Pamela's Blog 40

Published on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“Unplugging”

[...is our true work.]

[...the furthering of which is The Responsibility Of The 'Intellectual'.]

by Pamela Satterwhite

Man is everywhere in chains, and his chains will not be broken till he feels that it is degrading to be a bondsman, whether to an individual or to a State. The disease of civilization is not so much the material poverty of the many as the decay of the spirit of freedom and self-confidence. The revolt that will change the world will spring, not from the benevolence that breeds "reform," but from the will to be free. Men will act together in the full consciousness of their mutual dependence; but they will act for themselves. Their liberty will not be given them from above; they will take it on their own behalf.

Wage-slavery will exist as long as there is a man or an institution that is the master of men: it will be ended when the workers learn to set freedom before comfort...and because he is resolved to end the industrial system that makes them slaves. (G. D. H. Cole, quoted in The Sane Society by Erich Fromm)

In Waking Up: Freeing Ourselves From Work I asked the question: “how can we build a mass movement if we don’t address the issues of the masses of people?” – issues that at root merge in the oppression “work,” in the regimented shadow-living imposed by a system based on force, control and contempt – issues that sprout from a system that absolutely denies our right to be whole.

I make the argument that since only a mass movement can unseat ‘Power,’ then dedicating ourselves to building a mass movement to end wage work must become the work of progressives of whatever stripe.

In my travels around the web I’ve noticed an enthusiasm for theoretical discussion among those of us hungering for freedom, as well as enthusiasm for individual or small group “escapes” (or the illusion of ‘escape’), but little enthusiasm for community organizing and bridge-building across the divides – the only practice that can realistically result in a mass movement, and therefore our freedom.

The only clear examples of bridge-building and (self-directed, as opposed to job-directed) community organizing I’ve found within the progressive spectrum (in my, granted, non-exhaustive study of the subject) has been among Radical Christians and Catholic Workers, who approach the matter of social transformation and justice from the perspective of those first, early principles of Christianity, when it was radical and taught that each individual manifests the divine, that each person is precious, and, therefore, that an injury to one is an injury to all. Capitalism obviously negates these values, which means they are very radical indeed.

Well, I believe that we have to follow the example of our radical earth-loving spiritual brothers and sisters, and bring the same kind of enthusiasm and creativity that we feel for addressing the symptoms of the capitalist system to the work of advancing our future – by designing, developing and exchanging effective practices and strategies…for bridge-building, community-healing, and planning communal living on a society-wide scale.

Proportionally as we awake I believe that each one of us represents for those still deep in the dream, each one of us is responsible for the freedom of all souls, not just our own.

Perhaps many of us, unsurprisingly, are still locked into the meritocracy con, the Mind-Worship mindset – still locked into the deeply capitalist posture of ‘contempt’ – preoccupied with being “the best” (“thinker”), the most “correct,” the most “radical,” and therefore fear that the work of claiming (for everyone) that physical space that scuffs your shoes smacks of reform not revolution, and so not worthy of a ‘true’ radical.

But I agree with Thoreau…and I agree with Barack…everything is transformed by a workable plan…by consciousness…

…with intention…

…with a vision.…

It’s time to twist the lens to get the right perspective on the problem of our long-overdue freedom.

Writing from the perspective of wholeness, as opposed to “worker” or “revolutionary member of the party,” opens up new questions and new paths. It’s long past time for us to explore them and walk through them. It puts the agency within us – we who do the work – not some small ‘cadre’ of elite “thinkers.” And instead of standing on a paper-thin “platform of ideas,” we’re standing on the solid foundation of our longing for freedom…real freedom…the kind my body can identify as such…not the kind where you tell me I’m free because you’re so smart you know how to make it happen for me.

The idea of a “revolutionary party” in the minds of most working people means “bosses.” We know what those are and we don’t want them anymore.

On the other hand, the practical definition of “anarchism” in the minds of most plugged-in or opting-out youth in my neighborhood seems to be: “the-masses-are-stupid-and-I’m-way-smarter-than-them.” Most working people can feel their contempt and so we’re stuck between…a void and a vortex.

If you ask me to be part of some revolutionary “party” or “authority,” please don’t wait for me to wish you luck before waving at my disappearing back.

But if you tell me wage work is a con, that there’s no material or technological reason why I must continue enslaved and that we have to figure out a way to get ‘Power’ off our backs so we can finally live free like we’re supposed to be…well, then, at the very least, you’ve expressed solidarity and you’ve planted a seed.

Over forty years ago Herbert Marcuse diagnosed the critical problem facing we who believe in freedom – and yet the official American left has done nothing to advance his gift, isn’t focusing its energies around his insights. I’m sure unofficially it’s happening – among the dismissed, the non-pundits, the discounted. But, as Robert Shaw observed over forty years ago, them that could do something on a broader scale…aren’t bothered. ("Round And Round And Round We Go But Not Merrily")

We are the children of the technology. We cluster in front of our screens while we despise our neighbors. Narcissists all, we stomp around the Internet, graft our graffiti onto it, gossip lustily with our ‘friends,’ shoot hot air at each other while our earth is snatched away under our noses. We’ve lost ‘community organizing’ and we’ve lost ‘reverence.’

To regain what we’ve lost it’s essential to match passion for discourse with passion for doing.

Let me give you an example of someone who is about doing.

A man in Southwest Missouri called me the other day. He told me that he’d organized a hundred people, set a goal of a thousand new gardens by Earth Day, and by Earth Day they had four thousand. But he didn’t stop there. He imaginatively invokes project after project for waking people up: helping to launch their local Transition Town movement under the theme “Food, Energy and Economic Sovereignty” (one of their slogans is: “the best security is a well-fed neighbor”*), helping to organize a Fire The Grid global meditation for taking back the planet **, organizing an Alternative Energy Network meeting because “finding an alternative energy source is critical,” organizing video screenings of films that present essential information to his neighbors, exploring the home-schooling movement because it produces powerful unplugged children, organizing a World Food Banquet for the other people of his church to provide a concrete picture of what widening economic disparities means in terms of what’s on your plate. There’s endless things to do and he launches into them with gusto “because it’s fun!” he says. Granted this man is eighty and so has time, that precious, precious resource we’ve allowed to be stolen from us.

But many young people have time too. Some have been booted out of jobs and find themselves back with Moms or Pops. Some are bundling up in tatty apartments, sharing expenses precisely in order to free up time. They fiercely want to “unplug.”

But we can’t unplug our bodies if we don’t unplug our minds first. Only then can we realize our true work – which is freeing everyone – and then developing the habits and practices that will allow us to get good at it.

New skills have to be practiced to be applied to the really hard questions that ‘Power’ will plop in our laps – I say “will” because resource wars are already here. It’s just our relatively privileged position, swallowed whole in the belly of the beast – being more slowly digested – that allows (some of) us to not feel the heat.

It’s time to listen to our ancestors, take their hard-won truths to heart, settle in for the long haul…and start having some fun while we’re at it.

[Discussion continued in "Embracing The Plural" and also in "Becoming The Function", which asks that all progressives take a lot more seriously the degree to which the very conditioning of 'the job' itself will always, necessarily, subvert our efforts to move beyond a system based in exploitation...

...move beyond it to a world that (at last) can relax in reverence. In Waking Up, "The Two Winds (Part 6)" I argued that "Marx appealed to our reasoning, but it's our hearts that are broken." Once, through our analysis, this conclusion is arrived at, it's incumbent on us to counter capital with what it negates.

We've been conned into believing that everything has a price and that everything is a commodity. It is "The Responsibility Of The 'Intellectual'" to show that this is not the case. Embracing the mystery (see "Becoming The Function") returns ourselves to ourselves...restores balance.]

* Well-Fed Neighbor (www.WellFedNeighbor.com)

** Fire The Grid (http://www.firethegrid.com/eng09/FTGII.htm)

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Nas2EndWork "Pamela's Blogs":

Pamela's Blog 40

Published on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“Unplugging”