Jan. 11th, 2012
(no subject)
Jan. 11th, 2012 11:57 pmhttp://elf.dreamwidth.org/480755.html
Take our country forward
A lot of activist rhetoric talks about "taking our country back"--from the bankers, from the warmongers, from the straight-white-Christian-male oppressors who benefit from patterns of kyriarchy and discrimination, and so create subtle (and sometimes, not so subtle) laws to reinforce those habits on all levels.
...we're supposed to gloss over the oppressions, overt and covert, of those eras, and presume that, if we All Get Our Act Together, we will be able to give *everyone* all the privileges that the ruling classes of those times had.
Well, one, we can't, and two, we don't want to. One, the privileges of the wealthy-and-powerful of those eras were all built on oppressions.
...There is no "back" that has what we need. We need to look to our history to find all the *good* things, and figure out which of them can be worked into our future.
...If we're going to have a government "of the people, by the people, for the people," we need to take our country forward until we have it.
This is probably beyond the normal limit of a fair-use quote but I hope![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elf doesn't mind. Dude, just go read it.
Take our country forward
A lot of activist rhetoric talks about "taking our country back"--from the bankers, from the warmongers, from the straight-white-Christian-male oppressors who benefit from patterns of kyriarchy and discrimination, and so create subtle (and sometimes, not so subtle) laws to reinforce those habits on all levels.
...we're supposed to gloss over the oppressions, overt and covert, of those eras, and presume that, if we All Get Our Act Together, we will be able to give *everyone* all the privileges that the ruling classes of those times had.
Well, one, we can't, and two, we don't want to. One, the privileges of the wealthy-and-powerful of those eras were all built on oppressions.
...There is no "back" that has what we need. We need to look to our history to find all the *good* things, and figure out which of them can be worked into our future.
...If we're going to have a government "of the people, by the people, for the people," we need to take our country forward until we have it.
This is probably beyond the normal limit of a fair-use quote but I hope
elf doesn't mind. Dude, just go read it.