My “Occupy mind” is moving from plowing (attracting attention through encampment) to planting, even if the seasons belie the metaphor. It’s time to develop concrete actions to match the feelings stirred up in the last two months. A political response is natural, and I expect you to keep pressure on your congregational delegations with respect to the banks, money in elections, student indebtedness and mortgages, among other issues.
But another, more basic issue, is changing our minds about what we really need as opposed to what we think we need. Confusing the famous with the important. Believing the promises made to you by people who have no interest in your well-being. (That thought started as a rejection of advertising, but really it goes much farther.) Thinking that your opinion is false because it is not well-spoken. (You can work on being convincing later.)
Of course, it’s easier to do this when there are concrete examples, and I’ll post good models as I find them.
And this is where thought must move into praxis, something the Religious Left can be weak at. We can not be content with a thought exercise, public statements, and street drama. Are we willing to physically disengage from the powers and principalities that are harmfull to civilization? Are we willing to be distinctly different in how we live our lives? And perhaps choose other options.
All ethical activity begins with choices (including rather mundane choices).
I agree with Derek.
We fall down at the “choices” part of the equation. The thing about the powers is that they are hard to fight against because once we look at one way we are in their grasp, then we see all the stumbling blocks between us and freedom. The real struggle is how to keep changing ourselves and each other. we get tired, after all…and lazy.
I remember many veterans of the movements in the ’60’s who came out in the ’80’s and ’90’s looking and acting just like their conservative boomer neighbors. I worry that this will happen to us as well.