http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/why-democracy-is-public-t_b_911205.html
Here's a great editorial piece from George Lakoff and Glen W. Smith. If you read my previous post about Capitalism and demanding some responsibility from our corporations, you know that I've had a pretty defeatist attitude lately. I spend a lot of time wondering if it's too late.
This piece has me thinking that the right strategy really could bring Americans around to the need for fundamental change. It also reminds me of Rachel Maddow commercials on MSNBC where she stirs up nostalgia for the idea of doing great things for the greater good. It's funny that conservatives seem to long for a time when things that are culturally uncomfortable for them were not yet a part of mainstream culture, and society was less cluttered and complicated by sex and drugs and violence. That time period was before we sold out everything that could generate profit to the corporations. That was when being a corporate citizen meant being a good citizen. And, Americans were raised to value service, not to some corporate machine, but to each other, to our cities, states, and our nation.
This new "conservative" movement is not motivated by a nostalgia for the times that we were great. They're cherry picking nostalgia just like they cherry pick from their Bibles. These lunatics in the Tea Party movement are nostalgic for a time when women and non-whites kept quiet and knew their place. A time when homosexuality didn't exist because no person would dare be "out" in public. And, what are they teaching their children? That government is "bad" and that public service is something that foreign governments force on their children... They view their own little closed communities as vitally important and worth dying for. Yet, they think that community service in a big city is a sign of weakness and an example of Socialism.
I'm probably all over the place by now.... My point is, I'd like to go back to those simpler times, as well. Knowing what we know now, and bringing with us the advances we've made socially, and our desire to continue, and combining that with a time where most people wanted to IMPROVE the country, and we hadn't yet sold out to the idea that corporations should control our lives... Dang... That's the time I wanna live in. Hopefully that is the future. And, oh yeah, please read the linked article. It's really great.
