[pf] Moore on: conservatives and "cultural creatives" working together

At 18:04 8/7/2000 -0700, I (David Mac) sent on, from:
>Richard K. Moore <richard@cyberjournal.org>
>Subject: cj#1100,rn> Two outstanding revolutionaries: Korten & Fresia
>
>Dear friends,
>On Tuesday night, in Dublin, I had the pleasure of joining David Korten for
>dinner and then attending his lecture ...


** Here's more on conservatives and "cultural creatives" working together.


Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 20:14:04 +0000
From: "Richard K. Moore" <richard@cyberjournal.org>
Subject: cj#1101,rn> re: traditionals, modernists, cultural creatives

Friends,

Dave Korten was kind enough to respond to some of my comments.

I hope he won't mind if I share his main points, and the response I sent
back...


7/9/2000, David C. Korten wrote:
      While [traditionals] share some basic values with the
    Cultural Creatives, they tend to be substantially less
    committed on environmental issues. While I don't see
    specific results on this in Ray's report, I would guess they
    are also less interested in social and economic justice.
    Most particularly, they seek a return to traditional gender
    roles and have conservative religious views, which I believe
    means they place their faith in external sources of
    spiritual authority. They are more interested in returning
    to an idealized past than in creating a new future.
     ...
      While there are disaffected among the modernists who might
    well jump at a real alternative once they see there is an
    option other than traditionalism. The core of the
    modernists, however, are not simply going with the flow.
    They have turned greed into a virtue and are deeply
    dedicated to consumerism, materialism. They are most of the
    powerholders of the capitalist system...


Dear David,

I agree more or less with your characterization above.  What you've done is
to outline some of the barriers which must be overcome if we are to achieve
the kind of civil society you have described.  For completeness, let's
include some of the barriers due to cultural creatives...

    (rkm:) While some cultural creatives are beginning to think in
    terms of a movement-of-the-whole, many others are locked into 
    some particular 'cause', such as feminism or environmentalism,
    which they believe is the 'one issue' that must be addressed
    before all others.  Most of these causes have been
    long-since coopted, and considerable energy is wasted in
    competition among them.  Many other cultural creatives are
    locked into the 'lesser of two evils' mentality, and limit their
    political activism to voting against conservative political
    candidates.  They resist anything more radical, because they
    think that would play into the hands of the conservative 'enemy'.

This little off-the-cuff characterization may lack the depth of your own,
above, but I'm sure you will agree that cultural creatives, like the
others, have beliefs and habits-of-thought that are just as much barriers
to change as those of the traditionals and modernists.  As a matter of
fact, I suspect your books may represent, in part, your own efforts to
expand the awareness of cultural creatives.

---

This is how things are now.  This is our starting place. This is what we
have to work with.
  So once again I raise my question: What is our strategy?  How do we get
from here to there?   How do we get from a hierarchical Capitalist Society,
whose population is divided by competing ideologies, to a culture-based
Civil Society such as you have described?

If everyone goes on thinking and behaving as they do now, there will be no
change.  In order for change to be possible, large numbers of people will
need to begin thinking differently.  And for radical change to be possible
-- for capitalism to be replaced -- I suggest that thinking must change
throughout the population, across all categories.  Each of us has different
things to learn, and the lessons we need will not all come from cultural
creatives.  All sides have something to contribute.  

I suggest what we need is more dialog across ideological divides, and I
think the experience of the Seattle and DC protests testified to that fact.
 Labor and environmental activists found common cause, gained respect for
one another, and began to build a spirit of broader solidarity.
Traditionals remained traditionals, and cultural creatives remained
cultural creatives -- they did not need to change their stripes in order to
work together.  What they learned is that their common interests transcend
their ideological differences.

We need to learn that we are not each other's enemies, but each other's
potential allies.  It is not traditionals, nor modernists, nor cultural
creatives who as a class are setting global policy -- it is a wealthy elite
as represented by their various agencies, institutions, corporations, and
beholden politicians -- as shown in your diagram.  We are all being equally
victimized and it is in all of our interests -- even as we each retain our
basic values -- to collaborate in changing the system.

in solidarity,
rkm

=====================================================================
Richard K Moore
Wexford, Ireland
Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance 
email: cdr@cyberjournal.org 
CDR website: http://cyberjournal.org
cyberjournal archive: http://members.xoom.com/centrexnews/
book in progress: http://cyberjournal.org/cdr/gri.html

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sent to Positive Futures by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/
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