Where is your CVC code?
Over at Killing the Buddha (which I also co-edit), we’ve got a really valuable conversation today between the radical of many causes Abe Osheroff and the activist/journalist Bob Jensen. It’s a reflection on intransigence, futility, and the failures of hope, which should be familiar themes to anyone who has put any time into struggling against the principalities and powers of injustice:
Robert Jensen: I’ve heard you use the term “long-distance runner” before. Is that the key—the notion that we have to be in it for the long haul and not expect things to change dramatically all at once?
Abe Osheroff: Not the long haul—the endless haul.
RJ: What’s the difference between long and endless?
AO: Oh yeah, there’s a difference. We will never win the fight. We will influence the players. We may be able to make life better in many ways. We will blunt the shit that the government and the corporations throw at us. But we’ll always be coping with things. My view is that there’s no destination for the train I’m on. No destination, just a direction. No final station on that train. There’s no final destination, no socialist society where we will all be able to sit back and have a wonderful life. Bullshit!
RJ: No utopias.
Read the rest at Killing the Buddha.
Osheroff’s train metaphor reminded me of a different train metaphor that Gandhi used to describe his colleagues: “I was on the train to Rishikesh but they got off at Delhi,” meaning he wanted to go beyond mere political gains (symbolized by the capital city). He wanted fundamental changes to society (symbolized by the holy city of Rishikesh with its many spiritual leaders). I find it significant that Gandhi had an end destination in mind, unlike Osheroff. Perhaps it gives us something to strive for. Some ideal. But I imagine Gandhi would say his train ride is very similar to Osheroff’s, in that it never fully arrives. You are constantly reaching for perfection, enlightenment, etc.