The failure was that we didn't help the audience become more than an
audience, during or after the event, but in that failure were useful
lessons about contemporary politics. The following observations are
drawn from written suggestions after each event, conversations with
people at Last Sunday, and comments during the discussion at the final
gathering in April.
1) There Is No Choir
Common in progressive circles is the imperative to get beyond
"preaching to the choir." Last Sunday showed the problem with that
truism. There is no choir – if by "choir" we mean organized people
facing these cascading crises with a coherent ideological framework.
There is a disparate group of liberals and leftists with some common
policy goals but no common analysis. At Last Sunday, we weren't
claiming to have the grand plan but simply suggesting that extensive
conversation that challenges the conventional wisdom is necessary.
A few questions sharpen this point: Is corporate capitalism compatible
with real democracy? Can we continue to believe (or pretend) the
Democratic Party is a vehicle for progressive politics? How many who
opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq are willing to condemn the
bipartisan nature of U.S. empire-building? What kind of future does an
increasingly pornographic culture offer? What is the connection between
the U.S. middle class' consumption and the ecological crisis?
Raise those questions in left/liberal circles, and it's clear that the
members of the choir are singing from dramatically different hymnals.
2) Looking Beyond 'Fun'
While avoiding apocalyptic fantasies, we wanted to confront
not-so-pleasant realities: The U.S. economy is a house of cards built
on deficit and debt, in our so-called democracy the majority of people
feel shut out of policy formation, the Iraq war is not a break from
post-World War II U.S. history but merely a particularly disastrous
episode, white supremacy and patriarchy still structure our
hierarchical society, and the "normal" operation of our society
undermines ecosystems' capacities to sustain life. Living comfortably
in the midst of unprecedented first-world affluence feels like being a
drunk waking up after a bender. Gilkyson captured this in new songs
that resonated with folks – "Runaway Train," "The Party's Over," and
"The Great Correction."
Views vary widely about how dire the situation is and what that means
politically and emotionally, as was captured by two comments during the
final Last Sunday discussion. One person asked whether this kind of
political engagement couldn't be made more fun, a comment that drew
both applause and sighs of frustration; another responded that problems
this serious shouldn't be papered over.
No one suggests that political work – even addressing the grimmest
realities – must be depressing. There can be joy in struggle. After the
final Last Sunday, a young man told me that he wasn't put off by the
blunt talk. "This is one of the few places where I hear people talking
about the way I feel," he said. "It's not about fun – it's about what's
happening."
If our systems are unsustainable in economic, cultural, political, and
ecological terms, how do we make confronting that "fun"?
3) The Problem With Solutions
A common complaint about Last Sunday was that it focused too much on
problems, not solutions. That marked another split in the audience
between a) focusing on short-term actions to influence public policy
and b) thinking about more fundamental changes for which there's no
short-term strategy.
Consider the dual problems of oil – we're running out, and burning
what's left accelerates rapid climate change. A demand for solutions
that would allow us to maintain our lifestyles can lead to the
corporate boondoggle of corn-based ethanol or the hazy illusions around
biodiesel, instead of confronting a troubling reality: There's no
viable alternative to petroleum for an unsustainable, car-based
transportation system. So what are the realistic "solutions," other
than to radically curtail the way we move ourselves about? The fact is
that we can't go to some of the places we now go and can't do some of
the things we now do.
Sometimes truly facing a problem is to recognize that it has no
solution without a dramatic refashioning of the context in which we try
to solve it. Some at Last Sunday found that depressing; others said
they felt a sense of relief.
4) Individuals in Systems
Rigby anchored Last Sunday with talks that always managed to bring
together the disparate threads of each event. Drawing on secular
philosophy and theology – avoiding dogma and doctrine – he came back,
over and over, to a basic point: We may be decent people, acting
compassionately in our daily lives, but when we live in unjust
hierarchical systems, being decent day to day isn't enough.
No matter what the specific topic of any Last Sunday, we tried to keep
this in the foreground: We live in an imperial society structured by a
predatory corporate capitalism, with identities shaped by white
supremacy and patriarchy, in a technological fundamentalist society
dominated by the faith that we can invent our way out of an ecological
crisis.
Rigby provided Last Sunday's prophetic voice, in the Old Testament
sense of the term, not predicting the future but calling out the
corruption of the society while maintaining faith in humans' ability to
reach down to the better part of our nature, past the greed to the core
of a common humanity. Individual responsibility means not simply doing
the best one can in the world we're given but being willing to take
risks to change that world.
5) A Direction, Not a Destination
This kind of political and spiritual program attempts to suggest a
general direction, not dictate a specific destination. Once we grasp
that capitalism is an unsustainable system, inconsistent with our
desire for democracy and our struggles for solidarity in community,
what's the next step? The Last Sunday answer was: forward. We don't
need a fully formed alternative to capitalism to take steps to create
an alternative. Strengthening unions and fostering cooperatives,
challenging corporations' right to define not only our economy but our
identities, demanding a more just distribution of the world's
resources, and reducing our own addiction to the cheap toys dangled in
front of us – all are ways we can act.
And we must keep talking. One of the clearest lessons from Last Sunday
is that many people lack a place to listen, learn, and talk about new
ideas. That was Last Sunday's clearest failure – we never found a
formula for making the gathering more of a conversation than a series
of lectures and performances. Out of a fear of seeing the program
devolve into unstructured talk, we erred toward tight control. But many
said the most successful program was the one that opened up that format
for more interaction in the discussion of climate change. Future
efforts have to better balance people's desire to react and engage with
the need to control a program so that the loud and long-winded don't
take over.
The Future of Last Sunday
The consensus at the end of April's gathering was that Last Sunday
should continue. Less clear was how that will happen, how the gathering
should be structured, and toward what end a permanent Last Sunday might
be directed. There are difficult questions unresolved, most notably
whether the event could become more inclusive. Although the program
from the stage was diverse in racial, ethnic, and gender terms, the
audience was disproportionately white, middle-class, and older. Could
Last Sunday become a space that reflects all of Austin? Can we go
beyond the groups in which we feel comfortable?
Last Sunday was an ad hoc project that remained fluid; various people
pitched in to handle the organizing tasks. We deliberately didn't
create a new organization or build a new web site, opting instead to
use the communication tools of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center
(
www.thirdcoastactivist.org and the NOWAR e-mail list). Decision-making was collaborative, in a small group.
The options? Last Sunday could remain ad hoc but with broader
participation, or a formal group could be created to run the event. Or,
of course, the event could end its run, giving way to other forums. The
original conveners don't claim to know the best route, nor do we want
to claim ownership. The event demonstrated people's interest, and now
the task is to figure out whether that interest can be translated into
ongoing community.
Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin
and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. He is the
author of
Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007);
The Heart of Whiteness: Race, Racism, and White Privilege (City Lights Books, 2005);
Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights Books, 2004); and
Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2001). He can be reached at
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
For more information on Last Sunday, go to
http://thirdcoastactivist.org/lastsunday.html
For a PDF file with the five talks Jensen gave at Last Sunday, go to
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/lastsunday.pdf
Writings 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
