cj#1098, rn> Whole Earth article | “Vision Thing” | Ralph Nader

2000-06-27

Richard Moore


============================================================================
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 14:16:41 -0500
Subject: <no subject>
From: "Frank Van den Bosch" <•••@••.•••>
To: •••@••.•••

Great article in Whole Earth....thank you!
Frank Van den Bosch

================

Dear Frank,

Glad you found it useful.  I'm publishing your note on our
lists as a kind of advert for the Whole Earth issue.

all the best,
rkm

============================================================================
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 14:05:12 -0500
From: aat <•••@••.•••>
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: •••@••.•••
Subject: Re: cj#1097, rn> NAOMI KLEIN: "The Vision Thing"

Dear rkm,

Thanks for posting this excellent article "The Vision Thing" by
Naomi Klein.  I was only dimly aware of how the structure of the
new movement is shaping up before reading it.

It might be that nature, some higher power, is operating in a
manner little understood to guide this and other human process. 
That this spider web, wheel and spoke construction parallels
the structure of the internet is interesting.

And the spider itself might have things to teach us.  If one
builds a web and the wind blows it down, he/she patiently builds
another with a slightly different angle to the prevailing winds
and keeps doing that until an angle is found where the web will
survive the wind, but still be in good bug-catching territory. 
He/she is never discouraged, just keeps weaving away, trying
things a little different each time.

If I were to hear that the Cato Institute et al are feverishly
working on anti-spider-web technology, I wouldn't be surprised.

And I am reminded too of a method developed by an Italian some
time ago which was reputed to be very effective (may still be)
in guiding trading on stock markets etc.  It was based on the
mathematical formula that describes the shape of the shell of
the sea creature Nautilus.  This formula was used to predict
swings in the markets which adherents believed were guided by
natural forces. Maybe so.

Naomi had this to say:

>Most activists agree that the time has come to sit down and
>start discussing a positive agenda--but at whose table, and who
>gets to decide?

And in your commentary:

>What the movement needs next is to figure out how to get to
>the next step beyond demonstrations.

I think the next step is being offered to us on a silver spoon. 
And it wouldn't surprise me to hear that it's already in the
works.  Why not put the same energy we saw in Seattle behind
getting Ralph Nader into the White House?

That might make it possible for us to learn to say "We're in
charge", and mean it, not right away, but a lot sooner than we
might have guessed a year ago.

Best,

austin

============

Dear Austin,

I don't think there is a realistic scenario by which Nader
could get elected at this time.  People are captured by the
lesser_of_two-evil's mentality.  Those who favor Nader would
be afraid not to vote for Gore, lest Bush get in.  Under
such circumstances, the more energy that goes into a Nader
campaign, the more is drained off of more useful projects,
and the more we set ourselves up for defeat and
discouragement.

More important, we shouldn't put the cart before the horse.
_First we need a massive grass-roots movement, and it needs
to find a way to function democratically and come up with an
agreed platform.  _Then one can talk about implementing that
platform by means of electoral politics.  

_If Nader were to be elected in the next election, that
would be a testament to wonderful campaign organizing, but
it would not put 'us' in charge.  He would have some
advisors and some policies, and some of them might be
appealing, but there's no connection to any democratic,
participitative process.  No such process exists.  Building
the movement and building that process are the same thing. 

There are no magic bullets.

rkm


============================================================================
Richard K Moore
Wexford, Ireland
Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance 
email: •••@••.••• 
CDR website: http://cyberjournal.org
cyberjournal archive: http://members.xoom.com/centrexnews/
book in progress: http://cyberjournal.org/cdr/gri.html

                A community will evolve only when
                the people control their means of communication.
                        -- Frantz Fanon

Permission for non-commercial republishing hereby granted - BUT 
include and observe all restrictions, copyrights, credits,
and notices - including this one.
============================================================================

.

Share: