[Peace-discuss] [OccupyCU] Fw: Save books, because you can't save kids from Obama?

Fri Jul 12 02:08:50 UTC 2013

David--

I've received two sorts of response to my original note under this subject heading:

(a) the two matters (saving books from the librarian/saving kids from Obama) are unrelated: e.g., "the interpretation offered is crude and not perspicuous"; and   

(b) the two matters are related, positively: e.g., a "powerful ripple effect ... comes from movements such as this [re the library] that encourage citizens to claim their rights and to realize (despite all they are told) that they can make a difference in how things go."

I think the two matters are related, but as alternatives. That's what I meant by saying "the outrage [re the library] is displaced affect" [emotion]. I had in mind the psychoanalysts' notion that the emotion generated by an unresolvable conflict can sometimes be transferred (displaced) to another matter. We then wonder why the latter seems to involve so much upset.

("Among Freud's mainstream followers, Otto Fenichel highlighted the displacement of affect, either through postponement or by redirection, or both ... In 1957, Jacques Lacan ... argued that the unconscious has the structure of a language, linking displacement to the poetic function of metonymy [= the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing].") Or a minor bit of public business for a major bit of public business.

I take the upset my remark has generated as some evidence for its correctness. 

Now we need to get back to the important tasks you describe - educate/agitate/organize - against "the world's most evil and lawless institution ... the executive branch of the U.S. government. Executive Branch leaders have killed, wounded and made homeless well over 20 million human beings in the last 50 years, mostly civilians." <http://www.alternet.org/investigations/executive-branch-evil-and-lawless>.  It remains what M. L. King called it, "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." And in a democracy we're responsible for what it does.

Regards, Carl

On Jul 11, 2013, at 8:25 AM, "David Johnson" <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net> wrote:

> I tend to agree with Carl and Stephen, however my experiences in the last few years has been that way too many people are extremely unhappy and even angry with current affairs both locally and nationally, but they won't do anything about it.
> In some cases it is fear and other cases laziness and other situations it may very well be that people's time is overwhelmed with work, family, etc..
> However, a lot of it may be that people feel that nothing they do matters.
> In that regard, I feel that at this point in time, ANYTHING that gets people connected and organized and to turn out and speak out publicly is a step in the right direction.
> Most Working non-activist people I talk to know things are screwed-up and are unhappy about the world situation, but they don't know what the hell to do about it !
> Educate / Agitate / Organize is the old Labor organizing model, but education of the issues only goes so far in changing things for the better.
> If people directly experience success ( at least more often than not ) by being active, organizing and speaking out locally, even simple seemingly mundane issues, than in my opinion this will help in the intermediate and long-term for larger issues that may seem impossible to change or too remote from their lives.
> Just my thoughts.
>  
> David Johnson
>  
> [...]

> From: Stuart Levy <stuartnlevy at gmail.com>
> To: "Rickman, Aimee N" <arickman at illinois.edu>; C. G. Estabrook <carl at newsfromneptune.com>; "peace-discuss at anti-war.net" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net> 
> Cc: occupycu <occupyCU at lists.chambana.net> 
> Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 2:34 PM
> Subject: Re: [OccupyCU] [Peace-discuss] Save books, because you can't save kids from Obama?
> 
> Carl, and all,
> 
> It's 'way easier for people to mobilize on issues that are seen as 
> affecting them directly.  If more of us had relatives in AF, PK, IQ, 
> Yemen, etc., then more anti-war events these days might fill rooms, 
> too.  But to most people in the US, war and peace feel like pretty 
> remote issues - and intractable ones.
> 
> Of course not everyone feels that way.  You may remember Aimee as the 
> one who led a bunch of us in demonstrating against, and publicly 
> questioning, a champion of the military-industrial complex whom the U of 
> I recently invited to speak on the "public good" (!) - Norman Augustine, 
> ex-head of Lockheed Martin.
> 
> If we want to see an anti-war movement that is as effective in 
> organizing people as other local activists have been in organizing them 
> over libraries, schools, and jails, then we have to find a way to make 
> distant, ever-more-secret wars seem immediate and personal - and to make 
> them seem other than inevitable.  (Remember the woman who, at a recent 
> demonstration, commented that "no one goes to war because they *want* to.")
> 
> There's no need to disparage local democratic action because we haven't 
> figured out how to do that.
> 
>     Stuart
> 
> On 7/10/13 10:17 AM, Rickman, Aimee N wrote:
> > Carl,
> >
> > I am really troubled by this comment. Do you even know what is going on at the library?
> >
> > Your insinuation that the concerns raised over the situation at the library somehow take energy away from organizing around more important issues is offensive and wrong. People organizing around the library are addressing issues of labor, of power, of transparency, of private control over public spaces, with folks from CU demanding public involvement in the stewarding of this local public institutions.
> >
> > Is the library situation as worrisome as the US drone program? As the findings and treatment of Snoden, Manning, or Assange? As the dismantling of the voter right bill? As our continued involvement in the middle east? No. But it is not fair for you to pit this issue against the others and call one more worthy than the other. Those of us organizing around the library are not tunnel-visioned. We can (and do) give our attention to more than one issue at a time. Your comment suggests that the library is being challenged to the detriment of the betterment of other worthy causes. This is not the case. It is not a zero sum game. And it is for you to suggest that this is a displaced witch hunt trivializes what is going on at the library and demeans the powerful ripple effect that comes from movements such as this that encourage citizens to claim their rights and to realize (despite all they are told) that they can make a difference in how things go.
> >
> > Beyond this, your comment is a very familiar cocky discrediting of an effort for not being the "real" or "right" one. Why, Carl? You must see that this is demeaning and offensive and just plain wrong.
> >
> > Perhaps you want to learn more about what is going on at UFL? If so, here's a clearinghouse of information: http://reclaimingourlibrary.blogspot.com/
> >
> > But I am guessing you are not interested in this. I admired you on News from Neptune, but have grown more than weary of your eternally pessimistic and judgmental armchair commentary on this list. I think you're more than content to be in this space whether the target of your critique is Obama or your activist neighbors.
> >
> > It is unfortunate.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > **************Apologies for any random question marks my system has weirdly added to this email********************
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: OccupyCU [occupycu-bounces at lists.chambana.net] on behalf of C. G. Estabrook [carl at newsfromneptune.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 9:11 AM
> > To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net
> > Cc: sftalk at yahoogroups.com; occupycu
> > Subject: [OccupyCU] Save books, because you can't save kids from Obama?
> >
> > Quite remarkable outrage is being displayed by people of progressive disposition in Urbana over the discarding of books from the local library.
> >
> > Given IT, such a decision is probably of as little importance as at any time since the invention of printing. But a friend plausibly suggests that the outrage is displaced affect, arising from our seeming inability or unwillingness to stop the all-but-ignored killing by our murderous government - or even to stop our chief magistrate (whom many library protestors voted for) from persecuting those who publish the truth - Snowden, Manning, Assange, et al.
> >
> > We choke on a culling gnat and stomach a criminal camel.
> >
> > http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2013-07-09/updated-urbana-library-seek-early-separation-director.html
> >
> > --CGE