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Excerpt: Life Out of Context

By Walter Mosley, AlterNet. Posted March 24, 2006.


Since natural reasons are not motivating us to unite, we have to create a rallying point -- a reason for us to get together and work as One.
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The following is an excerpt from Walter Mosley's "Life Out of Context" (Nation Books).

If the circumstances of life don't bring us together and force us to act in concert, then we must create our own circumstance. This seems to be a self-evident truth. Being an artist, not unlike the venerable Public Intellectual whose presentation sent me on this path of investigation, I feel that it is my duty to try to construct a system that will illuminate those important issues we all have in common. Only in this light can we see each other and transcend the tyranny of the pocketbook.

That's the only reason I'm writing this piece: to try and figure out how we get together and work as One. There are a thousand reasons for people of color and their supporters in other racial communities to come together, but a thousand reasons may have just as many groups that form around them, each organization claiming that their commitment is the most important. There are Afro-centrists and urban planners, feminists and gays, NRA members and Democrats, conservatives and rap masters, radicals and socialists; there are artists and philosophers, rich businessmen and the cultural guides that have seen themselves as our leaders since the sixties came and went.

The unjust, unjustified, and barbaric war against Iraq is obviously not enough to shake our moral foundations. Our rock-bottom salaries and nonexistent medical insurance coverage doesn't move us to question why. Four million black men and women going in and out of the prison system must be guilty because they were, or will be, convicted. Natural reasons are not motivating us to unite and so it seems we have to create a rallying point.

I make this claim this with a great deal of trepidation. My fear comes from the knowledge that I'm not the first late-twentieth century would-be do-gooder who has come to the conclusion that our context must be fabricated. Politicians fabricate all the time. They cull the radical fringe and the special-interest groups for commonality and then profess belief where they have none. They promise a chicken in every pot or warn about homosexuals or communists. They babble and stutter in public because they think that the common citizen babbles and stutters. More to the point, they create enemies and threats that bring us together in fear. They see terrorist collusion and weapons of mass destruction behind every beard. They militarize and kiss bloody wounds. They find zealots that actually believe these things and press them into the public eye.

Our politicians are masters at creating context. We come together under the great umbrella of one of the two major (so-called) political parties and ask, who am I? They respond, you are the innocent victim of those that hate freedom. You are the unknowing pawn of thieves that defraud our great public works. You are a member of a great democracy whose fate it is to protect the world from its own misguided notions and ancient belief systems.

And we believe this jive. Why wouldn't we? These are our leaders talking. Our notions of human rights and democracy have been cooked up in their mothers' kitchens. They created the language that we were taught in school. Their friends own all of the major media outlets. It is only through their largess that we might have comfort in our lives.

We want to believe in our political leaders. Let me say that again: We want to believe in our political leaders. This phrase by itself is worth much consideration. At first it seems patently obvious and simple -- not a very deep statement at all. But of course it is. Our leaders lied about weapons of mass destruction; they lied about Iraqi collusion with fundamentalist Islamic terrorists. And if you're a conservative reading these words, let me modify it for your benefit: Our leaders were wrong about weapons of mass destruction; they were wrong about Iraqi collusion with fundamentalist Islamic terrorists. In either phrasing, we were given erroneous information by people who we want (in the worst way) to believe in.


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yes
Posted by: rsaxto on Mar 24, 2006 3:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes, most Democrats are guilty also. Their failure to get behind censure, etc. proves their guilt. We need to back the unguilty ones like Feingold who know the truth and who are willing to take action to toss the bums out. Don't vote for any democrat this year who doesn't at least back censure.

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» RE: yes Posted by: YogiBear
Suicide is the idealist's sister, murder his unavoidable rendezvous.
Posted by: backtalk on Mar 24, 2006 4:34 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What context did Ghandi create? How did he avoid these perils? It seems a little simplistic to cite only the context-makers whose work elicited an evil result. Ghandi had a rich and principled spiritual practice and he abhorred violence--maybe that is the secret to having passionate idealism that steers clear of destructive rage.

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rover
Posted by: Roverton on Mar 24, 2006 4:47 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Backtalk is right!

Can't fight fighting with more fighting.
Soldiers are human.
Humans can change.
Someone made them hateful and afraid. Perhaps another can show them the sanity of love.

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would-be do-gooder who has come to the conclusion that our context must be fabricated.
Posted by: Lincoln fan on Mar 24, 2006 5:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I disagree. We don't have to create a new context. We only have to go back to our founding fathers whose battlecry was "Taxation without representation is tyranny!". Go back to Lincoln's definition of our government, "government of the people, by the people, and for the people". This is our context.

As long as we're ruled by the military/industrial complex, and we are; as long as our political parties don't represent us, and they don't: we live under tyranny.

Though we all have different priorities we can unite in the context of overthrowing the tyranny. Until we're free no issue of the people that conflicts with the corporate interest will be won,

Join The Lincoln Initiative. Make "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" a reality.

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Creating a dialogue
Posted by: StephanieTansey on Mar 24, 2006 5:45 AM   
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I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Einstein said: "No problem can be solved at the same level at which it was created." We can't solve this problem the same way it was created.

I just finished "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and have been pondering the same questions you raise. I was quite moved by the deep sincerity of the people being deluded.

I think we need think out of the box. One thought: I think we need to learn the value of great dialogue. To understand that dialogue is a form of art. Real dialogue. Not debate, not opinions, not conversational musings, not feel-goodisms. Leonardo da Vinci and the Mona Lisa kind of dialogue. Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel dialogue, the Shah Jahan and the Taj Mahal dialogue. Rumi and his poetry. Lu Xun and The Story of AhQ. These all demonstrate the power of real dialogue.

Real art will rally people together like bees to flowers in springtime.

Many people, like myself, are studying and teaching dialogue and learning how to do transformational dialogue. Effective dialogue skills and the creative genius of great dialogue artists can give us tremendous power. Dialogue can cut through the delusions, distrust and disinformation in our society and give us the conversation and ideas that will bring us together.

Your article is definitely a way to start the right conversation.

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For the first time..
Posted by: woodford54 on Mar 24, 2006 6:26 AM   
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I believe that the time for words, however persuasive and well written they are, is long past over. We are NOW at THE crossroads. We either act or we passively accept our fate. From what I see in my community, it will be the latter. I think it will happen to us similarly to what happened in the novel "The Handmaid's Tale." One morning we'll all wake up and our lives will never, ever be the same again. This seems to suit most people, so those of us who would protest are fated to go down w/the ship. We either act NOW or we accept our fate. What's it to be?

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» RE: For the first time.. Posted by: StephanieTansey
» RE: For the first time.. Posted by: Lincoln fan
We Don't Have to Like Them
Posted by: the islander on Mar 24, 2006 7:47 AM   
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We are sinking our own ship -- nature. We are earthlings. We arise from, are totally dependent upon, and return to nature. We can't survive and leave nature out of the equation.
And we don't have to like everybody. Everybody else simply can't have have the same cultural view, the same story as us. And we can't kill everyone who isn't. We are mutually dependent -- interdependent but we don't have to like them

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Peak Oil may be that event/context
Posted by: SBean on Mar 24, 2006 9:27 AM   
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Walter, I encourage you to do some minimal research into the World Peak Oil situation. It might provide the context you're looking for. Then contact Omar Freilla at the Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx and share your thoughts with him.

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"people of color and ... other racial communities" r the problem
Posted by: fairleft on Mar 24, 2006 10:37 AM   
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not the solution. Divided the left has been destroyed and this will continue until we organize around class.

By the way, some of you may want to examine whether your "racial community" really exists. Might it be an illusion sub-divided by class, with the deepest loyalty of the people at the top to staying there? I'm sure that feels familiar.

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» Identity Politics... Posted by: Kym525
» Come together.......everyone Posted by: Michiganman
Democracy Is A Scam
Posted by: VREmetal on Mar 24, 2006 12:54 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A simple question:
Do our leaders have our best interest in mind, or are they consumed by quests for wealth and power?

They leave us (the lucky ones) with enough money to scrape by on, then they piss the rest away on weapons and personal luxuries.

These are facts, not fairy tales.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." - Jimi Hendrix

Why do we need a Congress?
The citizens can surely vote on the same bills that they do, and I'm willing to bet that as a whole we'd make wiser decisions almost all of the time. The internet age has made such a seemingly daunting idea a very plausible possibility!

The problem with our current political system is that every bit of power, the PEOPLE'S POWER, is funneled down to the hands of a few individuals. I don't know these people, and they certainly don't know me! Why is my life in their hands?

Time and time again, crooked politicians let us down, yet we continue to eat their crap and smile about it.

Look here...
Alternative energy exists!
Hemp paper can save our trees!
Resources can be shared instead of hoarded!
Peace is only possible through peaceful measures!

Common Sense must be our unifying factor.
We must adopt and agree on BENEVOLENT PRINCIPLES and ultimately turn our backs to the corruption that is killing us. They only have what power we allow them to have.

Our soldiers, children, are dying for NOTHING but greed, and then given the label "hero." All the while, they are really victims.

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE WORLD.

vremetal@yahoo.com

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» RE: Democracy Is A Scam Posted by: dus7
» WOW.....Agree 10,000,000% VREmetal Posted by: Michiganman
koyaanisqatzi, ever heard of it?
Posted by: common intelligence on Mar 24, 2006 7:41 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It means life out of balance.
Like a wheel on your car being out of balanced, the more it spins the more it wears eratically, the more out of balanced it becomes, the more it shakes the more eratic it turns until the tire blows. The car runs off the road and stops or is distroyed.

You see the root of the problem is every person continuing to participate in a corrupt and flawed economic model. All along not trusting what each and everone knows in their hearts to be plain wrong. Most are still running like lemmings, caught up in the stampede to oblivion. All "hoping" everyone else is doing the right thing.
All making silent assumptions that because the sun will rise tomorrow that it will work "it's self" out. All having faith I those words marketed on the back of the feiot bills that say , "In God we Trust".

Well, if God speaks he does so through your heart, not Bush and certainly not by depending on politicians to tell the truth.
And even when they do, why trust them?
How was that said in the bible...aa..The last time people listened to a (burning) bush, they spent 40 years wandering in the desert?

So how do you stop a run-a-way train in a hurry? Only one way. Derail it! Because, 'sorry, but the track is running out and there is no more stopping distance. The best each of us can do is "JUMP"! (Before we get to the the bridge too, because there is only rocks below!)

So, the train is almost out of power anyway so just get off and start walking. Lighten you load, live simply (if you can).
But more so stop participating in the illusion.

I heard an interview of a Kartina victim. He was a man walking and showing the camera where his beautiful house was. "...gone, just simply gone!", he said. "It's like a dream. It's Gone".

That said so very much and explained more than most of you might want to accept as truth. But I'm going to tell you anyway.

The "American dream" is just that and nothing more. A dream. It is not permenent, only temporary at best. Unfortunately, America is an idea that is not a tangible, just an idea clad in architectural monuments. Yet

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» Wow another good one Posted by: Michiganman
Creation, not fabrication
Posted by: mcmircle on Mar 25, 2006 1:40 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes, we need to redefine the context. We need to frame our positions in an inclusive way that appeals to people's better natures, and we need to describe our vision of the world we want to create. I wouldn't call that "fabrication" because I understand that to mean "lying". I would call it "creation" and sharing our vision.
Gandhi said we need to be the change we want to see in the world. I bet most of us want a peaceful world in which all people are treated with respect and everyone has what he/she needs. I am outraged by lots of what happens in the world, but acting from outrage alone doesn't help create a peaceful world in which every human being is treated with respect.

Treating others with respect includes acknowledging that their reality may be different and their perceptions, valid. In that context, white people must realize that black people and other people of color have a different experience in the USA than white people do. A community, or a community of interest, is therefore entirely possible, and it's certainly not for us white people to deny it.

Gandhi, Dr. King, and Nelson Mandela lived by their principles. They inspired outrage in others because of the contrast between their actions and the actions of the folks with the power. They acted with love in their hearts and called on the rest of us to do so, too. We need to do the same.

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Why So Few Comments?
Posted by: Riverside on Mar 26, 2006 5:59 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Here we have a call for us to join together to save our rights as individuals and only twenty-six or so have responded. If this is a sampling of our commitment to this nation and our liberty then we are going to lose.

Come on folks, sing out, speak up, join up. As all here have said, time is running out. If you think that in 2008 it will all be over, think again. If you listen you can hear the chains rattling in the background, and pray tell who will those chains be for, the military/industrial boys or what's left of we-the-people?

Hey a half-million caring people got together in LA, so we know it can be done. Let's make it at least a 100 million strong (yeah, bring your pets along too.)

2006 is the first step. DO NOT let them put themselves back in office. Wishing won't do it, only hard work as ONE will do it, so lets get going Americans.

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Yay? Back to Neoliberal Clintonism?
Posted by: fairleft on Mar 26, 2006 8:54 AM   
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There's little enthusiasm for 2008 because the Democratic Party is so uninspiring. In fact many of its leaders are as scary right at Bush. Just reading a Hillary speech to a corporate or Zionist lobbying group can't make any authentic leftist look forward to choosing between her and a Bush clone in a couple years.

People will get off their butts enthusiastically when there is a Democractic BLUEprint for America that includes Canadian-style health insurance and complete withdrawal from Iraq, for a start. But the Dems have to give the real people _something_.

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Spiritual Power
Posted by: olhsson on Mar 28, 2006 9:50 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
One of the most humbling experiences I ever had was attending a meeting at Mother Teresa's compound in San Francisco. I hadn't the slightest idea what this old church in my neighborhood was and I had no idea why I couldn't possibly say the word "no" to this group of nuns. After I learned who they were the next day I finally understood what real spiritual power is. Gandhi and King, just like these nuns, worked from a position of being totally aligned with moral authority.

Gandhi is said to have once told somebody that he wasn't at all sure non-violence would have been effective against atheists. The America that I grew up in during the 1950s went to church, said grace before every meal and had no need to wear their faith on their sleeve or to be constantly dropping God's name in their political rhetoric. The Christian Faith had gotten our middle and lower class parents through the abuses of the robber-barons, the depths of the Depression and the terrorism of the World Wars. Those of the minority faiths had no problem embracing Christian values because, quiet as it's kept, all of the world's traditional faiths share the same values.

Dr. King had the advantage of an American public and a press that could identify with exactly where he was coming from no mater what their denomination, religion, race or political affiliation. Dr. King's speeches, positions and actions all had the power to expand people's identity. To find the tiny bit of West African lurking in every descendant of European immigrants and to find the English and Irish that lurks in every descendant of America's African slaves. Unfortunately many people felt threatened that exploring previously forbidden parts of their identity could mean giving up the unique aspects that made them feel special. This brief period of spiritual unity was followed by a divisive reaction that is still being exploited.

The advertising industry is all about exploiting people's fears about who they are and how they are perceived by others. (Anybody remember "B.O.?") Advertising and divisive politics was a marriage made in heaven for those who were seeking to divide and conquer America politically. "Narrow-casting" has divided us into neat little demographic profiles for Wall Street to pitch their wares to. The whole nation is polarized beyond recognition because we've forgotten who we collectively are.

So how do we bring America together again? This isn't going to be easy with Madison Avenue's thumb pressing down hard on the scale..

I think we need to be looking really hard at what we can do to expand people's identity and even harder at actions and statements that would lead people to define their identity by what they are not. This means owning that little part of us who is George W. Bush and even that other one who is Osama bin Laden. Hating parts of ourself is the problem.

We can do this knowing that we are greater in our identity than both of their painfully limited identities. It also means speaking up about the heresies of the TV preachers. It means reclaiming the Christianity and the Democratic and Republican Parties of our grandparents.

The TV preachers are right about America being morally bankrupt. It's just that the solution is demanding morality rather than simply closing our eyes to injustice and handing over our money so we can identify with being part of some "moral majority."

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