Saturday, July 19, 2008

 

Resting on Their Laurels

Reading James Forman's memoir of organizing in Mississippi in the early 1960s, makes it clear that the students and residents working with SNCC were cognizant of the broader movement for universal human rights of which their more restricted civil rights objectives were a part. This was no accident, though, but rather a consequence of a concerted effort to include political education along side their desegregation and voter registration projects.

Part of the problem with the stagnant rhetoric observed today, is that once the basic civil rights objectives were achieved legislatively, the financial resources for popular education on the topic of liberation -- briefly provided by churches, unions, and other liberal institutions -- dried up. Thus, since 1970, three decades have elapsed during which time the only money that's gone into "education" has been for arch-conservative brainwashing.

The whole anti-affirmative action backlash, or reverse racism as some call it, is a product of this psychological warfare by the far right, which is long-accustomed to acting out fantasies of Christian persecution and white victimhood. The inability of liberals to confront this pathetic whining by conservatives is a direct result of the lack of investment in pro-democratic ideas since Goldwater lost to Johnson in 1964.

Talk about resting on their laurels.

|

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?