[Peace-discuss] my comment to WILL/IPR Fwd: Chat with IllinoisPublic Media's Kimberlie Kranich today over lunch and tellher what information you want from us so you can be aninformed voter. Today at noon online

Fri Jun 1 15:58:14 UTC 2012

Could someone explain their enthusiasm about voting for Nader in 2000? I
voted for Nader, too, but I also accept that he had no hope of winning. The
most I could say is that I helped to create a foundation of support that
would make Nader (or some other non-sociopath) into a viable candidate in a
future election -- but that didn't happened. So why the enthusiasm? When I
accept that federal elections no longer have a moral dimension, then I
don't use voter choice as a standard for moral arguments, not that it had
much to recommend it under the best of circumstances. Can checking off
boxes on a sheet of paper, along with millions of other people, be regarded
as a moral act or even a sign of personal responsibility? Feels about as
relevant as filling out a customer satisfaction survey.

This issue is important to me because it gets at something deeper: What
moral acts can I engage in to diminish or end the war-life, which life
seems to be the default political culture in the U.S. at this point? More
specifically, how can I help to reduce the damage caused by the U.S. and
its client states as we pass into the post-empire period of global
relations? Simply helping to keep the idea in mind, such as by holding up a
peace message during our street demos, is part of the answer. The peace
message has been all but banished from public conversation, having been
replaced by messages about ending the wars (because they aren't
*effective*). Giving people an opportunity to affirm a message of peace
feels like a symbolic gesture that still has consequence, if only because
there are so few other opportunities for such affirmation.

What else? Engage my acquaintances in conversation, yes. Engage my reps in
dialog, yes. Stay active in local debates that have impact on war-life
issues (such as the jail expansion debate), yes. // And then? Adopt a vegan
diet? Study and adopt non-violent communication? Engage in acts of
nonviolent disobedience? Refuse to pay federal income tax? Become an
international witness for peace? Take a vow of poverty? Become a
Jainist? Individual responses to these questions seem substantial in a way
that voting in federal elections never will be. And yet, what is the ratio
of attention we give to them? Can local media like WILL bring balance to
that ratio, or will it always be too much to ask? Can we imagine a media
that would give proper perspective to a post-empire political culture?

(My response to the last question is practical and sort of boring: Do you
know how "birders" have "life lists"? These are lists that birdwatchers
keep of every bird they've ever seen. I'm not a birder, but I've known
some. I think we need to generate life-lists for peace activists -- that
is, a list of many ways that people can practice peace activism. The items
on this list might be arranged in a sort of progression from simple to
difficult, and the media that I have in mind would keep track of everyone's
progress, highlighting certain of these activities along the way. For
instance, I would like to hear Sam Yergler's story of engaging in civil
disobedience during the NATO protests in Chicago. I want to hear Stuart
Levy's story of giving shelter to homeless people. I want to hear Susan
Parenti's story of post-9/11 peace organizing. I'm not sure we can count on
local media to tell such stories, at least not with the detail they
deserve. // Running for local office as a peace candidate should be on the
peace activist life-list in my opinion, as should be campaigning on behalf
of a local peace candidate. Voting for peace candidates? Sure.)

tl;dr: virtual voting realities risk producing virtual moralities; war-life
media won't give us peace-life media; peace activists need to know each
other and be known.

rk

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 7:58 AM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
wrote:
> The 'Saturday Night Live' skit from the 1970s is better-known now than
what
> it was satirizing, the "Point-Counterpoint" segment of the CBS program '60
> Minutes.'
>
> Curtin portrayed the liberal (60-Minutes' Shana Alexander); Dan Aykroyd a
> right-winger (James J. Kilpatrick).
>
>
>
> On Jun 1, 2012, at 7:40 AM, E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
>
>> the skit was a take on a popular talk show counterpoint
>> jane curtin would say something and dan akroyd would counter,
>> leading in with the line "Jane. You Ignorant Slut."
>>
>> She would then call him a Pompous Ass.
>>
>> It seemed a fitting descriptive.  I thought everyone knew it.
>>
>>
>> On 6/1/2012 9:29 AM, David Johnson wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> O.K. Wayne,
>>>
>>> Your right !
>>>
>>> I didn't get it at first, and I did come across as a bit pompus initialy
>>> and then defensive because I was concerned about your use of the phrase
; "
>>> ignorant slut ".
>>> I am not familiar with the comedy routine your statement was taken from.
>>>
>>> David J.
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"
>>> To: Jenifer Cartwright
>>> Cc: Peace-discuss List ; David Johnson
>>> Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 2:44 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] my comment to WILL/IPR Fwd: Chat with
>>> IllinoisPublic Media's Kimberlie Kranich today over lunch and tellher
what
>>> information you want from us so you can be aninformed voter. Today at
noon
>>> online
>>>
>>> David,
>>> If you are going to do Dan Akroyd imitations you really need to lighten
>>> up a bit.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 05/31/12 10:16, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On the contrary, it's the only part of Wayne's post that I actually
>>>> liked!!
>>>>
>>>> --- On Wed, 5/30/12, David Johnson <dlj725 at hughes.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> From: David Johnson <dlj725 at hughes.net>
>>>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] my comment to WILL/IPR Fwd: Chat with
>>>> IllinoisPublic Media's Kimberlie Kranich today over lunch and tellher
what
>>>> information you want from us so you can be aninformed voter. Today at
noon
>>>> online
>>>> To: "Peace-discuss List" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>, "E. Wayne
>>>> Johnson" <ewj at pigsqq.org>
>>>> Date: Wednesday, May 30, 2012, 8:17 PM
>>>>
>>>> Wayne,
>>>>
>>>> I know you are joking, but I do not appreciate, and I am certain
Jenifer
>>>> doesn't either, your last comment at the bottom.
>>>>
>>>> David J.
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "E. Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigsqq.org>
>>>> To: "David Johnson" <dlj725 at hughes.net>; "Carl Estabrook"
>>>> <cge at shout.net>
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 7:10 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] my comment to WILL/IPR Fwd: Chat with
>>>> IllinoisPublic Media's Kimberlie Kranich today over lunch and tellher
what
>>>> information you want from us so you can be aninformed voter. Today at
noon
>>>> online
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> > I am reminded of saturday nite live...
>>>> >
>>>> > roflmfao!
>>>> >
>>>> > David, you pompous ass.
>>>> >
>>>> > On 5/31/2012 7:58 AM, David Johnson wrote:
>>>> >> *Jenifer,*
>>>> >> **
>>>> >> *With all due respect, you are horribly misinformed.*
>>>> > [...you Ignorant Slut.]
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Peace-discuss mailing list
>>>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>>>>
>>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20120601/9619dfc0/attachment-0001.html>