HOW TO SURVIVE

© 1984 by Stuart Norman

Appeared in RFD #41, Winter ‘84/85, “Respite From Disco.”

Thankfully, Jesse Helms did not run for President, nor was he ever seriously considered by his party, but he did successsfully run again for his Senate seat in 1990. The New Age movement seems to have died a cynical death by being coopted by a me-first, yuppie attitude exacerbated by recession. And my worst fears have come true in that the Republican Party has been pushed further rightward by the fundamentalists.


        I want to get personal in this column in hopes you will want to know the views of your political editor. I am mad about the way politics in our nation is moving, and I’m a bit frightened. So I am asking for your responses. Perhaps we can begin a dialogue in this magazine.
        I have been a Libertarian, active in that movement for most of my political life. My views have that philosophical bias. But overriding those are my concerns for a spiritual approach to life. I strongly believe we need to transcend the politics of the right and left.
        I share some views in common with Republicans, Democrats. Socialists, Capitalists, anarchists, and even Christians. I hold much against all of these ideologies, also.
        I agree with cutting taxes, balancing the federal budget, reducing the size of government and protecting private interests, especially the right to privacy, I do not like the idea or the reality of a welfare state which leads to more government interference in private lives. Most of all, I do not like the idea and abhor the reality of a state, period.
        I am neither on the right or the left. I oppose state socialism and state capitalism. Both are oppressive. I want economic and social freedoms. That translates to freedom for the individual, even to go against social mores.
        I would like to live in a society where there is respect for life and human potential above all else. Ideologies do not matter, people do. Our culture is out of balance toward the coldly rational, intellectual, and exclusively male ego which aggressively confronts the world as its enemy to be conquered. I don’t like it. I hope you don’t either. I also believe we are in a position to do something about it. But first we must examine our ideologies.
        The gay movement has been caught up in and led by socialist analysis, yet it was freedom of speech and of assembly and capitalist entrepreneurship among gays that supported our movement. We need to examine our political position.
        In this time of growing disenchantment with liberal beliefs we will have to change strategy and tactics for our movement. I don’t think it is a good time for violent protest. It only creates fear, anger and misunderstanding. The time of separatist politics is over. Once we needed separation to find our identities. Now it is time to come together and to forge coalitions with accepting others in order to save ourselves and keep our vision alive for the world. We can’t stop the New Right alone, so we must build better support networks and organizations.
        We gays are a different people, but we are not superior or inferior. We have much in common with straights of all interest groups. We should ask ourselves and others, what is the big issue over being gay? We need a reassessment of ourselves and we need to heal the internal separations in our movement, the divisiveness and misunderstandings between factions. Now that we are changing and examining our ways of relating due to AIDS, not only can we learn to relate on levels other than sexually among ourselves, but with heterosexuals as well.
        If we become frightened we could succumb to self-oppression and make a quick leap back into the closet where it’s safe and dark. But we are creatures of light and we shouldn’t have to endure that suffering any more. Only if we become disenchanted and disheartened will we allow the New Right to destroy our movement. It’s not up to the Moral Majority and other fundamentalists to persecute us. It is up to us to let them or stop them.
        To do that, we should live as though there is nothing to be ashamed of. There isn’t .Let us live our lives with the assurance that we are right no matter what social prejudice or laws exist against us. We always have the freedom to do that, but we must be able to take responsibility for our actions and accept the consequences.
        We gays already have rights as human beings under the Constitution. We don’t need special rights. Only if the constitution is interpreted to cover only majority rights do we have a problem. However, there do exist on the lawbooks laws clearly discriminatory to some minorities and ‘social deviants’ that only by the majority social prejudice could be considered constitutional. The Bill of Rights was meant to protect these minorities.
        So we must worry about Supreme Court appointments. There is the potential for Reagan to appoint three justices, likely to be very conservative, which could affect the decisions of the court into the next century. Even those can be overturned. But if the worst happens, laws can be repealed and new ones passed. The court only interprets law in light of the constitution. It does not make law.
        With the conservative threat many city ordinances and state laws that offer us some degree of protection could be repealed. Yet there is hope. The recently signed into law anti-violence bill in California would be difficult to repeal because anyone taking the position to repeal it would have to advocate direct violence, not only against gays, but against senior citizens and the handicapped.

        What do we do now that Reagan has been reelected? Shrewd politician that he is, Reagan has courted the fundamentalist Christian vote with its dirty politics to give him a large majority while remaining above the filth. We should realize that the violently homophobic fundamentalist Christians will probably increase their attacks against us. If gay-baiting works for some politicians, others may try it, too. That is the danger. We could be in for very hard times. The fundamentalists are using the AlDS crisis as a scare to push for national registry, even death for gays. There is danger from government research on using behavior modification and brainwashing techniques or new drugs on social deviants, criminals.
        The majority of the people in America are good, not evil, and don’t wish to harm anyone. They can be manipulated by demagogues to evil ends. Yet there is a diversity of belief, thought and lifestyle in this nation that even a conservative Republican political sweep cannot reflect or change. There exists a climate of fear and unsureness in the country over economics and social change. That is the reason for the conservative swing.
        Most of the American people voted Reagan another term for economic reasons. They want lower taxes and interest rates, a balanced budget; they don’t want massive welfare spending and government doles. But Reagan did not get his mandate. There were two Democratic gains in the Senate, but it is still in Republican control by only a majority of three. The House lost 13 democratic seats, but has a significant Democratic majority.
        The current conservative, college-age generation could better be called the ‘me generation’ than that of the 1960s - early 1970’s .College students are inclined toward business and money pursuits, demonstrating self-interest. But they are not interested in the plight of others, social Issues, not the values of a humane vision for the future. They are strictly now oriented. There is a selfishness and myopic vision of those only interested in economic realities. That is why they voted for Reagan.
        Mondale kept a high-toned campaign to the end. He brought the separation of church and state issue to the fore in the debates and forced Reagan to make a clear stand on the position. If he did anything good it was to force the issues and make all Americans look at our vision for the future.
        But there is a political realignment occuring. People are not voting along party lines. It may mean the demise of the traditional Republican and Democratic parties. This year has shown us that the New Deal policies and coalitions are dead. The time may be ripe for real political change.
        Now Republicans have a lame-duck president. Thus the party has lost its leadership and is splitting into factions, seeking a candidate for the next election. Look for Jesse Helms to bid for President in 1988. The homophobic, ultraconservative Senator Helms could get the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, and he has promised the voters in North Carolina who sent him back to the Senate that he will remain on that committee, but many political analysts cannot see him refusing such a powerful and influential position.
        If Helms isn’t instrumental in leading us into World War III, what can we do politically in a hostile environment? We need not shun the moderate Republicans. Many of them do not like the New Right, and we can influence them. And Gay Republicans will have some influence in their party. Now they have active political organizations within their party working for gay rights.
        We should also work to keep Republicans to their word to cut spending, taxes and big government. Balancing the federal budget should keep them very busy. Do write and talk with your legislators. Even the homophobes should hear from you. Your one voice equals many hundreds of like-minded people if it is received and heard. Remind them that they represent you, too. Beyond that, we will have to organize along grassroots levels to foster our interests.

        Has there been social overload? Too much change? Is future shock becoming too strong? The current conservative political retrenchment is a manifestation of cultural limitation on change - a cultural preservation factor. But do we want this culture to be preserved?
        The fundamentalists and New Right cannot accept the fast paced changes. They do not want to accept certain facts of reality, so they want to legislate them out of existence, which can only hide them. Thus there are paranoid attacks on the right of the public to know and against the press in the name of National Security. They wish to censor books and ideas without debate. It is a defensiveness, a Cold War mentality, and a time of looking for enemies under every bed - scapegoats and traitors - it could be a return to McCarthyism with its persecution of Communists and homosexuals.
        TV evangelists exploiting gullible, fearful people through high-pressure public relations techniques and propaganda for political power purposes represents a failure of Christian ideals. In the name of their concept of morality they would destroy others or deprive them of their rights. These evangelists no longer respect the separation of church and state, They think they are absolutely right and will save the world, yet they are false prophets and charlatans likely to institute the holocaust out of their intolerance and hatred.
        We shouldn’t hate these bigots. I find it hard to do so, but I can fervently hate some of their actions and beliefs. We can be assured they will suffer the consequences of their misdeeds.
The philosophical issues which lie behind the conservative politics revolve around the concept of the role of society and government. Classical conservatives believed in privacy rights issues - that government should stay out of private lives and economics. And an individual must be recognized on his personal merit and ability. The liberal position is that society should be responsible for the welfare of its people, thus the use of government to force civil rights issues. Yet the result of this is social groups fighting for recognition and a place to exist in society by political power.
        Should government be used to force social issues and institute social engineering? That was not the purpose of government designed in the constitution.
        Representative democracy in a republic such as ours has a problem of majority rule. Is it fair that 51 percent could decide the policy for the other 49 percent of the people? And what of minority privileges? When minorities petition the government for special recognition of their rights they sometimes are perceived as getting special privileges. What happens is that we have warring social groups in a battle over rights using government as mediator, yet each wants control of the government to assure its security. The current example is the New Right, who had felt themselves disenfranchised and pushed out of decision-making. They felt forced to found a coalition to stage a comeback. But if government could not be used to force the views of one group over another, then there would not be these problems of minority vs. majority rule. We should remove some discriminatory and limiting laws and move toward participatory democracy to correct that unfairness of the dictatorship of the majority. Then perhaps it will be easier for people of differing beliefs to live in peace with each other.
        It is very naive, even stupid, to think that a socialist government will end war. The problem is egoic, patriarchal culture, and no political system or ideology can change a culture - they are products of that culture. We must change the culture, and that means first self-change. It means spiritual growth to a deeper and wider understanding, to looking beyond our culture, to break ties with past ways of thinking, to break through to a higher realm of consciousness.
        So much of politics in this country is nothing but public relations manipulation. Old ideas are couched in new terms, but nothing really changes. It seeks short-term solutions with a myopic vision. A few people move in and out of positions of power, but little real change is brought about by political process. What changes our culture is new knowledge from individual experience, scientific and tech- nical innovation and its use, and economic manifestations. Politics has to adjust to these. But the old ideologies which arose from 18th century thinking cannot deal with the modern reality. They are dangerously obsolete. With the world moving toward one global organization, philosophical views will have to change. People will have to learn to relate better, show more tolerance for differences, let self-interest and emotional attachment to nationalism go, be willing to give up the confrontational political methods of belligerence and paranoia and change consciousness away from win/lose thinking. On whether we can do this depends the fate of the world.
        Faeries need to be truly radical as we are in getting back to the roots of the spiritual. We can be shamans for a culture which sorely needs them. We can heal our culture, but that will mean cultural change which will be resisted because it represents the unknown that is feared, and vested interests and privilege will be threatened.
        There are many of us in this country that see a new vision: blacks, Jews, other minorities of color, gays, feminists, nontraditional religions - part of the Rainbow Coalition and the ‘New Age’ movement. Those are our allies. Interest in spirituality is growing among liberals and conservatives for new ways. They want to address social issues of discrimination and achieve a human dignity for all people. It is the greed, the cynicism and the power mongering of the ruling business classes who stand opposed to this justice. It is not a right or left political analysis, but a question of human potential, recognized or denied. Business leaders will go to any lengths to keep a favorable status quo for their interests. Business growth and profit motive are the all for them, but they do not see their gains can only be short-lived. They ignore the earth and rape it, along with humanity. Many of them truly believe that if business prospers, so will everyone else. Theirs is a blindness to human need that runs deep.
        The vision we have to foster is one of one world, one people - interrelated, independent - a fragile mother who nurtures us and that we have stewardship over. Can we rise to the occasion to accept that role?

Contents The Pendulum Swings Fear and Mourning: Post-mortem of an Election - 1990