Friends, As I explain in the letter below, I believe that the key to movement success will be the coming together of grass-roots people and groups from the left and right. We need also to overcome racial and gender divides, and others, but I see the left-right divide as being the most pivotal from a political perspective. This particular divide is an ideological one, and it gets down to fundamental political issues such as the relationship between the individual and society, the role of government, the structure of the economy, the importance of national sovereignty, and the meaning of community. For the two groups to work together, they will need to discuss these kinds of issues, and these are the very issues that need to be discussed if we are to create a vision of the kind of world we want for our children. All that energy that currently fuels suspicion and hostility between left and right can be transformed into the creative energy needed to fuel the movement and create the necessary vision. That which is now a problem (divisiveness) can be transformed into a solution (creative alliance). That's what I mean by 'synergy', below. I don't mean to imply that left and right aren't already working together to some extent. Brian Hill, for example, has long been working along these lines, and we've seen collaborations in Seattle and elsewhere. But the idea hasn't become contagious yet, and that's what we need - a 'contagion' of left and right collaboration, breaking out in different forms all over the place. How can we encourage such an epidemic? Below is my own humble attempt at an outreach letter, at 'web weaving' as we called it at our one and only Democratic Renaissance gathering in Bear River back in '98. If you think I'm on the right track, you might try some web weaving of your own with the 'other'. all the best, rkm ============================================================================ Dear Y, As you can see above, X suggested I contact you. I'd be quite interested to see any feedback you may have regarding the website and its contents. Just yesterday I added an entire book by Jerry Fresia, called "Toward an American Revolution". One of its good features, it seems to me, is that it seems to appeal to everyone, whether they might consider themselves toward the left or the right of the political spectrum. Which brings me to the motive for my contacting you. If you've read "Escaping the Matrix", then you already know my feelings about 'left' and 'right'. I see them as categories which have little to do with our real political problems, and categories which serve to keep us divided and powerless. Also in the article, I argued that only a massive grass-roots movement can achieve any meaningful or lasting change in our rotten system. Left and right both seem to agree the system is rotten, but they usually disagree on why. The two groups seem to talk mostly among themselves, and quite naturally they end up blaming the other group - the "them" they don't talk to - for the problems. And they are both encouraged by the mass media to place blame in that way. The obvious bias of media announcers angers the right against liberals, and the negative coverage of "extremist" right-wing groups encourages liberals to be paranoid toward the right. One never hears seems to hear 'right-wing' on the tube without 'extremist' attached. My own experience, and that of the Seatte demonstrations and others, is that when the two groups get together and talk, they find they have more in common than they usually think they do. My view is that the movement will really begin to take off when a certain explosive event occurs: namely when grassroots groups on the left and right begin working together from sea to shining sea. There are two reasons for this. The first is simply the _alliance factor: two competing camps who join forces make an obvious strategic difference in their mutual prospects for success. The second is the _synergy factor: the two groups have a lot to learn from one another, and their different perspectives will encourage breaking new ground in their ideas and thinking. So I'm on the lookout to contact people on the 'right' who are interested in exploring how such an 'explosive event' might be encouraged. You may or may not be such a person. X described you as 'libertarian', 'carries a gun', and 'well read on politics', so I thought it would be worth asking. yours, rkm http://cyberjournal.org ============================================================================
