“Habits change. Men doesn’t.” In 1958, a history professor who had escaped from communist oppression in Hungary, wrote that announcement on a blackboard. His English wasn’t all that good yet, but he certainly knew a lot about human behavior. Fifty years later, I’m more convinced than ever that he was right.
Saturday evening I attended a performance of Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People” at Washington University. Although written in 1882, the point Ibsen was making applies with as much, or maybe more, eloquence today. The hero of the play tries to warn the town that their main source of revenue, a health spa, is swirling with polluted water and making visitors sick. The pollution is coming from a tannery which employs many of the townspeople. Rather than face scientific evidence from a university lab and fix the problem, the town authorities, with help from a co-opted newspaper editor, incite the townspeople to condemn the man trying to do the right thing as an enemy of the people. Fast forward to 2010.
There are so many examples of the point Ibsen was making that it’s hard to pick one. CAFO’s? Nuclear waste dumps? Coal ash from power plants? (which Sen. McCaskill doesn’t think is dangerous, BTW) Concerned Missourians visited state reps and senators on Februrary 3 to present evidence of the need for raising water pollution permit fees. During one of those short visits, a state rep made the comment that he didn’t “believe in” climate change because scientists are not in agreement. (sound of jaws dropping) I have been exchanging emails with that state rep since our little chat, and his “sources” are free-market think tanks disguised as “institutes” and “policy forums.” This particular state rep once taught geography so I’m holding out hope that evidence gathered by the National Geographic Society and available on the DVD I gave him will eat away at his “belief system.”
Hope? Did I say hope? Am I, like President Obama, an eternal optimist or just an old fool
When lawmakers speak candidly about “pay for play” in Jeff City, naive Missourians are shocked. Rep. Curt Daugherty is quoted by the KC Star as saying that Mo legislators might as well put a “for sale” sign in front of the Capitol. And then this Ibsenism:
“It is not about being right or wrong,” Bushart recalled Dougherty as saying. “It is all about money. I hate to put it this way, but it’s the truth.”
The current issue of Newsweek offers an excellent analysis of our current political paralysis by Jacob Weisberg. Rather than polarizing the spectacle in Washington as one between Dems and Repugs or even public interest vs private greed, Weisberg sees the struggle as one between politicans who are brave enough to tell the truth and those who aren’t. He says Americans generally live in “Candyland” and want everything taken care of without paying for it. President Obama is one politican who will “speak frankly” rather than “indulging the public’s delusions.”
So, in addition to the powerful corporate lobbies threatening progress on health care reform and climate change issues, we also have to face the fact that we, the people, can’t have our cake and eat it too. Weisberg warns that
“Our inability to address these long-term challenges makes a strong case that the United States now faces an era of historical decline. To change this storyline, we need to stop blaming the rascals we elect to office, and look instead to ourselves.”
“Habits Change. Men Doesn’t.” What do you think the chances are that we can alter human nature in time to stop polluting ourselves into extinction?
I have had a similar experience to your’s with Enemy of the People. I received a boxed set of the HBO series, The Wire, for Christmas and have just finished watching the entire series for the 2nd time. The series is a a masterpiece- overused word that is the only appropriate word in this case. Its topic is an examinatin of the fissures in our broken society.
The writer-producers.David Simon and Ed Burns, a one-time Baltimore journalist and an ex-Baltimore police officer, take the city of Baltimore and looks at every factor that plays into its malaise: drugs and poverty, politics, media and education. At the heart of every dilemma is money, or lack thereof, and the political posturing that is inspired by the inability of politicians and officials to actually do anything in their starved environment, even when the will exists. And there is, of course, vivid depiction of the corruption that results from hopelessness as much as anythings.
This rings true to me from my experience in Detroit, and from what I read about St. Louis. It also seems to me that we see the same dynamic playing out on the national scene – compounded by the inexplicable willingness of our polity to tip their hats toward the failed ideologies that brought us to this state over the past years. We had a chance when Obama assumed office last January to begin to fix things, but our go-along-get-along politicians have already sold us out in favor of an unsustainable status quo.
..admonitions’ and prescriptions for pulling back the curtain, we need separation of buck and state to save our republic. Public financing of campaigns, etc.
Weisberg’s quote about an ‘era of historical decline’ links to an article by James Fallows in the Atlantic unpacking the ‘American Jeremiad’ — aka Book of Jeremiah.
A long piece, “How America Can Rise Again”, this bit caught my eye:
Thanks, Merch, for the pep talk. You are right, of course. And Byron is right that there have always been cycles of hope and despair in American history. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. chronicled them in his classic study, and I used that in classrooms in the 80’s and 90’s. I keep hoping for signs of what is necessary for the next cycle of progressive change. Maybe it’s happening more slowly than in the past and I’m not alert enough to pick up on the signs. OR maybe those newly awakened societies with eager beaver young people chomping at the bit will take over as the next world leaders. Remember David Stockman’s comment after he left the Reagan administration about how the cold war was a contest between us and the Soviet Union to see who could bankrupt the other first? He said the U.S. won by a hair. But what did we do with our “victory”? We had to find another enemy in order to support the military-industrial-Congressional complex. Now we can relax because the “war on terror” has replaced communism as the excuse for the rich and powerful to suck up as much wealth as possible from the middle class.
I agree that we shouldn’t worry too much about the “masses.” Unless they vote in large numbers.
SarahJo, I didn’t express myself clearly. When our popular ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ media convert details into sound bytes, the results can be misleading. Your premise that we are losing the message war appeared (at least to me) to assume their representations were accurate.
“Shouldn’t worry too much about the “masses” wasn’t exactly my point. We recall images from the past that were assembled after momentum had built; we can forget that’s not how those movements began and get discouraged. The excerpts I posted were intended to highlight the failings of the Dem Establishment. Your activities are substantially more productive than theirs!
Yesterday, someone made the most profound observation I’ve heard in a long time. It was this – most legislators are lawyers, they’re inclined/trained to argue and expound on issues rather than seek solutions. Until Dean & Obama, the Democratic establishment had completely devolved into a ‘club’ that only responded to special interests while professing to be guardians of the working person’s interest; as Westen notes, they’ve been inept at listening to and serving our needs. And most still are! It’s why Democrats lose and Congress is so screwed. President Obama isn’t perfect but, as one comic described, the guy’s like Michael Jordan trying to win with the Washington Wizards as his team mates. Personally, I’ve hoped some fuddy duddy leaders would move to advisory roles and make way for those who’d be more effective.
As for the masses and the ‘message war’, remember Mark Twain – ‘
Have you seen these?
Mass. Post Election Polling –
Among those who voted for Brown, the poll found that 48 percent opposed the Senate health care bill – and 36 percent of them said it was because the legislation didn’t go far enough, as opposed to 23 percent who felt the bill went too far. http://www.politico.com/news/s…
Among the Obama supporters who stayed at home, 53 percent said the Senate legislation didn’t go far enough in reforming the system, while just 8 percent said it went too far. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33014_Page3.html#ixzz0fj82f5j9
The poll also showed overwhelming support – 82 percent – for a government-operated health insurance plan similar to Medicare that would compete with private offerings. http://www.politico.com/news/s…
And……
Four progressive groups are now paying Research 2000, a nonpartisan polling firm, to conduct similar surveys in states where Democrats are being challenged in the midterm elections.
In Nevada, the home state of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a new poll that will be released this week found that 43 percent of respondents want “more change” from Congress, compared with 32 percent who want lawmakers to “slow down.” Research 2000 found similar results in surveys done in Colorado and Minnesota.
In all three surveys, Democrats and Republicans by wide margins came down on opposite sides of the question. However, independents broke in favor of more change, by 39 percent to 30 percent in Colorado and 43 percent to 28 percent in Minnesota.
The progressives are aware that their work isn’t particularly welcomed by those they say they are trying to help.
said Charles Chamberlain, political director for Democracy for America, an organization founded by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
We said,
‘ http://www.politico.com/news/s…