[FRIAM] The year ahead

[Gary Schiltz]

Merle, I think a lot about what makes ultraconservatives the way they are,
since as I said, the majority of my family is of that mindset. I grew up on
a farm in Kansas, so I do relate somewhat to the people I grew up with.
However, I left that life behind decades ago, and have come to see how
narrow-minded they (and I) can be. I believe a large part of it has to do
with male authoratarianism. I remember a recent Facebook post by one of my
cousins that said something along the lines of "people have forgotten what
an alpha male is like, and Trump is going to show them." This is closely
tied to the religious fundamentalism of the south, which to my thinking, is
damn close to that of Christian cults (I don't have any personal
experience, just going by what I've read about figures like David Koresh
and the Branch Dividians, and the Hollywood prortrayal of them). Somewhere
in this mix, a big dose of fear of the government controlling our lives
leads to fierce defense of the right to have guns - despite the more
"moderate" views in the NRA of needing guns for hunting and self defense,
the most strongly held view is that they are necessary to take back the
country if the government gets too powerful. I must admit being torn on
that issue myself. I don't buy the whole "I'll give up my gun when they pry
it from my cold dead hands" mindset, but I'm also pretty suspicious of an
overly strong centralized government. You can take the boy out of the
country...

On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 8:18 PM, Merle Lefkoff <merlelefkoff at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Your candor and honest reflection is refreshing, Gary.  And I agree with
> you. I'm a recovering international mediator, and in addition to teaching
> graduate students in Canada in a course titled "Complexity Thinking for
> Integrative Peacebuilding", I also teach in the Buddhist chaplaincy program
> at Upaya Zen Center--so I try never to see "the other" as evil.  Some of
> the men I've had at the table over the years in negotiations had committed
> truly evil acts, but they are human beings nonetheless.  I've become quite
> radical as our trusted systems at every level are collapsing, and that's
> what is promoting revolutionary resistance.  In order for social movements
> to be successful they must remain relentlessly non-violent, and they must
> have as part of the self-organizing process some sense of how to replace
> the structures underlying the failed systems that they have disabled.
> Facilitating that process is, I believe, part of our political work as
> Complexity thinkers.  If you're interested, a paper I wrote on applying CAS
> principles to social movements has just been published in an academic
> Canadian peace journal.  I'll send it if you like.
>
> On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 1:24 PM, Gary Schiltz <gary at naturesvisualarts.com>
> wrote:
>
>> What really worries me about the USA is how polarized the society there
>> is, so "mass resistance" will certainly, at least in the short term,
>> increase this polarization. From the standpoint of this on-the-fence
>> liberal, it would be nice to have the luxury to be able to see the "other
>> side" as being evil, so that I wouldn't care how they feel. The problem for
>> me is that I can't, since many of the people I grew up with, including
>> nearly all of my family, are part of that other side. And I see their point
>> of view on a lot of issues. No way could I ever support Trump, but a lot of
>> good people really do. And I don't know how to deal with this. I sure as
>> hell don't want to see another civil war, but sometimes I think the
>> passions are strong enough to instigate one.
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 2:54 PM, Merle Lefkoff <merlelefkoff at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/bekah.wolf.5>
>>> Bekah Wolf <https://www.facebook.com/bekah.wolf.5>
>>> January 8 at 7:17am
>>>
>>> A year ago, an action against deportations:
>>> https://www.facebook.com/toni.arenstein/videos/10208311021676102/
>>>
>>> 2017 is going to be the year of mass resistance.  This is only thing
>>> that works now to overcome our slide toward endless war and increasing
>>> social injustice.  These protests and the larger social movements emerging
>>> all over the world are self-organizing systems with much to say about
>>> applied Complexity.   Visit our website:  ecosgathering.org.  Enough
>>> blah, blah.  Time for action.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
>>> President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
>>> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
>>> merlelef
>>> ​k​
>>> off at gmail.com <merlelefoff at gmail.com>
>>> mobile:  (303) 859-5609
>>> skype:  merle.lefkoff2
>>>
>>> ============================================================
>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
>>>
>>
>>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
> President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
> merlelefoff at gmail.com
> mobile:  (303) 859-5609
> skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20170108/ab713a77/attachment-0002.html>