reclaiming citizenship
This text is a 2nd draft of a text published march 19. Unfortunately I forgot to note that it was a first draft and so apologize to those readers who were not forewarned (ouch! - it makes me look like a duffer, too...) As was my original intention, I invite readers comments, suggestions, criticism and questions.
The New Responsibility:
citizen self-empowerment, taking responsibility for the little piece of
turf I stand on. There is nothing novel in this idea. Its roots go
back to the Revolutionary ideologues of the Enlightenment who brought us the French and American Revolutions (and later, the
Russian, Spanish, and Chinese Revolutions). The term "citoyen", citizen,
was made a term of honor. (footnote 1) As citizens, all should be considered
equal (at least before the law). Liberty, Equality, Fraternity! Liberté,
Égalité, Fraternité! Libertad, Igualdad, Fraternidad!
American Revolution, the "Betsy Ross" flag
In periods of systemic breakdown such as we are living through, the cultivation of virtue in our backyard is all that could reasonably be expected. If virtue retreats from the public space - and the public space itself disappears under neocon ideology (note 2) - then virtue must, of necessity, retreat to its most sheltered refuge: the individual the family, the neighborhood.
"Conquering New
Worlds" is the project of another age: been there, saw that, now
suffering the hangover from.. Our time of transition makes different
demands on us, offers different opportunities.
One of the more
surprising of these new opportunities: our real (physical, living)
world has a near infinity of ecological niches and few of these have
been really explored or understood in any detail. Think of how the
microscope opened up a whole new universe to human comprehension - all
without moving a step, without crossing a sea. The "new" world of
microbial life was literally hidden under our noses all the time! We
simply didn't have the means to perceive it. Today, we need a new mental microscope to perceive
the opportunities - and challenges - of the post cheap fossil
energy world we are entering. The need to develop
such a mental tool led to my reconsideration of the old right wing
buzzword, "responsibility"..
Taking responsibility for one's own piece of turf means different
things to different individuals. The existentialist philosopher, J.P.
Sartre held that life is a "project" that we are responsible for:
"L'Homme est absolument libre, il n'est rien d'autre que ce qu'il fait de
sa vie, il est un projet. Sartre nomme ce dépassement d'une situation
présente par un projet à venir, la transcendance."
from http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre
Wo/man is absolutely free, s/he is nothing other than what s/he makes of life, s/he is a project. Sartre considered this capacity to move beyond one's current situation via a future directed project a form of transcendence. We transcend a current undesirable situation by projecting ourself mentally into a project and then physically acting so as to bring the project into reality. Our projects provide us with significance, meaning, self-expression, creativity, adventure, dignity, status..
One recalls here Nietzsche's idea of "self-overcoming", of aiming high to hit high..
Given the state the world is in, taking responsibility
means the creation of Cultural Refugia to save the best fruits of the
last 6000 years of Patriarchal Culture: calculus, the Periodic Table,
the scientific method, the ideal of citizenship, democracy, human
rights, feminism, Enlightenment Universalism. All the good
stuff we want to save from the barbarian hordes.. All the good stuff we
payed such a heavy price to obtain! (note 3)
Taking responsibility for one's own piece of turf implies, for an
occidental, re-empowerment of the citizen. To be blunt, the citizen must
take back control of our democracies which we have stupidly turned over
to corporate interests in return for the cornucopia of mass produced
goodies they have delivered us.
One definition of fascism reads:
control or seizure of the State by the corporate elite
guess who?
Democracy means rule of / by the People. If we take this definition
literally we must admit that, as citizens of democracies, we have let
ourselves be brainwashed by the corporate agenda which is to maximize
profits. Hyperconsumerism maximizes profits. The advertising industry is a form of psychic manipulation targeting the (hyper-)consumer, inducing him to consume above and beyond his needs in order to maximize corporate profits. Large multinationals - owing allegiance to no country or citizenry - are the biggest, most competent and influential players in this game: think coca cola, auto manufacturers, electronics, food, media, publishing - just about everything today! For these corporate behemoths, questions of long-term sustainability, national security, public health play, at best, secondary or tertiary supporting role to profits. If proposals do not maximize short term profits these "public good" concerns are quickly jettisoned, remaining as pious - but empty - words to hypnotize those who are only too willing to believe the hype.
Unfortunately, we humans find it more convenient to displace responsibility
for our moral failures than to assume blame. More unfortunately still, the false "innocence" we gain is achieved at an exceedingly high price: our dignity as responsible citizens and adults. The corporations "program" us to consume regardless of
the cost to the environment and future generations. But if we take the definition of democracy seriously, we, the citizens, are ultimately responsible for the results because, under democracy, the citizen is king..
Today, if we are to save some of the furniture from the fire (my
Cultural Refugia), we - citizens - must reclaim our authority from the
corporate usurpers and the craven politicians who serve them. Reclaiming
responsibility means reclaiming authority: "authority" implies responsible use of power - responsibility. Responsibility without power in meaningless: only scapegoats can be simultaneously "responsible" and "powerless".
By assuming responsibility for the turf s/he stands on, the citizen
also self-empowers, assumes the robe of authority..
In practice, this leads to the odd situation where a left wing
critique of society leads - "paradoxically" - to a right wing
conclusion: accepting responsibility in our personal life, in our
personal relations with the people around us, accepting responsibility
for our little piece of turf. If things are going to change, I must
become the local center of change from which all change ripples
outwards. The Buck stops with me..
In practice, this is not an easy message to accept! People on the Left
or Center of the political spectrum - even those of the moderate Center
Right - accept that at least some of the evils of society are
structural in nature. They transcend individual actions or volition.
Evils such as racism existed before my birth. They form part of the
structure of social reality I was born into. If leftists feel they are
losing ground, as today, it becomes tempting to throw in the towel with
the cry that "the System is rigged!" and we are its victims.
Victimization is a sordid human reality (and probably
always will be). But a sense of victimization combined with
powerlessness to change the situation can create the toxic social environment we inhabit today.
Researchers studying jihadist terrorists who were born in Western
countries have noted that some of these people are acting from an
intense sense of injustice at the evils inflicted on the Muslim world
by the "Crusaders" of the arrogant West. We may choose to dismiss such
indoctrination as mere "propaganda" but such an attitude misses the
point! The brainwashed youth who joins ISIS may be doing so from noble
motives: to avenge wrongs done to innocents (with whom they identify).
It's hard to find sentiments more noble than that..
The common sentiment of powerlessness, of lack of
control over our collective (or individual) destinies is, I suspect, a
major breeding ground for the various forms of fanaticism and extremism
we see around us, from Global Warming deniers to European neonazis,
American militias and jihadist martyr-terrorists.
How else can we counter these toxic byproducts of the
sense of powerlessness, than through the (re-)empowerment of the
Citizen, who is each one of us?
In order to regain any efficacy at all, the Left, in the coming increasingly
turbulent decades, will have to address the question of individual
responsibility and its relation to larger social goals. We need to face
the question of the relation of the individual - his rights and duties -
to his society. We will need to examine the nature of citizenship
itself in this dawning millennium.
internal blog links:
http://transparencycanada.blogspot.ca/2015/01/book-review-zealot-cautionary-tale-for.html
http://transparencycanada.blogspot.ca/2014/10/climate-change-is-threat-multiplier.html
http://transparencycanada.blogspot.ca/2014/09/do-you-know-fanatic-are-you-fanatic.html
http://transparencycanada.blogspot.ca/2015/02/book-review-dogs-are-eating-them-now.html
notes:
1 - (translation follows) Citizen / citoyen: definition, from http://www.toupie.org/Dictionnaire/Citoyen.htm
"Etymologie : du latin
civis, celui qui a droit de cité, citoyen.
Historiquement, un
citoyen est un membre d’une
cité-Etat grecque, disposant du droit de suffrage dans les assemblées publiques. Il participe aux décisions de la cité relatives aux lois, à la guerre, à la justice, à l'administration...
Pendant la
Révolution française, le terme "citoyen" a été réutilisé par opposition au
"sujet" (du roi). Il permet de désigner tout homme
sans notion de hiérarchie, par opposition à la Noblesse.
A noter que, durant cette période, les termes "citoyen" et "citoyenne"
ont été utilisés pour remplacer "monsieur", "madame" et "mademoiselle"."
etymology: from Latin civis, one who has right to the city, a citizen
Historically,
a citizen was a member of a Greek city-state, possessing the right to
vote in public assemblies. He {only males had full citizenship}
participated in municipal decision making relative to lawmaking, war,
justice and administration.
During
the French Revolution, the term "citoyen" was re-employed in opposition
to "sujet" (a "subject" of the king). "Citoyen" designated any man
without reference to position in the social hierarchy.. During the
revolutionary period the terms "citoyen" and "citoyenne" were used to
replace the traditional modes of address: sir, madame, mademoiselle,..
2- disappearance of public space under neocon idiotology:
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/03/29/urban-journal-the-vanishing-public-of-the-world-class-city/
3 -
among the challenges the world faces: climate change, overpopulation,
breakdown of essential ecosystems and the natural services they provide,
depletion of non-rewewable resources, failure to make a speedy
transition to renewable resources and energy systems when we still had
time, over-exploitation of renewable resources (thereby functionally
converting renewable resources into non-renewable, depleting, ones), the
rebirth (or renewed vigor) of racism and religious fanaticism..
