Doug,
if our choice is “either/or” i would agree many of us should best Do the good work instead of Belong to a crowd of people who desire the good work be done. in many ways this has always been your message….. IMHO

either way it can be lonely……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CItANzInVp8

-mason

No more movements? Are you going on a hunger strike?

heh.

It’s actually a bigger subject requiring a bigger explanation than I did in that little piece. But it’s something for people to consider.

I really do feel that the scale of movements is off, given what it is we need to accomplish right now. Even in healthcare, I wonder whether a big national plan in America just cements the role of Big Medical in handling care.

Might we be healthier off the traditional allopathic grid, eating raw food and doing homeopathy or chiropracty?

99% of the time people seem to focus on voicing their ideals more than searching for actionable solutions. But I wonder if there is still some place for top-down elements in social change.

I think of a movement as something that a lot of people do which ultimately has some effect on quality of life. Whether it is marketed or grows organically, the change still occurs. I’d wager a high percentage of Linux users choose their OS based on the ideals of free open source software rather than deriving any practical benefit from it. I did.

All of the good things you described of course could be movements too. The problem comes in when everyone wants to talk about it instead of doing it. It reminds me of elementary school when the teacher would say everyone must be quiet before we could go out to play, and instead of becoming silent, everyone yelled “SHH, QUIET!!”.

Of course, we do need a few teachers here and there.

Brad’s note reminds me… Have you seen the commercials for ‘Country Life’ butter that John Lydon did last fall? “Do I buy Country Life butter because it’s British?” he asks. Well, no, he answers. Nor does he care about the British countryside or British milk. The former Sex Pistol likes it because “it tastes the best.” The end.

Hmmm 2 cold showers a week with a 5 minute warm down sounds like a good ticket! Thanks Brad! To the fractal’s ear, as ever Doug!

-mason

That’s one or two per day actually
Welcome.

What’s striking is the real lack of an organic grassroots health care movement. It has yet to really manifest. The sentiment and the people are there, to be sure, but the “movement” is not. It’s scattered.

Mostly because we’ve been diverted. We’re all looking at the people yelling at the town halls, and the gun toting yahoos at Obama events, and we’ve taken our eyes off the ball- the debate has been lost. It’s stillborn. The discussion has beenmoved. And, that’s the end game that those creating the diversions have hoped for all along. Stop discussion in its trackes. No discussion, no movement.

Thus, the democratic process has been lost. For all the reasons you point out Douglas. But, I have to say, the movement is us. And, if the movement is gone, then what’s the point? Is the fight over? Of course not.

We have to reinvent the movement. But, no in the ways we know do not work. I’ve always been a non fan of “movements” anyway. They never work out. They always become that which they fought against in the first place.

A real movement is not a movement at all. It’s a cultural shift – like civil rights, like sufferage, like the right to vote, like the right to bare arms -and such a shift has yet to come forth in regard to health care.

The discussion about why there are nearly 50 million people who have to make some very very horrible and tough decisions (do I pay the rent or get a check up to see if that lump is a tumor) because we have a system that places profits over people has not even begun.

It’s never been on the table.

When the cultural shift occurs, maybe we’ll get health care.

The sad part is: the same machinations that have given us shitty health care gave us the current economic slowdown.

Are we ready to deal with reality or are we going to stay mired in our illusions of constant economic profits as the bastion of “freedom” and liberty?

Sobering, well put and sobering DJ. I worry constantly that i might stay mired in illusion rather than make a shift. Should i keep taking the pills or start taking the cold showers? It seems like i hardly have time to really understand either choice and/or examine my condition seriously. Add to that the anxiety attendant on going with a flow that does not seem right. Like the movement song said, “These are the days of decision” or rather decisions. But every day has always been a day of decision.

I think your point and Brad’s and Doug’s, ultimately, is that the movement is neither solely either/or nor solely directed inward/outward.

I can say about two minutes into the cold shower physiologically there is a distinct demand for life at work somewhere pouring into me through me and out of me. Best part about it is the wordlessness. Not yet quite sure what to make of it!

-mason