POLITICS OF FEAR

Two things came together this morning in what seems to me a fortunate confluence.  One was reading the headlines (first the headlines, then the articles themselves.) on AOL news:

       FEDS WARN OF SUMMER ATTACK

       TERRORISTS MAY BE HERE ALREADY

       NERVE GAS CONFIRMED IN IRAQ

which form a collage of fear and trembling, don't they?  The second was opening my yesterday's mail and reading a long mailing from Rabbi Michael Lerner, the main force behind the organization called Tikkun.  Tikkun is a Hebrew word meaning "healing and transformation" and that is the purpose of the organization.  I invite you here to go to the Tikkun site and click on the Core Vision link on the home page, it will give you much of the same information contained in the letter from Rabbi Lerner, as well as a good deal more.

Lerner speaks of this atmosphere of terror in which we now live: "The landscape of world politics has changed so much in the last several years, but liberals and progressives have not caught on or up.  Yes, the Left has voiced important critiques of Bush's policies on Iraq, environmental degradation, the undermining of civil liberties, and the economic devastation brought by extreme tax cuts for the rich. But underlying all the specific distortions that shape mainstream politics today is something deeper - the reemergence of a politics of fear which pushes all of us toward our most constricted, reptilian, Paleolithic consciousness."

He continues:  "Post 9/11, and post the horrific terror attack in Spain, the justifiable concerns of Americans, Europeans, and Israelis have been turned into a mass psychology of fear. That fear numbs us, enabling good people to ignore orrepress their moraloutrage and to accept reactionary policies as 'necessary'.  An administration that systematically lies, a Congress that cravenly succumbs to the lies, the undermining of fundamental civil liberties, a media unable to tell the story of the global suffering caused by the operations of corporate globalization, a media that won't even tell Americans what their own troops are being ordered to do to repress the Iraqi people - all this is considered 'normal' in a society which has allowed itself to become traumatized by fear and ruled by its own cynical realism."

So, here we are, in daily trauma from the headlines, from the nightly news, from the speeches of our politicians - what does Tikkun propose?  What are they offering?  Something so truly radical and revolutionary that it sounds entirely insane, totally wacko.  More from Lerner's letter:  "Politics today is about fear vs. hope...building a movement that is unequivocally committed to a larger vision of social transformation and healing...(that)believes that the answer to the threat of world terrorism lies not in domination and control, but in cooperation and generosity...we draw from the spiritual wisdom of the human race, we draw also from the wisdom of secular traditions...while rejecting all orthodoxies and all impositions of political correctness...We are not advocates of some specific religion or spirituality; some of our members are militant atheists.  Our shared belief is this:  a progressive politics will be more successful when it incorporates a discourse of love, kindness, generosity, and openheartedness, seeks spiritual balance and fosters a sense of awe and wonder, encourages gratitude for all the goodness in the universe, teaches us to treasure each moment and be present to the goodness in the other, encourages us to stop focusing so much energy on our own personal story and our ego needs so we can see ourselves as part of the Unity of All Being."

Well, see, I told you it sounded crazy.  And it's a kind of crazy that I can get right into.  My belief is that we have fomented terrorism with our actions in the world ever since the trauma of September 2001and that it's more than time for a radically different approach to solving our problems.  Yes, Lerner may be a visionary- it's only the visionaries who ever truly make a difference in the world.  Yes, he's a Rabbi, so his visions are of necessity deeply spiritual and Jewish.  One of the greatest problems in the mid-east today is that of Israel/Palestine - he applies his Tikkun thinking to that situation too.  I believe I may finally have found a spiritual home - one I've been searching for for quite some time.  I'm not leaping into anything, but I'm definitely going to do some research and thought in re this organization.