A statement of principles from the Republican Liberty Caucus
(This was written as a personal statement to the members of the Republican Liberty Caucus, of which I am Chairman. I'm sharing it here on Blogcritics because I believe it has value in explaining the organization to a broader audience.)…
Article comments
276 - Cindy
Zedd,
My analysis: The reasons most people don't participate in this system is because a) they know it won't really matter if they do, b) they think they don't have to be involved in the process at all or never have been because (insert whatever reason you like, apolitical, out of touch, whatever). But even if I am wrong in my speculations, it doesn't matter. We can see how people act in an egalitarian arranged community.
In an atmosphere where it actually does matter what one thinks and how one votes, it seems that (from what is happening in Argentina) people do participate. Your guess has not so far played out so far as I have seen. Also remember that communities would be a bit different. People would be much more engaged with one another.
And Zedd, the work is much better when one is an equal and everyone counts. It's actually quite wonderful and fulfilling. People are happier. More involved with each other and with life. There is a huge burden the system we have puts on people. It is a great source of anger, depression and apathy, jealousy, conspicuous consumerism and acquisition as life's main goal. It is a wonder anybody tries to participate under these conditions.
I just attended a workers movement event in NYC where Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis had a panel with a couple from Argentina who are involved with the workers collective movement. It is working Zedd. People are involved. Not only are people involved the factory changed its name from Zenon 'for the people' to Zenon 'for the community'. The workers own the factory, everyone gets paid the same--women and men regardless of testosterone. Everyone is committed. They started their own day care for workers and now they help the community with daycare. There are lots and lots of these businesses in Argentina now, the movement is growing. It is a style of life that is very conducive to being a human being. It is not like this style of life. I'll get you some video.
We are acquiring evidence about how people act when they have their needs met and exist in a place where they don't have to fight or compete or manipulate each other. It is very heartening. People act differently under different circumstances.
277 - Zedd
Cindy,
Your proposition is interesting. I still have difficulty imagining how it could be implemented globally. Organizing people is a monumental task, even for the simplest of activities. Nation building takes decades if not centuries. Getting a world system to work has been impossible -so far.
278 - Jet Gardner
Is driving a stake through Palin's heart the only way to get the bitch off my TV?
279 - Cindy
277 - Zedd,
That is where you come in. We need all the help from every person we can get Zedd. :-)
(P.S. If you are a Christian I hope you will have a look at Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You.)
280 - irene wagner
I've been taking a look at the Tolstoy link, Cindy. medic?warrior?medic?warrior?
It got me thinking about martyrs again. Though I still believe self-defense, maintaining personal boundaries, is a right, even for a Christian, I admire martyrs. Ultimate martyrdom is a refusal to return violence for violence, even to willingly accepting death. (Ghandi and MLK learned and demonstrated how effective, en masse, this kind of confrontation of evil can be.) And a person can be a "minor martyr" every time he person chooses, when he's been insulted, to answer gently instead of escalating. (This is not to be confused with a spineless chump, which involves simpering, I think.)
National martyrdom can't be a good idea, and I haven't read enough to see if that is something Tolstoy is promoting. However, when an organization allows itself to become the "official church" of a body that has as its mission ANYTHING but effecting the incarnation of Christ on earth, being his healing hands, then it has lost its way. During the final centuries of the Roman Empire, the earliest "baptists" had this conviction, and from what I can see, this is Tolstoy's view. It started to be mine, too, around 2002, when I realized, that as a conservative evangelical, I belonged to the official church of the neocon's vision for an American Empire.
281 - Cannonshop
278=
Jet, maybe watch less Television then? If Palin-coverage drops ratings, she'll go away, if it increases ratings (and rantings-remember, there's no such thing as 'bad' publicity in the infotainment game) then she'll appear MORE.
Get it? your indignant reaction is WHY she appears on your television. Of course, for some of us, television is so minor and unimportant a thing, that we don't know which appearance has Jet-Gardner's guts in a twist, but the fact that he spends (apparently) so much of his life in front of the idiot box is quite revealing...
282 - roger nowosielski
#280:
"when an organization allows itself to become the "official church" of a body that has as its mission ANYTHING but effecting the incarnation of Christ on earth, being his healing hands, then it has lost its way."
What organization(s) do you speak of? And it's not necessarily true of individuals, more importantly, because Christ's ideas have found expression in different philosophies and need not necessarily be associated with the theological belief. And I'm certain you wouldn't want to delimit the way of heightened consciousness only to believers (be they Christians or not).
283 - irene wagner
Hi Roger--I just realized who #280 is!
You're exactly right, it's NOT true of individuals at all. It's a beautiful mystery, the transcendence of Christ's work over political, national, denominational, and even football-team allegiances. A particular plan of God may actually require that two of his devoted followers not see eye to eye AT ALL via politics. There isn't any sphere of influence on earth that couldn't benefit from a little more light.
Which organizations was I speaking of? Organizations like this one. When one who has great influence over Christians because of his position as a pastor or public preacher, signs on to a public political document like this, the strong message sent to Christians is that Jesus Christ himself would've signed it if he'd had the chance. Pastors shouldn't have as much freedom to participate in a visible way in the political process as the individuals in their flock do. I'm not saying the state should curtail that freedom, I'm saying that pastors should have the humility to leave their political views behind as soon as they step into the pulpit to expound on the word of God.
Of course there's the flip side. When the church starts to become the tool of the state, as it was in Nazi Germany, then a pastor such as the Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer can't be faulted when he exerts a political counterbalance, sometimes, as in Bonhoeffer's case, to the point of martyrdom. It may also be that some of the Catholic clergy in the Liberation Theology movement are acting more in the role of "peacemaker" in the midst of a local crisis that demands their attention than in the role of "Communist tool."
284 - irene wagner
Sorry about the bolds, Roger. It's good to give oneself practice bold-html-tag closing, once in awhile. OK, have a great day. :)
285 - roger nowosielski
Well, I knew, Irene, that your meaning was more comprehensive than it appeared on the written page - which is the only reason why I fielded the question. And you have a great day, too.
286 - irene wagner
Thanks Roger! But I had to come back to say one more thing before I could get about my great day: Bonheoffer, who refused to follow many of his fellow Lutherans in the path of least resistance in Nazi Germany, had heroic counterparts in the Catholic church, for example, Erich Klausener.
287 - roger nowosielski
Somewhat off topic. I didn't realize you wrote two articles for BC. I read the last one, and I liked it. Have you read some Kierkegaard? It'd be nice to have you write on the concept of faith (apart from religion). It's one topic about which there's a great deal of misunderstanding. It has less to do with dogma than a kind of emotion. (And I don't speak of emotion here lightly.) I hope you agree.
I know of Bonheoffer and his diaries. Quite a read. And so is Karl Barth, Paul Tillich and Rudolf Bultmann.
288 - Cindy
276 - Zedd
I have to correct this.
Zanon 'for the workers' changed its name to Zanon 'for the people'
These egalitarian worker run businesses do something amazing and natural. Their solidarity spreads into the community and the business and community intermingle and become interdependent in their existence. The Zanon factory provides tile for projects at hospitals and schools and daycare. The community rallies around the business against political foes (like gov't). They stand between the police and the factory when court orders eviction. The Zanon factory has won every time with the people's support.
Argentina Workers Self-Management MOvement
I have more video (some I videoed at the NYC event. I have to upload that yet.)
(P.S. to Irene - I want to reply to your comments on the Tolstoy links. But haven't enough time right now.)
289 - irene wagner
You really don't want me to get about my great day, do you ROger Nowosielski? LOL.
Actually I have thought, often, about writing about faith here at BC. I feel 100% more confident writing about faith than I do about politics. And yes, I would write in an attempt to get past people's intellectual objections, not by downplaying their validity or giving out intellectual arguments, but by...let's just say I understand what you mean by "a kind of emotion." Then I think, naw, you're too much of a bitch, Irene (and people who read between the lines can see this frequently). Then I think, yeah, but I'd get a lot of hits via BC and could link my bio to a personal site where I'd sell ecologically friendly products and make a lot of money...and be accused of being venal...
...so the idea is under consideration, still. Thanks for the encouragement, and this time, for real, have a great day!
290 - roger nowosielski
This is going to be my last attempt at diversion. There's a reason for my madness.
I have written, I'd like to think, a fairly lucid account on the genealogy of faith (it's evolution of sorts from simpler notions such as trust). The important point is - it's not only a crucial part of the human experience but more importantly perhaps, an indispensable aspect of our emotional makeup (in a healthy human, one must add).
So when you're up to it, do let me know because I would like to be able to share this with you. It would require a great deal of condensing for the BC audience, but it's doable.
And now I let you go.
291 - irene wagner
Well now Roger Nowosielski, you've gone and made me blow my lunch hour (when I should have been studying) on another comment.
Everyone's faith has its own genealogy. Mine started with trust and evolved, not past "a simple notion of trust," but into even more trust. I long ago encountered, and considered the implications of, the surprising similarities one will find between the basic tenets of Christianity and the Eleusinian mysteries, for example.
People have known the Spirit of Jesus without knowing his name, have even known him before he was ever born. When you've really known a person--and I didn't even attempt to start really knowing Jesus until many years after I'd had the sinner's prayer recited and the dogma, which I still hold to, down pat--you can't ever "unknow" him. There are people who once believed the dogma I believe, but they never knew Jesus, and they've freed themselves from the brittle lifelessness of it all, and gone in the other direction. Some of them are better off than they were before. They're more "on their way" than they were before.
So, I would not shy away from reading YOUR genealogy of faith, unless it involves exchange of emails. I spend enough time online already! :)
292 - roger nowosielski
No exchange necessary, just a single transmission.