There's action in the playing field and I am getting in step
What are you doing to help us move along, singing a song, side by side?
Last week, historian and political commentator Heather Cox Richardson, who at three million subscribers to Letters from an American has the most readers on Substack, was in a timely conversation last week called Forging a New Political System, 2024 and Beyond. Here are excerpts.
“The American history that I care about and that I love is the history of people who want to create a world that cares for people that enables people to live their best life, and they’re willing to work together to make that happen.”
“Hating him is useful. It gets people engaged. Nothing moves people more powerfully than fear and anger. What else does, equally, is inspiration. You click on the dog that’s being rescued from the river. To the degree that we can infuse this country with inspiration and belief in our values again, that will go a long way to changing this disinformation world that is poisoning so many people. So, find your squad, as they say, find your people and every day do at least one thing that moves some ball forward to promote democracy, whether it’s in a school board, whether it’s in a community activism, whether it’s in writing a letter to an editor, writing to your congress critters, make sure that you and your friends are engaged because it takes about 3.5% of a country to change its politics.”
“They put Abraham Lincoln into the White House in 1860 on the idea that the government should work for individuals, not just the rich ones but every American, and that enslavement should not take over America and turn this into an oligarchy. By January of 1863 he has issued the Emancipation Proclamation. By November of 1863 he has given the Gettysburg address which calls for a government of the people by the people and for the people, and he has called for a new birth of freedom in America. Between 1853 and 1863 the nation went from the rich guys get it all and we’re going to be an enslaving country, through to Abraham Lincoln. If they could do it in the 1850s, when only white men could vote, I believe that all of us coming together in the 21st century can do it again. That’s what gives me hope.”
That idea of “doing at least one thing,” is in the air now. It’s like we go through stages in a march toward oneness. No leaders, gadflies everywhere, and yet a body with no head is figuring out what to do. As Trump is putting on the heat, it is so heartbreaking that there’s a rawness in play, and as we rub against each other stuff emerges. Individuals feel empowered to act, and projects for a future where overshoot wouldn’t do us in are emerging. Don’t lose sight of how idiotic wars are. It isn’t subtle. We can’t do that anymore. We are meant to be happy. We just have to decide. We can do that. The march to the future is on!
The buzz in the air got to me, and I made a move. On Nextdoor, an app for neighbor-to-neighbor communications, I made an unusual post. Where most entries talk about pets, compare restaurants, and look for carpenters and gardeners, I posted this:
Are people interested in good conversation? That’s being encouraged from many quarters in the face of the helplessness we feel to combat what is being done to us by our government. Before Covid, my house was a meeting place for consciousness-oriented people, and I’d open my doors again if people would come to talk about how we are doing in the age of Trump.
I got a good response, and I’ll report on how it goes when I return to the land of my past. Before Covid, as SUE Speaks -- with SUE standing for Searching for Unity in Everything -- I was producing hands-on projects and events. To give you a flavor of yesteryear, where you’ll see themes I still work with and get peeks into my arty house and some spunky activities, here’s 2018 IN REVIEW:
My recap of 2018 ended with what could be my parting words in a recap I’d write today:
So, all you lovers of truth and seekers of a better shake for the world, do stick with what SUE Speaks is up to and please tell your friends. We are a little spark that hopefully burns brightly enough to make a difference. As Brian Swimme, the featured hero on my heroes page, said to me a long time ago, "We are pointed at the same thing, Suzanne, to ignite a raging forest fire of love that can sweep us forever out of this deadening sadness of egos and superficiality." At this time, when we are on the cusp of change from one worldview to another, I know he could have said the same thing to many of you. May the SUE Speaks platform help propel us to make the shift to where we find ourselves in the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
Here’s me in Substack Notes. It’s where Substack writers comment on other people’s posts, and is a rich place to get immersed in the unique point of view that I argue for.
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What are you doing to help us move along, singing a song, side by side?
Suzanne, do you have any theories about why, despite 30 years-worth of awareness about the problems (Rachel Carson/“Silent Spring”, Donella Meadows/“Limits to Growth”, Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry, Earth Day, etc.), we continue down the path toward destruction? I suppose an obvious factor is an economic system that values profits over people. Yet I suspect there is an underlying cause from which even that ethic emerges.
In a coffeeshop conversation in Munich Germany years ago, a patron remarked that: “You know, America was largely formed out of the criminals and outcasts of European society.” That may be an overstatement, but I think it points to the basis of the uniquely American emphasis on the ethic of rugged individualism, achievement, and self-actualization. This is a stance under which we are each competing as lone actors to “pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps”, “make something of ourselves”, “get ahead” (implying others are left behind) — all under the myth that “it’s a level playing field” in which, by hard work and dedication, “anyone can make it”.
Even if flawed, that model did work well enough to build 20th Century America. Yet in a subtle way, it opposes any sense of true community and a mutually shared fate. We must always be wary of the motives of others — even friends and family. Rather than true community, others naturally fall into the role of allies or opponents in an individual quest for self-actualization and aggrandizement. (Hence Margaret Thatcher’s famous remark: “There is no society.”)
Even in the above context, governments are required since societal needs like national infrastructure, defense, basic research, international relations are too large to be handled by individuals or even corporate entities.
Moreover, today’s existential problems like climate change, war, nuclear threat, and environmental destruction really require a sense of globally shared fate and collective action. Continuing under the ethic of competition for relative advantage over others posed as opponents and enemies, will almost certainly ensure the demise of this current iteration of human civilization.
Can we evolve? Can we recognize and embrace our interdependence? Or do we repeat the fate of extinct past empires? It’s probably time to make a choice.