Re: [GreenYes] Some thoughts on the present and future direction of this move...

[Grifola8@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/26/01 11:16:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
mmorrow@together.net writes:

> A "green" party seems to be the best answer to get the message out and
>  effect outcomes.

Some German friends tell me that as their Green Party ascended to power over 
the past ~20 years, it was infiltrated by the same cutthroat pragmatist ilk 
that dominated Germany's previous political mainstream.  The wonderful whacko 
activists that once gave the Greens a heart and soul were pushed aside, and 
the party has since lost much of its grass roots character and mandate, 
thanks to the pathological ambitions of certain latecomers -- power has 
corrupted the party and compromised its goals.  So it goes with "changing the 
system from within," a cliche with lower than average reality value.  What 
happened to the massive militant Left of the 1960s, anyway?  Did the CIA 
murder them all?  How can it be that, as these once-revolutionaries age and 
accumulate wealth and power, the tentacled monster called American capitalism 
becomes more menacing than ever?

> [Vilifying and opposing Big Money is a bad idea,
>  because it leads to hawkish, ill-mannered adversarialism]
        and
> "Is there a way to change the current model without fomenting revolt."

I need more than this to understand why adversarialism, in turn, is bad.  
History is full of evidence that conflict of some sort is the only real agent 
of Change, and that intensity*duration of conflict equates with degree of 
change.  I should add that the trajectory of change is profoundly 
unpredictable.

Mind you, changing the system from within is all we can hope to do in any 
case, since we're all members of the HUMAN system.  Within this context, the 
Us/Them construct is still critical to maintaining conflict and thus 
effecting change.  Those who choose accomodationist strategies tend to lose 
sight of the Us/Them line altogether, and too often end up lying in bed with 
Them.  After all, this is the path of least resistance...

> ...in our hearts most of us want to live like kings.

A spectacular observation.  People get bent when I call this greed, but what 
else can one call it?  Getting everyone to deconstruct this impulse and then 
disengage from it can be seen as Environmentalism's ultimate mission.