![]() Where I am an idealist, Singer is a pragmatist. His philosophy is “fuck your ideals, get something done”. When you get discouraged enough at the continued failure of idealistic argument and consensus to achieve real change, that philosophy starts to look pretty good. So here, for pragmatists and activists everywhere, are Singer’s Ten Ways to Make a Difference, with my usual blathering comments. Like the late Dana Meadows’ Ten Ways To Change Anything, Singer’s points apply equally to any change effort. But where Meadows’ steps are conceptual and consensual, Singer’s are down to Earth, brutally realistic, and, when all else fails, in your face:
Thanks to Salon blogger David V. Johnson at WWDT for the link. |
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Well, you just put the entire Western left out of work with those ten steps…oh wait, they weren’t working anyway…never mind… :-)
Practical.I don’t see an immediate conflict with consensus building, either. These could be warped and abused by some &$147;Vanguard of the Revolution group to propagate their agenda, but your comment on number nine is the key &$147;The battle is for the hearts and minds of [the] people…Thanks for taking the time to read, dissect, and comment.Elderbear<br/ >Fighting creeping fascism one HTML tag at a time.
Number five is one I need to learn. I often get into online arguments with Bush supporters as I claim that Bush is greedy, corrupt and, in my mind, evil. There is one fellow who always asks how I can assume such a thing of Bush–how can I assume that he doesn’t want to do good for the majority of America. When I push my claims–even with support–I often alienate Bush supporters
Sorry about the mucked up formatting. Obviously I need more than my usual dose of coffee today!
There is another 11th item that only just presented itself to me today, and which I find fascinating because I would never have suspected it: Elect a pro-ecology pro-idealism President with a very rich philanthropist wife
Dirtgrain: you’re not the only one making that mistake; at least you’re recognizing that it is a mistake.Extremists typically assume – often with no evidence, at best – that EVERYONE who disagrees with them is purely evil in their motives. The entire American left went overboard with this in the ’60s: they took a perfectly reasonable civil rights movement, a perfectly reasonable women’s rights movement, a perfectly reasonable environmental movement, and a perfectly reasonable antiwar movement, and conflated the whole lot into an unrestrained orgy of white-bashing, Yank-bashing, West-bashing, Christian-bashing, Army-bashing, and Dixie-bashing, and needlessly insulted tens of millions of ordinary Americans who might otherwise have supported at least some of their causes. We’re still trying to recover from the consequences.If more people on the left followed these dumb-ass common-sense steps, we’d still have a Democratic President and Congress.
I’m stunned — Singer must be onto something to get nods from the astonishing diversity of political opinion represented by the commenters above. And for the second time in a week I’m in substantial agreement with Pony-Tailed Writer Dave the Raging Bee. Scary stuff.Gary: From what I’ve read from reliable sources about Ms. Heinz-Kerry, she sounds pretty good. But the NY Post is NOT a reliable source — it’s owned by wingnut Rupert Murdoch and is operated as a ‘vanity paper’ — a mix of his right-wing slander, People magazine-style gossip, lurid pictures and News of the World type sensationalist drivel, sold for a deep discount 25 cents a copy (the only way it could generate any circulation) — the alleged ‘newspaper’ loses $25 million per year just to give Murdoch a voice for his tripe in the Big Apple. It fits in the same category of ‘journalism’ as the Washington Times (which is owned by the Moonies).
I thought Singer’s steps were 1. easier to read, 2. more likely to cause change (I wonder if Raging Bee’s warning might be added to #5 LOL).
I wouldn’t advise it – if appropriate warnings were added to all ten steps, they wouldn’t be “easier to read.”Dave P.: I didn’t know you cared. When was the first time you agreed with me? :-)
Dave,Thanks for pulling Singer’s steps apart. The only difference in his steps and other is our own internal perspectives. Singer’s ideas are reasonably good but will only go so far. There is absolutely no reason to use adversarial or defensive mindsets to create action. The current “opposition” is evolving beyond these action points as you have commented. Building WE is about enlightening all of us to the power and influence of the human capacity and that we don’t and can not exist as the independant I’s. There are no sides in this, it is an impossibility that we need to realize.
If I had to add anything to these steps, it would be:11) Focus on what can or should be done in the present and future, not on what shouldn’t have been done in the past.12) Always maintain a positive vision, objectives, and set of priorities. An ever-growing laundry-list of gripes is no sbustitute, especially when the gripes contradict each other (thus giving the appearance of mindless, reflexive, dishonest fault-finding), or become too nitpicky (thus showing that you will never be satisfied, and causing others to give up).