The Politics of Meaning
and Other Quotes From Michael Lerner
The politics of meaning is, in part, a strategy . . . to renew an alliance between middle-income people and the poor. It is not necessarily aimed against the rich, but rather against the ethos of selfishness and materialism that has allowed many people to accept cuts in social service programs as the price for cutting their own taxes and those of the rich.
This
renewed alliance will be easier to build when people fully understand
that the very same selfishness that allows them to shut their ears to
the needs of the poor, or to the impact of American economic policies on
the well-being of many people in the Third World, is what allows their
wives or husbands, boyfriends or girlfriends, children or neighbors, to
act in selfish or insensitive ways.
Similarly,
when people fully understand that the deepening ecological crisis
cannot be separated from the ethos of selfishness, and that, as they
narrow their circles of caring, they make it more likely that they
personally will face a widening array of environmental catastrophes, it
will be easier to build a transformative social change movement.
The
politics of meaning helps people understand why it is in their interest
to reverse the flow of energy and expand rather than contract their
circles of caring. In short, it is becoming harder and harder for most
of us to have the kinds of personal lives we want — blessed with loving
friendships, health, and strong family ties — in a world that is
dominated by escalating levels of selfishness and cynicism.
* * * * *
Nothing is more contagious than genuine love and genuine care. Nothing is more exhilarating than authentic awe and wonder. Nothing is more exciting than to witness people having the courage to fight for their highest vision. Reality is much more complex than any judgment of right and wrong encourages you to believe.
Whoever you are — whether you are a postal worker, autoworker, lawyer, doctor, high-tech expert — there are multiple ways you can advance the cause of love, kindness, and generosity.
In a dog-eat-dog world it makes sense to bite before bitten. But in a cooperative world gone awry, it makes sense to extend empathy and a hand of friendship, and seek healing.
The new world will be created by people who know better than to be realistic. Realism is crumbling all around us. We will learn what is possible by struggling for the world we desire.
Revolutionary Love proposes a method to replace the capitalist globalization of selfishness with a globalization of generosity, prophetic empathy, and environmental sanity.
* * * * *
The environmental crisis is the number one spiritual challenge facing the human race in the 21st century. Spiritual Progressives should provide leadership in this struggle.
I don’t fault Obama for not winning votes in Congress. What I fault him for is not using his bully pulpit to teach Americans why it is not OK for the rich to benefit at the expense of everyone else; why a single-payer plan is far better health care than what we have now; how badly life on Earth is threatened by production geared toward the competitive marketplace rather than toward the need of planetary survival; why it is irrational to criminalize marijuana; why wars are not the way to achieve world peace.
What is particularly striking is that the American people were able to rally to the values of what we in the Network of Spiritual Progressives call “The Caring Society — Caring for Each Other and Caring for the Earth” despite the fact that neither Obama nor the Democratic Party articulated these values clearly.
Every time right-wing forces in ascendancy manage to grab hold of Congress or the presidency, liberal and progressive commentators, editorialists and blogs are filled with analyses blaming the outcome on the racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, or stupidity of “ordinary Americans.”
Reality is much more complex than any judgment of right and wrong encourages you to believe. When you really understand the ethical, spiritual, social, economic, and psychological forces that shape individuals, you will see that people’s choices are not based on a desire to hurt. Instead, they are in accord with what they know and what world views are available to them. Most are doing the best they can, given what information they’ve received and what problems they are facing.
My love for Israel has manifested in my vocal criticism of Israeli policies that defy the tradition of Jewish ethics and Torah commands—particularly, “Thou shalt love the stranger.
The prophets’ clear message is that those who do not care for the poor and the oppressed are defiling God’s name.
Christmas and Chanukah share a spiritual message: that it is possible to bring light and hope in a world of darkness, oppression and despair.
* * * * *
It’s amazing when a majority of Americans can overcome the resentments generated by this kind of elitism and unite with these same lefties to vote for policies and politicians who are implicitly challenging the current distribution of wealth and power.
Instead of a bottom-line based on money and power, we need a new bottom-line that defines productivity and creativity as where corporations, governments, schools, public institutions, and social practices are judged as efficient, rational and productive not only to the extent they maximize money and power, but to the extent they maximize love and caring, ethical and ecological sensitivity, and our capacities to respond with awe and wonder at the grandeur of creation.
We need to build millions of little moments of caring on an individual level.Indeed, as talk of a politics of meaning becomes more widespread, many people will feel it easier to publicly acknowledge their own spiritual and ethical aspirations and will allow themselves to give more space to their highest vision in their personal interactions with others. A politics of meaning is as much about these millions of small acts as it is about any larger change. The two necessarily go hand in hand.”
Ultimately, one of the best ways to take care of our souls is to build a society that supports rather than undermines our highest moral and spiritual intuitions and inclinations. Yet, building that society can never be divided from the daily practices through which we live out our ethical and spiritual lives, both in the way we treat others around us, and in the way we nourish the God within us.
Next time you are at work, or at a social gathering, try the following exercise: Look at every single person, one by one. See each one as embodiments of God, one of God's many faces.
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