Are there still American values worth fighting for? This was the question posed at a conference held in October of this year by the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College. The official conference title was "The Unmaking of Americans." That title suggested to me that maybe the conference organizers thought that the correct answer to the question might be "no."
After attending the conference, that wasn't the idea I came away with. Quite the opposite. My impression is that conference participants thought that there were American values "worth fighting for," and that maybe "we, the people" ought to start fighting for them once again.
One of Hannah Arendt's insights, made clear at the conference, was that the true objective of the American Constitution was not to limit power, but to create more power.
Power, in other words, is "good," and the people should have it.
When governments have the power, and the people don't, that's when we have problems.
And (look around) that's where we are today.
Empowering ordinary people to be in charge of everything that pertains to them: that's an American value (still) worth fighting for.
But we're going to have to fight.
For those who would like to watch the conference proceedings, videos of each one of the conference presentations are available, free, by clicking this link.
After attending the conference, that wasn't the idea I came away with. Quite the opposite. My impression is that conference participants thought that there were American values "worth fighting for," and that maybe "we, the people" ought to start fighting for them once again.
One of Hannah Arendt's insights, made clear at the conference, was that the true objective of the American Constitution was not to limit power, but to create more power.
Power, in other words, is "good," and the people should have it.
When governments have the power, and the people don't, that's when we have problems.
And (look around) that's where we are today.
Empowering ordinary people to be in charge of everything that pertains to them: that's an American value (still) worth fighting for.
But we're going to have to fight.
For those who would like to watch the conference proceedings, videos of each one of the conference presentations are available, free, by clicking this link.
http://www.myenergyauction.com/premiere-energy-auction/electric-power-lines/
The best trait for a good politician/leader to have is to be an excellent listener to his/her constituents.
ReplyDelete"Empowering ordinary people to be in charge of everything that pertains to them: "
ReplyDeleteI'm not aware that this has ever been an "American" value, depending on how you define "American," I guess.
"Empowering ordinary people to be in charge of everything that pertains to them" has certainly never been an American government value. Quite the contrary. American government has always guarded against democracy and popular rule.
"Empowering ordinary people to be in charge of everything that pertains to them" has never been an American corporate value. Popular rule has never been in the interest of big business.
For a time, "Empowering ordinary people to be in charge of everything that pertains to them" was an American Populist value, say from 1890 to 1920. But that was quickly squelched by American government and American corporate business, which had other values to uphold: imperialism, corporate personhood, consumerism, subservience, patriotism, fear and demagoguery.
As to fighting, it depends on what you mean. I am not prepared to physically fight against the American government and its corporate owners. They have all the guns and are willing to use them against the people.
I do however persist in taking part in day to day democracy in my community, county and state, where I can have some measure of influence over the outcome. I do not fight the government, I participate in government.
This is my right and responsibility as a citizen of the United States of America.