The Politics of Hope

I've reference this book several times in the last week, but here goes an other quote!

In this section, Lerner is descibing the rather sad situation of the first few months of the Clinton adminstration. They got hammered, especially Hillary, for a "hopeful" viewpoint. He describes their gradual and ultimate retreat to poll reading and the politics of realism. Here is part of his conclusion.

"I am not writing this history in order to pass judgement on the Clintons. They acted the way most other Democratic Party politicians have acted for the past forty-five years, letting their own perceived self-interest trump their vision of the good. Democrats attempt to be 'realists,' assessing the political forces and acting as though politics is 'the art of the possible.'

"What the Democrats have consistently failed to recognize is that 'the possible' is shaped by our choices. You don't actually know what is possible until you struggle for it. (Italics are mine.)

"When we choose to believe that everyone else is stuck in narrow self-interest, this perception leads us to believe that there is no alternative and hence we ourselves must be careful about our own self-interest.

"When this paradigm of fear becomes dominant, politics moves to the Right, toward those who are most articulate about the need for narrow self-interest, and the voices of idealism begin to recede. Vision becomes authoritarian and is all about recreating an imaginary past that was safe and free of the interference of some Other.

"If you are on the Left--whether Democrat or Green, liberal or progressive--the strategy of realism is a huge mistake. When you stop asking, 'What do I really believe in?' and substitute instead a focus on asking, 'What is realistic?' you are on a slippery slope toward the values of materialism and selfishness that receive much clearer statement by the Republicans and the Right. When the question is 'What is realistic?' it is only the Republicans who look like they have the answer. When you believe you must always put 'me first' and play the power game, the Republicans will always appear less hypocritical, because they have been fighting for selfishness without apology."

Whew!

So the question for me becomes, "How does this apply in my personal life and my business life?" Can I survive in a marketplace that seems to be short on nearly everything?

I think the key is to look at that last belief. Is the marketplace, my life, my business, the world short of everything I need to survive?

When you are staring at red numbers in every business you are involved in and then in your own checkbook and when business partners are scared and clients are looking at you with raised eyebrows at every invoice you deliver and on and on and on, yea, it feels tough.

But, somewhere, deep in my gut, the politics of caring resonates deeply. It is how I would like to be treated. I here is my ideal world. . . someone looks at me and says, "Are you ok? Can I help?"

And so, here is my goal today for today. . . looking at everybody I meet and saying, "Are you ok? Can I help?"