At times we just need a place to gather and talk. We need a place where we can learn how to be with others in a sane, civil, civic conversation about matters that matter. We need to learn how to practice democracy. Every Thursday night, the Common Good Café hosts a conversation that embodies such a spirit. To help kick it off this autumn, we’re co-sponsoring with Real Change the Thurs., Sept. 20 book event with Chuck Collins.
In the land of the free and the home of the brave, Collins, in a very slim book loaded with educational graphs and simple, clear prose called, “99 to 1,” lays out the mechanisms that are currently enslaving our country and other nations. He even offers some practical solutions.
But the problem is bigger than the elite few who bend the rules to enslave us. The problem is deeply spiritual, cultural, social and personal. We the people have never been as free as we claim. We the people have always struggled with the traditional deadly sins of greed, gluttony, laziness, lust, wrath, envy and arrogance. We the people struggle with our own inner demons that desire to live above the law, to be more important than others, to be served. We the people are not spiritually different than the rulers who want to enslave us. It’s just that we don’t have the power or the opportunity to live above political and economic constraints.
We ourselves are not among the 400 households who control $1.5 trillion of wealth. But we desire to have access to such power, which is why we embrace and endorse the values of the filthy rich. That’s why, for example, we support our troops, why we wave the flag, why we support a culture of permanent war and increasing war budgets. At some level we inwardly know that it is our gangster armed forces with the muscle that enforce the market enslavement of human beings. Inwardly, we know that our volunteer armed forces no longer fight for anything larger than profit for the few. It’s just that we want to drink from the trickle-down that oozes out of the few.
That’s why it was so important to save Wall Street “banksters” rather than Main Street common folk. That’s why there is no fundamental hope and change promised in this year’s election cycle. Our choice, if you will, is between two lousy brands of non-nutritious cereal. The Republican brand is far more honest: They tell us up front that we’re eating poison. The Democrats try to convince us to like the taste of the poison. What’s needed is a revolution of values that will transform our current political policies of oligarchical militarism.
That’s why we created the Common Good Café, as a place to explore how we slaves can attain free. Come and see for yourself.