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Progressive Hope

By Joel Bleifuss

Hope requires that one believe in a better future. In the realm of politics, hope is the necessary precursor to action. We hope for a more peaceful world, that our government will begin to put human needs before corporate profits, that one day “liberty and justice” will be for all. A lack of hope can lead to nihilistic, anti-social, self-destructive… return to article

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    Dennis Kucinich is the One To Light The Way…
    And the corporate cartel knows this--That’s why they are working so hard to mute Dennis’ visibility…
    See for Yourself…
    http://kucinich.us/

    United States Posted by Mary V. Jones-Giampalo on Dec 19, 2003 at 6:23 PM

    Greetings,
    Fine piece as always, Joel. Yet..., and yet: Miami, Chiapas, warming seas, “rich get richer, the poor get the picture,” etc.
    Collective action, long the hope of the “progressive” ideal, is now easily handled and defused by authorities.  That’s why a good chunk of that $87 bil went to Miami - to prepare the cops for “crowd dispersal and intimidation tactics.”
    The lesson is simple, as eco-fighters have known for a while: Keep your head down while the madness plays out. All collective action will be ruthlessly suppressed.  Otherwise, as Noel Chomsky has said, “find a good lawyer.”
    We can also begin to see greater “terror” threats to justify a virtual “police state,” esp. as sales and distribution roll back after the Season of Consumption.  As Lewis Mumford once warned: “The great lesson of history is: Prepare for the unexpected.” Prepare for _lots_ of “unexpected in 04.”

    United States Posted by daigu on Dec 20, 2003 at 2:32 AM

    We all pray for a better future, but as long as there are people like the Bush and Chaney’s , will we?
    Will they re-act to revenge to a new Democrate President worse than they did to Clinton, if Bush lose’s?
    What next catastrophe will occur?

    United States Posted by Marta Kaye on Dec 20, 2003 at 4:50 AM

    This is an excellent article.  It reminds me to concentrate on hope and action instead of being bogged down in depression and defeat.  It is so difficult to deal with the current administration on a daily basis and realize that change IS possible.

    United States Posted by Ardis on Dec 21, 2003 at 2:56 PM

    I am still queasy about the second bullet item: Mobilize behind the Democratic candidate by building political structures that survive, and thrive, beyond November 2004.

    I recently faced a couple of Dean supporters who, believing that Dean has things pretty much locked up (or feeling real smug), and knowing that I was a Kucinich supporter, asked me whether I’d get behind whoever the Democratic nominee was.  I looked them square in the face and replied: You’d campaign for Lieberman?  Their jaws dropped and they muttered “er, a, well”, and pretty much agreed that they couldn’t stand Leiberman and that they could consider not voting for him.

    So, I suggest that until Dean supporters can agree that they’d get behind Lieberman- quit asking me to get behind Dean!

    Those paying attention to the race see that Kucinich’s views are starting to take hold.  Neither money, the internet, or the media can escape the truth.

    Looking back on the last 30 or so years of presidential elections I see that many people can claim that they picked a “winner”, but clearly this country has suffered losers.

    Recipie: think long term; add Kucinich, and stir!

    United States Posted by Mark Nagel on Dec 21, 2003 at 3:24 PM

    Great piece, especially the info on zip codes and money distribution.

    United States Posted by Ed Mellon on Dec 23, 2003 at 5:52 PM

    You can hope all you want but that won’t bring back President Kennedy.  You can hope till you’re blue in the balls but that won’t keep the media from becoming the shrill shills of theives, miscreants, murderers, and other high officials. You can hope that America is not but a giant banana republic but our vulgar aristocracy of wealthy poltroons will never allow WE THE PEOPLE Justice and Liberty.  You can hope yourself silly that escalating warnings of an imminent planetary natural catastrophe due to global warming MUST be wrong… because why would our fascist/corporate/greed and power-addicted plutocracy allow it to hapen were it true?  Hope is a word that IMPLIES impending disaster. and the false notion that somehow, someway, human hearts will suddenly awaken and all wrong, injustice, and oppression can be eradicated by this miraculous enlightenment.  Yes, hope MUST stand intrepidly against the present tsunamis of iniquity and the rape of an irreplacable environment… but this is a primitive, anachronistic, yet unprecedented tsunami .  What is required is not hope but a more forceful response to tyranny with it’s own weapons...and this necessity is biblical in scope.  For those who have made a hellish reality...only a more devestating backlash can stop them.  This from a man who is what most idiots mockingly consider a, “bleeding heart”, and who is PROUD of being one!  For you see, those who these atavistic,conscience-less psychopaths deem peaceful...are, to them, but a joke. They surrounded themselves with armies of assassins trained to liquidate whomever they deem troublesome.  Jesus Christ was troublesome...and He, as all others who have instilled hope - were finally always crushed beneath the steel heel of injustice and tyranny.  Hope is a dream word but a word without a chance to form a reality from these dreams.  Love itself has been swept ignominiously into the vortex of ossifying fear - and the zombified masses laugh at their own defeat and tell you: “You’d better face up to the REAL world or you’ll end up in the gutter!”...forgetting that the REAL world was created by human beings...and that an paradise on Earth CAN begin with hopes but it will get no further than the next assassination if mankind does not WAKE UP, roll up it’s collective sleeve, and get to WORK to FORGE a more HUMANE REALITY.

    United States Posted by Dominick on Dec 23, 2003 at 10:18 PM

    How can we get the message out about George W. Bush?  The media is controlled by big business and the days of having programs such as Harvest of Shame seem long gone, never to return.  The present administration is taking us back to days of the Robber Barons and worse.  What can we do?

    United States Posted by Gabriel Toth on Dec 25, 2003 at 3:44 PM

    Gabriel:
    Keep participating in discussions such as this, tell your friends [even the conservative ones, gently and without scaring the sh*t out of them] and above all remember that love will always triumph over darkness.

    Of course, by any measure of the word we progressives are “losing” compared to the vast array of forces on the other side [why they’d want to poison their own children with lead and mercury I have no idea]. But then again, Ghandi would have been percieved to have been “losing” the vast majority of the time, as were Martin Luther King Jr. and Caesar Chavez. Yet they all prevailed.

    Just help spread the knowledge of what is happening and try not to get overwhelmed, because unless you’re George Soros there isn’t much that can be done directly.

    My favorite tactic: leaving progressive articles randomly and anonymously at work for other people to pick up and read. Whether in the break room or bathroom, most people are looking for something to read and pass the time. More people agree with you than you’d think. . . Keep your head up.

    United States Posted by Ed Mellon on Dec 30, 2003 at 6:19 PM
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