I have a lot of friends who are members of various "Book Clubs." You can click that link if you'd like to consider starting a Book Club, or becoming a member of a Book Club yourself. The link will take you to a website that wants to make it easy!
In my past blog postings, I have suggested, and more than once, that we all need to "find some friends." Even more specifically, I have urged anyone reading my blog postings to "Join a club. Start a club. Start swinging that club!"
Finding a way to use our political and personal power to help change the world (to make it better) actually requires us to get involved with one or more "small groups," as we follow the advice of Margaret Mead. If we want to change the world, we absolutely need to be a part of one or more small groups of people who share our ambition, and who will work at it! "Never doubt," says Mead, that such small groups are effective in making change happen. In fact, she says, they are the only thing that has ever has.
Back in April, as I read The New York Times, I began to wonder if a book club focused on "horror stories" might be appropriate, as a base from which effective political action might be initiated. I wasn't thinking, so much, about the kind of "haunted house" horror story that the illustration, above, might suggest. Instead, I was thinking about the "real life" horror stories that reflect our actual history, and that reveal just how horribly we have acted, and what the consequences have been.
My reading back in April led me to a story in The New York Times Magazine that told readers about survivors of the Holocaust. Click the following link to read, "This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write."
You might also want to check out, "Swiss Bank Account," a book review that tells readers about the rise and fall of Credit Suisse, and of all the people who lost, essentially, everything they owned.
How about slavery? How about the decimation of Native peoples? How about asbestos? How global warming? How about toxic chemicals and microplastics polluting our environment? How about about the Vietnam War? How about any of the wars in which we have been, and now are, engaged?
You get the idea! There are lots of "horror stories" out there!
If we want to take Margaret Mead's advice, we need to form ourselves into small groups to learn what has happened in the past, and then think about what we could do in the future, and then actually start doing something about it!
That's how "self-government" works, by the way. I am speaking from personal experience, but Margaret Mead is probably a more persuasive voice. Small groups make it happen. Basically, the kind of change we need is not going to happen without them!
Never Doubt That A Small Group Of Thoughtful Committed Citizens Can Change The World: Indeed It's The Only Thing That Ever Has.
Foundation of Freedom
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