STFU & Just Send Money
By the title of this week’s post you might assume this essay to be a bit on the verbally aggressive side. Well, it is. I’m incredibly pissed off at the institutions that constantly give lip service to making the world a better place. This includes organizations such as The Sierra Club, Move On, ACLU, Earth Justice, Sunrise Movement, Southern Poverty Law, Next Gen America, Indivisible, NRDC, Climate Reality, and dozens of others. In addition, the so-called involved individuals including Tom Steyer, Robert Reich, Al Gore, Bill McKibben, Loren Blackford, Rachel Maddow, David Hogg plus hundreds of talking head podcasters and bloggers who all believe they have THE answers are on this list. Most of these groups and individuals are so laser-focused on their own specific agendas they have forgotten to take off the blinders and understand that unless we cooperate fully, this nation and the world at large are completely screwed.
It’s not that I don’t admire and support the goals these people and groups are attempting to achieve, but they appear to be working in an isolated vacuum. The left criticizes many on the right for not understanding the reality of the problems we’re facing. That the “conservatives” have a very narrow view of the world, mostly based on false information made up by powerful people who are exclusively interested in garnering greater wealth and power instead of helping to improve the health of our planet. I get it. Progressive organizations don’t want to give up any sense of autonomy, even though it is not necessary to give up any internal control since working together only means efforts are fully integrated and coordinated instead of scattershot across a wide area.
It’s true that a few of these progressive groups have made some attempts to connect with each other, especially with regard to events like the No Kings rallies. But a concerted effort to meet and work out coordinated plans to make the necessary differences is falling far short of what is needed. What these entities don’t seem to “get” is that none of their individual agendas will ever come to fruition without first eliminating the impediment currently residing in the People’s House in Washington DC. We’re not going to diminish gun violence, or foment greater inclusion, or eliminate climate disasters, or provide clean water, or repair our educational system, or stop domestic abuse, or fix our broken prison system, or any of the hundreds of other issues we must deal with if we are to save our planet unless we, first and foremost, rid ourselves of this pariah.
I suspect all of us receive the constant barrage of email solicitations for donating funds. Every single day of every single week we get, “Send in $10 and Save the World” notices in our email in-boxes. They’re certainly not requesting our opinion unless it’s to sign a useless petition asking if we approve of the job that Trump is doing (how absolutely absurd). We could send in $10,000 and it wouldn’t make a lick of difference because our march towards an authoritarian nightmare cannot be changed unless we all fully cooperate with each other.
So YES, I’m extremely angry. Donald Trump’s millions of sycophants have learned how to rally around this single, phenomenally disturbed individual to whom they pay constant homage as their “Dear Leader.” Every lie, every utterance from Trump’s mouth may as well supplant the parables taught in the Bible, for most of his acolytes believe he is God’s representative on earth. Trump’s handlers fully understand both the power of instilling fear and the coalescence of their followers into the cult of Trump. And they are extremely successful in using these elements to undermine all efforts to bring our country back from the brink of self-inflicted destruction.
Aside from those who receive my essays in an email, they are posted onto Medium, Facebook, and Substack as well. I read through many of the titles of other blogs on these various sites. For the most part they offer a singular perspective with a message for how to improve our lives. A majority of them are, in my opinion, blathering and inconsequential pablum. They tell us that all we need to do to make our lives blissful is to read these five books, or utter a prayer of some sort prior to any meal, or walk 5,000 steps, or whatever the current trend might be. As examples, here are a few actual titles of current essays on Medium; “Seven Weird Habits that Make People Obsessively Attracted to You.”; or ”I’m 56 but My Body is 30”; or “There Are Only Five Rules in Life (According to Carl Jung)”.
The world as we know it is crumbling and not only is this is what most bloggers write about, it’s what people WANT to read. Just watch segments of Reality TV (an oxymoronic moniker if there ever was one) to garner a better understanding of our culture’s preoccupation with nonsense. I guess I tend to hold the institutions I mentioned in the first paragraph to a higher standard than what we might find in superfluous blogs and on mindless TV. But their grasp of the incredible importance of working beyond the boundaries of their groups is just as lacking.
So what can anyone do? If you are aware of organizations that purport to want to change the world for the better, you must write to them and tell them to start looking for ways to cooperate with other groups. I can tell you from experience that Loren Blackford, the director of The Sierra Club, (or any of several dozen others to whom I’ve written) doesn’t give a rat’s ass about my one opinion. She and the others will only sit up and take notice if there are more than just a few who suggest that it’s time to think outside the box.
As noted in several of my prior posts, you can click here for a partial list of people and organizations to contact demanding cooperation. If we haven’t reached the tipping point yet, we soon will. Time is running out. We must act now.
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Matthew 19:21-22
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
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One does notice in the previous verse (19) Jesus DID ask the young man’s opinion, though this is a rare thing. I too am annoyed when donating to charity or like-minded activist organizations that the only certain outcome is a continuing stream of requests asking for more. [Not that such thoughtful generosity is something I make a significant habit of; I’m not a saintly person.]
Looking at your list of organizations, one question does come to mind: Why would we expect any of these diverse organizations to cooperate with each other?
Now, if it is rock-solid like-minded cooperation you are looking for, run over to https://fedsoc.org/ . For a modest $50 yearly membership, you receive:
–Interaction with prominent public officials, judges, and scholars
–Special invitations to national conventions, regional conferences, local events, and CLE programs
–A subscription to the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy
–Membership in the Federalist Society’s Practice Groups
–Discounts to all Federalist Society CLE conferences
–Dozens of hours of CLE credit through local programs as well as regional and national conferences
–Invitations to participate in live FedSoc Forum calls
Michael,
You asked the very good question; “Why would we expect any of these diverse organizations to cooperate with each other?”
My answer is, as always, that none of the goals of any of these groups can be achieved without first ridding ourselves of the pariah that sits in the White House along the army of sycophantic followers who are completely blind to the destructive nature of his dystopian vision. It would be beneficial to everyone for these diverse groups I mentioned to call for a national conference where each group leaves their personal agendas at the door to find focused and cooperative ways of dealing with this one situation. Of course it’s incredibly naive on my part to think that the groups I named had this ability. Unfortunately they don’t. The egocentrism built into their organizational culture precludes any thoughts of working together beyond a few cursory issues such as the No Kings rallies.
As for the Federalist Society, I have a difficult time imagining they actually offer practical and viable ways to interact with prominent officials, judges, and scholars. The main problem is that there is a cacophony of noise emanating from millions of voices, all of whom believe they have solutions to the world’s problems. The blathering noise of myriad talking heads is overwhelming to anyone in a position to actually do something about anything. How can one person be heard above that noise? Calling for full cooperation among entities is truly shouting into the wind. Still, I will look into this group.
Thanks again,
Tobin
*sigh*
There are several pieces to your puzzle; unfortunately, no clear answers.
One believes there is overwhelming agreement among all the groups you mentioned that the world must get rid of Trump, Vance, Trump’s entire cabinet, his lackies in Congress, the Supreme Court majority, his family dealing in the wings, assorted State governments, school boards, Evangelical Mega-churches, and corporate leaders. How well did this agreement work out for us last time?
Getting rid of Trump is a rallying-cry, but insufficient.
I have pretty clear memories from when Trump rode down the escalator. NONE of our hard-core Righteous Repugnants wanted or respected Trump at the time, believed he had a chance of winning, and all (though I disagreed with their attitudes and policies) at least were horrified imagining a corrupt Nazi pedophile in control. How rapidly all joined the cult.
I am not sure it is a puzzle. Those who lean towards Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité do not seem to strongly bond together behind any cause not involving a guillotine. The Righteous however seem more capable of agreement and support of wide-ranging causes –as long as the causes give them a strong tribal identity. They are more patient at waiting decades, satisfied only with owning the Libs, while their “Clubs” prepare policy plans (like Project 2025).
Michael – Thank you again, as always. I continue to wonder if the resistance to cooperation from the left is due to arrogance, blindness, or just plain stupidity (and most likely a combination of all three). For over twenty years prognosticators have been telling the DNC that they’re out of touch with voters and that their elitist attitudes are making it next to impossible to regain control of the house and senate. Yet, for the most part, they continue to spout the same old, tired phrases that stopped working around 2000. Of course there are a few bright lights in the party, but mostly they’re ignored by the old guard as too far left or their ideas do not have the capability of becoming legislation. But mostly it’s the organizations I mention in my post. These are the main culprits and no one is holding their feet to the fire to begin working together. It’s very depressing.
Tobin, Michael – A bare awareness of the mayhem and violence that erupts every day is enough to confuse, to dismay anyone with a normal psyche. I muse on the possibility that we Americans as a rule are adapted to luxury, that we panic at the prospect of a more simple way of life, resistant and even militant to owning less. Climate catastrophe looms like a hammer, and for many years we’ve never wanted to listen to what the science has shown. Perhaps the promise of America ends here? Furthermore the lights go out on enough food, shelter, health care, education and peace for all nations soon after?
Is collapse the only way ahead, that nearly everything insisted upon must disappear, – earth and sky is cleared for another beginning? I am without a clue. Here is chapter 10 from the Tao Te Ching as interpreted by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Can you center your energy,
be soft, tender,
and so learn to be a baby?
Can you keep the deep water still and clear,
so it reflects without blurring?
Can you love people and run things,
and do so without not doing?
Opening, closing the Gates of Heaven,
can you be like a bird with her nestlings?
Piercing bright through the cosmos,
can you know by not knowing?
To give birth, to nourish,
to bear and not to own,
to act and not to lay claim,
to lead and not to rule.
this is mysterious power.
As the lyrics of the old song go, “Been down so long it looks like up from here!” In order for those words to be appropriate for our current circumstances I’m afraid we still have a ways to go before we hit rock bottom, though we are going full speed ahead towards that goal. Regardless of how much we completely fuck up this planet, at least we can know that some form of life will continue. Since the first elements of cell division started those hundreds of millions of years ago, life has adapted to changing environments and I’m certain that it will again once the human species has done its best to destroy just about everything. If nothing else, life is resilient and who knows what may develop as a the dominant creature in another 100 million spins around the sun.
Yin and Yang, or as rendered so well by T. S. Eliot: “there’s only the dance.”
Hey Tob – You say you want groups to listen to other’s opinions which is great but what exactly do you want them to do with these opinions specifically? When people give me an idea for a movie as if I should write it, I politely listen but in my mind I’m saying – good, go do it. I have my own ideas I want to pursue. So, again, what would you like them to do exactly?
Jenny – Thank you for your question. I’m going to use a couple of analogies that I hope will clarify my point.
First, let’s talk football. We’ll say that we have a bunch of players, all of which have great skills and they’re about to play against a powerful, well-practiced team. And we’ll also throw you in as the coach. Now you have a great passer, you have a number of guys that are really good at catching footballs and one that is a spectacular running back. Plus you have a bunch of very large men who can block and tackle. But you don’t have any plays. You don’t have a plan, in fact your team has never even practiced together. You don’t have an offensive or a defensive coordinator. You only have a bunch of folks who are good at what they know how to do. Are you going to win the game against a tough well-organized opponent? Highly doubtful. We have a bunch of great players a.k.a progressive organizations, out there but unless they learn how to work together to defeat the other team a.k.a. Trump and his minions, our team doesn’t stand a chance.
Second analogy, along the same line. Let’s say you’re making a movie. You have a director, an amazing script, wonderful actors, a top notch cinematographer, a great sound guy and another one for lighting. You even have someone who is writing music for your film. But you have to make your film without showing the script to anyone. Everyone is amazing at their individual jobs but unless there is coordination where everyone is on the same page, you would end up with nonsense, regardless of how good each individual might be at their job.
I can’t give you an answer as to what a coordinated effort of the organizations I named might come up with, but I do know that by working together they have a much, much better chance of defeating the opponent. And by working together, by coalescing their efforts and laser focusing, they can find the weak and vulnerable spots to attack. Right now all of these groups are focused on their own agendas, spending time, energy, and resources to affect the change mandated by their mission statements. But none of them will succeed in doing what they want to be doing when they are being undermined at every turn by a narcissistic bombastic idiot. The dismantling of the Trumpist regime should be the one single coordinated goal of all of these groups so that they can get back to what they are supposed to be doing, which is bettering our nation, our society, and our planet.
Hope this makes sense.
I’ve had the same thought: Why don’t all these groups just coordinate, cooperate, and work together for their common aim? How powerful the resulting action would be!
But no. The longer I live, the more aware I become that organizing is an excruciatingly slow process, consuming huge amounts of energy and time. It’s totally maddening — especially in emergency situations. But an emergency situation is what we have. Getting rid of Trump is a time waster.
Don’t get up in arms now when I say that emergencies require a central authority. Dictator would be the less palatable term. But there has to be leadership that has the vision to organize the work and create the common sense of mission that will enable (require) others to take orders.
We don’t have the luxury of democratic decision making if we’re truly cognizant of the urgency of our peril.
Hi Verna,
Thanks for your thoughts on this subject. There is definitely a leadership vacuum in the democratic party and there has been for a bunch of years. Bernie Sanders had a voice and connected with a large portion of the more progressive members of the nation, but just didn’t have enough support to be the nominee for president. I think back to the 1940s when we had FDR and England was led by Churchill. These were people who had vision, were dynamic speakers, and who could inspire their respective nations. I’m not sure where that type of leader is today but it’s certainly not Gavin Newsom (unfortunately). Trump is a firebrand and knows how to rally his base. That’s the only compliment I can give him. Hopefully someone will emerge from the left to lead us towards better days.
Tobin, my sense is that “the party” as a vehicle for collective action is a burned-out, used up shell. Elected officials, if I am to go by the campaign ads are first of all interested in “whatever it takes” to get elected. Then they spend a goodly chunk of their time, their hand out, to stay elected. I’d say to them if I could: do your f___ing job with all your heart, and then return to whatever you were doing.
Eager to read your essay on “good and evil.” Both are “laminated together” a phrase I just lifted from Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes.
Be well.