By Tyler Norman, Community Rights US Director
September 7, 2021
Today, we find ourselves mired in a so-called “Culture War,” a post-modern pissing contest with no winners, only bruised egos sinking further into a swamp of resentment. But as discussed in my previous essay, it’s actually inappropriate to regard “liberal” and “conservative” as personal identities. These concepts are of a category similar to “sad,” “happy,” “aggressive,” “defensive.” Attitudes and emotions are notoriously malleable, not a complete culture or lifestyle. A statement like “I am a Conservative” is equivalent to “I am a Grumpy.”
When we pigeonhole ourselves into a single narrow attitude, we limit our critical thinking and disable our deliberative judgment and imagination. In an argument where humiliating one’s opponent is the only objective, conflicts that could provide opportunities for learning instead devolve into irrational insult competitions. Today, our two toxic electoral options could be summed up as the “Don’t be Such a Dick” Party and the “Don’t be Such a Pussy” Party.
Within the Community Rights paradigm, divisions like “Left vs. Right” are obsolete labels.
The gendered nature of this Culture War further emphasizes that on both sides the opposition has been essentialized into a singular mythic identity. The exaggerated and wholly negative nature of much social media banter and YouTube punditry (“all Republicans are privileged white supremacist transphobes” or “all Democrats are shills for Silicon Valley techno-fascists”) makes it so much easier to label the “other” as “enemy,” then immediately dismiss this “enemy” as a raving mob of soulless monsters deserving no empathy or political voice.
As the population becomes more and more polarized into memetic tribes battling for territory of the mind, our lives come to resemble a tit-for-tat family feud… getting hotter every day, spiraling dangerously downward into rage and desperation that just might spark real warfare. If we don’t change our direction soon, the United States could look like Yugoslavia or Syria by the end of the decade.
I am a part of the Community Rights movement because I believe that our work can be an antidote to this very frightening path. The Community Rights and Rights of Nature movements assert our dignity and integrity, but beginning from a worldview that defines our communities by place, not by identity or social role. Within the Community Rights paradigm, divisions like “Left vs. Right” are obsolete labels. Our work emerges from genuine relationships with the land that we live on, consistent and intentional connections with our neighbors, and the loving cultivation of a robust sense of “We the People” through conversation, organizing, and true grassroots democracy.
When we get stuck in an “Us vs. Them” worldview, we tend to unquestioningly agree with our side’s dogmas while vehemently denying common-sense suggestions from the opposition. The mania for moral policing called “Cancel Culture” mostly mobilizes people to rage at symbolic offenders rather than to strategically question how we can change the real sources of inequality. It’s a performance attacking the weed’s leaves but not the roots, demonstrating that one can “shut down” those who do not use “politically correct” rhetoric rather than taking the risks inherent in real communication and collaboration. It’s noteworthy that those who see themselves as “woke,” “macho,” “allies,” or “righteous” ALL have their own versions of political correctness. This “canceling” behavior is not linked to any particular politics – it’s emblematic of our era.
When we fight the Culture War, we divide ourselves and we serve the interests of corporate rulers, who can easily change masks to appeal to either side, even as they spark new conflicts. Historically, racism and other forms of discriminatory thinking were introduced by deceitful colonizers as their first and most effective tool to “divide & conquer” the population. We’re still stuck in those thought patterns, even as it becomes obvious how toxic they are.
The current cabal of super-elites (aka “the 1%”) are, just like their wealth-inheriting ancestors, quietly conscious of their precarious position and very intentionally cooperating to hold down the rest of us. Their hidden-in-plain-sight conspiracy is commonly termed “Class War.” The majority of Americans are misled by constant propaganda, unaware that over generations the legal system has been co-opted to undermine democracy and further empower those who already have the most wealth. So-called “Corporate Rights” effectively shield the anti-social behaviors of elites from outraged public reprisals. When radicals declare the need to engage in class war, that does not mean starting a war. We’re already in it, and we’d better start acting like it. Which side are you on?
Instead of “Left vs. Right,” the Class War narrative reframes the battle as “Bottom vs. Top.” The colonial pyramid scheme has a shockingly wide impoverished base supporting an exponential curve up to a slender pinnacle of fabulous riches – and the only thing keeping this impossibly unfair structure from collapsing is our willingness to tolerate it. The vast majority of people have barely enough to get by while a handful of sociopaths hoover up hundreds of billions of dollars during a pandemic and brazenly proclaim their plans to colonize other planets. In spite of all our differences, We The People do have one thing in common – we want to survive.
Why do we fight our neighbors for scraps of power, when we all have an obvious common opponent? Corporate colonizers have stolen everything that people need to survive, and now sell it all back to us, prices climbing every day.
We have forgotten that all wealth comes from the Earth, and from our creative labor in cooperation with each other. Access to the land and to the fruits of one’s own labor must be the most fundamental human rights, yet these are exactly the basic needs that are radically excluded by colonization and capitalism. Ripped from the reality of our living planet, we’ve forgotten that living ethically is about our interactions with other beings, not about performing whatever language is trending on Twitter.
Now, instead of cultivating resilient, abundant, local self-determination, we’ve been trapped in anxiety induced by the mythology of competition. This “Scarcity Culture” effectively stops the peons from revolting, because we believe that the loss of corporate rule means instant civilizational collapse.
This belief is wrong – in fact we have nothing to lose but our chains… “Arise ye workers!” …etc, etc. You know the drill, it’s been repeated for generations. The story of cosmic conflict outlined above is seductively satisfying to many activists – I’ll admit that I’m pretty fond of it. But really, the more we dig into it, the more we realize that everything about this “Class War” story is a fiction… You feel it, right? Those paragraphs above used to inspire so many people, but they just don’t ring true anymore.
Nowadays it’s less a “class” that controls the world, but instead just a handful of absurdly rich men and their increasingly all-powerful algorithms, shell companies, and off-shore tax havens. If 26 people control as much wealth as the lowest 50%, then we’re talking about less than 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% – not the big bad industrialist monster of yore, but a clique so tiny we can squeeze them all into a single SpaceX rocket. As our common opponent shrinks, it also becomes vacuously abstract. How exactly will overthrowing Jeff Bezos improve my quality of life? Will seizing the means of Tesla production make We the People tragically obliged to ravage the planet with lithium mines? A story once celebrated as our inevitable destiny today feels just as disappointing as all that anti-gravity bootstrap nonsense.
Our diversity of shared experiences are just so much deeper and more complex than some old pyramid-shaped economic theory. On top of tectonic shifts around race, gender, and colonization, right now our cities, forests, and farmlands are burning, flooding, or freezing. We’re running out of water even quicker than we’re running out of tolerance for micro-aggressions. No one is coming to save us from any of these problems. When systems break down all we have is our neighbors. When it’s about survival, then “Class War” is no longer a viable strategy. What story will inspire us to build a “Collaboration Culture,” a reweaving of positive ideas for a world unraveling?
In the Community Rights movement, small but resonant voices in the wilderness tell an entirely new story, one in which We the People square off against private property masquerading as citizen. Now “Sovereign vs. Fiction,” suddenly it’s no longer about war at all, but about transforming our perceptions. Beyond just local CR ordinance campaigns, our deeper task is to conceive a more liberating and empowering worldview. Overcoming centuries of divide-and-conquer culture is difficult, but it can be done with humility, empathy, and trust built by working together. It also requires creativity and daring.
A profound realignment is currently reshaping the US. We see it all around us in the topsy-turvy confusion of contemporary politics. The ground is swept out from under us, repeatedly. While it may be invigorating for a few conflict-focused adrenaline junkies, for most people it feels like a terrifying free-fall. It’s easy to mistake transformation for destruction.
This realignment is extremely chaotic, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad for us. Crisis and opportunity travel hand in hand. Our task now is to build a parachute, or a glider – something! – as we tumble through the unknown, finding new ways of holding each other afloat, and softening the falls when they are inevitable. That’s why so many activists and change-makers are re-prioritizing “Democracy” nowadays. It’s no longer a question of morality, happiness, or any other abstract concepts. Today, cooperative deliberation is absolutely essential if we are to invent a new way of living together. True democracy – including everyone – is necessary for our species’ continued survival.
We the People have so much wealth – not just material resources, but relationships, enthusiasm, knowledge and skills. Why have we allowed a tiny minority to steal our inherent power? In part it results from the very concept of “Us vs. Them,” the antiquated idea of a world defined by separation.
Our most fundamental struggles roil deep within each of us. Our worst enemies are often in our own heads. We must overcome our individual cowardice and ignorance before we can successfully enact social struggle arm-in-arm with diverse communities. We must transform our relationship to our world by investigating our rigid conditioning and opening ourselves to more possibility. We can expand our connections with people and planet and spirit, until “I” becomes “all” (so very different than “us” which always implies “them”). I’m striking a spiritual note here, to be sure. But no need to get too esoteric about it. The question posed by the idealistic democratic endeavor has a kind of spiritual quality of its own – “What do we all want? What is our common will?”
Our answers teach us how to stand up for each other, together in solidarity. Each of us can cultivate wisdom, patience, love, and openness, and with the transcendent practice of democracy these personal qualities birth responsible, dignified, capable, and compassionate communities. There’s a kind of awakening implicit in the democratic project, exactly the interconnecting enlightenment that we need right now.
If we want to grow beyond this hyper-competitive and needlessly destructive colonization paradigm, then we must take a big step away from the pyramid scheme (think of it as “Exodus” if you like), and reconsider our judgments of everything. Why are we clawing our way up this pyramid anyway? What new structures could we make instead, together with all of our collective power?
What if we built a Democracy Culture, a Collaboration Culture? Surely we would prioritize collectively defining (and then defending) our rights, responsibilities, local economies, ecosystems, creativity, health and integrity. Inevitably we would develop a profoundly Anti-War Culture, with just as much anti-fragile rigor as anti-hate kindness, and a profound commitment to learning from each other’s mistakes and successes.
We are ready to stop the schizophrenic self-destruction of the Culture War and to transcend beyond the myth of Class War. We the People are growing a culture of shared vision – inventing a new world in which we evolve together.
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Photo credits: “hands on soil” by Poughkeepsie Day School is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0;
“Gardening in p-patch, 1990” by Seattle Municipal Archives is licensed under CC BY 2.0