General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Democrats should be wooing progressives, not scolding them. [View all]PatrickforO
(14,952 posts)climate change accelerated by our own carbon emissions.
Plus, I can share this quote from Martin Luther King Junior's 'Letter from the Birmingham Jail.' It speaks to the establishment question, "Why can't we go more slowly? This is a bad time...Sweeping change will upset people..."
"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
And again...
"I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action'; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."
So, basically, kentuck, when a so-called moderate Democrat says they agree with the goals we seek, but cannot agree with (the) methods of direct action being advocated, all they are really doing is paying lip service to the things that matter but then ignoring those things when they come to power. That is no longer acceptable because the damage we've done to the very earth on which we live makes change urgent. That's one of the reasons I liked Obama enough in 08 to volunteer for his campaign. He spoke of the 'urgency of now.'
That's why the point of my original post is that it seems to me that our species is reaching a 'quickening' around issues of social, economic and environmental justice. This is the meaning of the concept 'meme.' These memes come from what Jung called he collective unconscious - the collective genetic 'memory' of our species over millennia of life. People are coming to 'know' at a visceral level that our current neoliberal capitalist model that spouts deregulation, privatization and ending social safety nets in favor of the supposedly benign 'invisible hand' of the market is unsustainable. Thus, deep inside more and more of us, there is a hunger for leaders who not only SAY the right things, but DO the right things.
Unless we take some prompt actions right now, kentuck, I'll say what I've said before: there will be massive social unrest. Since I would hate to live in such a time at my age, I try and advocate more rapid change within the system. Even NASA, DOD, the armed forces, many multinational corporations and certainly local thought leaders throughout the world are now saying the current system is unsustainable. It is elementary that if we begin changes now, those necessary changes (for our survival as a species) will be much less painful than if we wait longer and 'keep the status quo.'