miriam rothschild: naturalist and flea expert

[rhyll]

In the office again. My life is becoming very small. Work - home - broadway.

Today was talking to officemates.

Listening and reading about the massacre in Iraq, which again is largely being framed and reported as an aberration. How unusual is this kind of thing when the "most realistic" training camps the US has set up work on a 5:1 civilian:insurgent ratio, instead of the 1000:1 ratio that more accurately represents the situation. These scared kids being sent over there thinking that everyone is the enemy, not knowing what the hell they're doing, not able to see Iraqis as people like them. Of course, the latter is necessary - how can you kill someone if you know they are just as much a person as you are? We are not made for this. I'm glad that some US soldiers, at least, are baulking at what they're being asked to do.

Today I cooked soup, and thought about my response to India and Pakistan. One of the things that I catch myself thinking, over and over, when I see the slums or beggars or even middle-class kids who are hemmed in by so many things, is "what would I do in that situation?" It is a habit I am trying to force myself out of. Mostly because I can see that what I'm doing is trying to find a way out of my guilt - that I can be so lucky, and have so much, just because of the luck of the draw. I keep trying to tell myself, "If I was in their situation, I would still have managed", so that I can feel that the difference between us is somehow justified, that I have some claim to be where I am.

And it's a question that makes no sense, too. I wouldn't be who I am if I was born in a slum, even if I was born in a very traditional and strict family. So there's no point trying to tell myself I would handle things differently. The simple fact is that the luck of the draw has created me, and slum-dwellers, and beggars, and middle-class kids who can't hold their partners' hands in public. I can't ever make myself feel okay about the situation, because it's a pretty awful situation and I will never, ever, be able to do enough to make up for the fact that there are children dying of preventable diseases, people whose talents are wasted, beautiful possibilities that will never flower.

There's no point trying to make it seem justified, and there's no point dwelling on it too much. It just has to be one of the things that informs how I live my life, along with the small wonders that remind me that the world can be an amazing place.

And now for something completely different.

I have decided that I will be taking up boofuls suggestion, and restructuring my thesis as follows:

"Chapter One: Why global justice movements are kooler than you.
Chapter Two: All the kool kids heart global justice movements.
Chapter Three: WHY DON'T YOU LOVE THEM, TOO?!
Chapter Four: No, for reals, they're totally awesome.
Chapter Five: I went to India, and I, like, hung out with the global justice movement, and we totally drank tea and stuff. It was way kool.
Chapter Six: THE END?"

I am currently working on a paper on human security and the global justice movement. I have some ideas that I am not totally displeased with, which is making my life somewhat more intellectually stimulating.

For additional treats, my mathematician friend from India sent me a delightful and chatty email today, which has been been rather cheering.

Comments

[boxer-the-horse.livejournal.com]

Being a left-wing middle-class white male, I have of course tortured myself to sleep plenty of times with these things.

I reject utterly that is is my fault that I live in the situation I do (the flip side of would be that its the fault of slum dwellers where they live) and I do not feel guilty for being born with what I have. I do, however, feel incredibly lucky and a sense that my politics mean that I must first acknowledge the tragedy of the roulette wheel of wealth and in some way do soemthing about it.

Acknowledging the problem is the first step, and its what delineates even talk-shop do-nothing lefties from fine-thanks conservatives. The fact that we care is in no way whatsoever enough, but it is something and something is much more than the nothing which conservatives and 'the rich' are perfectly comfortable with. The first and in my opinion most important step we in the left can take is winning hearts and minds over to acknowledging the problem in a much more substantive way than 'world visionism'.

10 Anarchists in a squat are not going to save a single life. a noisy minority of the population who are concerned about an issue will save some. Activism is pointless when it preaches to the clergy and the choir (which is what, for the most part, it does). Like it or not, we are dealing with a comfortable and prosperous population and yelling at them through their double-glazed, tinted McMansion windows is going to do precisely nothing. So what the left should be doing, is not spending all its time trying to tear down the system. If confronted by a mountain, one does not smash it to bits in order to climb it, one finds a way to do what one can and reach the top. We should be using the mass-media, we should employ marketing and PR-consultants, we should sell fashionable products that in their own way contribute to undermining consumerism.

In my opinion to not do so is the great crime. You cannot ignore that this consumerist capitalist system exists and you cannot make a substantive difference by quietly living a virtuous life. You should change your own life to make a positive impact (Sky is right about that and has convinced me, I would change everything if I wasn't lazy/felt that I could do it in a non-painful way). But that's easy for a student without a mortgage or 2 kids. Its easy for people who have the flexibility (something the aspirational working class does not have) to live life by their principles. But even if everyone in this privellaged situation did this, it would still be a tiny tiny minority. You cannot tell people the truth and hope they believe it, you have to persuade and convince. They are also usually pretty unhappy with the 'false consciousness' tag.

I don't have answers. But I do know that activism the way it is right now is not enough. I know this because I am a committed socialist and I am alienated by most activists! Do not forget the 60s. There was a mood for change and there were people prepared to fight for it. And then all of those people just smoked pot, fucked and became stock brokers. And the student movements started bombing people. And the workers went home in Paris in 68. I just don't think you can succeed with anything unless you can convince a broad base of people that that thing is worthwhile. And I think a lot of activists forget that. All of the frequently excellent practical things they do must continue but it just isn't enough.

I hope this makes sense, I'm tired and at work.

[alexmoon.livejournal.com]

It does make sense, and I don't really take issue with most of what you're saying.

I do think that the are limits to how much one can work within the system (PR consultants and all that stuff) without being completely coopted, but you're right that 'dropping out' or requiring too much from people can be just as problematic.

Personally, I feel that it's necessary to accept a wide range of tactics, and to understand that different sections of the population will respond differently.

"Tearing down the system", to me, doesn't seem feasible. Creating better ways of doing things that are inclusive and beautiful, ways that show a different underlying aesthetic to the current system is workable, seems the best path to be.

But there are also numerous small pathways within that - living your life better and more cleverly, setting up community groups, changing consumer habits, all kinds of things...