The big failure of the IDW (well, there were many big failures, but that requires a whole analysis) was that its spiritual ethos was rooted in a GenX nostalgia that “if we could just just turn the political clock backward then we could return to a fruitful liberalism”. That entire orientation — based on the desire to bring back a non-existent reality, one that has already passed away — has to be thrown in the garbage. There can be no tolerance for any wimpy calls to “return to somewhere better”, because it completely blocks out the ability to look at and act within the landscape as it exists right now.
*Especially if you are the type of person who remains committed to liberal principles!*
Then, it becomes **unbelievably important** to basically grieve over old loyalties to liberal systems and institutions, and fully acknowledge how they have completed burned up – particularly in the past 15 years. Punch the wall hundred times, yell into your computer, write a bunch of screed; do what it takes to deal with the disappointment and sense of betrayal and broken trust.
Because, if you’re a person who wants to actually inject some forward-looking sobriety into the political game, you need to be able to come to table and orient to what comes after the tantrum-over-loss with an uncompromising sense of discernment and maneuverability. And there is no waiting for the right time anymore, really, because it's not waiting for any of us. There are discursive choices to be made even in the midst of a cloudy frontier that doesn't seem to possess any answers, let alone complete ones. Choices that allow the view and engagement in this space to widen and breathe rather than continue to narrow and calcify.
Learn which people you can talk to and the projects you can participate in that center a baseline level of simple honesty about competing or conflicting interests (even in the midst of great animosity), and start engaging with how these various factions look to order these real interests into some agenda or coherence.
Really interesting emphasis of politics from human interest
I'll give this a listen on my drive home today. Best of luck to you guys.
The big failure of the IDW (well, there were many big failures, but that requires a whole analysis) was that its spiritual ethos was rooted in a GenX nostalgia that “if we could just just turn the political clock backward then we could return to a fruitful liberalism”. That entire orientation — based on the desire to bring back a non-existent reality, one that has already passed away — has to be thrown in the garbage. There can be no tolerance for any wimpy calls to “return to somewhere better”, because it completely blocks out the ability to look at and act within the landscape as it exists right now.
*Especially if you are the type of person who remains committed to liberal principles!*
Then, it becomes **unbelievably important** to basically grieve over old loyalties to liberal systems and institutions, and fully acknowledge how they have completed burned up – particularly in the past 15 years. Punch the wall hundred times, yell into your computer, write a bunch of screed; do what it takes to deal with the disappointment and sense of betrayal and broken trust.
Because, if you’re a person who wants to actually inject some forward-looking sobriety into the political game, you need to be able to come to table and orient to what comes after the tantrum-over-loss with an uncompromising sense of discernment and maneuverability. And there is no waiting for the right time anymore, really, because it's not waiting for any of us. There are discursive choices to be made even in the midst of a cloudy frontier that doesn't seem to possess any answers, let alone complete ones. Choices that allow the view and engagement in this space to widen and breathe rather than continue to narrow and calcify.
Learn which people you can talk to and the projects you can participate in that center a baseline level of simple honesty about competing or conflicting interests (even in the midst of great animosity), and start engaging with how these various factions look to order these real interests into some agenda or coherence.