Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Movements to Die For

Author:Joshua Allen
Posted:9/26/2000; 8:48:10 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 9/26/2000
Msg #:21765 (In response to 21713)
Prev/Next:21764 / 21766

Watching both these segments exposed something within me. I want to be part of a movement with that much meaning. It took great courage in Poland and Chile for ordinary citizens to want freedom so much to be willing to die for it. I want to see courage in my own country, in my time, but I don't see it.

We are in some of the most meaningful and moving times ever experienced by humankind. If we play our cards right, future generations won't have to die for things, and will be able to focus on the real problems looming ahead of us (like, what to do when we use up this planet, or what do we do when we realize our bodies don't eveolve as fast as the diseases we are spawning).

I think people need movements, though. The trouble in a civilization that has nothing more to fight for is finding a way to keep the population galvanized. The excesses of the late roman empire and the situation in France during the times of the Dreyfuss trial and Dada show how silly mature civilizations get when you have scores of miscreants with nothing to believe in. I honestly think that the 1960s anti-war protests, today's FSF, 80's punk, etc. are all manifestations (by no means comprehensive) of this desire for a movement. I'm also thinking that "protest" has the potential to be as defining a movement for this decade as "rave" was for the last. The protest network follow around events the same way kids used to follow around the grateful dead. Half have no clue what they are protesting about; that's not the point. The point is the same way that baby boomers today reminisce about "sleeping on the grass on a hill outside San Francisco", kids today will be telling their grandkids about "that time they sprayed me with pepper gas at Seattle's WTO". The Internet makes it easier for kids to organize around these events and swap information, rhetoric, stories, etc.

Part of it is, I think, the way that we are steeped in stories about various heroes of the revolution. If you are a normal American kid, you grow up admiring thomas paine and patrick henry, if you feel better than everyone else, you admire lenin, marx, and other bolshevik heroes. (strangely enough, nobody idolizes pol pot). Either way, Americans love revolutions and revolutionaries.

A smart leader knows about our penchant for meaning and movements. One of the most important things that John Kennedy did when president was give us a common vision that most of the nation could rally behind without controversy (a man on the moon, blah blah). Leaders today hang on to power by playing on the things about us that are different. When was the last grand unifying vision that a leader articulated that was able to give us collective purpose?

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