Why do we need, in the USA, to recreate the Civilian Conservation Corps? Because, we need challenges. Of course, our society does have challenges, in spades. War seems to be the ultimate challenge. Yet war is preventable if we choose to find ways to cooperate with one another.
William James said, in his 1910 essay entitled The Moral Equivalent of War, that:
“The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party.”
He was right, of course. Albert Einstein agreed. His “Two Percent Plan” admits that it is not easy to get even so small a number to lay down their arms. But a challenge for our society could come in another package, as we saw during the Great Depression. The discipline of ordinary people working together.
“We must make new energies and hardihoods continue the manliness to which the military mind so faithfully clings. Martial virtues must be the enduring cement; intrepidity, contempt of softness, surrender of private interest, obedience to …”
from http://www.constitution.org/wj/meow.htm
A new draft for the Civilian Conservation Corps would do that.
Challenge, discipline, cooperation, and infrastructure repairs to solve the deep and divisive problems that lead to war. More shortly.
Shira
Posted on Meow Date 11 March, 12014 H.E.
“Common committment to the idea of community”: open
communication, positive action, and being proactive and
consensus-oriented. That is the type of community I hope to
help build.
I believe that, despite my own personal feelings about a given
person, the fact that that person is a member of my community
entitles that person to something from me: my acceptance, my
patience, my invitation to a community event; some
acknowlegement that we are in the same boat, and that like
him or not, as long as he accepts my personal boundaries, I
cannot exclude him simply on the basis of arbitrary personal
dislike or taste.
Military discipline for the common good does not have to be only miliary. Much of my life has revolved around the ideals of service, duty, and honor embodied in General MacArthur´s farewell West Point address, which I first read and found so inspiring as a cadet in both the Civil Air Patrol and Jr. ROTC. The text is available (among other places) here:
http://www.nationalcenter.org/MacArthurFarewell.html
That speech and the ideals it represents may be what got me kicked out of Annapolis, in fact.
When I arrived at the Naval Academy, I expected the ideas I had been taught as a cadet to continue to the Brigade of Midshipmen and to the officer corps: Nobless Oblige, defend and support the weak, work together to serve the ideals that make our democracy great.
But I found a very different reality there, and in questioning, earned the ire of both my upper classmen and several of my classmates to boot.
Contemplating the meaning of friendship, and of life, I find that I have been told that I was out of touch, or had my head in the clouds, or lived life as the world should be rather than as it really is, been called a Crusader, over and over. The courage of my convictions remains with me, yet I tire of the struggle. What do I want from my life? Only to make that contribution which only I can make, to be a bridge, to help re-create the cooperation which existed, not only between communities, but to inspire people to recall and rebuild what was old Al Andalus, and the cooperation of La Convivencia.
To gather and encourage people of good will and decency to promote cooperation and community for the sake of us all.
Peace,
Shira
MEOW Date: Saturday, April 21, 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era)
Maybe neoCCC members could travel the country teaching folks to build their own Green generators… Cool Cats for Conservation!!!