Great Cultural Awakening
Dedicated to my Uncle Max who translated Camus in ‘42
by Richard Martin Oxman

“Getting benefits from bosses is not valuable if one sells one’s soul by sin of omission in the process.” - Albert Camus

“I think I understand now how one kills oneself.” — Albert Camus (on atomization)

To tweak Camus’ most famous line, there is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is the question concerning… insensate solitude or solidarity.

The newly formed National Union for Health Workers is busy fighting SEIU, moving with what I call minimal solidarity. In my humble opinion, they need to add one little something to their mix… as is the case with at least a thousand+ other organizations currently… typically… working in tiny well-meaning corners they’ve carved out. I bring up NUHW here only because I just got off the phone with one of their reps trying to pitch TOSCA. By the time you read this, I’ll have contacted a great number of other comparable activist groups… all of whom are likely to do what NUHW did with me. Which is… invite me to send an email summarizing TOSCA. [Once I do, they will either ignore it, inform me that they're too busy to take on anything else, remind me that non-profits cannot legally get involved in the electoral arena (without considering that individual citizens can come on board), or provide an imprimatur in some form (without getting involved beyond that).]

Whether or not TOSCA is embraced, we need a great cultural awakening as per Dr. Stjepan Mestrovic’s recent ZNet piece with Dahr Jamail (http://www.zcommunications.org/the-us-military-by-dr-stjepan-mestrovi c); it’s in the last sentence of the article. For all of the well-intentioned activists will not make worthwhile, lasting advances unless they simultaneously get involved in bringing about that great cultural awakening as they work on their immediate concerns. Such “activity” does not have to distract from their primary agenda.

[Pause.]

For — I don’t really know how to put this, forgive me — one cannot achieve what one is after whilst ignoring… our ongoing Auschwitz. One kills oneself with Ostrich Syndrome, by not moving — unblinkingly — eyes wide open in macroscopic solidarity.

Blessings in such solidarity… and ready when you are,
Richard
tosca.2010[at]yahoo.com
P.S. Speaking of Dahr Jamail, anyone who contacts me should remind me to run through an experience I had with him recently… which is highly instructive with regard to the above… along lines that have to do with individuals, not organizations. See http://oxtogrind.org/archive/336 to see a list of individual citizens with whom I have been successful (vis-a-vis macroscopic solidarity) to varying degrees. One thing that individuals and groups have in common is that they set themselves up to never really reach for that macroscopic solidarity. With the former it’s often because of self-imposed pressures respecting tours or other career considerations, whereas with the latter it’s commonly a matter of simply settling for what’s right in front of their noses… exclusively. Hmmm… that’s the same suicidal thing, isn’t it?