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Why does the progressive movement keep on suffering set backs when they are quantifably right on the issues. George Lakoff suggests it has much to do with framing and how human cognition works. A great lecture, well worth the 70 minutes of your time.
Excerpt from the Alter.net transcript of the Moyers/Hedges conversation.
BILL MOYERS: “They lost control of the park. The arrival in cold weather of individual tents, along with the numerous street people with mental impairment and addictions,” that you’re nothing if not honest in what you write, even about those people you support, “tore apart the community. Drug use as well as assaults and altercations became common.” So how is that square with what you said earlier that the Occupy Movement gave us a blueprint for how to fight back?
CHRIS HEDGES: Because this is the trajectory of all movements. You know, it’s not a linear progression upwards. And the civil rights movement is a perfect example of that. All sorts of failures, whether it’s in Albany, Mississippi or anywhere else. You know, there were all sorts of moments within the civil rights movement where King wasn’t even sure he was going to be able to hold it together. And what happened in Zuccotti is like what happened in 1765 when they rose up against the Stamp Act.
That became the kind of dress rehearsal for the rebellion of 1775, 1776, 1905. The uprising in Russia became again the kind of dress rehearsal. These movements, this process, it takes a very long time. I think the Occupy was movement and I was there.
I mean, I certainly understand why it imploded and its many faults and how at that size, consensus doesn’t work, everything else. And yet it triggered something. It triggered a kind of understanding of systems of power. It, I think, gave people a sense of their own personal power. Once we step out into a group and articulate these injustices and these grievances to a wider public, and of course they resonated with a mainstream. I don’t think it’s over. I don’t know how it’s going to mutate and change, one never knows. But, I think that it’s imperative that we keep that narrative alive by being out there because things are not getting better.
The state is not responding in a rational way to what’s happening. If they really wanted to break the back of the opposition movement, rather than sort of eradicating the 18 encampments, they would’ve gone back and looked at Roosevelt. There would’ve been forgiveness of all student debt, $1 trillion, there would’ve been a massive jobs program targeted at those under the age of 25, and there would’ve been a moratorium on more closures and bank repossessions of homes.
That would’ve been a rational response. Instead, the state has decided to speak exclusively in the language of force and violence to try and crush this movement while people continue this dissent.”
Occupy is far from over. Raising consciousness is but one step in the game plan.
Thanks CBC. Let’s look at the list.
Here are some other notable campaign missteps:
1. Romney’s father, George Romney, then governor of Michigan was considered an early favourite over then vice-president Richard Nixon in the 1967 Republican primaries. But Romney’s comment that he had “the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get” — a reference to the military and state department officials who had briefed him during a visit to Vietnam — sank his support.
2. During a 1976 debate with Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter, and at the height of the Cold War, then-president Gerald Ford said, that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.”
3. In 1979, days before he officially announced his bid to unseat Carter as the Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Ted Kennedy was asked by journalist Roger Mudd why he wanted to be president. Kennedy gave what is considered a long and rambling answer, that didn’t seem to answer the question. Many believe the interview severely hurt his chances.
4. After a disappointing third place finish in the Iowa Democratic caucuses in 2004, candidate Howard Dean attempted to lift the spirits of his supporters at a West Des Moines ballroom. At the end of the speech, Dean, shouting over the loud crowd, said that they were going to continue to fight on. Listing off a number of states, a spirited Dean ended his speech by saying: “And we’re going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we’re going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yaaaaah!” The ‘Dean Scream’ as it became known, went on to become the source of great ridicule.
5. During an appearance at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, in March 2004, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry was asked about a particular vote against funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it,” Kerry said. Republicans seized on the comment, portraying Kerry as the ultimate flip-flopper.
6. In the early stages of the financial crisis and with the Lehman Brothers, one of the most powerful investment banks, filing for bankruptcy, Republican presidential candidate John McCain insisted that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” He later clarified, saying he was talking about American workers, but he was skewered by the Obama campaign for being out of touch.
7. Speaking in Seattle in October 2008, then vice-presidential Democratic candidate Joe Biden seemed to suggest a vote for Barack Obama could spark international turmoil. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like it did John Kennedy,” Biden said.
8. In 2008, at a San Francisco fundraiser during the Democratic primary race, Barack Obama explained the attitudes some small-town residents in Pennsylvania.
“They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
You know what I’m not seeing as a “gaffe”? Not responding and not being responsible to the American people. Why is it that the US has no universal healthcare? Ask the citizenry, they want it. Does it come up at all? No of course not, we get the partisan bickering over how quickly to pay the private medical insurance industry. How about the jobless situation? Barely a whisper, but oh ho, talk about the national debt that most of the public could care less about. Now we can have a discussion about that.
The gaffe every US president has made and continues to make is governing for the benefit of the 1% as opposed to the rest of the nation. That should be on the list at #1.
I keep finding good stuff to repost. This blog entry is by Salty Current with the original found here.
“If you say
I think sexism, misogyny, and harassment of women, including in this community, are real problems that need to be addressed,
you should stop there and consider what you’re actually doing and could be doing to counter them and how you might be contributing to them. If you then say
…BUT feminists really shouldn’t talk publicly about their experiences, shouldn’t write blog posts about the subject, shouldn’t object to slurs, shouldn’t take sexually violent language seriously, shouldn’t be angry, should name names, shouldn’t name names, shouldn’t call out any man who’s ever done anything to support women, shouldn’t call out any man who considers himself their ally, shouldn’t call out prominent men, should only discuss prominent men, shouldn’t call out women who say misogynistic things, shouldn’t call out young people, shouldn’t organize events focusing on women, should mute their criticisms to protect skeptical organizations or events, shouldn’t talk about what’s said on Facebook, shouldn’t talk about what’s said on Twitter, shouldn’t talk about what’s said on YouTube, shouldn’t turn a skeptical eye to sexist “science,” should let their experiences go unexpressed because other women have it worse, should be more polite, should be less polite, should painstakingly qualify their every statement to make it less likely to be misconstrued by those with hostile intent, should calmly describe the entire history of the arguments to everyone who jumps into them ignorant of the context, should give the benefit of the doubt to every guy who’s done or said something sexist, should frame the issues in this or that way, shouldn’t talk about patriarchy, shouldn’t talk about privilege, shouldn’t talk about rape culture, should constantly and patiently explain sociological concepts to their interlocutors, should only discuss problems that affect them personally, shouldn’t work to change official policies, should only work through official organizational channels, should only focus on this or that part of the problem, should never analogize their situation or women’s oppression to anything else, should be more aggressive, should be less aggressive, shouldn’t insult people, shouldn’t ban commenters from their blogs, shouldn’t strenuously object to mischaracterizations of their statements,…,
you should realize that this belies your claim to caring about the problems and wanting to help address them, and recognize that you are contributing to the problem. If you insist on your preconditions for listening to and supporting feminists in their struggles against sexism and misogyny, you’re acting in a way that is harmful to the cause you claim to support.”
Only in Alberta does the the electorate consider ending the 40 year term of the staunchly right wing Progressive Conservatives with a party that is, you guessed it gentle reader, further to the right. It is only the false populist veneer of the Alberta Wild Rose Party that makes it appear palatable to the people of Alberta.
My progressive bones shudder with the thought of electing a party that is considered the fast-track to completing the journey to the dark-side of corporatocracy. Make no mistake, the WRP party was spawned by the Conservative effort, namely the Royalty Resource Review, to give the people of Alberta a more reasonable deal when it came to the extraction of resources from this province. The Royalty Review, even in its gutted state, cost Ed Stelmach his job as premier and cries rang out through the oil patch of ‘never again’; cue the WRP resurgence – a party for the oil companies people of Alberta.
Fortunately, for sanity’s sake, the WRP is made up mostly of dyed in the fool social and fiscal conservatives. These conservative-clowns have now been unleashed on the public and have been busy finding ever larger calibre of guns to shoot themselves in the foot with as the election draws near. Let’s begin with Allan – Homos Will Burn – Hunsperger’s thoughts on sexual orientation –
“Musing on the Lady Gaga song ‘Born This Way,’ which preaches tolerance, Allan Hunsperger wrote that: “You can live the way you were born, and if you die the way you were born, then you will suffer the rest of eternity in the lake of fire, hell, a place of eternal suffering.”
Wow, now that is Christian bigotry Love in action. All the stupid fuckwittery of religion and intolerance on display, you would think the leader of the WRP would kick this sack of bug-frak crazy out of the party. It would be the rational course of action…
Time to burn homos. Love Jesus. How can you believe in shite like this in the 21st century?
“At a campaign event in Calgary, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith refused to condemn Hunsperger’s views. From Postmedia:
“When a person is making personal statements in their capacity as a pastor, which he was, I don’t think anybody should be surprised that they’re expressing certain viewpoints,” she said outside a Wildrose photo opportunity at the Calgary Hindu Society’s temple.
“It was a year ago when he was talking in his capacity as a pastor. He now understands, we’ve spoken, we’ve communicated on this, that we will not be legislating on contentious social issues. He understands that. He accepts that.”
Hey, in the WRP upfront religious delusion is A-OKAY. Nothing like this will go into making secular public policy…honest..we swear on the very tears of Jesus!!! Oh and there is bonus material as well apparently Captain Crazy also has his pastor mojo on over another great evil in society – The public school system!!1!!11! In his own frothy words:
“This includes those students, staff, and families who identify or are perceived as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two- spirit, queer or questioning their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. The Board expects all members of our diverse community to be welcomed, respected, accepted, and supported in every school.” Why this from our public educators? Because they believe people were “born this way” and have a right to die this way. The blind leading the blind! Now every Christian school that has come under the Edmonton Public School board will have to adopt this as well. Trapped! For years I have warned Christian educators that you can’t partner with public education because public education is godless. As far as public education is concerned, there is no God“
Yes, there you have Admiral Nut-Butter Von Douche-Bigot of the good ship Homophobia whinging on about the anti-bulling policy of the school board. How dare it be tolerant of the devil children and all their evil! Frak me jebus, why isn’t this man running the party!
Religious delusion aside, the Wild Rose Party of Alberta also happens to be chock full of privileged while males…
And Everywhere the Wild Rose Party is as well.
“I believe that for the people of Calgary-Greenway they need a change. They need someone who has a passion for their community, someone who will represent their community and I believe that as a Caucasian I have an advantage that for the Punjabi community I am able to speak for the whole community and to lift the community up in our region,” CTV reported Leech as saying on the video.
“I believe when I come to our community here I am very concerned that the Punjabi community have not been esteemed, lifted up. When a Punjabi leader speaks for the Punjabi, the Punjabi are listening but when a Caucasian speaks on their behalf everybody is listening.” The host of the program then said he agrees with Leech’s statement.Wildrose officials said the video was recorded about two weeks ago, before Leech made similar controversial comments to Fairchild Radio on Sunday.“I think as a Caucasian I have an advantage,” Leech said during the radio interview. “When different community leaders such as a Sikh leader or a Muslim leader speaks they really speak to their own people in many ways. As a Caucasian I believe that I can speak to all the community.”
Leech, a long-time a pastor, apologized earlier this week for his radio comments, […]”
This is lobe exploding material – Ron Leech who honestly believes that by default White is RIGHT when it comes to representing a constituency. Because isn’t it superobvious that the white man represents all people much better than any of those colour folk. Amirite? Y’all?!?
Damn, you would think that bigots and racists would have learned by now to keep this kind of shit holstered until after the election. And unfucking surprisingly, we get these progressive words from yet another kindly loving Man of God. The vile duplicity of religion is being put on glorious display, you would think that our news media might mention that fact somewhere… but no we get the lukewarm saccharine mewings from our media about candidates questionable behaviour.
Certainly now, Denial Danielle Smith (The science is still out on whether or not Danielle Smith has more than two neurons to rub together) would apologize for this carnival of crazy and boot these loons out of the party. Instead we get a rancorous “Oh Hell No!” from Danielle Smith –
“EDMONTON—Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith on Friday headed into the final weekend of the Alberta election campaign on the defensive, insisting that a candidate who said a white politician was better able to represent the community had simply misspoken.“
Ah yes, let us NOT hold Mr.Lake of Fire and Mr.White Power accountable for their reprehensible actions, just STFU Albertans and elect them already; the WRP has a province to run in the interests of the Oil companies.
Vote for the WRP party! Embrace Corporatism!
Voting republican? Well the rich need their defenders too, sheesh.
So, is this how it must be?
I’m thinking that we get Anonymous when the structures of your democratic institutions are corrupted and ineffective. When the voice of the people is lost in the swirl of corporate dollars and lobbying, we get Anonymous. When the elites believe that they are truly untouchable and are a gift to the rest of us, we get Anonymous.
Do I agree with their all of their methods? No, but the message they broadcast has a certain resonance that I’m sure the power-brokers of the world detest and fear, and that, friends, is a good thing.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…