Much of this blog and much of my rantings have focused on the decline of civic action and social capital. The writings have often been an exercise in self-righteous consternation. Nevertheless, this month my impish ways have felt significantly more validated after learning of the work of Eitan Hersh and his recent book, Politics is for Power . His thesis argues that our citizenry (especially white liberals) engage with our political system as spectators by consuming or watching news and primarily focusing on news and issues that have some panash or pizzazz. They end up thinking that they are being good citizens for this spectating, but really, they are not doing anything. He describes this phenomena as Political Hobbyism. And this is bad for our democracy. Mr. Hersh, goes onto argue that politics takes on a similar function as Sports. We root for our team, disparage the other team, and we react to theatrics, celebrity, and very titillating behavior w...
So much has happened since my last post. I won't spend time recapping. What I'll say now is that I think there still can be a case of hope in the midst of all that is happening. Please know that these ideas are taken completely from elsewhere. Many of my previous posts have ranted and raved about the decline of social capital and the lack of civic engagement in our society. I think this has drastically changed. It's improved out of necessity and improved over the very stark realities and societal context in which we're operating. Being under the grips of the most right-wing, overtly racist, embarrassing, disgraceful, destructive regime surely has woken up many. And this matters. It matters so much now that we're organizing. That we can find a common narrative or story about what we need to do to survive and persist. It matters that we have young people who have survived traumas that they shouldn't have ever been exposed to and are now rapidly o...