RSN Fundraising Banner
FB Share
Email This Page
add comment

writing for godot

Solidarity: A New Strategy

Print
Written by John Fike   
Monday, 09 December 2013 07:48
Ever notice how difficult it is now to do "good?" Many do what’s politically expedient, or what they calculate is in their own self-interest. But doing good, especially working with others to stop the effects of economic violence on our citizens, can earn a pretty sharp rap on the knuckles from the boss, the police and the media.

If “doing good” is new to you, let me explain. Back in the day, we used to have something called "morals" -- people were imbued with the idea that one of life’s aspirations was to benefit other people, not just one’s self.

This quaint idea originated in our many religious or philosophical traditions. We developed the value of treating each other kindly – sacrificing self for the other. Old-fashioned, perhaps, but often effective for helping people express their best rather than their most selfish impulses.

Here's why I bring this up. We are now in a time when we absolutely must re-create an understanding of "right conduct" -- doing good, with and for others. No more individualism, selfishness, or getting away with whatever seems expedient. That old strategy was fashioned by a corporate mentality of breaking free of rules and regulations, isolating us from one another to make us more impressionable consumers.

Now we need a new strategy. Several difficult issues – matters of survival -- press us for solutions. To forge new, innovative solutions, we need to develop solidarity with one another.
We must overcome atomization of individuals with the mutuality of community.

Perhaps the most urgent of these is climate change. As scientists refine their models and become more adept at grasping the extent and pace of global warming, it’s clear they’ve under-estimated the realities. Global capitalism’s depletion of resources is de-stabilizing earth’s ability to return to balance.

But industry, with government in tow, mightily resists calls for giving up pillaging the earth to create wealth for itself. Yet we can’t wait forty more years to get serious about this. Reductions in the human causes of global warming must be deeper and come far sooner than business wants.

Fortunately, scientific models also indicate that human resistance movements against capitalist values and practice might be the one variable that alters the pace of climate change. Many scientists now advocate, and are themselves actively participating in, direct, active resistance against the prevailing economic culture with protests, blockades and sabotage. It’s that urgent.

But there are other critical issues, too, that call for collaborative citizen action. Fearsome new weapons coupled with out-of-control surveillance and information gathering must be met with massive and continuing citizen protest. China’s expanding drive to gather earth’s resources for its people calls us to act together to avoid such a takeover. And what do we, as citizens, have to say about biologists using computer-generated synthetic life forms that allow humans to engineer evolution?

Ordinary people can’t leave these moral decisions to others – “the experts.” Too much is at stake. We must work together, as neighbors, communities and voluntary organizations of all kinds, to develop a new economic paradigm, and a new idea of “good.”

Discovering shared values and common purposes on these critical issues at the local level is a much more effective way to meet the critical challenges we face than letting enterprise enrich itself with too-little-too-late solutions that don’t get to the root causes and eliminate them.

Not that we will all be of one mind; that’s not the goal. Through our diversity, and from the blending of many citizens’ ideas, the “good” we seek will be backed by collective action. This will allow us to re-create our economic life in ways that make people, not markets, our most important priority
e-max.it: your social media marketing partner
Email This Page

 

THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.

RSNRSN