Trains and Busses

The late Howard Zinn said "you can't be neutral on a moving train" and I think it was Ken Kesey who said "You are either on the bus or off the bus". Both are statements about the necessity of eventually taking a position despite a lack of "pure" certainty and despite awareness of layers of contingency. I believe it was my dad who said "shit or get off of the pot."

I continue to call out Progressives, whatever that might now mean, and in fact they appear to be doing a little soul searching after the latest series of debacles. Bill Moyers co-authored an article called the Unbearable Lightness of Reform where he superficially tries to explain where reform always goes wrong and then invites reformers like Gretchen Morgan onto his show to explain banking reform or John Nichols to talk about health care reform.He quotes Ambrose Bierce on politics "the conduct of public affairs for private advantage" but then fails to examine the nature of "private". His is an incredible bully pulpit but it only exists because he never really threatens capital.This is his last season so he has little to lose.

John Atcheson has a piece called Why Progressives Always Lose, a sort of Lakoff rehash about "messaging" and "framing" and the "need to shatter myths" without mentioning capitalism or explaining just how myths are simply "shattered". David Sirota has one about The Difference Between Liberalism and Progressivism which is pretty facile and there's another one here ( commondreams.org, progressive headquarters) called What Progressives Must Learn From the Acorn Debate. Might I suggest right off that no "debate" actually exists?

Its a tough leap to make but a great deal rests on the ability of "progressives" to articulate how they envision capital being controlled or give up.I suggest they listen to people like Henry Giroux who suggests the new authoritarianism is "more nuance, less theatrical ( than old style totalitarianism) more cunning, less concerned with repressive modes of control than with manipulative modes of control."

Not that there isn't plenty of repression, only that it is reserved for Others, those Excluded to the outer periphery. Robert Jensen is not afraid to name it in his analysis of journalism at this moment. "This collapse ( of journalism) is part of a larger crises in the political and economic spheres, crises rooted in the incompatibility of democracy and capitalism."

Chris Hedges has been very forthright lately as has Pilger.Michael Moore is trying and
I'm not sure what Ishmael the Gorilla would say to all this materialist concern.