-----Original Message-----
From: eric@eric-mosley.com
Sent: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 22:16:51 -0500
To: equality.vt@inbox.com
Subject: Equality Trust
Hi Stephen;
I found your email on The Equality Trust website as a contact in Vermont. I live in Virginia, but there is no one listed here, so I'm wondering what you can tell me about what you are doing? I'm currently reading The Spirit Level and wondering what I am going to do with what I have learned. Currently I work as a pilot and you can see what I do for fun on my website.
All my best,
Eric Mosley
eric-mosley.com
Hi Eric
Thanks for writing. I joined the Equality Trust as a US associate after reading the Spirit Level and they made me a US contact. I am sure they would be happy to do the same with you.
The Equality trust seems to be doing good work in Britain. They have local councils and Parliamentary initiatives. In the US getting traction has been difficult for them, and I would be interested in the reasons for this. For me personally, the approach of the Equality Trust is too mild and places too much faith in the capacity of the formal structures (various levels of government, business, NGOs, etc.) to respond constructively. I do not have faith in the capacity (aside from questions of will) of the US government to respond helpfully to the arguments made in the Spirit Level. There are numerous American NGOs which are working on these themes, and it might be possible to develop an "Equality Consortium", if that can be seen as helpful. Here in Vermont we are struggling with issues of public policy being driven by the interests of privilege, but we also have a significant initiative to provide health care coverage to all Vermonters, and the leadership in state government is on the side of the people, at least on this issue.
The reason I do not believe that the US Government can respond to these issues is that it is so thoroughly controlled by the interests of extreme wealth and those who think that wealth accumulation is a right over and above human rights. The ground on which the arguments made in the Spirit Level would fall would be hard, cold and dry to those arguments. They just would not be heard, because the dominant ideology in the US is that which I stated above - Wealth accumulation and the protection of property is more important than the rights of human beings to clean water, healthy food, political autonomy, and local control of resources. There just is not that sense of shared fate which makes the arguments of the Spirit Level relevant.
That said, the rising tide of privilege and inherited wealth can only make conditions in America worse, and eventually the 99% will come to identify utterly with the classes of dis-privileged people. At this point, Americans will need to have viable explanations for their misery. Hence, we may see it as our duty to help educate people and help them understand what is happening to them.
I am personally not the kind of socialist who wants to replace the American Constitution and install a Soviet style of government. That government failed and we have a profoundly thoughtful beginning in our own constitution. I believe in diversity and in democracy. But what Americans need to know is that democracy is, in its core, an antidote to privilege, and as privilege accumulates, democracy is threatened more and more. OUR ability to drive the agenda of OUR government diminishes as the corporations and the most wealthy among us drive the priorities of government further and further toward protection of their right to get richer yet.
I am I think that kind of socialist that might be called "communitarian". My formulation is thus: I support the institutions of shared decision making (government) in exchange for their fealty to my well being. When those institutions become dominated by some members of the community to their benefit and to the detriment of other members of the community, the time has come for resistance and possibly for civil, economic or political disobedience. Which of these and when become strategic decisions.
I do not know if you would agree with my analysis that the United States social policy has become dominated by the interests of privilege, so I do not know if you would support the assertion that the time has come for dramatic action. But if you believe in the importance of a shorter ladder of wealth, a ladder which does not allow anyone to be out of sight or out of relationship with anyone else, since you have asked "What comes next?", you apparently already believe that something must be done. Put simply, what you do is up to you. I have several thoughts, and I think you will be sympathetic.
* First, stay in relationship and maintain the conversation. Not just with me and not just with people close to you. The interests of human beings and of life will be won back by people relating to each other, by holding each other personally accountable.
* Make sure you talk and write about the things you care about, and make sure your friends, especially friends who disagree, understand your concerns and why you care. Keep the dissonance within the realm of caring disagreement. We want these reasons to be, ultimately, sympathetic and non-threatening.
* Engage actively in educational projects and especially do so with other people, for the same reason it's easier to clean a garage with friends: When you're done you feel like you did it all yourself, in a fraction of the time. Doing things in groups is more effective and more rewarding. Networking is part of the advantage.
These are all things anyone can do. You may have assets I am unfamiliar with, and may think of other kinds of projects to undertake. Have you connected to the local Occupy movement? Opened a dialog with them? Are you friendly with your state representative? Are you on boards or panels of experts where you can have influence on policy? Are you particularly adept at organizational development, such that you might create a non-profit branch of the Equality Trust for the US? I am eager to hear from you what you think you can do.
All of the above only hints at what I am doing myself. I am active in my local Occupy movement. After the unceremonious collapse of our encampment in Burlington Vermont, last November, our group of something like 100 people continued to organize at the level of working groups (committees) and the General Assembly. We now have numerous administrative groups and several action-oriented groups. We continue to put pressure on our elected officials, and I am active in promoting outreach to the full diversity of the 99%. My involvement with the Equality Trust is to read their newsletter and use the Spirit Level as a reference for my work in Occupy. The Occupy movement provides a much deeper analysis, if not the epidemiology, of social and economic conditions in America, and a more powerful response to those conditions. The Occupy movement is for me my local "Equality Trust".
I hope all of this helps. I have addresses for a couple other folks who have written to me in the last year if you'd like to correspond with them as well.
Stephen Marshall
