Also known as a cynic.

I'm extremely pessimistic about political bodies and extremely optimistic about the people in them.

There's a reason IMHO, that cleaning is a ritual for some traditions. The removal of detritus and garbage are a mandatory part of living.

Sometimes the house is too destroyed to be fixed. That's where the hard work of building a new one comes in. It is far easier to sit in a burned and bombed out crater and rail against those that bombed it.

I'm not building a house yet, but I'd like to think I'm marking out some construction guides.

Grey Wolf introduced me to them yesterday

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Bookchin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communalism

A prominent libertarian socialist, Murray Bookchin, defines the Communalism political philosophy that he developed as "a theory of government or a system of government in which independent communes participate in a federation", as well as "the principles and practice of communal ownership". The term 'government' in this case does not imply an acceptance of a State or top-down hierarchy.

And ties to a piece I wrote a couple weeks back asking why we don't ignore TPTB and just create our own worker coops and communities. I was only a few decades behind Bookchin's theory.

"Social ecology is based on the conviction that nearly all of our present ecological problems originate in deep-seated social problems. It follows, from this view, that these ecological problems cannot be understood, let alone solved, without a careful understanding of our existing society and the irrationalities that dominate it. To make this point more concrete: economic, ethnic, cultural, and gender conflicts, among many others, lie at the core of the most serious ecological dislocations we face today—apart, to be sure, from those that are produced by natural catastrophes." - Murray Bookchin, "Social Ecology and Communalism" The full book is available at the link below...
http://new-compass.net/sites/new-compass.net/files/Bookchin's%20Social%20Ecology%20and%20Communalism.pdf

from p.78 • Social Ecology and Communalism

We are thus in a position either to follow a path toward a
grim “end of history,” in which a banal succession of vacuous events
replaces genuine progress, or to move on to a path toward the
true making of history, in which humanity genuinely progresses
toward a rational world. We are in a position to choose between
an ignominious finale, possibly including the catastrophic nuclear
oblivion of history itself, and history’s rational fulfillment in
a free, materially abundant society in an aesthetically crafted
environment.

At any rate I found his views optimistic and realistic. We just need to walk on the right path. Thanks for Caity's piece!

I am not a pessimist. I am not a cynic. I am a realist. I felt much more equipped to deal with life after this realization.

Funny ... had just finished reading Caitlin's article before cruising over to here.

Caitlin is right, of course. I guess I am quite naive; I actually thought the Democrats would praise Trump in regard to the North Korea deal. Heh. Wrong again. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked, but I still am shocked.

To me, this is all about the best way to defeat the American Two Party Duopoly -- it's about coalitions. I know of no better way at this time. Caitlin is all about this also, and has written about it. She's also taken severe flack for this position.

I learned much about the potential of coalitions during the 2016 election. Prior to the DNC convention, I had numerous "right-wing" friends and co-workers approach me with sincere questions about Bernie Sanders. I put "right-wing" in quotes, as the only reason most of them considered themselves right-wing was due to Fox telling them they were, and the obvious abandonment of them by the Democratic Party.

Take the good when you can ... and praise it. With Trump, the praise goes a long way. I know Bolton is standing two feet from him, but there is no way Bolton liked the North Korea deal. Good.

(Heading to work, so I'll check replies later this evening...)

"uprooting their old, unhelpful conditioning patterns so that they can move through the world consciously and efficaciously instead of reacting unconsciously through the perceptual filters and mental habits born of childhood traumas and confused coping mechanisms"

and

"Since most humans are deeply conditioned organisms and thus generally predictable, any bet against their ability to break out of their old habitual patterns is generally a safe one."

I almost see this on a family and national level, almost saying the same thing. I am not sure about the pessimism part. Being powerless to affect change isn't pessimism. Kids feel powerless, and as an adult it's just as uncomfortable. We are getting to a point where one can live their entire life with that feeling of having little control. Few people I know think they will be able to leave their kids anything, that in the end it will all go to pay for a slow decline and painful lonely death. I really get the feeling that people are more aware of being in the moment, not some imaginary future. That some slick talking pol presenting hope and change isn't going to do either, nor is the one who promises to make America great again. Whatever solution to this the government and corporate America, the "wealth extraction industries", will oppose and sabotage it. Maybe it's time to organize a new religion based on living day to day actions, not some worship of ministers and ghosts.

"Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development." ~ Lewis Mumford