Left Behind: Eternal Forces

Teens can get their kill on in a Christian way. Everyone wins except Satan! Unless you play as the Satanic forces. Slight bug there…

More Seriously, Zeitlin’s actual point in the above-linked commentary was that there is a [...]]]> There’s an easy solution to the controversy over evangelical churches hosting Halo Nights:

Left Behind: Eternal Forces

Teens can get their kill on in a Christian way. Everyone wins except Satan! Unless you play as the Satanic forces. Slight bug there…

More Seriously, Zeitlin’s actual point in the above-linked commentary was that there is a dearth of liberal community and few prospects for its revival. To quote:

Liberals, because of their disavowal of transcendence and pursuance of essentially rational, veil of ignorance defined politics and ideas, do not have a coherent core to build any of these social capital maximizing institutions around. Jonathan Haidt’s identification of liberals as those who value maximizing reciprocity and minimizing harm in their moral calculus — and do not consider purity, in group identification or hierarchy — gets at the core at why liberals are having difficulty building or maintaining any institutions comparable to the megachurch.

All of this to say: “liberal” is not a real term. In the electoral realm, we’re united in our desire to win against conservatives, but beyond that, want vastly different things out of government and economy. There’s not an obvious reason we should all be friends outside of campaigns. This isn’t to say that conservatives have ideological unity, but they seem to have a few major, identifiable divisions (christian vs. fiscal vs. hawk) where liberals have many, less individually significant schisms. In fact, if we could all agree on even something as vague as the ‘veil of ignorance’ as a decision-making process, that would be a big step forward.

Then, Zeitlin looks back to the golden days of the CIO as a time when these disadvantages were overcome, and widespread liberal community successfully formed.  However, this strikes me as wrong.  The 30s labor did not somehow overcome a set of community-formng disadvantages inherent to liberals — they simply didn’t have those disadvantages.  Instead they benefited from a shared, transcendent ideology: socialism.

To be sure there were divisions, but the non-professional unions were a bunch of radicals who had much more in common that current “liberals.”  That’s why when the Taft-Hartley act required (among other things) union leaders to sign statements that they were not “communists,” the CIO had to purge many members (to TNR cheers.  They’ve always been tools.)

So then, the question that community-lovers need to ask is:”How do we arrive at shared transcendent ideology?”

Union are one answer, though Zeitlin discounts them, saying: “as Andy Stern and his service workers are the most important union in the country, and since service workers are a more transitory and diverse workforce than the industrial workers of generations past, the labor movement will not be the locus of liberal community.”  This does not follow.  If the most important union has achieved success by organizing workers who are, because of the nature of their work, especially difficult to organize, that would seem to point to the great potential for a resurgent labor movement if other unions, who operate in industries with less structural disadvantages to organizing, copied Stern’s methods.

See, this is an important point that may not be obvious.  The success of SEIU and, to varying degrees, the other CTW unions has to do with how they organize.  They conduct strategic campaigns, targeting companies in markets they want to move into or who threaten the existence of workplaces they’ve already organized, rather than going wherever worker outrage is highest.  The normal union ratio of service reps to organizers is 3:1.  SEIU & co. reverse this, recognizing the necessity of growth in order to succeed against the ever-expanding companies they target.  They pioneered card-check as an organizing strategy and partner with (or create) community groups to pressure targeted companies on other social justice issues.  None of these tactics are somehow uniquely applicable to the service industries.  When (if?) these tactics are widely adopted within the labor movement, we’ll have a much better labor movement.

So even if service workers’ unions aren’t ripe sources of liberal community, it’s entirely possible to export SEIU tactics to unions where revived unionism would create community.  However, I disagree with the premise; SEIU and HERE have created community, it’s just not in places Zeitlin or I would tend to see it — unions don’t have Halo nights for the kids of their white suburban members, or Megachurch-like weekly meetings.   My anecdotal experience is that they do lead to lets of small gatherings and friendships, and the union house is still a place one can go and hang out, but that’s different from saying the union is a relevant community institution in latino and black urban populations.

Regardless, union relevance as a community would seem to be entirely proportional to union density.  Right now, one person in my friend-group is part of a union.  So it doesn’t seem relevant.  But if we all were housekeepers in a Santa Monica hotel, HERE would be an important part of our community infrastructure.

Which is to say, more and better unions is still a viable path to community.

But the best part of [...]]]> So there! I’m glad this blog is around because what Christianity really needs is to come off as more confrontational. For now I’m a mere spectator in the Atheist vs. Christianist Great War, but if they keep making fun of Christopher Hitchens, I may take up a sword for Christ.

But the best part of the Atheism Sucks! blog is the author, Frank Walton’s favorite movie list:

Rambo: First Blood, Seven Samurai, Tombstone, United 93, Die Hard, Malcom X, Terminator, Aliens, Scarface, Mean Streets, Godfather, Naked Gun, Predator, Friday Night Lights, Airplane, Under Siege, Bloodsport, Dirty Harry, Fugitive, Pulp Fiction, Hoop Dreams, Lord of the Flies (1963), Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Blade Runner, Lethal Weapon, Ace Ventura

A very brave mix of pulp action flicks and the best of the feel-good 80s.  But, really folks: What Would Jesus Watch?  Steven Segal?  John Claude Van Dam?  Bruce Willis?  I’m not concerned about the violence or the language, just, you know, the quality.

A voice crying in the postmodern wilderness amidst the cacophony of bells, buzzers, whistles, flashing lights, flash videos, animated images, billboards, pop-up ads, [...]]]> is my newest blog find, discovered amidst the mixed bag that is the resistance tag at Technorati.  First, it too links to the ParEcon page.  Second, here’s an excerpt from its about page:

A voice crying in the postmodern wilderness amidst the cacophony of bells, buzzers, whistles, flashing lights, flash videos, animated images, billboards, pop-up ads, talk shows, talking heads, information vendors, disinformation, misinformed ne’er-do-wells, in the midst of all the so-called diversity, all corralled by the oneness of the global market;

whose sacred relics have been subordinated to our present-day capitalistic iconography;

whose hallowed symbols have been relegated to fascist propaganda;

in which the Imago Dei has been subjected to narcissistic iconoclasm:

Very poetic.  For all your pomo-christian-anarchist blogging needs, go check em out.

God of Earth and Outer Space

God of earth [...]]]> A family member, knowing of my eternal love for all things spacey, showed me this excellent hymn, which I preceded to sing in my painful, monotone way.  Beyond its awesomeness, I see it as someone’s small step towards integrating God into science and celebrating them both.  A happy effort.  Enjoy:

God of Earth and Outer Space

God of earth and outer space, God of love and God of grace,
Bless the astronauts who fly, As they soar beyond the sky.
God who flung the stars in space, God who set the sun ablaze,
Fling the spacecraft thro’ the air, Let man know your presence there.

God of atmosphere and air, God of life and planets bare,
Use man’s courage and his skill, As he seeks your holy will.
God of depth and God of height, God of darkness, God of light,
As man walks in outer space, Teach him how to walk in grace.

God of man’s exploring mind, God of wisdom, God of time,
Launch us from complacency, To a world in need of thee.
God of power, God of might, God of rockets firing bright.
Hearts ignite and thrust within, Love for Christ to share with men.

God of earth and outer space, God who guides the human race,
Guide the lives of seeking youth, In their search for heav’nly truth.
God who reigns below, above, God of universal love,
Love that gave Nativity, Love that gave us Calvary.

Words from: Thad Roberts, Jr., The Hymn, 1970.

Justice!

I love that there are now smirking legos. Brilliant. Go “read” a few verses, it’s good for the soul.