movement veteran Grace Lee Boggs recently told Hyphen Magazine that activists should turn our backs on protest organizing because it “leads you more and more to defensive operations” and “Do visionary organizing” because it “gives you the opportunity to encourage the creative capacity in people and it’s very fulfilling.” This quote made its way around facebook, twitter, and tumblr, as fans of Grace reposted it like it was common sense while others thought the quote bordered on conservatism. To better understand Grace’s call, we need to understand the historical perspective in which it’s rooted. We also need to understand how visionary organizing differs from protest organizing, how Grace understands revolution, and that the way history develops means that ideas that were progressive or even revolutionary in one era, can become mental roadblocks to progress in another era. Although I largely agree with Grace, I write this to clarify her position, not merely endorse it. My hope is that we can debate these ideas in ways that contribute to the theoretical, reflective, and practical work that movement building requires. Rebellion, Revolution & the Clock of the World For Grace—as well as for her late husband James Boggs—the present is the culmination of thousands of years of human responses to structural conditions. These responses include consent to state policies, rebellion against them, and revolutions. In the development of human history, the Boggses believed rebellions were important because, contrary to consent, they represented moments when oppressed people stood up to assert their humanity by protesting what society has done to them. They argued that rebelling masses “ see themselves as victims and call on others to see them as victims and the other side as villains. They do not yet see themselves responsible for reorganizing society, which is what revolutionary social forces must do.” While rebellions disrupt society—questioning the legitimacy of existing institutions—they cannot lead to the reorganization of society. In contrast to rebellions, revolutions create new societies because they begin with “projecting the notion of a more human human being” whose development has been limited by structural conditions. Revolutions are not significant simply because they involve seizing state power but because they create societies more conducive to human development. A revolution is not for the purpose of resolving past injustice. Rather, “the only justification for revolution is that it advances the evolution of man/woman.” Understanding revolution as “a phase in the long evolutionary process of man/woman,” that “initiates a new plateau, a new threshold on which human beings can develop,” the Boggses saw revolution as a period when human beings rapidly advanced. In 1974’s Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century, Grace and James asked, “What time is it on the clock of the world?” They answered by visualizing 3,000 years of human history on a clock where every minute represented fifty years and argued that the age of revolutions was only four or five minutes old. Scientific revolutionary thinking, as represented by Marx and Engels, was just two minutes old, and the epoch of global revolution represented by the anticolonial struggles of the 1950s-60s was a mere thirty seconds old. In 1974, the US Civil Rights Movement began merely 15 seconds ago. The Boggses stressed this long view of history because it’s necessary for thinking dialectically—understanding that things are always changing. Because conditions change, if progressive ideas don’t change in ways that correspond to changing reality, they become limitations on human development. As history develops, what was revolutionary in one period may not be revolutionary in another. From the American Revolution through the present, this premise was central to how the Boggses understood history and the changing nature of revolution. American Contradictions, American Revolution By analyzing history dialectically the Boggses concluded that every movement in the history of this country has been incorporated into the capitalist system because they have all ended up internalizing capitalist values. While progressive, the American revolution also initiated a contradiction between economic development and political underdevelopment. By eliminating slavery from the constitution for the sake of national unity, the founding fathers pursued economic development at the expense of black humanity. Similarly, while Northern industrialists and abolitionists were progressive for their position on slavery, their actions also furthered the contradiction initiated by the founding fathers. After the Civil War, Southern forces agreed to support Northern capitalist presidential candidate Rutherford Hayes if Northern politicians agreed to recognize “state’s rights.” This 1877 compromise dismantled the Freedman’s Bureau and led to the creation of Jim Crow. Placing economic interests first, black humanity was again forsaken and the contradiction between economic development and human underdevelopment became a rewritten law. In the 1930s-40s it appeared as though a strong, integrated labor movement might be able to resolve this contradiction, but its consistent willingness to compromise shopfloor conditions and the rights of black people for wage increases simply furthered it. Seeing a historical pattern, James Boggs concluded, “all organizations that spring up in a capitalist society and do not take absolute power, but rather fight only on one tangential or essential aspect of that society are eventually incorporated into capitalist society.” The labor movement’s ability to secure wage increases was related to international factors. Following WWII the United States was the world’s sole hegemonic power which allowed US transnational corporations to keep wages outside the US lower than in the US. Using profits made abroad, US firms were able to subsidize annual wage increases for US workers. Because others were paid less, US workers became the highest paid workers in the world. A raising standard of living in the US was also made possible by industrial automation. While before the war, food, clothing, and shelter were scarce, after the war, automation developed manufacturing capacities to a very advanced stage. Not only were human needs being met, but there was such an abundance of products that particular brands developed varying prestige. For the first time in history, working people were able to derive status and identity from the consumer products they bought. Rise of the Welfare State With global economic growth following WWII, the tax base governments drew upon to provide services also grew. Thus, when social movements emerged to press for more access to benefits, states had the means to meet those demands and welfare states took hold throughout the industrialized world. As global economic growth continued, new jobs were created, higher wages were paid, and both the working and middle classes enjoyed vast increases in their standard of living. Because this economic growth provided the basis for the state sponsored poverty programs of the 1960s and 70s, many activists working on these issues developed an unintentional economic stake in maintaining US hegemony. In the midst of such abundance and global economic factors, the Boggses concluded that revolution had to be rethought. While third world revolutionaries could organize around basic needs, American revolutionaries had to “ discover the purpose of a socialist revolution in an advanced country like the United Sates where material abundance and technological advancement already exist, where more is stolen in the ghettoes everyday than is produced in most African countries during an entire year, and where many of the oppressed have a higher standard of living than the middle classes in most countries.” The Boggses decided that socialism in the US meant putting political and social responsibility in command of economics. Because the Black movement almost universally prioritized the question of what it meant to be a human being over economic demands in the 50s and 60s, it looked as though it would resolve the contradiction between economic development and human underdevelopment. However, according to James Boggs, after the urban rebellions from 1965-1968, when concessions were granted to blacks and crime increased in black communities, the black movement became incorporated into the capitalist system because leaders “made no serious effort to repudiate the bourgeois method of thought on which U.S. capitalism is based, which involves each individual or group just getting more for itself.” Refusing to acknowledge “that blacks are an integral part of the 5 percent of the world’s population living in the United States and using up 40 percent of the world’s energy resources for their big cars and their new appliances, just as whites are doing,” Boggs argued that the black movement stopped thinking about projecting a vision of new man/woman and began fighting for a bigger slice of the American pie. Decline As the Black movement shifted its focus, a global economic crisis emerged and the welfare state began unraveling. Unable to keep increasing wages, US based firms laid off thousands of US workers to deal with increased competition from British and Japanese based Transnational Corporations. A domestic backlash calling for drastically smaller government and lower taxes also emerged, fueled by white resentment towards African Americans and other oppressed groups who had been engaged in very successful sustained protests. With increased unemployment creating a smaller tax base than what existed before 1968-1974 and with an increasing number of tax expenditure limitations passed at the state level after 1974, the economic base of the welfare state in the United States crumbled. In the midst of this crisis the Boggses saw that US based exploitation of the global South had created such abundance that even the most oppressed people in the US were able to advance themselves economically at the expense of the rest of the world. Accordingly, they concluded that the fundamental contradiction in the US lay between its economic/technology overdevelopment and human/political underdevelopment. While racism, sexism, and poverty are important contradictions, they can be explained as a consequence of the tendency of Americans to prioritize economic development and individual gain over political and social responsibility. Having become more politically inhumane the more technology advances, Americans have become “a people who have been psychologically and morally damaged by the unlimited opportunities to pursue material happiness provided by the cancerous growth of the productive forces.” Because these technological and economic advances have become a danger to the physical survival of the rest of the world, demanding more things— regardless of who demands them—has become a fetter on developing a revolutionary movement. Therefore, the Boggses argued, “the revolution to be made in the United States will be the first revolution in history to require the masses to make material sacrifices rather than to acquire more things.” Because it would be incredibly difficult to organize protests whose aim is material sacrifice, Grace believes organizing and joining “massive protests and demanding new policies fail to sufficiently address the crisis we face. They may demonstrate that we are on the right side politically, but they are not transformative enough. They do not change the cultural images or the symbols that play such a pivotal role in molding us into who we are.” Visionary organizing can play this role. A Radical Revolution of Values It is within this understanding of historical development and revolution that Grace has called on young activists to “do visionary organizing,” and to “turn your backs on protest organizing.” Visionary organizing demands not only “repudiating the bourgeois method of thought on which U.S. capitalism is based, which involves each individual or group just getting more for itself,” but also developing alternative institutions and communities that facilitate doing “the work of re-imagining our selves,” and helping us “ think beyond capitalist categories.” Because we have all internalized the values of this racist, sexist, capitalist system to some extent, we must all transform ourselves by undergoing what Martin Luther King called “a radical revolution of values” allowing us to become person, rather than thing oriented, if we are to participate in a revolution that makes material sacrifices. Rather than relying on protest to achieve this personal transformation, visionary organizing facilitates this transformation by re-imagining institutions that can facilitate new cultural images and symbols, molding us into new kinds of people. Because capitalism is a system that flourishes when people think they can’ t live without it, capitalist institutions work to convince human beings we can’t create alternatives. Having consented to this coercion, most of us have not developed the creative capacities necessary to project alternatives to the capitalist world. Instead, we make demands that corporations and the government fix things they’ve broken. Alternatively, by placing an emphasis on creating re-imagined spaces and institutions in which healthy relationships with people, nature, and our selves can be built—by creating beloved communities—visionary organizing heals us from capitalist dehumanization and restores an awareness of people’s innate ability to create. Beloved communities should not be seen as a means to build unity so that we may better build a protest movement. As communities in which King’s “ concept of love as the readiness to go to any length to restore community” is primary, beloved communities are spaces where people can be nurtured and heal the damage our racist, sexist, capitalist world has done, giving us a foundation to develop identities outside of capitalist categories and consumption, while creating a base for political power stemming from the creation of alternative institutions, or dual power structures. Beloved communities thus serve as a transmission belt for the radical revolution of values needed for a revolution in which we have to sacrifice material things. Turning Our Backs or Understanding Limitations? The current time on the clock of the world is incredibly complex. We in the United Sates are experiencing a crisis in our standard of living, something the Wisconsin labor protests, the movement to defend education, and the occupy movements have all emerged in response to. Yet, little of this organizing reflects an understanding that the US empire supported welfare state made that higher standard of living possible in the first place. Despite this, because rebellious protests have combined with the current economic crisis to bring the legitimacy of existing institutions into question, people in the United States are more willing to envision what new men and women should look like than at any point in my lifetime. These conditions lend themselves to the possibility of building a revolutionary movement based on what men and women could be. Thus, Grace believes relying solely on protest is a fetter on creating a revolutionary movement. Because we are a nation of people who have been damaged by the way we’ve endlessly consumed, in order to take advantage of this crisis we must heal. We must wage what James Boggs called a “Two-Pronged Struggle,” and combine the struggle against the internal enemy with the struggle against the external enemy. As unemployment rises, homes get foreclosed, education and health care get cut, and state sanctioned violence against all people who are not straight white men continues, people have immediate needs that must be met and traditional protest movements can help meet some of these immediate needs. We must recognize that there is a difference between meeting the immediate needs of human beings in a society that is destroying the world and meeting needs that will allow people to create a new society with a vastly more human relationship to the world. These are two different sets of needs and building the next American revolution requires we put the satisfaction of our immediate needs in the service of satisfying the needs that allow us to create a new world. Resolving the complex dilemmas of the current moment requires immense creativity and imagination. While we must absolutely stop home foreclosures, we must also understand that home ownership, as it currently exists, cannot be separated from global finance and the destruction of the global South. This means we can’t only stop foreclosures but have to also re-imagine housing. Rising unemployment and individual states’ inability to extend unemployment insurance means people have to find ways to survive. Because the current jobs economy is so closely interconnected with the exploitation of the global South, simply protesting to demand more jobs will continue destroying the world. Accordingly, we need to create and utilize neighborhood time banks and skill shares as a way to meet some of our immediate needs without money. We also need to create businesses that reflect the values of beloved communities. Protesting various laws that create barriers to business creation might be useful here. These dilemmas pose incredible challenges. We are lucky to have two upcoming events that might help us better learn how to do this. From July 1-15 2012, the Boggs Center is organizing a gathering called “Detroit 2012: Re-imagine the World, Transform Ourselves, Fight for the Future,” where delegates from all over the US can come to Detroit for two weeks and be trained in visionary organizing while sharing their work with people in Detroit. If you can’t make it to Detroit, in New York the Foundry Theatre is organizing a weekend-long event featuring Grace Lee Boggs on the opening night, April 20, in Cooper Union’s Great Hall. The entire gathering, titled “This Is How We Do It: A festival of Dialogues About Another World Under Construction, ” is in many ways inspired by Grace’s concept of visionary organizing and features innovative practitioners from throughout the US as well as from South Africa, Argentina and Brazil. For those unable to make it to New York, the event will be live streaming at: www.thefoundrytheatre.org Matt Birkhold is a Brooklyn based writer, visionary organizer, and co-founder of Growing Roots, a work group dedicated to re-imagining ourselves, building new economies, and creating new communities. He is currently writing a book on the evolution of visionary organizing in Detroit and can be reached at Birkhold Jim Wiegel Jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com I can't say as I was ever lost, but I was bewildered once for three days. Daniel Boone _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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