[dreadgeek]

So, I'm curious about something. Let's stipulate that the goal is acceptance. Let's also stipulate that acceptance is something we are going to have to convince people of (in other words, we're not going to be able to use either the law or the Jedi mind trick to gain acceptance). The minute we're talking about convincing people we're talking about bargaining and the minute we're talking about bargaining, we have to talk cost.

So, we want acceptance. In other words, we want our societies to welcome us fully into the circle of human being. Since we want it, they obviously do not currently feel that way about us. Since they don't, they have to be moved from where they are to where we'd like them to be. Since we are bargaining, what are we willing to give up? We're asking the rest of society to give up where they currently are and move to a different mental place. Is this a win for just us? In other words, are we expecting to get what we want without having to give anything in return? If we are, what possible reason does the majority have for moving? They don't necessarily *want* what we want. They may be genuinely satisfied with, say, a world in which people get married. They may not find our argument that they cannot possibly *be* happy with the current state of affairs compelling. So they are going to want *something* in return. What is it we are willing to give up? What price are we willing to pay?

There are always costs and we are not in a position to force our will upon the majority. We have to convince the majority to rearrange social affairs and the majority is going to want to know what they get out of the deal. The things we may *think* they should want may turn out to be something that they do not want so we can't tell them that they, too, will benefit from being able to live as we wish to. So we're going to have to show *some* willingness to give up *something* because all social change is a process of bargaining and negotiation. I don't think we're going to get to the Promised Land--whatever that might look like--without the majority wanting *something* in return. What is that cost?

It's all fine and good to treat social change like the GOP currently treats economic policy which is:

1. Deregulate business
2. Cut taxes to no more than is necessary to keep the military around.
3. Drown government in a bathtub
4. Magic of the market happens here.
5. Prosperity!

It is quite another thing to try to articulate the price of the change we wish to see.

The *reason* that the national mall has a monument in honor of Dr. King isn't because he demanded that America act right. It is because, as A (not the) spokesperson for the Civil Rights Movement he did two things brilliantly. To the majority he issued a challenge which went like this: "You say that because this is America, this is the land of the free. Our very founding documents say that all men are created equal. What freedom is it if a person with money to pay cannot eat at a certain restaurant, shop in a certain store, for no better reason than the color of his skin. You claim that this is a nation of Christians. But what kind of Christianity is it, that says that some little children are unworthy to go to school with other little children because of the color of their skin? So, America, I must ask you--we Black Americans must ask you--do you mean it? If so, is what is happening in Selma and Atlanta and in hundreds of other places large and so, look to *you* like freedom? Does it look to *you* like Christianity to throw bricks at schoolchildren? To Black Americans, he said "we must show them the way through non-violence. They already think us violent, we must not make them right. We must march with dignity and stand tall and brave in the face of violence but we must not be violent back to them. That is the price we must be willing to pay. Many of us will be hurt. Some of us will die. But in the end, we must be willing to pay for equality and freedom with our bones and our blood."

What are we willing to pay with for acceptance and how will we know when we have finally crossed into the Promised Land?

Cheers
Aj