Dear Editor:
If, like me, you yawned your way through this year’s presidential debates and are looking for a fresh perspective on politics that you won’t hear about from the major parties, I strongly recommend a book call “The Politics of Meaning: Restoring Hope and Possibility in an Age of Cynicism,” by Michael Lerner. (Addison-Wesley books; Reading MA, 1996) Lerner, who influenced the Clintons and was in their inner circle in the early 1990’s, points out society’s desperate need for a new ethos of love and caring to heal the pain caused by a materialist corporate culture run amuck. He asks the crucial question, “Even though times are prosperous on the surface, are we really any happier?” The key to Ronald Reagan’s victories in the eighties was, according to Lerner, the right wing’s clever appeal to what is, in fact, a growing sense of spiritual emptiness in our country.
Once a month I meet with a group in NYC that is part of a national, grass roots organization called the “Foundation for Ethics and Meaning.” Its purpose is to deepen the discussion of meaning in American society, and to figure out ways to implement politics of meaningful ideas at the local and national level. This Spring we held a major conference at Riverside Church. Among the notables participating were writer Marianne Williamson, 1999 Nobel Peace Prize nominee; Wei Jinsheng, Patricia Ireland (president of the national organization for women), and Manhattan public advocate Mark Green. I believe Robert Kennedy Jr. even stopped by to lend his support.
On a recent Friday, (10/13), I was impressed with the excitement and enthusiasm at a rally for Ralph Nader that sold out Madison Square Garden. Nader’s Green party strikes a cord similar to Lerner’s vision of a new corporate and social “bottom line” based on ethics, caring and sustainability. Just how excited people are about these ideas at this particular moment in our history was made clear to me when, after the rally, a spontaneous crowd marched through the streets of New York with picket signs chanting: “Let Ralph debate!” I had a flashback to the riots in Seattle last year and realized that a 1960’s style rebellion seems to be lurking just beneath the surface of our so-called prosperity.
Let’s pay attention to these changes in the air as Hoboken braces for a new political season. If anyone is interested in adding a new kind of energy to the political conversation of this city, I would urge you to read Michael Lerner’s book. Then, if you would like to share your opinions about the book with me, I’d be glad to listen. You can also learn more about these ideas by checking out the website of The Foundation for Ethics and Meaning at www.meaning.org.
John Bredin