Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Ways and Means
What I attempt to generate in my writing or speaking engagements is a discussion of what people value personally, and then ask which, if any, of our established institutions is currently meeting those needs. For those that are not being met, we can then ask why, and begin to examine alternative ways and means of addressing them.
Once people feel free to imagine new social arrangements and political relationships, they are no longer restricted by the limitations of state-sanctioned civic activities such as voting, jury duty, or partisan campaigning. As an exercise, try to imagine how far the Civil Rights Movement would have developed in Mississippi had the participants in the American Negro Revolution conformed to customary social practices and established political rules of conduct.
Would Mississippi Freedom Summer ever have happened?
Once people feel free to imagine new social arrangements and political relationships, they are no longer restricted by the limitations of state-sanctioned civic activities such as voting, jury duty, or partisan campaigning. As an exercise, try to imagine how far the Civil Rights Movement would have developed in Mississippi had the participants in the American Negro Revolution conformed to customary social practices and established political rules of conduct.
Would Mississippi Freedom Summer ever have happened?
