Learned Helplessness vs Social Change

Hola mi Gente,

Last night something remarkable happened, defying statistical models and the predictions of the chattering class, Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in the Michigan primary. What is even more remarkable is that a little-known, 79-year-old Jewish dude from Brooklyn is giving Hillary a run for her money. Stay tuned, this is not your father’s election cycle. LOL

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Learned Helplessness vs Social Change

Culturally the Negro represents a paradox: Though he is an organic part of the nation, he is excluded by the entire tide and direction of American Culture... Therefore if, within the confines of its present culture, the nation ever seeks to purge itself of its color hate, it will find itself at war with itself, convulsed by a spasm of emotional and moral confusion.

 -- Richard Wright, Black Boy

First, let me be clear about my position regarding the current election cycle. I do not support any candidate. Period. I believe voting is the least effective of all the tactics for creating social change and I refuse to essentially vote to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. However, if forced, I would vote for Bernie Sanders. In addition, I could never vote for a Clinton. Period.

In the Gospel According to Eddie, one of vilest sins (second only to willful ignorance) is the notion that we have no agency -- the ability to be an active participant in our lives. The sentiment seems to be, “Well, sure ____ (<-- a="" any="" attitude.="" attitude="" belief="" bother.="" but="" called="" can="" cannot="" defeatist="" difference="" escape="" form="" getting="" here="" i="" in="" insert="" is="" make="" negative="" observe="" of="" overarching="" psychology="" reamed="" so="" suffering="" system="" t="" that="" the="" this="" type="" why="" wrong="" you="" your="">learned helplessness

. Learned helplessness is the best way I can describe the attitude of  many Hillary Clinton supporters, who seem to have adopted as their motto, “No we can’t!”

I was reminded of this psychological concept when I recently came across a study that study from Princeton that argues that over the past few decades America's political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.

Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters (click here for an interview with the lead investigator of the study).

Listening to the responses from so-called progressive pundits and activists, I can see why we may already have lost our democracy -- or whatever it was we had. We have become so conditioned to authoritarianism that we have self-professed progressives openly advocating against single payer health care, the model used almost universally in developed countries. They say it is impossible, so they dismiss the effort as unrealistic or pie-in-the-sky day dreaming. Overturning Citizens United? “Impossible! Get that out of your head!”screech the Hillary supporters. 

And you go on down the whole list of progressive values and these so-called progressives dismiss them all. We must vote for a right-of-center democrat or we are naïve political children, they say. Of course, these political “realists” ignore the fact that the current right wing hate group acting as a majority in two branches of government has not bothered to work with the current right-of-center POTUS, Barack Obama. Using this line of logic, I am glad these people did not win the day when civil rights activists decided to desegregate southern establishments. Using this utterly clueless worldview, they would have been content to be able to sit at a diner for only one hour a day. I am only half joking, folks… 

I was once marching in Washington, DC against some injustice, I forget which. At the time, like now, I had been feeling very frustrated at the state of politics in this country. I was marching alongside an elderly African-American lady who had to use a walker. She was veteran from the peak years of the civil rights movement -- someone who marched in the South when they would let dogs loose on you if you had the audacity to demand equal rights. I asked her how she could continue the struggle in the face of so much failure. Her response will stay with me until the day I die and it is why I still fight.

She asked me, “What is your ethnicity?” I answered that I was of Puerto Rican descent. Then she said, “Do you know that you probably have an ancestor who fought against slavery though he knew he would never see the light of a free day?” Then she turned to a young woman standing next to me and said, “Do you know that it is very likely that you have an ancestor who fought for the right to vote though she knew she would not be able to cast a vote herself?” And on she went with the rest of the group, pointing out how those who came before us laid the groundwork though they knew that they would never live to reap the fruits of their collective labor. Many lost their lives in the struggle.

With a smile that belied her rebel attitude, she explained that she didn’t march because she hoped or expected win over the oppressors. Rather, she recognized that -- as little power as she had -- she was determined to use her courage and determination as a weapon to harass embedded power structures. Her goal was defiance. She also explained that she avoided discouragement because the moment she chose resistance as a strategy against slave mentality, she was triumphant. Nothing the power elite could do could ever diminish her triumph.

Finally, she emphasized that we owed it to both our ancestors and our children. We owed it to our ancestors, many of whom fought slavery and oppression knowing they would never see it abolished in their lifetimes. More importantly, we owe it to our children, who need to have the road cleared for their own resistance. Children who need a power of example of defiance in the face of hate in order for them to shake off the shackles of ignorant passive acceptance and learned helplessness.

And this is what concerns and frustrates me the most about the Hillary Clinton campaign and her so-called liberal and progressive supporters. This is a campaign with no vision -- a campaign of diminished expectations at a time when what we need the kind of leadership that audaciously demands progressive values in the face of entrenched racism and power. 

I will not tell you who to vote for. In fact, I will encourage you to do more. But do not ever tell me that voting for and supporting the Clintons, a white southern political dynasty that in the past has used racist dog whistles in order to incite moral panics resulting in the unprecedented mass incarceration of mostly black men, is “practical.” 

Do not try to tell me that the same political cowardice that implemented economic policies (again, using racist tropes) that decimated the most vulnerable in our society, is somehow pragmatic. Fuck you with that nonsense. You stand there and take the pain while you push the lever that inflicts that very pain, but do not call it practical, or realistic, or (shit!) progressive. 

Do not try to white wash trade policies that destroyed our manufacturing base, resulting the loss of millions of jobs just so CEOs could the corporations they run could stow the profits in offshore accounts. That is not practical or even inevitable. It is oligarchy, not democracy.

What is important is that you take a stand, whatever it is. I will not engage your thinking on this. If you act, you act; if you don't, you don't. This is about action (or the lack thereof), not talk.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… 

Resources

Jill Quadagno: The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty (click here)

Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page (2014). Testing theories of American politics: Elites, interest groups, and average citizens. Perspectives on Politics, 12, pp 564-581. doi:10.1017/S1537592714001595.

When Youth Violence Spurred ‘Superpredator’ Fear, NY Times (Click here)

The Superpredator Myth, 20 Years Later, Equal Justice Initiative (click here)

Fast Track to Lost Jobs and Lower Wages, Economic Policy Institute (click here)

Lee Atwater on the many ways to say the n-word without saying it (click here)

OWS vs. The Professionalization of Activism

¡Hola! Everybody…
First, let me thank all the kind people who’ve written me, encouraging and thanking me for posting these (albeit) sporadic updates on the Occupy Wall St. (OWS) protests. FYI, if you're looking for in-depth reporting on the Occupy Wall St. protest/ social movement, see my fellow FDLer, Kevin Gosztola, for up-to-the-minute posts and incisive commentary (here).

Today I’m prepping for a job interview tomorrow. There’s a lot research to read and I want to get as much info about the organization as possible. Unfortunately, the interview conflicts with tomorrow’s rally bringing together the OWS, labor, and other progressive stakeholders in a Community Labor March:

Union members and community members impacted by the economic crisis have been demanding that Wall Street and New York's wealthiest pay their fair share of taxes. Let's march down to Wall Street to welcome the protesters and show the face of New Yorkers hardest hit by corporate greed.

It's time to stand together, and continue what was started in Wisconsin!

WHEN: October 5th at 4:30 pm

WHERE: City Hall (250 Broadway) to Zuccotti Park

Note: this MARCH IS LEGAL, meaning that the necessary permits have been obtained. Supported by United Federation of Teachers, 32BJ SEIU, 1199 SEIU, Workers United and Transport Workers, PSC-CUNY United NY, the Strong Economy for All Coalition, the Working Families Party, Vocal-NY, New York Communities for Change, Community Voices Heard, Alliance for Quality Education... many more joining daily.

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I have written elsewhere how I came to be involved with OWS. Initially, some younger friends looking to tap into my experience as an activist invited me to be part of OWS before it began. I asked them the usual questions: What’s your goal? What’s your mission statement, and demands? And they didn’t have any answers…

Not wanting to discourage them, I didn’t share my thoughts that in, my “professional” estimation, this was an action doomed for failure.

This goes to show you how much I fuckin’ know.

By day nine, I (like many others paying attention) became outraged by the treatment of the protestors, the ridicule heaped upon them by those supporting the status quo and (shamefully) by so-called progressives who sneered at the OWS protestors as naïve or ill-informed.

I went down to the site to see for myself what was going on and I immediately realized that something different and vital was happening here and it was happening because the (mostly young) people were actually very well informed and were engaged in an intense dialog -- you could almost sense the consciousness raising. What I didn’t realize at the beginning was that these kids had at least two qualities no amount of strategizing, spin, or tactical know-how could bring about: courage and commitment.

Could OWS benefit from more skillful strategizing? Sure, but that’s a silly and irrelevant issue at this point of the protests. What’s happening here at OWS is the nascent stirrings of a movement, not just an action. This is an organic process, with a true “bottom-up” structure dictating that process. The only ones hung up on the lack of specific demands and goals are those most afraid of revolution: the media (which needs a handle with which to spin information/ sell air time), and people who, frankly, don’t know much about coalition-building and consensus.

Few protest movements enjoy perfect clarity about tactics or command widespread support when they begin. What’s important at OWS is the raising of awareness, attracting others to the cause. The structure develops as this ferments and grows. Dismissing these protests because they lack fully developed, sophisticated professionalization is like to throwing out a child because he can’t read.

This is what I mean when I say, as a “professional,” that I don’t want to mess with that process. OWS and its allies are attempting to oppose a dogma and to reconceptualize a society mired in a fuck up of gigantic proportions at least three decades in the making. Those who are actually interested in helping it develop will work toward improving those deficiencies, not harp on them in order to belittle its worth.

From my standpoint, I only want to be there as much as possible to support that process as much as possible without attempting to fuck with a phenomenon unique and courageous, considering the social context it is taking place within.

“The nature of the occupation’s organization hinges upon the belief that electoral politics have failed to address gross injustices. It rests upon the idea that no piece of legislation will provide the solution to systemic problems in society. It stems from the notion that petitions, calling your representative, going to conferences and holding permitted rallies and marches have been ineffective. Corporate and special interests control the agencies, bureaucracies, institutions and politicians, which participate in the electoral and political process, so much that citizens have virtually no power to influence how dire problems are addressed.”

As a veteran activist of too many protests/ campaigns/ actions to enumerate, that passage right there grabs me and compels me to an action that’s not just a march, not defined by a mere set of demands, but an invitation to dare look beyond the false choices we’ve been handed.

The only ones who need a clear message, overarching goals, yadda yadda yadda are those least interested in being about organic, lasting change.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

The Spirit of Disobedience: Occupy Wall St. [Day 15] and Slut March

¡Hola! Everybody…
It’s been very hectic over here in [un]Common Sense-landia and yours truly is tarred (as they say in Texas).

For the holier-than-thou bloggers who post constantly about “idiot America” and how Americans are politically naïve and apathetic, there were several protests going on this weekend. I attended two: The Slut March, NYC and I stayed for several hours and marched with the Occupy Wall St. protest. In addition, there was a march against poverty and another march (at the moment, I can’t remember its goal/ aim).

More on Slut Walk and mass arrests at Occupy Wall St. after the jump…

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Slut Walk, NYC

I got to the march late and missed the actual march. I was under the mistaken impression that there would be speakers and entertainment followed by the march, but it was the other way around.

The event was well-attended with my eyeball figure putting it at around 2-3,000 people. Men, women, transgender, straight, gay -- everybody was in attendance. It was great to see the solidarity, the togetherness, and most of all, it was inspiring to see so many women (and those that love them) show up and be silent no more. Lots of survivors here and the event was both somber and entertaining and very humorous.

One speaker, a Latina, addressed the controversy surrounding the use of the word “slut” and she did a great job. The power to define words (and human beings), and the importance of challenging that power is what’s essential. What does it mean to be called a slut? Who gets to decide to label someone a slut? What happens to people who are marginalized as sluts? And as a Latina, she often gets labeled a slut simply because of her ethnicity and the color of her skin because, as we all know, Latinas are ‘hot blooded,” right? SMDH

Until we live in a society in which being called a slut is no longer a tool for oppression, we will not be free.

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Occupy Wall St.: Day 15 (Saturday, October 1, 2011)

After enjoying a brunch with my friend, Puma, I decided since it was still early (and raining), I would take in a movie and then head downtown to the Occupy Wall St. protest (OWS). There wasn’t anything worthwhile at the Regal Union Square, and the times for the Black Panther documentary I’ve been dying to catch, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, was too late, so I went instead to The Strand Bookstore, and over to the St. Marks Bookshop, to purchase a book there, since they’re in financial trouble and in need of support (I purchased Black Frankenstein).

After spending some time finding a dry spot and reading for an hour or so, I headed over to OWS and quickly found out there was a march scheduled for the Brooklyn Bridge. My usual shtick is to get into OWS and striking up a conversation with anybody. I’ve met some really interesting people this way and yesterday, it was a young lady named Charlotte (not her real name), a recent college graduate who quit her job at a Wal-Mart to join the OWS protest. I immediately liked her: she was young, intelligent, and believed passionately that she had to make a difference, and had been sleeping at OWS for the past three days. I tried to buy her dinner and offered her money, but she told me that she was being fed well and that her clothes were dry. Geeeez…

We joined the rest of the marchers and headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge en masse. Now, you probably haven’t heard about this because the police haven’t maced nor beat anyone lately, but one of the things that disturbs me the most about the OWS protest is the discrepancy between what’s actually happening here and how what little is being reported is in actuality disinformation. More on this later.

As we neared the entrance to the Bridge, I saw that the police seemed to be encouraging and even allowing marchers to cross over to the road section of the bridge. Being a veteran activist and having marched across the Brooklyn Bridge countless times, I found this odd. I have never been part of an action in which the police allowed marchers to cross over from the pedestrian section to the vehicular traffic section. In fact, when I reached the bridge, I almost followed Charlotte onto the road section and then something told me this looked like a set-up at best. So I grabbed Charlotte by the hand and pulled her to the pedestrian side, where we then watched the crowd on the road section from above.

Here’s the funny thing: after allowing, and seeming to direct the marchers onto the road, the police then rolled out the mesh, corralled the marchers and then proceeded to make 700 arrests. Here’s a short clip of what looks like the police leading the marchers onto the road (forbidden) section of the bridge:

From my perspective, it certainly looked as if the police were allowing, if not encouraging the protestors to veer off onto the road section of the bridge.

Later, a phalanx of police officers created a wall and then proceeded to make arrests, often targeting people of color who happened to be at the front of that part of the march:

What you can’t see on the second clip is that towards the back, the police had already started rolling out the mesh and corralling (“kettling”) the protestors on the road section of the bridge, so that those who had realized they would be arrested couldn’t retreat and comply by moving over to the pedestrian section of the bridge.

If you heard about this at all you probably only heard that there 700 hundred arrests. Period. No context. Or, alternatively, if you did read about this you might come upon a redacted version. For example, the Daily Kos points out that the New York Times first reported the arrests in this way:

“After allowing them onto the bridge, police cut off and arrested dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters.”

Later it was changed to say:

“In a tense showdown over the East River, police arrested hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators after they marched onto the bridge’s Brooklyn-bound roadway.”

It must be difficult for the New York Times to suck and swallow at the same time…

Finally, this is what pissed me off the most. Here’s a clip of the police arresting a young lady who can’t be more than 12-13 years-old:

What the fuck?!! Whatever your political tendencies, we should be encouraging our youth to question, to think critically, to be civically engaged, not arresting them for having the fuckin' huevos to speak out. This is what we’ve come to and I know some of you dumb-fuck neocon-twat motherfuckers will justify this nonsense in some way. Our youth should be ashamed of the adult population.

In other news, we continue to get more support from the unions and there is an informal commitment by Marines to come down to the protests to protect the OWS activists (click here). This Tuesday and Wednesday there will be mass protests. I expect there will be thousands and I expect that the media will continue to ignore us. Today will most likely be a day of rest for OWS.

The weather will soon be turning cold and we need sweat suits or warm clothing. If you can send sweat pants and hoods in size large (that way anyone can wear them), it would be very helpful. We have a postal box and can accept packages of any size:

The UPS Store

Re: Occupy Wall Street

118A Fulton St. #205

New York, NY 10038

Money orders only please, cannot cash checks yet. Non-perishable goods only. We can accept packages of any size. We're currently low on food.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

Resources

Occupy Wall St.: For the latest news and information (click here)

Occupy Together: For information on Occupations happening near you (click here)

For Facebookers click here

UPDATE: Occupy Wall St. [Day 13]

¡Hola! Everybody…
I know you think I spend all my time on Facebook and blogging, but that’s just your perception. For example, today, on top of all my FB updates, shenanigans, blog post and all the other insanity, I facilitated two women’s workshops, attended a steering committee meeting for a campaign against racial profiling and police brutality, and stopped by Occupy Wall St. for an hour or so before heading home.

Yeah… fuck you. LOL!

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Update: Occupy Wall St., Day 13

Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.
-- Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

I want to do a more far-ranging, in-depth “participant/ observer” report on Occupy Wall St., but things are moving so quickly, and this movement is gaining so much traction just as rapidly, that I can’t afford to wait and write the longer, more in-depth piece I have in mind. So here goes…

As most of you know, on the tenth day of the Occupy Wall St. action, I decided to join in. Some of my activist friends have been there since the beginning with one getting arrested. To be honest, I thought the action wouldn’t last because it wasn’t well thought-out, there was no coherent message, no goals.

Just goes to show you how much I fuckin’ know. What I didn’t foresee is that the mostly young people occupying Wall St. have two principles necessary for impactful, meaningful action: commitment and courage.

It’s now Day Thirteen and it seems that the movement instead of dying out is instead defying all odds and growing.

Breaking News

Today, the Transport Workers Union (TWU) has voted to officially support Occupy Wall St. (here) TWU local 100 has 33,000 members in New York and 200,000 members nationally. There’s talk at the Occupy Wall St. site that the United Auto Workers (UAW) will also come on board. Critical Mass will join with a protest starting at Union Square and moving down to Liberty Park to join with the people at Occupy Wall St.

This is only natural, as I had run into and spoken with many union members at Occupy Wall St. One union member even pointed out to me the fact that members of one of the most powerful city unions, the police, were there to suppress protest. Hmmmmm…

On October 5, there will be a huge gathering of all these stakeholders staging a mass protest. This will be a huge shot in the arm and will guarantee that Occupy Wall St. won’t be going away.

Media Coverage

For the most part, the mainstream media outlets (MSM), after initially ignoring the protests, are now reporting on it, but only from a corporate-friendly, misinformed perspective. In fact, if it weren’t for the blatant police brutality, I doubt they would have covered it at all. Of course, if it had been four or five dumb-fuck teabaggers, the corporate press would’ve outnumbered the protestors.

I’ll have more to say on that later, but I want to illustrate my perspective through the use of a New York Times article. To put it simply the MSM is so out of the loop, so clueless, about the social dynamics undergirding Occupy Wall St because it is a repudiation -- a reconceptualization -- of the status quo. The New York Times, in an attempt to connect the protests to other uprisings around the globe, makes a subtle (and misleading) point that there’s something anti-democratic about popular protest. Check it out:

“… But from South Asia to the heartland of Europe and now even to Wall Street, these protesters share something else: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over.

They are taking to the streets, in part, because they have little faith in the ballot box.

“Our parents are grateful because they’re voting,” said Marta Solanas, 27, referring to older Spaniards’ decades spent under the Franco dictatorship. “We’re the first generation to say that voting is worthless.”

Even in an attempt to connect the dots, they get it wrong.

Whether or not you believe that voting is worthless -- and only an idiot would deny money has supplanted free speech and free elections -- protests and demonstrations are part of the history of the United States and the world. They’re as much a part of one’s civic participation, and has been much more effective than, heading to the ballot box.

More Actions/ Future Posts

I have more on my talks with various activists and my conversations with Cornell West and Amy Goodman, but that will have to wait.

I had to work today, so I was at Occupy Wall St. briefly in the evening. But I will be there tomorrow. A fellow activist who works with me in a campaign against police brutality and racial profiling (it’s called PROP here), has called for a demonstration tomorrow (Friday at 5 PM) to protest the way the NYPD has treated the Occupy Wall St. activists (here).

I’ll be there and I’ll also be marching in Saturday’s SlutWalk (here).

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

Occupy Wall St!

¡Hola! Everybody...
So... after watching the heavy-handed treatment of the Wall St. protestors...

I decided to join in.

I have friends/ former colleagues who have been Occupying Wall St. from the get, and early on I had decided not to get involved. Being involved in two other campaigns (one confronting racial profiling by the NYPD), forced me to consider it would be best if I didn't spread myself too thin. The reality is that being an activist these days sometimes means being sympathetic to many causes, but learning when and where to pick and choose ones battles.

I'm going to “cheat,” as I will not be sleeping there, but I will be adding my presence to the Occupy Wall St. political action/ movement; adding my voice. Initially, I was skeptical: the organizing, IMO, was too informal and there didn't seem to be a clear, concise, coherent message, but, you what? That’s all bullshit. This action is how it starts, and these people, with almost no financial support, almost no media exposure (here), and powerful interests attempting to stymie their message (here), have demonstrated a resolve that can only be admired. They're still there, and have been inspired and have inspired similar “occupations” across the nation and the world.

My biggest concern is avoiding arrest. Because of my past, an arrest for me can result in an indefinite detention and some fucked up legal complications. But, hey, nothing worthwhile is ever easy, right? And the issue here is about freedom, people. I hope you will consider joining, or at least donating to the cause. There is need for food and other articles, so anything you can donate, even something like $5, would go a long way (click here)

I was called a few minutes ago regarding temporary paid work for a few days, so that might fuck up my plans for Wednesday through Friday, but I will be back at Liberty Plaza on the weekend.

I will be posting daily updates, so stay tuned and if you don’t hear from me, make sure you try to look for me, I might be swallowed up in the system…

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

Get Up/ Fight Back

If you’re interested in getting involved, or want to support this movement, please visit the Occupy Wall Street Website (click here). There you can get all the latest information, updates on activities and information to other actions across the nation.

If you’re paranoid about online financial interactions, you can send donations and supplies to:

The UPS Store

Re: Occupy Wall Street

118A Fulton St. #205

New York, NY 10038

Money orders only please, we cannot cash checks yet. Non-perishable goods only. We can accept packages of any size. We’re currently low on food.