[CCN] Compassionate Politics: One Way Forward (4/19/10 Draft)

[Wade Hudson]

NOTE: I welcome feedback on the following draft of a work-in-progress,
which I just posted to Charter Network Discussions. If you do not
belong to that group, I believe you can share your feedback there by
joining directly at http://groups.google.com/group/charter-network-discussions.
Or you can send me an email at wadeATwadehudsonDOTnet.

+++++

Compassionate Politics: One Way Forward (4/19/10 Draft)
By Wade Hudson

The world cries out for political action to correct policies that
cause enormous harm. But activist organizations fail to consistently
mobilize enough people to be truly effective. Most concerned
individuals remain on the sidelines.

If one of every two hundred adults united once a month for two hours
to communicate the same message to their national legislature, joined
in a global boycott to demand that a particular corporation modify its
behavior in a specific manner, or engaged in some other coordinated
activity, the impact would be enormous.

Despite the need, most people remain passive, partly because activist
organizations fail to meet personal needs that are neglected by the
larger society. As indicated by their written policies, few activist
organizations commit to cultivating compassionate community among
their members. They demonstrate little or no concern about inter-
personal dynamics, maximizing internal democracy, fostering joy and
the love of life, and open-ended support of self-development.

Many compassion-rooted individuals who are currently inactive want to
be more active but haven’t found a way to become involved, partly due
to the way activist organizations operate. Most activist organizations
are fundamentally motivated by compassion, but many lose track of
their origins, rely on tapping anger and fear to motivate people, and
end up reflecting the lack of compassion in our larger global
society.

Though modern society provides many benefits, modernization
systematically concentrates wealth and power, socializes most people
into wanting more wealth and power, and defines leadership as the
ability to influence others to do what one wants them to do.

The result is a society that is top-down, individualistic, fragmented,
task-oriented,
future-oriented, obsessed with thinking, treats human beings as mere
instruments, and reduces morality to a reciprocal exchange of favors.
One symptom of this syndrome is that most people usually fail to
really listen to one another.

These characteristics are also often seen in activists and their
organizations, which is hardly surprising, for all of us have
internalized the values and attitudes of the dominant society to one
degree or another.

A major problem is ego, both individual and organizational. One’s
status and the status of one’s organization become crucial. The goal
becomes power, whether personal or collective – the power to get what
you want by defeating the enemy, rather than negotiating win-win
solutions. Elitist leaders assume they know the answers and their main
task is to educate and mobilize others, rather than collaborate with
equals in creative problem solving. Success in achieving goals becomes
more important than the methods employed. Conversations become filled
with intellectual discourse, especially concerning fine points of
policy alternatives. Organizations become machines with disposable
members. “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” and “you owe me”
become the essence of one’s morality, rather than unconditional
kindness.

By growing communities that consciously nurture caring friendships and
help members find deeper meaning and joy in their lives, activist
organizations could appeal to individuals who are turned off by
politics as usual but could be inspired by a richer experience.
Through contagious enthusiasm and person-to-person outreach, activists
could recruit their friends, relatives, and neighbors to participate
in fun-filled activities as well as serious work.

Unfortunately, however, many actively compassionate individuals
believe all they can do is be a good example, work on becoming a
better person, assist individuals one-by-one, or develop alternative
communities that point the way to a new future. They trust that these
efforts will trigger a ripple effect throughout society that will
eventually manifest itself in political transformation.

Those actions are valuable, but insufficient. More than 40,000
individuals die needlessly every day. Social and economic inequality
is increasing, leaving many individuals without adequate opportunities
to live decently. The planet’s ability to sustain human life is
threatened. Warfare and terrorism regularly claim life. Human and
civil rights are widely deprived. The mass media constantly glamorizes
rich and powerful individuals and their material possessions, thereby
spreading widespread selfishness, which is perhaps the greatest
barrier to social progress.

Governmental policies create and/or reinforce these realities. Radio
and television stations are allowed to use the public airwaves to
saturate people with mindless advertising and attention-grabbing
expressions of anger. Taxation policies increasingly are not based on
the ability to pay. Most governments refuse to actively foster full
employment. Global economic policies enable the wealthiest financial
firms to generate guaranteed profits in the “paper economy,” diverting
funds away from productive investments.

Absent popular pressure, policies such as these will continue to
benefit the rich and powerful, to the detriment of most people. So
long as policies such as these remain in place, the avalanche of
selfishness and misery that our global society that results will
overwhelm individual acts of compassion and small alternative
communities.

We don’t have time to wait for some future miracle. We need to start
changing public policies now, to alleviate as much suffering as we
can, while working toward more fundamental, major reform in the
future.

One way to move in this direction and deepen our experience with one
another is to grow small, face-to-face communities of like-minded
individuals who:
· dedicate themselves to overcoming society’s socialization by
engaging in steady self-improvement;
· devote at least two hours each month to community service to aid
severely disadvantaged individuals;
· engage in political activity at least two hours each month to
improve governmental policies;
· concentrate on changing what we can change now rather than wasting
excessive time dreaming about unrealistic visions, and;
· support one another in these efforts.

We need to nurture a new way of life that is joyous, caring,
democratic, pragmatic, rooted in a strong sense of community,
committed to the common good of all humanity, and grounded in
communities that offer sanctuary from the daily grind, foster renewal,
and help members stay in touch with their true self.

No one method is appropriate for everyone. No one political strategy
is a panacea. Various individuals and organizations have various,
legitimate roles to play. But if more organizations adopted a more
compassionate approach, more concerned individuals might become more
active politically and humanity’s prospects would be greatly improved.
Even those who aren’t inclined to adopt these principles themselves
could benefit from providing support to efforts to develop a more
compassionate politics.

Right action to relieve suffering, protect the planet, and advance
human rights is inherently rewarding, because human beings are
innately compassionate. We instinctively want to understand others and
work together with like-minded colleagues to help prevent misery.

All we need is greater unity: unified, focused, and coordinated
action. In recent decades, occasional examples of unified, global
action have occurred. But we lack mechanisms to facilitate such joint
action on a regular basis, rather than sporadic emergencies.

Given the urgency of our situation, compassion-rooted individuals and
organizations must unite as never before to serve the common good of
the entire human family. To do so, we must transform our institutions,
including our governments, our culture, our communities, and ourselves
all at the same time in a self-reinforcing upward spiral. Change is
not merely inside out. It is also outside in.

When we have achieved these goals, we will have fundamentally
transformed our social system and created a qualitatively new global
society.