Letters from a Young Radical

I just received an email from the Barack Obama mailing list pointing me to a new government-endorsed volunteer site, complete with the the supersexy site design. Although there are plenty of really good volunteer sites already out there, the first thing I thought to myself was that it's really cool to live in an era where your president encourages you to volunteer.

However I've been trying to examine the purpose behind Obama's rhetoric since he began, and I wonder if this isn't another mindshift that actually benefits the status quo.

When Barack Obama said that change comes from below, me and every other socialist just about choked on our own tongues. "That's what we've been saying all along!" we said. It seemed completely contradictory to everything we'd been taught, which we considered false by that time, so it seemed really radical of him. Now he's talking about a new age of service - of volunteerism. Funny how just that added element can make me wonder if he isn't changing his tune.

The idea behind the classic idea of "change from below" could perhaps be called collectivism (?), and is the idea that struggle by The People is what changes the world and creates progress. This is not what we're taught in school - textbooks tend to heroify one person, generally whatever president was in power at the time. For example, FDR is given all credit for the New Deal, when the only reason he even considered it was because of considerable pressure from below. The effect this has on the collective psyche is to discourage collective action, and make us feel powerless, because none of us see ourselves as heroes.

So when the president-elect "endorses" change from below, it very much seems as though he is humbling himself and recognizing the need for social movements to put pressure on not just him but on everyone in power.

This whole service thing has me thinking though. I never thought of it before, but I think the idea of volunteerism is incredibly individualist. While I agree it's necessary (it helps some of the problem immediately, it's a great exchange and very fulfilling), I think it's potentially damaging to suggest that "change from below" EQUALS "volunteerism", because volunteerism is nothing more than a band-aid. It's great that people are feeding the homeless and planting new trees as I type this, but no amount of volunteering will change the fact that homelessness and polution are created by our flawed system.

I've come to believe that the president understands these sorts of things. I'm fairly sure that they have access to a LOT of smart people, sociologists, psychologists, public relations specialists and all kinds of powerful people who know how to essentially control the populace (if you don't believe me, try watching BBC's The Century of the Self or reading Edward Bernays' book Propaganda).

Even keeping that in mind, I have to wonder - what is Barack Obama's intention? Is someone or some idea pulling his strings in this? Does he intend for us to feel both empowered and responsible for fixing the system that can't be fixed? How are people going to react to this, if at all?

PHOTO AT TOP: That's actually the LA Burrito Project - a volunteer effort which I think is REALLY cool. It's actually illegal to feed homeless people in a lot of cities, hence the masks.