Well! I guess that settles it! What does it take to build a movement? Consciousness * Vision * Strategy
In honor of Bill Ayer's prominent role in today's Obama campaign, I turn my attention to the 2002 documentary, The Weather Underground, by Sam Green and Bill Siegel, for mental fuel.
The Weather Underground emerged amidst a real social movement gripping the American population in the 60's heading into the 70's through 1980. This was a combined upheaval, shedding the yokes of social constructs regarding race, class, gender, war, and at its core: violence.
Violence as defined as oppression of humans through the bonds of racism and slavery. Violence as defined as oppression of women through the restrictive economic and social confines of the suburban housewife. Violence as defined through our history of genocidal strategy that serves as the roots of our nation. Violence as defined most directly through the waging of war in southeast Asia and more recently in the Middle East. More than any other principle, violence has accompanied human history, struggle, and, in particular, the American experience.
The Vietnam War, a graphic incarnation of our nation's legacy of violence, spoke urgently to the young folks who committed themselves to the Weather Underground; a radical splinter group subscribing to the philosophy that violent offenders can only understand the language of violence, thus negating the effectiveness of the "peace" movement. Garnering their name from Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, the Weathermen employed violent means to respond to the violence being imposed in the name of the U.S., creating the need for a mass underground network of weathermen.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"
-Bob Dylan, Lover of Words.
WUFI has been cited in the April 1980 CIA Report on International Terrorism in 1979, as a group claiming responsibility for International Terorrist Attacks, 1968-1979. The allure and romanticism of revolutionary violence spanned a myriad of movements during this explosive period, the prominent ones including the The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and Che Guevara's "successful" Cuban revolution. The depth of anger, frustration, and fury driving the young souls who engaged in violent resistance burned bright during this time.
But is it effective? Does revolutionary violence launch its perpetrators towards their desired goal, if peace and harmony are their ideal? Where institutional violent aggression begets the rage that drives grassroots violent resistance, what happens to the ideal? As Ms. Virginia, from the Orleans Street Library put it, "We threw the baby out with the bath water."
Therein lies the ultimate clash of good and evil. A theme of many of my favorite great odysseys from George Lucas' "Dark Side of the Force" in Star Wars, the "Good and Bad" split Captain Kirk from Episode 5 of Star Trek Season 1, to the "Four Elements" of my new obsession, Avatar. All of which have had a profound impact on my own psyche.
In Book 1: Water, Chapter 16: the Deserter, Aang, the Avatar, Master of All Four Elements whose job is to restore balance to the world, battles Fire Nation's Admiral Zhao's awesome aggressive fire force using Air Nation's tactic of duck and run. Aang, who never strikes an offense, eventually wins the battle because Zhao has inadvertantly set fire to his own entire fleet attempting to strike Aang who fleetfoots across the ships.
This is the foundation of the yin and the yang. It has always been difficult to grasp that the dark side must be present to the light side. If good is good, then bad must be bad! ....right? ....and therefore, eliminated. disappeared. ...right?
