Comments on: Serious Questions for Serious Times: Getting Organized http://www.solidarityeconomy.net/2009/06/01/serious-questions-for-serious-times-getting-organized/ The Politics, Economics & Culture of Radical Change Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:56:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: michael johnson http://www.solidarityeconomy.net/2009/06/01/serious-questions-for-serious-times-getting-organized/comment-page-1/#comment-40591 michael johnson Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:02:31 +0000 http://www.solidarityeconomy.net/2009/06/01/serious-questions-for-serious-times-getting-organized/#comment-40591 Marta Harnecker (MH) says in point #10: “We have to think of politics as the art of constructing forces.” Yes! No more use of protest as the way we make ourselves FEEL righteous and powerful. MH says in #11: “What are you doing to construct the political and social force necessary to push the process forward?” Bingo! Precisely the right question. But it can be answered in so many ways. MH gives her vision broadly in #13. This is where it gets sticky. I am assuming that there is some clumsy translating happening here. (For example, ‘political instrument’.) I am also assuming #13, a very broad and almost utterly vague statement, is a lead into the next piece in her series. Still, I am not excited in the least with ‘whose militants and leaders are true popular pedagogues’. In my opinion, what we need is a popular life-long pedagogy that can enable people to empower themselves and cooperate deeply with each other. I don’t know where else a powerful democratic force can come from. It is very important that we not only recognize this, but also recognize that we do not have such a pedagogy. That’s okay. Because if we see that we need it but don’t have it, we can then start figuring out how to develop it. michael johnson Marta Harnecker (MH) says in point #10: “We have to think of politics as the art of constructing forces.”

Yes! No more use of protest as the way we make ourselves FEEL righteous and powerful.

MH says in #11: “What are you doing to construct the political and social force necessary to push the process forward?”

Bingo! Precisely the right question. But it can be answered in so many ways.

MH gives her vision broadly in #13.

This is where it gets sticky. I am assuming that there is some clumsy translating happening here. (For example, ‘political instrument’.) I am also assuming #13, a very broad and almost utterly vague statement, is a lead into the next piece in her series. Still, I am not excited in the least with ‘whose militants and leaders are true popular pedagogues’. In my opinion, what we need is a popular life-long pedagogy that can enable people to empower themselves and cooperate deeply with each other. I don’t know where else a powerful democratic force can come from. It is very important that we not only recognize this, but also recognize that we do not have such a pedagogy. That’s okay. Because if we see that we need it but don’t have it, we can then start figuring out how to develop it.

michael johnson

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