Two books I read recently reflect two different stories about power and change. How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm, and Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky, are both primers on how to upend entrenched economic, social and political power structures.
It seems as though more and more issues/disputes are focusing on judicial remedies, rather than demonstrations or more deliberate confrontations. The courts may be compromised or controlled by elitist powers, but there have been successful legal challenges based on the letter of the laws enacted in earlier times and different cultural circumstances -- school desegregation, abortion law(s), political gerrymandering, immigration, etc.
You pose the question will our story of changed power structure be one of violence or one of dialog with citizens. But there is another layer of this. The problem actually is moving enough citizens away from greed and self-interest and towards cooperation and compassion. We are talking about changing people from thinking with their gut to thinking with their heart. Such a change never occurs unless a movement or a leader or both comes along to mobilize the citizenry. And this doesn't just involve jawboning. In our current political dialog in the USA Trump and advisors/supporters are mobilizing millions towards your first model, and Biden and advisors/supporters are jawboning the dangers of Trump and the advantages of democratic process. But campaigning on a message of fear and facts is not going to move enough hearts in the right direction. In the long run the human heart needs to evolve. We may just not get the chance to go there. Never have I been less certain of what our continuing story may be than now.
Doug, this seems very relevant to the work GrassRoots Organizing Western Wisconsin is doing. They are very much on the Alinsky page.
It seems as though more and more issues/disputes are focusing on judicial remedies, rather than demonstrations or more deliberate confrontations. The courts may be compromised or controlled by elitist powers, but there have been successful legal challenges based on the letter of the laws enacted in earlier times and different cultural circumstances -- school desegregation, abortion law(s), political gerrymandering, immigration, etc.
You pose the question will our story of changed power structure be one of violence or one of dialog with citizens. But there is another layer of this. The problem actually is moving enough citizens away from greed and self-interest and towards cooperation and compassion. We are talking about changing people from thinking with their gut to thinking with their heart. Such a change never occurs unless a movement or a leader or both comes along to mobilize the citizenry. And this doesn't just involve jawboning. In our current political dialog in the USA Trump and advisors/supporters are mobilizing millions towards your first model, and Biden and advisors/supporters are jawboning the dangers of Trump and the advantages of democratic process. But campaigning on a message of fear and facts is not going to move enough hearts in the right direction. In the long run the human heart needs to evolve. We may just not get the chance to go there. Never have I been less certain of what our continuing story may be than now.