I've talked a lot lately about my view of strategies for social change. (See my pieces on Strategy, 1/24/16, Now What?, 1/22/17, and TINA is the Enemy, 1/27/17.) While I talk about the need for activism, I see a lot of my work as being in organizing alternatives, and I really see the importance of the education/consciousness shifting work. While my work on the Commune Life blog definitely fits into this, I see a need for a lot more work in this area. I think that education, in many ways, is the neglected piece of the triangle.
As I've been wondering how to work on the education piece, I realize that the real problem isn't a need for more information. There's lots and lots of information out there. In fact, maybe there's too much information out there--people complain of information overload. (This blog, for example, has almost 450 posts. That's a lot of information to deal with.) The old rule is to show rather than tell, but I think even better than showing is to engage people's curiosity. If they have to find out the information themselves, they may be more interested and remember it longer.
A while ago, I came up with the idea of throwing out questions. In this over connected age, it's not hard for people to find answers but my hope is that in looking for the answers, this might engage people better.
I've thought of several ways to do this. One could be graffiti. If someone saw a question on a wall, they might be curious about the answer. There might be places online where you could post questions as well. We could make these into memes. There's probably several other ways to get these questions out. But what questions? What could we ask that would make people curious, seek out answers, learn and think.
So here's a list of some questions. This is really only a beginning but may give you ideas about what you could put out there. Feel free to put these questions out into the world and add others. I think this could be a great way to engage and educate people.
Here are the questions I came up with:
Who was Audre Lorde?
Who was Emma Goldman?
Who was Sojourner Truth?
Who was Bayard Rustin?
Who was Rosa Luxemburg?
Who was Grace Lee Boggs?
Who were the Haudenosaunee?
What is Civilian-based Defense?
What is Nonviolent Communication?
What is Permaculture?
What is Ecofeminism?
What is the Federation of Egalitarian Communities?
What is Parecon?
What is Libertarian Municipalism?
What is Gross National Happiness?
What is emergence?
What is decentralization?
What was Limits to Growth?
When were the Rochdale Principles written?
When were the Diggers (both the English originals and the San Francisco activists) active?
What did Martin Luther King and Malcolm X have in common?
Were the apostles communists?
Were the Mbuti egalitarian?
What questions would you ask?
Quote of the Day: "We awaken by asking the right questions." ― Suzy Kassem
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Same Sex Marriage and Social Change
In spite of how it feels sometimes, social change happens--and it sometimes happens fairly quickly. The Vietnam War was ended. Racism is not okay today. It still exists, even if we have a black president, but the very fact that Obama is in office shows how much things have shifted. Discrimination against women is no longer okay either, even if the Equal Rights Amendment never passed.
But if you want to see the speed at which things can shift, look at what's happened over the last decade with same sex marriage. Prior to 2012, thirty states banned it--including eleven states which voted to ban it in 2004 and seven more voting to ban it in 2006. However, last year four states voted in favor of it. It's now legal in twelve states and the District of Columbia, and one of last week's Supreme Court decisions made California the thirteenth state. The polls have shifted over the last five years from a majority of the country opposing same sex marriage to a majority favoring it. I think the Supreme Court was pushed into their twin decisions last week. It wasn't hard to see which way the wind was blowing.
While some of this has come about because of protests and other actions, I think most of the change was due to hard work in what I will call 'education' and Joanna Macy refers to as 'A Shift in Consciousness'. (For more about these ways of looking at social change strategy, see my posts on Creating Social Change, 7/2/08, The Great Turning, 1/15/09, and Social Change: My View, 6/29/10.) I think that change came about mostly because queer marriage activists kept putting out one clear, simple message: "I deserve the right to marry the person I love." They made it clear that this was a matter of fairness and justice.
On Wednesday of this week I went to a public reading (led by the governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick) of a speech by Frederick Douglass, "The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro". It was given in 1852 before the civil war and the end of slavery. It was a powerful speech, mainly because Frederick Douglass had one clear message in it: slavery was inhuman and violates all the principles implied in the American Revolution. He makes a very clear and simple case for it--this is just wrong and there can be no argument about it.
I think that the climate change people are trying to do something similar now--putting out a message that fossil fuels cause climate change and we are going to need to stop using them. We'll see how well it can be heard.
At some point, I'm hoping the message will get out that our whole way of life is oppressive and not sustainable and that we could live very differently--and live quite well. It's a hard message to get out, but I take heart when I see what's happening with same sex marriage, and what happened with slavery. Social change is indeed possible, but it takes time and persistence.
Quote of the Day: "But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? ...
"Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employments for my time and strength than such argument would imply." - Frederick Douglass
But if you want to see the speed at which things can shift, look at what's happened over the last decade with same sex marriage. Prior to 2012, thirty states banned it--including eleven states which voted to ban it in 2004 and seven more voting to ban it in 2006. However, last year four states voted in favor of it. It's now legal in twelve states and the District of Columbia, and one of last week's Supreme Court decisions made California the thirteenth state. The polls have shifted over the last five years from a majority of the country opposing same sex marriage to a majority favoring it. I think the Supreme Court was pushed into their twin decisions last week. It wasn't hard to see which way the wind was blowing.
While some of this has come about because of protests and other actions, I think most of the change was due to hard work in what I will call 'education' and Joanna Macy refers to as 'A Shift in Consciousness'. (For more about these ways of looking at social change strategy, see my posts on Creating Social Change, 7/2/08, The Great Turning, 1/15/09, and Social Change: My View, 6/29/10.) I think that change came about mostly because queer marriage activists kept putting out one clear, simple message: "I deserve the right to marry the person I love." They made it clear that this was a matter of fairness and justice.
On Wednesday of this week I went to a public reading (led by the governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick) of a speech by Frederick Douglass, "The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro". It was given in 1852 before the civil war and the end of slavery. It was a powerful speech, mainly because Frederick Douglass had one clear message in it: slavery was inhuman and violates all the principles implied in the American Revolution. He makes a very clear and simple case for it--this is just wrong and there can be no argument about it.
I think that the climate change people are trying to do something similar now--putting out a message that fossil fuels cause climate change and we are going to need to stop using them. We'll see how well it can be heard.
At some point, I'm hoping the message will get out that our whole way of life is oppressive and not sustainable and that we could live very differently--and live quite well. It's a hard message to get out, but I take heart when I see what's happening with same sex marriage, and what happened with slavery. Social change is indeed possible, but it takes time and persistence.
Quote of the Day: "But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? ...
"Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employments for my time and strength than such argument would imply." - Frederick Douglass
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Lessons from Pennsylvania
Sorry about the long delay in posting. (over a month, I know.) I'm back in the Boston area after many adventures. (Quite a few of them involving travel--my most recent was trying to return to Boston last Friday when the city and the public transit system were shut down. If you've been following the news you know why.)
I just spent a month in Pennsylvania. I learned a lot of things in my time there. I worked on projects involving hugelkultur and sheet mulching. One of the people there has a very different method of doing humanure (see my post on Humanure, 1/10/13) involving newspaper. It was a bit tricky but it was useful to learn. I took a field trip to Lancaster to learn about the Amish and Mennonites. I didn't actually go to any Amish locations but I did have an interesting conversation with a Mennonite man who had some insights into why the plain clothes (this was what the common people wore when the Amish were starting out--as opposed to the dress of the aristocracy) and why the Anabaptists (the ancestors of the Amish and Mennonites) and early Quakers were persecuted (the imperialists are always interested in getting rid of those who threaten their way of life).
I also gave a few presentations--one on sprouting (see my post on Sprouts!, 2/26/10) and another (of course) on intentional community.
A bigger learning was from watching these folks and how they were trying to set up something. It turned out not to be what I wanted and I'm not sure that they're actually going to get what they want (I'm not even sure they know what they want) but it makes some of the things that get in the way of building community much more apparent to me.
Probably the most important learning I had was about the ways I don't communicate clearly. There was a bit of misunderstanding that happened and I could see how I contributed to much of it. I did try to leave there well but I'm very clear that I need to work on some of my stuff if I'm going to build community (feedback that I got from others as well). As one of my friends puts it, "Wherever you go, there you are."
Quote of the Day: "The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Friday, August 17, 2012
Biology 101: A Premature Wrap
I'll be traveling soon so I'm trying to tie up lots of loose ends. I'm still reading that Biology book, but I have neither the time nor the energy (at least at this point) to cover any more topics.
In any case, even at this point the most enlightening things I read were the stuff on cellular respiration and photosynthesis and I'm glad I put out detailed posts on them. (See Biology 101: Cellular Respiration, 5/10/12, and Biology 101: Photosynthesis, 5/17/12.)
I've since studied things like cellular communication, genetics, evolution, plant biology (aka botony), and I'm currently reading through "Animal Structure and Function" (aka anatomy and physiology--with a side trip through nutrition). I just finished an interesting chapter (and side readings) on the immune system (which is a *lot* more complicated than I thought) and I'm currently reading about temperature regulation, water balance, and the excretory system. I'm hoping to finish all the animal A&P before I leave, but I know I won't have time to get into the final section of the book which is on ecology, something I'd really like to have a mainstream scientific understanding of. So I will be keeping this big heavy textbook, both so I can read the ecology section at some point and because this is such a great reference for so many things that I'm interested in.
I would recommend to anyone interested in knowing how life works that they pick up a used (or free, if you can find it) relatively current college Bio textbook. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Quote of the Day: "Biology, the study of life, is rooted in the human spirit. ... Biology is the scientific extension of this human tendency to feel connected to and curious about all forms of life. It is a science for adventurous minds." - Neil Campbell and Jane Reece
In any case, even at this point the most enlightening things I read were the stuff on cellular respiration and photosynthesis and I'm glad I put out detailed posts on them. (See Biology 101: Cellular Respiration, 5/10/12, and Biology 101: Photosynthesis, 5/17/12.)
I've since studied things like cellular communication, genetics, evolution, plant biology (aka botony), and I'm currently reading through "Animal Structure and Function" (aka anatomy and physiology--with a side trip through nutrition). I just finished an interesting chapter (and side readings) on the immune system (which is a *lot* more complicated than I thought) and I'm currently reading about temperature regulation, water balance, and the excretory system. I'm hoping to finish all the animal A&P before I leave, but I know I won't have time to get into the final section of the book which is on ecology, something I'd really like to have a mainstream scientific understanding of. So I will be keeping this big heavy textbook, both so I can read the ecology section at some point and because this is such a great reference for so many things that I'm interested in.
I would recommend to anyone interested in knowing how life works that they pick up a used (or free, if you can find it) relatively current college Bio textbook. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Quote of the Day: "Biology, the study of life, is rooted in the human spirit. ... Biology is the scientific extension of this human tendency to feel connected to and curious about all forms of life. It is a science for adventurous minds." - Neil Campbell and Jane Reece
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Survival Resources 5: Winter Tree ID
In late November, a friend and I went on an expedition to learn some foraging and other outdoor skills. She asked me how well I could identify trees. I said that was easy; I could tell a maple from an oak and...
Then I realized how I could tell the two trees apart was by their leaves--but at this point in the season, the trees didn't have any leaves. That's when she began to teach me winter tree identification.
The first thing she taught me was 'MAD Cap Horse'--this is a mnemonic to help remember which trees and shrubs have opposite leaves and branches: Maple, Ash, Dogwood, Caprifoliaceae, and Horse chestnuts. (Caprifoliaceae is a group of plants that include honeysuckle and elderberries.)
After that we began looking at buds which are pretty interesting unto themselves. Beech buds are long and pointed, maple buds often look like little three fingered mitts, oaks have clusters that are really complex looking, dogwood have buds that look like tiny sculptures of onions, and magnolia have soft, fuzzy buds.
I am just beginning learning this process, but I think it will prove useful in many ways--including how to identify tree that have an edible inner bark. (See my last post on Foraging.) But I also think this is part of recovering our basic ecological literacy.
A useful resource for learning winter skills (at least in Central and Eastern US and Canada) is the Winter Finders Set from Nature Study Guild Publishers. This includes a Winter Tree Finder, a Winter Weed Finder, and a Track Finder--all of which have a useful format to help you identify what you are looking at. (Each of these little booklets can be purchased separately.)
Quote of the Day: "Have you explored the miracle of buds? Observing eyes quickly find them, large and small, on bushes and trees in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. To identify buds it is important to notice their arrangement on the twig. ...
"A few inches from the tip of your twig you an discover several lines or rings close together. These growth rings were left when the bud scales of last year's terminal bud fell off. They show last year's growth or how much the twig grew in one year. Now look for the next ring further down. That marked the end of the twig two years ago. Starting at the tip of the twig, count the growth rings to get the age of the twig." - Marjorie Smith
Then I realized how I could tell the two trees apart was by their leaves--but at this point in the season, the trees didn't have any leaves. That's when she began to teach me winter tree identification.
The first thing she taught me was 'MAD Cap Horse'--this is a mnemonic to help remember which trees and shrubs have opposite leaves and branches: Maple, Ash, Dogwood, Caprifoliaceae, and Horse chestnuts. (Caprifoliaceae is a group of plants that include honeysuckle and elderberries.)
After that we began looking at buds which are pretty interesting unto themselves. Beech buds are long and pointed, maple buds often look like little three fingered mitts, oaks have clusters that are really complex looking, dogwood have buds that look like tiny sculptures of onions, and magnolia have soft, fuzzy buds.
I am just beginning learning this process, but I think it will prove useful in many ways--including how to identify tree that have an edible inner bark. (See my last post on Foraging.) But I also think this is part of recovering our basic ecological literacy.
A useful resource for learning winter skills (at least in Central and Eastern US and Canada) is the Winter Finders Set from Nature Study Guild Publishers. This includes a Winter Tree Finder, a Winter Weed Finder, and a Track Finder--all of which have a useful format to help you identify what you are looking at. (Each of these little booklets can be purchased separately.)
Quote of the Day: "Have you explored the miracle of buds? Observing eyes quickly find them, large and small, on bushes and trees in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. To identify buds it is important to notice their arrangement on the twig. ...
"A few inches from the tip of your twig you an discover several lines or rings close together. These growth rings were left when the bud scales of last year's terminal bud fell off. They show last year's growth or how much the twig grew in one year. Now look for the next ring further down. That marked the end of the twig two years ago. Starting at the tip of the twig, count the growth rings to get the age of the twig." - Marjorie Smith
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Two Hundred
Blogger informs me that this is my two hundredth post. It's hard to believe that I've written that much.
It's the middle of the first week of 2010. Between the new year and the milestone post number, I am taking this as another opportunity to look around at what I've written, and more importantly, what I'm planning to write.
At this point I am finally posting when I want to and about what I want, which is what most people do with their blogs. I have completed three long series in this blog, the first on what I believe, the second on US history, and the third on what our real needs are. I've also turned my first six months of posts into two zines--the latest being made up of the series 'What I Believe'.
I have said that I would do two things, one with my zine and the other with my blog. Now I am not sure of either of them. In fact, one of them I am not going to do.
I said at the end of the last zine that I would make the zine based on my series about US history. In fact, considering all I wrote in that series, I said the next zine would be Part One of US history. I've changed my mind. At this point, as far as I know, I've made absolutely no money from the zines. As the woman at the copy place said, this has been a labor of love. In fact, I have given a bunch of the zines to friends and family as well as places (good places that I wanted to support) that have sold them and pocketed the money with my blessing. I am glad to have gotten the information out into the world, but it has been costly and makes me think about what I really want to do with the zine. The stuff on US history just doesn't seem that important to me, so I am now planning to skip it. I do want to get out one more zine, probably some time in the spring, putting the series I wrote on real needs into print. We will see if I publish any issues beyond that.
And I have been saying since early on that I would write a series on education/changing consciousness. It needs to be done and I should do it, but I'm wavering and I am not sure when I will do it if I do it. Unlike the other series, I am not juiced to write about this and I'm not clear exactly how I would frame it and I am a bit burnt out on writing series. Plus, I am hoping this year to create the community I've been dreaming of and would rather put my energy into that.
I do have a bunch of posts that I am planning to write however. I am not abandoning this blog. Besides book reviews on some of what I am reading (I won't bore anyone with reviews on some of texts I've been reading on ecology and soil science, but I have also been reading some stuff I do plan on reviewing) I am planning to write posts on a bunch of interesting things that I have been learning about or thinking about. Upcoming topics include Prisoner's Dilemma, Passive House, and Embodied Energy as well as a post on what makes me want to work for change. I am also considering one on making decisions and another on (believe it or not) smoking. I also have two chapters from my last zine that I wrote fresh and I'm now thinking of converting into posts. I'm not sure all of these will make it into print but this is what I'm thinking at this point.
I do appreciate the opportunity that blogger gives me to put my thoughts out in cyberspace (as well as being able to read and comment on lots of other interesting blogs). Still, as fascinating as 'virtual communities' are, I'm yearning for flesh and blood connections.
Those are my thoughts now--I make no guarantees about the future.
Quote of the Day: "...life don't clickety clack down a straight line track, It comes together and it comes apart..." - Ferron
It's the middle of the first week of 2010. Between the new year and the milestone post number, I am taking this as another opportunity to look around at what I've written, and more importantly, what I'm planning to write.
At this point I am finally posting when I want to and about what I want, which is what most people do with their blogs. I have completed three long series in this blog, the first on what I believe, the second on US history, and the third on what our real needs are. I've also turned my first six months of posts into two zines--the latest being made up of the series 'What I Believe'.
I have said that I would do two things, one with my zine and the other with my blog. Now I am not sure of either of them. In fact, one of them I am not going to do.
I said at the end of the last zine that I would make the zine based on my series about US history. In fact, considering all I wrote in that series, I said the next zine would be Part One of US history. I've changed my mind. At this point, as far as I know, I've made absolutely no money from the zines. As the woman at the copy place said, this has been a labor of love. In fact, I have given a bunch of the zines to friends and family as well as places (good places that I wanted to support) that have sold them and pocketed the money with my blessing. I am glad to have gotten the information out into the world, but it has been costly and makes me think about what I really want to do with the zine. The stuff on US history just doesn't seem that important to me, so I am now planning to skip it. I do want to get out one more zine, probably some time in the spring, putting the series I wrote on real needs into print. We will see if I publish any issues beyond that.
And I have been saying since early on that I would write a series on education/changing consciousness. It needs to be done and I should do it, but I'm wavering and I am not sure when I will do it if I do it. Unlike the other series, I am not juiced to write about this and I'm not clear exactly how I would frame it and I am a bit burnt out on writing series. Plus, I am hoping this year to create the community I've been dreaming of and would rather put my energy into that.
I do have a bunch of posts that I am planning to write however. I am not abandoning this blog. Besides book reviews on some of what I am reading (I won't bore anyone with reviews on some of texts I've been reading on ecology and soil science, but I have also been reading some stuff I do plan on reviewing) I am planning to write posts on a bunch of interesting things that I have been learning about or thinking about. Upcoming topics include Prisoner's Dilemma, Passive House, and Embodied Energy as well as a post on what makes me want to work for change. I am also considering one on making decisions and another on (believe it or not) smoking. I also have two chapters from my last zine that I wrote fresh and I'm now thinking of converting into posts. I'm not sure all of these will make it into print but this is what I'm thinking at this point.
I do appreciate the opportunity that blogger gives me to put my thoughts out in cyberspace (as well as being able to read and comment on lots of other interesting blogs). Still, as fascinating as 'virtual communities' are, I'm yearning for flesh and blood connections.
Those are my thoughts now--I make no guarantees about the future.
Quote of the Day: "...life don't clickety clack down a straight line track, It comes together and it comes apart..." - Ferron
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The Great Turning
I am skeptical of those who insist that a great change is upon us and that everything will be different soon. I've heard this too many times.
I heard it from Charles Reich in the seventies talking about The Greening of America and how 'Consciousness III' would be taking over soon. Somehow America doesn't look all that green nearly forty years later. I heard it from Marilyn Ferguson in the eighties talking about The Aquarian Conspiracy and how that was going to change everything. The Conspiracy seems to have disappeared without causing any major changes. Recently I have been hearing Paul Hawken claiming that the Blessed Unrest that he sees is "the largest movement in the world" and how it "has the potential to heal the planet". I'd love to believe it but I've been there before.
So it may seem strange that I am so excited about something called 'The Great Turning'. But the term does not refer to an event predicted to come; the Great Turning refers to choices that must be made. It begins with a similar idea to Reich, Ferguson, Hawken, etc--that there is an epic shift coming. The actual term was first used by activists against nuclear war working for 'conflict transformation'. It was taken up by Joanna Macy, who not only has been involved in antinuclear war activism, but in the deep ecology movement and engaged Buddhism. In an interview in Yes! magazine, she pointed out that "...we might not pull it off. There's no guarantee that this tremendous shift will kick in before our life support systems unravel irretrievably."
It has further been developed as a book by David Korten, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. I haven't read the book, but some of the ideas I've seen seem interesting, especially his notions of 'Empire' and 'Earth Community'. Still, it is the articles by Joanna Macy that impress me.
David Korten admits he got the term from Joanna Macy, and said that when he asked her to use it, she said that it "should be a public term that is used by everyone and owned by no one."
The thing that most fascinates me about Joanna Macy's ideas are what she refers to as the 'Three Dimensions' necessary to create the change. Briefly, according to Joanna Macy, they are: "1. Actions to slow the damage to Earth and its beings; 2. Analysis of structural causes and the creation of structural alternatives; and 3. A Shift in Consciousness." When I first heard this I thought immediately of the slogan I first heard in the early eighties when I was in Detroit: "Agitate, educate, organize." (For more of this see my post from 7/2/08.) I related the 'Actions to slow damage' to Agitating, the 'creation of structural alternatives' to Organizing, and the 'Shift in Consciousness' to Educating. As I said in my original post, there's been a lot of good agitating, I think we need more good organizing (that is, creating more alternatives and more resilient alternatives), and that we haven't done that well at educating. But it's useful to see what she sees as happening. It's also important to remember, as she points out, we need work in all three dimensions simutaneously. Not that every one of us needs to work in all three, but we need to support the work in each of these areas.
As I've said since the beginning of this blog, it isn't any one thing that creates change (see my post of 6/28/08). We need to connect it all, and I suppose that would include Charles Reich's 'Greening of America', Marilyn Ferguson's 'Aquarian Conspiracy', and Paul Hawken's 'Blessed Unrest'. There isn't any guarantee of success, but when we do connect it together, the agitating and 'actions', the organizing of 'structural alternatives', and the education for a 'Shift in Consciousness', we become more powerful. More powerful than they want us to be and possibly powerful enough to make a difference.
Quote of the Day: "Let us sing this song for the turning of the world, that we may turn as one.
With every voice, with every song,
we will move this world along,
and our lives will feel the echo of our turning." - Ruth Pelham
I heard it from Charles Reich in the seventies talking about The Greening of America and how 'Consciousness III' would be taking over soon. Somehow America doesn't look all that green nearly forty years later. I heard it from Marilyn Ferguson in the eighties talking about The Aquarian Conspiracy and how that was going to change everything. The Conspiracy seems to have disappeared without causing any major changes. Recently I have been hearing Paul Hawken claiming that the Blessed Unrest that he sees is "the largest movement in the world" and how it "has the potential to heal the planet". I'd love to believe it but I've been there before.
So it may seem strange that I am so excited about something called 'The Great Turning'. But the term does not refer to an event predicted to come; the Great Turning refers to choices that must be made. It begins with a similar idea to Reich, Ferguson, Hawken, etc--that there is an epic shift coming. The actual term was first used by activists against nuclear war working for 'conflict transformation'. It was taken up by Joanna Macy, who not only has been involved in antinuclear war activism, but in the deep ecology movement and engaged Buddhism. In an interview in Yes! magazine, she pointed out that "...we might not pull it off. There's no guarantee that this tremendous shift will kick in before our life support systems unravel irretrievably."
It has further been developed as a book by David Korten, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. I haven't read the book, but some of the ideas I've seen seem interesting, especially his notions of 'Empire' and 'Earth Community'. Still, it is the articles by Joanna Macy that impress me.
David Korten admits he got the term from Joanna Macy, and said that when he asked her to use it, she said that it "should be a public term that is used by everyone and owned by no one."
The thing that most fascinates me about Joanna Macy's ideas are what she refers to as the 'Three Dimensions' necessary to create the change. Briefly, according to Joanna Macy, they are: "1. Actions to slow the damage to Earth and its beings; 2. Analysis of structural causes and the creation of structural alternatives; and 3. A Shift in Consciousness." When I first heard this I thought immediately of the slogan I first heard in the early eighties when I was in Detroit: "Agitate, educate, organize." (For more of this see my post from 7/2/08.) I related the 'Actions to slow damage' to Agitating, the 'creation of structural alternatives' to Organizing, and the 'Shift in Consciousness' to Educating. As I said in my original post, there's been a lot of good agitating, I think we need more good organizing (that is, creating more alternatives and more resilient alternatives), and that we haven't done that well at educating. But it's useful to see what she sees as happening. It's also important to remember, as she points out, we need work in all three dimensions simutaneously. Not that every one of us needs to work in all three, but we need to support the work in each of these areas.
As I've said since the beginning of this blog, it isn't any one thing that creates change (see my post of 6/28/08). We need to connect it all, and I suppose that would include Charles Reich's 'Greening of America', Marilyn Ferguson's 'Aquarian Conspiracy', and Paul Hawken's 'Blessed Unrest'. There isn't any guarantee of success, but when we do connect it together, the agitating and 'actions', the organizing of 'structural alternatives', and the education for a 'Shift in Consciousness', we become more powerful. More powerful than they want us to be and possibly powerful enough to make a difference.
Quote of the Day: "Let us sing this song for the turning of the world, that we may turn as one.
With every voice, with every song,
we will move this world along,
and our lives will feel the echo of our turning." - Ruth Pelham
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Education
Maslow defines his fourth level of needs as 'Esteem' needs. Manfred Max-Neef's labels his 'fourth' level as 'Understanding' needs. Different, but I see them as related in that understanding often leads to esteem. But there are different meanings of understanding--besides understanding each other, there are ways of understanding the world. In this segment, I am going to look at education as a need and a way of understanding the world.
In some senses, in order to survive in the world, we need at least some type of education. Our parents, other adults, and even older children often teach us things we need to know. Hopefully we keep learning as an adult. I thought I mentioned spending time alone in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in an earlier post (but I can't find it). This was when I realized that I would never really be alone because everything I did out there, I learned from someone else. This is what education is really about. The idea of lifelong learning is really true--we can and should be learning as long as we are alive.
There are many ways of learning, both for children and adults. I am not going to take sides in the home schooling vs public school debate--there are things to be said for both. The big issue is what and how is each child learning. In a sense, even a child who goes off to school, is also (hopefully) home schooled--in the sense that they won't stop learning when they are not in school.
At some point I want to write a whole segment on education--how to change public consciousness and behavior in order to achieve real social change. (I began this blog with a post that talked about the slogan 'Agitate, educate, organize'. I've critiqued the left's overemphasis on agitating, and talked quite a bit on organizing--in fact, this whole section on needs can be seen as what we need in order to do some effective reorganizing--but I haven't gotten it together to do a massive exploration of education. I think it's going to be quite a while yet before I take that on.)
I've tried to include some useful material on education in the resource section, but a book I won't include (unfortunately) is Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I love the ideas in it and hate how it's written. The book is too academic to recommend to a general audience. But Freire's concepts are great: the view of much schooling as a 'banking' view of education (putting in a deposit of facts that can be withdrawn later) and the need for teaching critical thinking. He pointed out that true radical education doesn't mean replacing the slogans of the right with the slogans of the left--it means teaching people to think for themselves.
Education is a real need--for our children (and their children) as well as for each of us. If this society, as we know it, collapses, we will still need education. Of course, what we will be learning may be quite different, but it will be education nevertheless. It makes sense for each of us to learn what we can and pass it on.
Resources:
Education for Liberation Network--A 'coalition of teachers, community activists, youth, researchers and parents' interested in education for social justice
Free Skool--Information on the anarchist based 'Free Skool' movement
Jan and Jason Hunt, The Unschooling Unmanual--A book of stories and essays on 'unschooling', a curriculum-free method of home schooling, that is 'child directed'; the book is available through The Natural Child Project
The International Association for Learning Alternatives--An organization dedicated to promoting choices and alternatives in education
The National Home Education Research Institute--An organization devoted to studying homeschooling and making research information available
SkillShare Austin and Boston Skillshare--Local attempts to have people educate each other; a great way to learn new things; I went to the last Boston Skillshare, had a blast, and learned a lot; I highly recommend it
Quote of the Day: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela
In some senses, in order to survive in the world, we need at least some type of education. Our parents, other adults, and even older children often teach us things we need to know. Hopefully we keep learning as an adult. I thought I mentioned spending time alone in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in an earlier post (but I can't find it). This was when I realized that I would never really be alone because everything I did out there, I learned from someone else. This is what education is really about. The idea of lifelong learning is really true--we can and should be learning as long as we are alive.
There are many ways of learning, both for children and adults. I am not going to take sides in the home schooling vs public school debate--there are things to be said for both. The big issue is what and how is each child learning. In a sense, even a child who goes off to school, is also (hopefully) home schooled--in the sense that they won't stop learning when they are not in school.
At some point I want to write a whole segment on education--how to change public consciousness and behavior in order to achieve real social change. (I began this blog with a post that talked about the slogan 'Agitate, educate, organize'. I've critiqued the left's overemphasis on agitating, and talked quite a bit on organizing--in fact, this whole section on needs can be seen as what we need in order to do some effective reorganizing--but I haven't gotten it together to do a massive exploration of education. I think it's going to be quite a while yet before I take that on.)
I've tried to include some useful material on education in the resource section, but a book I won't include (unfortunately) is Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I love the ideas in it and hate how it's written. The book is too academic to recommend to a general audience. But Freire's concepts are great: the view of much schooling as a 'banking' view of education (putting in a deposit of facts that can be withdrawn later) and the need for teaching critical thinking. He pointed out that true radical education doesn't mean replacing the slogans of the right with the slogans of the left--it means teaching people to think for themselves.
Education is a real need--for our children (and their children) as well as for each of us. If this society, as we know it, collapses, we will still need education. Of course, what we will be learning may be quite different, but it will be education nevertheless. It makes sense for each of us to learn what we can and pass it on.
Resources:
Education for Liberation Network--A 'coalition of teachers, community activists, youth, researchers and parents' interested in education for social justice
Free Skool--Information on the anarchist based 'Free Skool' movement
Jan and Jason Hunt, The Unschooling Unmanual--A book of stories and essays on 'unschooling', a curriculum-free method of home schooling, that is 'child directed'; the book is available through The Natural Child Project
The International Association for Learning Alternatives--An organization dedicated to promoting choices and alternatives in education
The National Home Education Research Institute--An organization devoted to studying homeschooling and making research information available
SkillShare Austin and Boston Skillshare--Local attempts to have people educate each other; a great way to learn new things; I went to the last Boston Skillshare, had a blast, and learned a lot; I highly recommend it
Quote of the Day: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Creating Social Change
Here's one possible overview of how to create change. You need three things: 1) You need to see very clearly what's going on now, 2) you need an explicit idea of where you want to go, and 3) you need a way of getting from here to there. Radical groups often refer to this as analysis, vision, and strategy.
There are a lot of good analyses around. Feminists can show clearly what patriarchy is and how it works. Black writers like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks detail how white supremacy keeps African-Americans and other people of color second-class citizens. Socialist writers have shown how capitalism and especially corporate capitalism (aka monopoly capitalism) makes a few people rich while workers and poor people suffer. Anarchists from Peter Kropotkin to Emma Goldman to Murray Bookchin point out the oppressiveness of both the state and hierarchal systems. Writers like Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy demonstrate what global imperialism is doing to the world. Peace activists focus how war affects, not only those being warred upon, but the attackers, even if they are the so-called victors. Ecologists and environmentalists of all types provide an analysis of what we are doing to the planet. All of these writers are worth reading, but reading too many analyses of what's wrong gets depressing rather than activating. Analysis needs to be balanced with vision.
There are lots of good visions. Some of the best are in utopian novels--I'll put a list of these novels in a future blog.
My question is, how do we make that change happen? What kind of strategy do we need?
I learned the slogan "Agitate, Educate, Organize" when I was involved with community organizing out in Detroit. Unions and organizers have been using it for a long time. I've never been able to trace the quote to its source. I've seen it attributed to everyone from Susan B Anthony, to the Women's Christian Temperance Union, to the Knights of Labor, to Mother Jones, and to the Fabian Society.
When I've thought about social change and tried to figure out why we haven't gotten that far after all we did in the sixties (not to mention the twenties, thirties, seventies, and eighties--and all the other decades as well), "Agitate, Educate, Organize" came to my mind.
It seems like we've been really good at agitating. Using various kinds of demonstrations, protests, and direct actions, we stopped the Vietnam War, made some progress on civil rights (of all kinds), and stopped the building of nuclear power plants, among other things.
Organizing, however, has been so-so. There was a lot of good organizing done in the twenties and thirties (not to mention the eighteen-nineties). Much of that was coopted or destroyed in the red scares of the fifties. Since the sixties there have been some alternatives built, and some of them have lasted (more on this later). Liberals and progressives have built some organizations that have done quite a bit. But it feels as if there's a lot of strong, long-term organizing that still needs to be done.
However, it's in educating that we really need to work. Our message has been lost to the general public. Yes, there are some messages we've gotten out that have made it. Racism (at least overt racism) is not okay. Women have rights, and there is even some sympathy for gay people. There is more awareness about ecology and the environment, and recycling is common. People worry about global warming. The Iraq war is now widely recognized as a mistake.
But there is a lot of misinformation out there and the system often coopts what changes that do happen into their own ideology. Radicals and progressives are often seen (largely due to the success of our agitation) as against everything. It isn't clear to many people what we are actually in favor of. Although the conservatives claim the mainstream media is biased toward the liberals (and, yes, a lot of it is owned by people identified as liberal) the actual content is middle of the road (at best) to quite conservative. Of course, there are liberal media outlets--NPR for example. But how many people in this society get their information from NPR? Many more people get their information from commercial TV stations (FOX News being the worst) and talk radio. Along with that, fewer and fewer people are reading.* Yes, some people get their information off the internet, but that's a mixed bag, and it still leaves a large percentage dependent on TV and radio and the misinformation that comes from it.
One example of how widespread that misinformation is: A Harris poll in April 2004 found that 49 percent of Americans believed that "clear evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda has been found." Only 36 percent disputed it. Of course this doesn't make a lot of sense if you know that Saddam Hussein's secular government stood for little that the Islamic fundamentalists in Al Qaeda believe in. Or that groups like the September 11th Commission (after thorough investigation) found no evidence of such a collaboration. But Vice President Cheney claimed that evidence of a link was "overwhelming," and stated that Hussein "had long-established ties with al Qaeda." And when the government claims something, and the media reports it as truth, people assume that it's reality. (The claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction is another piece of misinformation, along with the assertion that Iran was building nuclear weapons--both of which have been disproved.) It seems like the government and the media do a better job 'educating' of the public then we do.
But simply making people aware of how bad things are is often counterproductive. In the sixties, when much of the public believed things were wonderful for everyone, learning the reality of things got a lot of folks angry. It got them out protesting and trying to change things. But by the time I was out in Detroit in the eighties, telling young people how bad things were was greeted with 'Yeah, we know that. That's just the way things are. You can't change that.' No one needs more information on how bad things are (they get that in the news every day). People need hope. More than that, they need a hope grounded in a vision of where we could be going and practical steps to get there. They need to see what could be and believe that it's possible.
How do we do that? We need clear strategy. Beyond agitating, we need to be able to educate and organize.
I suggest that we begin with theory and research. Begin by answering the questions: 'What's possible?' and 'How can we do this?'
As we get clearer about where we need to go, we must educate the public. We need to wake people up and get them thinking. Make more and more people aware of possibilities, as well as ways of moving forward. The more that people are aware of what’s going on and get support to think about it, the more they are going to want to see and create alternatives.
At the same time we need to do more organizing. The more alternatives we build, the more models are out there for people to see. We need to publicize these options and models so people know about them. And we need to reach a critical mass where building alternatives becomes the norm.
I'll talk about theory and theories in a future blog.
*[Newspaper readers are declining. Polls done a few years ago found that 54 percent of all Americans read a newspaper during the week and 62 percent read a paper on Sundays. In addition, fewer than half of American adults read anything literary.]
Quote of the day: "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love." - Che Guevara
Word (or phrase) of the day: Code Pink (and also Code Green)
Hero(es) of the day: Danilo Dolci
There are a lot of good analyses around. Feminists can show clearly what patriarchy is and how it works. Black writers like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks detail how white supremacy keeps African-Americans and other people of color second-class citizens. Socialist writers have shown how capitalism and especially corporate capitalism (aka monopoly capitalism) makes a few people rich while workers and poor people suffer. Anarchists from Peter Kropotkin to Emma Goldman to Murray Bookchin point out the oppressiveness of both the state and hierarchal systems. Writers like Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy demonstrate what global imperialism is doing to the world. Peace activists focus how war affects, not only those being warred upon, but the attackers, even if they are the so-called victors. Ecologists and environmentalists of all types provide an analysis of what we are doing to the planet. All of these writers are worth reading, but reading too many analyses of what's wrong gets depressing rather than activating. Analysis needs to be balanced with vision.
There are lots of good visions. Some of the best are in utopian novels--I'll put a list of these novels in a future blog.
My question is, how do we make that change happen? What kind of strategy do we need?
I learned the slogan "Agitate, Educate, Organize" when I was involved with community organizing out in Detroit. Unions and organizers have been using it for a long time. I've never been able to trace the quote to its source. I've seen it attributed to everyone from Susan B Anthony, to the Women's Christian Temperance Union, to the Knights of Labor, to Mother Jones, and to the Fabian Society.
When I've thought about social change and tried to figure out why we haven't gotten that far after all we did in the sixties (not to mention the twenties, thirties, seventies, and eighties--and all the other decades as well), "Agitate, Educate, Organize" came to my mind.
It seems like we've been really good at agitating. Using various kinds of demonstrations, protests, and direct actions, we stopped the Vietnam War, made some progress on civil rights (of all kinds), and stopped the building of nuclear power plants, among other things.
Organizing, however, has been so-so. There was a lot of good organizing done in the twenties and thirties (not to mention the eighteen-nineties). Much of that was coopted or destroyed in the red scares of the fifties. Since the sixties there have been some alternatives built, and some of them have lasted (more on this later). Liberals and progressives have built some organizations that have done quite a bit. But it feels as if there's a lot of strong, long-term organizing that still needs to be done.
However, it's in educating that we really need to work. Our message has been lost to the general public. Yes, there are some messages we've gotten out that have made it. Racism (at least overt racism) is not okay. Women have rights, and there is even some sympathy for gay people. There is more awareness about ecology and the environment, and recycling is common. People worry about global warming. The Iraq war is now widely recognized as a mistake.
But there is a lot of misinformation out there and the system often coopts what changes that do happen into their own ideology. Radicals and progressives are often seen (largely due to the success of our agitation) as against everything. It isn't clear to many people what we are actually in favor of. Although the conservatives claim the mainstream media is biased toward the liberals (and, yes, a lot of it is owned by people identified as liberal) the actual content is middle of the road (at best) to quite conservative. Of course, there are liberal media outlets--NPR for example. But how many people in this society get their information from NPR? Many more people get their information from commercial TV stations (FOX News being the worst) and talk radio. Along with that, fewer and fewer people are reading.* Yes, some people get their information off the internet, but that's a mixed bag, and it still leaves a large percentage dependent on TV and radio and the misinformation that comes from it.
One example of how widespread that misinformation is: A Harris poll in April 2004 found that 49 percent of Americans believed that "clear evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda has been found." Only 36 percent disputed it. Of course this doesn't make a lot of sense if you know that Saddam Hussein's secular government stood for little that the Islamic fundamentalists in Al Qaeda believe in. Or that groups like the September 11th Commission (after thorough investigation) found no evidence of such a collaboration. But Vice President Cheney claimed that evidence of a link was "overwhelming," and stated that Hussein "had long-established ties with al Qaeda." And when the government claims something, and the media reports it as truth, people assume that it's reality. (The claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction is another piece of misinformation, along with the assertion that Iran was building nuclear weapons--both of which have been disproved.) It seems like the government and the media do a better job 'educating' of the public then we do.
But simply making people aware of how bad things are is often counterproductive. In the sixties, when much of the public believed things were wonderful for everyone, learning the reality of things got a lot of folks angry. It got them out protesting and trying to change things. But by the time I was out in Detroit in the eighties, telling young people how bad things were was greeted with 'Yeah, we know that. That's just the way things are. You can't change that.' No one needs more information on how bad things are (they get that in the news every day). People need hope. More than that, they need a hope grounded in a vision of where we could be going and practical steps to get there. They need to see what could be and believe that it's possible.
How do we do that? We need clear strategy. Beyond agitating, we need to be able to educate and organize.
I suggest that we begin with theory and research. Begin by answering the questions: 'What's possible?' and 'How can we do this?'
As we get clearer about where we need to go, we must educate the public. We need to wake people up and get them thinking. Make more and more people aware of possibilities, as well as ways of moving forward. The more that people are aware of what’s going on and get support to think about it, the more they are going to want to see and create alternatives.
At the same time we need to do more organizing. The more alternatives we build, the more models are out there for people to see. We need to publicize these options and models so people know about them. And we need to reach a critical mass where building alternatives becomes the norm.
I'll talk about theory and theories in a future blog.
*[Newspaper readers are declining. Polls done a few years ago found that 54 percent of all Americans read a newspaper during the week and 62 percent read a paper on Sundays. In addition, fewer than half of American adults read anything literary.]
Quote of the day: "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love." - Che Guevara
Word (or phrase) of the day: Code Pink (and also Code Green)
Hero(es) of the day: Danilo Dolci
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