Pamela's Blog 24

Published on Monday, June 15, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

Refreshed on Saturday, January 14, 2012 by Nas2EndWork.org

“What Is Your 'Theory of Change'?”

by Pamela Satterwhite

01.14.12

* "It's important never to forget…

Number One:

…that Barack represents...

…the entire U.S. populace…

…and its state of consciousness…

…and that it is we that are responsible…

…not he…

…for changing it….

And…

Number Two:

It doesn't take much 'thought' to see…

…that Barack's occupation of the presidency…

…is for Plato's Tribe…

…a 'mistake' they are determined to nullify…

…and for them 'government' is just a tool….

They don't play by any rules.

I have no idea what genius is, but so far as I can form any conception about it, I should say it was a stupid word which cannot be too soon abandoned to scientific and literary claqueurs. (Samuel Butler, The Way Of All Flesh)

[A "claque" is a group of people hired to applaud...or sometimes attack...certainly to 'clack'...sycophants.]

[A few thoughts from Zola on this: "…What, weren't the workers to be allowed to think?"]

The progressive punditry is peeved at our president for his perceived political perfidy …or “lack of leadership”…or his ‘impure positions’ – befouled as he is by the banks.

Methinks, when I hear them, despite their protestations to the contrary, that their “theory of change” comes from Hegel.

Hegel was the “Thinker” that ‘power’ held aloft like a trophy.
It boosted him up on its shoulders and carried him around like its most particular favorite fair-haired boy.

It fed him and stroked him, it petted and praised him.

And all of the West’s successive generations of “Thought Realizing Itself,” of “Objectified Mind,” slipped into his words, were refreshed by his thoughts, fled from the Hoards Unhistorical, sat their children down to him, taught them to appreciate the burden of their superior brains, which they buffed and burnished to a Perfect hardness that simply couldn’t “see” the uninitiated “dullards” left out of the game of their “theory of change.”

You see, Hegel believed that “change” happened through Constant Conflict…a restless, vicious, heartless, relentless, driving ‘spirit’ of “Mind Working Against Itself.”

Passions, private aims, and the satisfaction of selfish desires, are …the most effective springs of action. Their power lies in the fact that they respect none of the limitations which justice and morality would impose on them; and that these natural impulses have a more direct influence over man than the artificial and tedious discipline that tends to order and self-restraint, law and morality…But even regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples…have been victimized…nothing great in the World has been accomplished without passion…The History of the World is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony – periods when the antithesis is in abeyance… (The Philosophy of History)

‘Harmony’ means being in balance with “Nature,” in which “nothing happens.”

So our pundits lock horns with our president’s Thoughts and proceed to do battle, and pretend that this process, that this “restless churning” of Thought Against Itself is “Change.”

And the blood rushes, and they relish the invigorating attack that results because, after all, “Force” is how “Progress” happens. It’s how we humans "make something of ourselves," once we decide to separate ourselves from “mere” Nature.

And these Thinkers would also not admit, though I suspect it nonetheless, that they agree with Hegel that we dull-witted masses are indeed “the Unhistorical, Undeveloped Spirit, still involved in the conditions of mere nature…in which ‘nothing new happens under the sun…’” – not because we’ve lingered too long outside of “the real theatre of History,” but rather because we’ve been purposely excluded from it (for which we are grateful), as it was our hands, not our Minds ‘power’… and its sympathizers… wanted.

Our progressive pundits would probably all say that “change comes from below.” And the millennia-long story of the pitiful-power-drunk-few climbing onto the backs of the people certainly shows this to be so…shows that it’s always been through the courageous efforts of working folks and students and street folks and youth, shaking off the power-drunk, that freedom was expanded for everyone.

But if the pundits really believe that “change comes from below,” why aren’t they sitting down at kitchen tables in housing projects, listening to the “sacred stories” that no one else gives a damn about?

Why aren’t they bringing tools to the street youth to help them feel needed, wanted, and valuable?

Why don’t they do what the economist David Gordon did, and reach across the barriers, break down the phony walls, take a few risks, make a few slips, build a few ships…with their hands…

…Why not reach out to the youth left out…bring the food they need to grow, the tools they need to know, help them dismantle the cons brick by brick…and help them build earthships?

* "A Daddy"

01.14.12: "A Daddy (the song)"

Like everyone else I wish I had a Daddy...

...an All-Powerful, All-Knowing, All-Caring...

...Daddy...

...An omniscient Mr. Fix-It...

...Always aware, always there...

...Behind Things...

...Taking in hand the blood-soaked laundry...

...Keeping a hand on the Hellish Helm...

...Defusing the bombs...

...Taking the hits...

...Accepting the risks...

...so I could focus on...

...Me.

(from: OTheRLog 69 [12.10.09])

Nobody in a job can do anything but their job...that's the whole point. "A future without bosses" is in no one's job description. If we want it, we have to work for it.

(From: Countering The False Sweetness, Determination 27)

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Nas2EndWork "Pamela's Blogs":

Pamela's Blog 24

Published on Monday, June 15, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“What Is Your 'Theory of Change'?”