Challenging a Corporate-Based Society
How can we change the whole basis for American corporate-based society, when so many perceive it as the source of their financial and material stability and comfort?
We can anticipate that the first question in some reformers minds will be: “Can we presume to alter society so fundamentally, and risk depriving people of this sense of stability and comfort?”
If this weighty question blocks us from proceeding, it will be at the cost of the planet, not to mention that valued but vulnerable stability and temporary comfort. But I recognize that it is not enough to make this assertion. How do we change perceptions of the problem, so that the many, who have no choice in current privileged minority decision-making process under the corporate state, see that their stability and comfort come at a cost they are no longer willing to pay?
To ask it more pointedly: how can we strategically create a People’s Movement that rejects the usurpations of a corporate state, even at risk of stability and comfort?
At Democracy School we spend insufficient time considering how People’s Movements of the past succeeded in driving their values into lore and law. It has been immensely helpful to me to study not just the history, but the tactical, strategic and personal stories of Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison was often accused of being a radical, who asked for too much too fast. He identified himself as an “immediatist,” who demanded no delay in ending slavery, no “reforms,” but only immediate abolition.
In terms of strategy, many historians criticize the Garrisonian Abolitionists. They called not only for immediate emancipation, but also for equality of the sexes, an end to capital punishment, and other steps to perfect society. It was all too much for conservative “reformers” of the day, and for chroniclers of the time, who were fine with Abolition, but who saw the rest of Garrison’s causes as threatening the stability of society, and in particular the conservative Christian sects that found biblical justification for the oppressions identified by the other causes.
Aileen Kraditor, in her book “Means and Ends in American Abolitionism: Garrison and His Critics on Strategy and Tactics, 1834-1850″ makes a compelling argument that, without asking for the whole ball of wax, Garrison would not have succeeded in moving northern white supremacists to the cause of emancipation. Why? Because it was necessary to create what today we might call “cognitive dissonance” between what it meant to be a Christian and what the average “Christian” was willing to stand up for. If slavery was working just fine for the average American who was satisfied with the stability and comfort life afforded under the slave state (Abolitionsim in the 1830’s - 1840’s was extremely unpopular), then it would be necessary to create a disconnect between what people believed they believed and what they experience daily, between their self image and their real world.
In terms of current organizing, we may or may not want to or be able to target the conservative clergy, move heaven and earth and split them from their congregations by setting up “cognitive dissonance” between what believers believe they stand for and what they experience. On the other hand, causing the average American to value fundamental rights more highly than her or his automobile, 401K plan and mortgage may seem like an even larger Herculean task. But the Garrisonian parallel is worth considering. Americans have deep-rooted beliefs in the legend and mythos of “America.” Making visible the disconnect between those ideals and the structure of law that sustains and nourishes the corporate state: that seems to be the direction laid out before us.
- Posted by BenGPrice@aol.com, CELDF
on June 30th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Points here that Ben Price brings to light touches on thoughts and perceptions I have had for some time regarding the issues facing all of us in challenging the onslaught of the corporate Borg. Understanding the nature of the ‘cognitive dissonance’ inherent in our society is an excellent and important one, and one that could and should be kept in mind at all times while engaged in our various efforts at cultivating positive change in how we live in the world we inhabit. I think this posting is right on target to make it a focal point in approaching the issues we have to face in our daily struggles.
The recognition that facts and reason may not be enough in enlightening people and inspiring them to act is an important one. Any effort, any endeavor at trying to create some sort of change in the process of how we organize ourselves in running our society and each of our roles in it will be limited in effectiveness without true compassion and understanding as to where each person in that society really is, intellectually, perceptively, spiritually. One can only be so effective in pulling one towards one’s own perspective. A truly effective form of communication involves going to where the other is, and delivering your truth to them in a way they can comprehend, in a way they can process it.
Price’s statement here does contain something of specific note relating to this, in that he writes “causing the average American to value fundamental rights more highly than her or his automobile, 401K plan and mortgage may seem like an even larger Herculean task.”
This statement could potentially imply that one can ’cause’ someone to understand anything, really, and puts a heck of a lot of pressure and responsibility on oneself to try to be that ’cause’. One cannot ’cause’ anyone to understand or learn anything. One can only offer it, provide it, encourage it. In the hands of a weaker or more deficient person, this sense of being capable of ‘causing’ an awareness or action on the part of another can become a source of hubris and righteous arrogance, in that they picture themselves as capable of actually being that ’cause’, or responsible for it. This can potentially become the seed of zealotry and intolerance, which again, historically, has led to much more negative rather than positive actions by its adherents. A world where means becomes disconnected from ends, which when that happens, you have thus reached the point of complete failure in your stated objective. The means always ARE the ends, and the failure to understand that, or having the courage to act upon it, is the root cause of pretty much all the problems we face in our lives, our society, our world.
Another point Ben brought to light is that of “Americans have deep-rooted beliefs in the legend and mythos of “America.” As he stated, making visible the disconnect between those ideals and the structure of law that sustains the corporate state is very much the way to go. However, I would suggest that it is important not to confuse that with confronting the mythos itself, or people’s belief in or adherence to it or them. The mythos of America, its idealized story and principles it espouses, is not the enemy or the problem. Myths are essential to the nurture of meaningful life, and to rooting us to deeper purposes and values for that life. Challenging the myth itself is unnecessary, potentially confrontational and counterproductive, even destructive. If you attack, disparage or disregard the myth, then there is nothing to connect it to with people, no identifying or common uniting bond to resonate with them.
As stated, the disconnect, the cognitive dissonance, between the aims and intentions of most Americans with the actual realities and results of their actions (or inactions) is the important thing to be confronted. Connecting the dots between realities, between what is intended and what results. And this will only be accomplished through providing the means of understanding, through education and enlightenment in connecting those dots for people to better understand. This can and should be done in whatever ways opened and available to us all, for us all. The seeds of effective civic and political initiative, and the successful flowering of those actions into meaningful, positive result, can only happen if the soil those seeds are sown in is properly tilled and fertilized (to say nothing of the climate being healthy, which as we know is in question, both figuratively and quite literally).
Unfortunately, it is apparent that too much of that soil of America is markedly deficient at this current time for those seeds to take effective root. Issues surrounding climate change might actually serve as the tipping point for people to heal that ‘cognitive dissonance’ between their perceived intentions and actual on the ground realities.
We can become frustrated, impatient and angry that this is the case, or we can start doing whatever we can, wherever we can, with whatever means available, to pick up whatever tools we have available and start tilling. Thanks to the work of many, including Ben Price and his colleagues with CELDF, we know that once that soil is ripe, there are many important seeds to be planted.
- Andy Valeri, USTV Media