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James R. Martin's avatar

I'm a thousand percent onboard the desire and intention of combining movements into a synergistic whole which has transformational power. (Power-with, not power-over) And I'm a thousand percent with your perspective, Patrick, in which such synergistic combinations and convergences of movements is what is presently called for.

That said, I believe my diagnosis of why this isn't already occurring in a big way may differ a bit from yours (?). Personally, I think the problem of common visioning is MOSTLY the result of the power structure of mainstream media and education. Media and education shape our culture more than any other factors I can think of -- even as compared with political parties and churches! And what we call "mainstream" media and education have -- as I see it -- been captured by the very same ethos as has captured our governing bodies (parties, institutions).

As I like to say it, "all politics is the politics of an ethos".

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines 'ethos' as "the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution". Ethos, then, is very similar in meaning to the common sense of the word 'ideology,' but there are perhaps important particulars to distinguish these words from one another -- a topic not unworthy of conversation.

Speaking of Merriam-Webster Dictionary ..., that same dictionary defines 'obsolete' as "[a] no longer in use or [b] no longer useful". In my diagnosis of the core problem of our current culture (material, economic, political, social, etc.) our problem is best understood -- primarily -- as one of several layers of obsolescence of type b.

- continued -

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Lorna Salzman's avatar

A structure and plan can come later...just housekeeping. What is needed, and what a "movement of movements" lacks is a core philosophy. If this isn't an ecological core that dictates the agenda of the movement, it is just floundering and treading water. It has been tried..and it has always failed. it always will. The only successful movements have been those with a unifying core that shapes and dictates theory and practice. A structure and plan are abstract and arbitrary and can be shaped as people want. The recusal of reform movements from an ecological philosophy and analysis is why we are failing. A proper ecological analysis subsumes all the social and economic issues with which humans are concerned. These issues must be addressed only in the context of ecology and planetary survival and must be shaped and conform to the exigencies of earth's systems and species. If you havent learned this yet, you are just wasting your breath. That's why the green movement/party has failed. You need to read Greta Thunberg and Bill Rees. Your heroes...McKibben, Hedges, Hirsch, etc....are tangential, ineffective and ideologically perverse. They are not leaders and have done little or nothing that has any influence or impact because they

are ideologues , not leaders, and have never addressed the fundamental causes of planetary collapse.

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