Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Compassion Is Our New Currency: Notes on 2011’s Preoccupied Hearts and Minds
from TomDispatch:
Compassion Is Our New Currency
Notes on 2011s Preoccupied Hearts and Minds
By Rebecca Solnit
Usually at years end, were supposed to look back at events just passed -- and forward, in prediction mode, to the year to come. But just look around you! This moment is so extraordinary that it has hardly registered. People in thousands of communities across the United States and elsewhere are living in public, experimenting with direct democracy, calling things by their true names, and obliging the media and politicians to do the same.
The breadth of this movement is one thing, its depth another. It has rejected not just the particulars of our economic system, but the whole set of moral and emotional assumptions on which its based. Take the pair shown in a photograph from Occupy Austin in Texas. The amiable-looking elderly woman is holding a sign whose computer-printed words say, Money has stolen our vote. The older man next to her with the baseball cap is holding a sign handwritten on cardboard that states, We are our brothers keeper.
The photo of the two of them offers just a peek into a single moment in the remarkable period were living through and the astonishing movement thats drawn in well, if not 99% of us, then a striking enough percentage: everyone from teen pop superstar Miley Cyrus with her Occupy-homage video to Alaska Yupik elder Esther Green ice-fishing and holding a sign that says Yirqa Kuik in big letters, with the translation -- occupy the river -- in little ones below.
The woman with the stolen-votes sign is referring to them. Her companion is talking about us, all of us, and our fundamental principles. His sign comes straight out of Genesis, a denial of what that competitive entrepreneur Cain said to God after foreclosing on his brother Abels life. He was not, he claimed, his brothers keeper; we are not, he insisted, beholden to each other, but separate, isolated, each of us for ourselves. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175483/tomgram%3A_rebecca_solnit%2C_occupy_your_heart/#more (follows a brf intro)
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 1286 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (2)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Compassion Is Our New Currency: Notes on 2011’s Preoccupied Hearts and Minds (Original Post)
marmar
Dec 2011
OP
freshwest
(53,661 posts)1. Awesome read. Thanks.
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)2. The antonym of Greed , and the Basis of Democracy.
The birthday boy talked more about Compasion than judgement ,Fundies seem to miss that message.