Politics
Published on
What is Possible?
"We need to ask not whether it is realistic or practical or viable but whether it is imaginable, We need to ask if our consciousness and imagination have been so assaulted and co-opted by the established order that we have been robbed of the courage or power to think an alternative thought."
- Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
I often times feel like someone and I are talking directly past each other. Or I am told that I think too "utopic" and need to return to real life. Sometimes (Or always honestly) things worth having are worth thinking big about and fighting for.
"So, more often than we realize, we accept or decline an idea, depending on its acceptability within the dominant culture. In a fashion similar to Lippmann, Alvin Gouldner wrote about the 'background assumptions' of the wider culture that are the salient factors in our perceptions. Our readiness to accept something as true, or reject it as false, rests less on its argument and evidence and more on how it aligns with the preconceived notions embedded in the dominant culture, assumptions we have internalized due to repeated exposure.153 In our culture, among mainstream opinion makers, this unanimity of implicit bias is treated as 'objectivity.'"
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"People approach the heterodox viewpoint with skepticism, assuming they ever get a chance to hear of it. Having been conditioned to the mainstream orthodoxy most of their lives, they are less inclined to place their trust automatically and unthinkingly in an unfamiliar analysis, one that does not fit their background assumptions. They even will self-censor it by tuning out. If given the choice to consider a new perspective or mobilize old arguments against it, it is remarkable how quickly people start reaching for the old arguments. All this makes dissent that much more difficult but that much more urgent."
"People who never complain of the orthodoxy of their mainstream political education are the first to complain about the dogmatic 'political correctness' of any challenge to it. Far from seeking a diversity of views, they defend themselves from exposure to such diversity, preferring to leave their conventional political opinions unruffled."
- Michael Parenti, The Culture Struggle
Do not allow other people to tell you what is and isn't possible. Maybe they haven't thought about the problem the same way as you, maybe they haven't read the books or got steeped in a topic as much as you. There is a good chance they are siding with the established mainstream culture/idea because that is the default that society upholds. It hurts or feels conflicting to go against the grain; for some it comes more natural than others. But don't let that hold you down. We need thought leaders to come up with new bold ideas. We also need people to agree on good ideas and rally behind them; working to make them a reality.
"The dissident view is not just another opinion among many. Its task is to contest the ruling ideology and broaden the boundaries of debate. The function of established opinion is just the opposite, to keep the parameters of debate as narrow as possible."
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"They know they must work tirelessly to propagate the ruling orthodoxy, to use democratic appearances to cloak plutocratic policies"
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"In the sociopolitical struggles of this world, culture is a key battleground. The ideological gatekeepers know this—and so should the rest of us."
- Michael Parenti, The Culture Struggle