Becoming Real

Over the past five years, I have frequently written about imagination, intellectual development, isolation and public mental health. As part of that discussion, I have posted numerous commentaries on globalization and the widespread loss of faith in progress. More specifically, I explored how the lethal concept of progress perpetuates destructive arrogance.

Searching for a way out of this impasse, I entertained competing perspectives on governance and social evolution. At times, I examined the psychological warfare associated with the concept of progress, and how it has historically been challenged.

In some of these reflections, I observed how progressives are unable to deal with the phenomenon of what some have called culture death, and even noted why progressive values have failed.

But criticism of our dying culture is not enough; to obtain a new balance requires a new proposition. And for that we need a new form of engagement.

What I proposed as a graduate student ten years ago was that we establish humanities laboratories where activists and scholars and concerned citizens could gather face to face to have conversations about social communication, community revitalization, and other aspects of democratic renewal. When I proposed this type of venue, I was thinking of it as an actual physical location where experimentation and workshops could be conducted using communal broadcast, radio and Internet production facilities, as well as recording and editing equipment and technical support.

Since then, breakthroughs in self-publication, video creation and podcast have made individual expression easier, but the issue of interaction leading to deep discussion remains. A world of isolated producers still leaves us isolated. To develop our ideas and bring them to fruition requires that we meet with others in a give and take where the best solutions can emerge, and our communal bonds can be developed in ways that sustain our mental and spiritual health.

In this way, our virtual communities can become real.

The Power of Creation

Back in 2001, Tom Goldtooth wrote about the power of creation and human transformation. In his essay In the Native Way, published in Yes! magazine, Goldtooth described how some are finding their way back to sacredness.

From the Ruins

Over the last five hundred years, wealthy Europeans devastated the original societies of the Americas. Of course, they had a lot of enthusiastic help from less than wealthy Europeans, but by and large they grew rich while the rest of us muddled by.

Now that they have cannibalized the system that supplanted the indigenous one, many are left wondering how we got into this mess, and how we can get out of it. The answer is simpler than it might seem.

Correcting the moral flaw that enabled such colossal theft does not require intellectual genius or vast sums; what it does require is political engagement and moral commitment. As we rebuild our society from the ruins demolished by Wall Street, Congress and the White House, we now know that moral leadership cannot be found in any of these corrupted institutions. As we fight to defeat the predatory mindset from which they operate, we will simultaneously instruct and hopefully inoculate the young against this aggressive disease.

Dreams of Humanity

The success of the rule of law depends on who is making the law, or breaking it. The failure of the rule of law occurs when those people are one and the same.

The failure, dramatized in the WTO Ministerial in Seattle and numerous gatherings by lawless milieux since, demonstrate only a continuity of the rule of force--the underpinning of the distribution of power in most domestic and international institutions today. Changing the relationships between forceful and peaceful peoples, especially between indigenous nations and industrial states, can thus not be accomplished through existing venues.

In order to reconcile current conflicts and achieve meaningful resolution of power imbalance requires new methods, new attitudes, and new ideas. Naturally, those ideas will not come from those who rule by force; to accomplish the dreams of humanity, they will have to step aside.

Consuming Consciousness

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California, I've had occasion to encounter enlightenment as entertainment, where vicarious visions are a perpetual part of consuming consciousness. Harmless heureux, perhaps, except for the problem of reneging on reciprocity.

As an industry, their gatherings are growing in popularity, possibly in response to the collapse of globalization. As an act of desperate consumption, compelled by moral panic, these portals to awareness are unfortunately hampered by process.

If one is merely a celebrity, tourist or missionary, then you probably won't notice.

Multiculturalism

Toronto's model schools promote multiculturalism by including aboriginal curricula and Ojibwe language classes.

Unelecting Obama

Paying lip service to popular messages might be enough to hoodwink white progressives, but Obama's disingenuous promises to Latinos is going to be a tough sell after the escalated raids and deportations by his administration. Black Agenda Report examines why they may be more than willing to unelect Obama in 2012.