Since these are minority views not only in government and industry, but in the world of economics as well, it seems that it is up to us to make these ideas known to a wider audience.
For example, I've been posting my Goals for the 21st Century series here as well as on dailyKos and myleftwing. The sparse attention the series has been getting shows that the political blogs are not attuned to thinking about long-range issues. This just reinforces the need for a wider educational effort.
I'd like to propose an "adopt a blog" program. Since many people here are multi-lingual they could select bogs in their non-English language and make these ideas known in those forums.
A second thing to try is suggesting blogs for others to visit, as Jerome just did with the Oil Drum. One voice on a blog doesn't get much notice, but when others chime in the postings start to get more attention.
It seems to me that programs which require a change in the dominant capitalist ideology are not going to emerge from governments or mainstream academia. This will have to be a bottom up effort. This has worked before, the best examples being the US effort to abolish slavery (which was started by moralists and clergy, mostly in the north) and the parallel efforts for women's suffrage in the US and the UK. The first US meeting was by a handful of obscure women in the 1850's in upstate NY. They then went on to propagandize via writings and speaking tours. The fact that the efforts took 75 years is an indication of how difficult even minor changes are to effect.
With mass communication it is easier to get new ideas out to a larger audience, but the forces of entrenched privilege can be expected to be just as hard to overcome as before. On the other hand, when the tipping point is reached, a new consensus can emerge in just a year or so. The present shift in mood in the US over Iraq is an example.
So, to summarize, adopt a few blogs, tell others about interesting sites to visit, and work with others to develop a coherent, easy-to-understand set of ideas. Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
I think this is an important point. I only skimmed most of the diaries as I was away for a lot of the holidays. My thinking on these issues are still a bit fuzzy, immediate comments don't come to mind. But the questions, if not this system, if not neoliberal economic hyper capitalist you-are-on-your-own type system, then what, and how, are important to answer. Alternative fantasies of a better world, in other words. One has to start somewhere. To some extent I find this more interesting than the shorter term, day to day, issues, where we react to the awful ideas that do abound. I hope to come back to your diaries, and maybe even respond to some of them... I've seen your website, there is a lot of stuff there... For me, the process, to read, think about it, react, respond, is a long one. The draw-and-shoot comment system does not work well for me in terms of producing anything of quality.
I think my point was not that I feel neglected, but that discussing long-range planning is not something that most blogs deal with.
As for comments, I think that people process new ideas better when they comment. Even rephrasing comments in ones own terms helps fix them in one's own mind better (or on the other side, cements your counter position).
We see this frequently on dKos where many comments are just a form of affirmation or personal anecdote which illuminates the points being made in the original diary. Once people have expressed an opinion they are more invested in the idea and make better spokesmen. This is why I'm suggesting an "adopt a blog" program to spread ideas.
When I was able to do some testing on dKos (before they changed the policies on links) I determined that there were about 100 readers for each comment posted. Other sites seem to be more like 20:1 (perhaps because they have fewer casual readers).
So, to paraphrase: "Go forth and multiply (ideas)". Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
