Radical
Middle
Newsletter
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ABOUT THE NEWS- LETTER ARCHIVES: Access All Mark Satin Articles, 2005- 2009 Access All Mark Satin Articles, 1999- 2004 Access John Avlon Archive, 2004-2006 RADICAL MIDDLE, THE BOOK: OUR CONGRES- SIONAL SCORECARDS: 109th and 110th Congresses (2005-08) OUR POLITICAL BOOK AWARD WINNERS: RESPONSES FROM OTHERS: Feisty E-mails to the Editor, 2008 - 2009 Feisty E-mails to the Editor, 2007 Feisty E-mails to the Editor, 2006 Feisty E-mails to the Editor, 2005 Feisty Letters to the Editor, 2002-04 Feisty Letters to the Editor, 1999-2001 WHO WE ARE: About the Editor (In-House Version) About the Editor (By Marilyn Ferguson) About Our Sponsor, the Center for Visionary Law
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For
the Wikipedia biography of Mark Satin, now a starred “Featured Article” there, go HERE.
For Satin’s Amazon Author Page linking to all six of his books, go HERE. TOWARD A NEW POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY After
10+ years and 120 feature articles, Radical Middle Newsletter has come
to an end (see goodbye article HERE). But because political change in the U.S. is so slow, most of our articles are as timely now as ever! I’ve linked the best ones for you below, then introduced and provided links to my earlier work – visionary work that paved the way to Radical Middle and, more broadly, pointed the way to a new political philosophy that takes everybody's deepest needs into account. Many of us are still working on that. – M. S. TABLE
OF CONTENTS I.
Best of Radical Middle Newsletter II.
Letter from Mark Satin About His Work from 1974 to Now III.
New Age Politics (1976) IV.
New World Alliance (1979 – 1983) V.
Best of New Options Newsletter (1984 – 1992) VI.
Radical Middle, the Book (2004) VII.
All of Radical Middle Newsletter (1999 – 2009) VIII. Toronto Anti-Draft Programme: (1967 – 1968) IX. Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (1965) X. ... And Here Are My 12 Best Political Writings Ever XI. Statistics for This Website, 2000 – Present LATEST POSTS Satin is interviewed about
spirituality, politics, and social change by Rick Heller (M.P.P., Harvard
Kennedy School) for the Huffington Post. Autobiographical
short story by Satin about a SNCC civil rights worker losing his way in Holly
Springs, Mississippi, in 1965. Full
of lessons for today’s activists and policymakers.
This story can now also be found, with a different introduction, in the Our Stories section of the
Civil Rights Movement Veterans website; go HERE. How
Can We Make Our Politics Reflect What’s Best In Us? Writing
in openDemocracy, policy analyst Michael
Edwards argues for a new, trans-partisan politics – and (beginning
at paragraph #9) shows that Satin’s work is foundational to that politics. New
Age Politics
and Radical Middle at Harvard
University Brief
comment by Satin about his experiences at the Harvard Institute
of Politics. In the last paragraph
he explores – or confesses! – the relationship between New Age Politics (1976, rev. 2015) and Radical Middle (2004) Yes,
that’s me speaking at the July 6, 2016 launch of Stephen Dinan’s book Sacred
America, Sacred World (I helped with it
a tiny bit). Stephen is on the
right – I mean, to the right. Alas,
my dark glasses and white cane are not stage props, they’re the result of
diabetes getting into my eyes. Young
activists, take heed: DO NOT eat
poorly in order to devote maximum time to saving the world. – M.S.
I.
BEST OF Radical Middle Newsletter A.
Introduction Post-Partisan! The First Uniquely American Political Ideology Is Being Born Are the Best Conservative Thinkers Becoming Radical Middle? Where’s the Juice? A Review of Halstead and Lind’s The Radical Center B.
Economy Could Common Ground on Capitalism (and Globalization) Be at Hand? Maybe the Election Will Shame Us Into Sharing Our Wealth Selling U.S. Products Abroad: Malign, Moral, or a Chance for Mutual Learning? Art Kleiner’s Good Corporate Guys vs. David Yamada’s Good Corporate Laws Second Front in Our War For Democracy: Liberating the U.S. From Oil Dependence To Balance the Federal Budget, Build a Better Society! C.
Polity Repairing American Democracy: Changing the Rules Is Not Enough Mediator-Leaders: The Leadership We Need Now? What Our Schools Need Now: Great Teachers, Great Teachers, Great Teachers OK, Congressman Rangel, Let’s Bring Back the Draft – But a Better One Than Yours! Healing First! Time for the U.S. Justice System to Get Less Mechanistic and More Therapeutic D.
Society Universal, Preventive, and Cost-Effective Health Care Is Within Our Grasp! Confronting the Sociopolitical Causes of Psychological Depression: Too Taboo? Liberal vs. Conservative vs. Holistic Immigration Reform Economic-Class-Based Affirmative Action: The Elites Loathe It, The People Want It Rx for Black America: Stop “Therapeutic Alienation” Now! E.
Culture Re-Inventing American History: When Narratives Collide From Romantic Nationalists to Thoughtful Cosmopolitans These Self-Help Books Celebrate Honesty, Connection, and Complexity! Safety and Love First: The Politics of Children’s Literature Zadie Smith’s On Beauty: First Great Radical Middle Political Novel F.
Global a. Principles Coming to Grips with Our Badness Is “Democracy” What the World Needs Now? “Ethical Realism”: The Foreign Policy We Need Now Fareed Zakaria’s Global Humanism vs. Alanna Hartzok’s Earth-Rights Idealism b. Applications Tough on Terrorism AND Tough on the Causes of Terrorism: Our Only Hope Brazil, India, and China: These Are Our Enemies? Humanitarian Military Intervention: The Peace Movement of the ‘00s The One-State Solution for Israel-Palestine Is the Most Visionary AND the Most Sensible G.
Strategy Professional Schools, Not Radical Groups, Are Our Social Change Incubators Now Alienation Forever?: A Critique of David Korten’s The Great Turning Where’s the Depth?: A Critique of Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat Where’s the Mutual Learning?: A Critique of George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant Where’s the Backbone?: A Critique of Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest H.
Groups Participants Agonize Over (and Draw Lessons From) the Death and Life of the New World Alliance Resentment and Transcendence at the NAACP Convention Don Beck’s Spiral Dynamics Integral Confab: Political Evolution Now! Coherent “Radical Centrist” Agenda Emerges at New America Foundation Conference International Crisis Group: Get Your Solutions Here! I.
Movement? Futility, Fury and Hope Outside the Republican National Convention “Rankism” (the Abuse of Rank) -- Last Big Barrier to a Just and Decent Society? At Last, a Movement that Would Have Us Listen To and Learn From Each Other First “Transpartisan” Political Organization Prepares for Liftoff There Is a Radical Middle in Congress J. Conclusion Mushy Middle? No Way! A 12-Point Radical Middle Agenda The Katrina Dialogues: A Dream Deferred
II.
Letter from Mark Satin About His Work from 1974 to Now Picture below: Satin guest-lecturing at U.C.-Berkeley, 2010. I
have spent my entire adult life attempting to articulate the life-giving new
post-liberal, post-socialist political ideology that I believe is arising just
beneath the surface of things. In my youth I expressed
it in New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society (Dell 1979, orig.
Canada 1976). That book, which
received over 50 mainstream and alternative media reviews, and which led to more
than 90 public and radio appearances, is still under attack from
conservative Christians and left-wing intellectuals.
You can now see much of it HERE: To bring my feminist,
ecological, decentralist, world-order, and human-growth ideas into the
political arena, I helped organize and run a national political organization
called the New World Alliance (1979 – 1983).
Although political observers today remember it as a precursor to the
U.S. Green Party, it was in fact a more politically diverse and more genuinely
beyond-left-and-right type entity, even a proto-radical-centrist entity, as
you can see HERE. In my Washington,
D.C.-based international political newsletter New Options (1984 –
1992), I examined innovative policy proposals, groups, and books through my
transformational lens. New
Options – which won Utne Reader’s first “Alternative Press
Award for General Excellence: Best Publication from 10,000 to 30,000
Circulation” – was notable for its influence and honesty, which didn’t
endear it to some activists. You
can now view much of it HERE. As the 21st century
began (and I entered my 50s!), I developed a more pragmatic version of the
emerging political ideology. The
book that resulted, Radical Middle: The Politics We Need Now (Westview
Press and Basic Books, 2004), was named “Outstanding Book” for 2004 by the
Ecological and Transformational Politics section (section #26) of the American
Political Science Association. You
can see excerpts HERE. To help develop my
version of radical centrism, and apply radical-centrist ideas to the issues of
the day, I produced Radical Middle Newsletter (1999 – 2009), stopping
because of an eye condition. Fifty
representative articles are linked above, and all 120 of them can be found HERE. My writings are
unusually rich in ideas and information.
I hope you not only enjoy them, but are able to make good use of them. Best, – Mark
Satin P.S.
I am working on a final political book, as steadily as my macular edema
will allow. My working title: This
Revolution Will Be for Adults.
III. New Age Politics (ORIGINALLY 1976, REVITALIZED 2015) Go HERE. What
you’ll find there: Press release for 2015 edition, excerpts from 2015
edition, 50 media mentions, and more. Picture at left:
Cover of 2015 edition. Represents
what David Spangler calls “faceless people on both sides fighting with each
other to the detriment of us all.” Artwork
by Jeremy Berg. “New
Age Politics:
Our Only Real Alternative ... stands as the first comprehensive
articulation of a transformational political ideology.
It shows, in great and systemic detail, how we can depthfully
understand our world of crisis and get to a world of collaboration and
wholeness.”
“In
60,000 words Satin has made a comprehensive critique of North American society
and outlined [one] to replace it. ... At
30 he’s already miles ahead of the academics and intellectuals who cling to
the Marxist vision.” “[A[n
extremely valuable contribution to contemporary political dialogue.” “The
themes of New Age politics were first articulated in the late 1970s by Mark
Satin, ... [after] it dawned on him that ‘the ideas and energies from the
various “fringe” movements – feminist, ecological, spiritual, human
potential and the rest – were beginning to come together in a new way’.”
IV.
New World Alliance (1979 – 1983) Go HERE. What you’ll find
there: Our
brochure, our political platform, multiple media mentions, and more. Picture at left: The
cover art for our 102-page “Transformation Platform” was contributed by
Rarihokwats, co-founder of Akwesasne
Notes. “[Satin] joined
[management consultant] Marc Sarkady and others in an attempt (in Sarkady’s
words) ‘to embody a new holistic vision of politics in America’: the New
World Alliance.” “[The Alliance’s]
political vision included healing, rediscovery, human growth, ecology,
participation, appropriate scale, globalism, technological creativity and
spirituality.” “In 1981 the group put
forward a ‘Transformational Platform,’ which was the first attempt [in the
U.S.] to take ecological, decentralist, globalist, and human-growth ideas and
translate them into a detailed, practical political platform with about 300
specific proposals.”
V.
Best of New Options Newsletter (1984 – 1992) Go HERE. What you’ll find
there:
Twenty-five entire issues, excerpts from a “best-of” collection, 25 media
mentions, and more. Picture at left:
Cover of Issue #67. “Mark
Satin publishes a highly influential newsleter, New Options, that
tracks transformational social change, while avoiding the usual dogmas of the
left, the new age, and the fading ‘60s.”
“New
Options is one of the hottest political newsletters in Washington. ...
[It] has gotten a fair amount of attention, and perhaps even some
influence, because it self-consciously styles itself ‘posty-liberal.’”
“Over
the years, Satin has unabashedly challenged tired thinking on any part
of the political spectrum – particularly the liberal-left shibboleths that
many New Options readers may have held dear. ...
[And he] has not been hesitant to infuse political issues with what
many activists consider ‘soft,’ peripheral concerns about love, sex, and
relationships.”
VI.
Radical Middle, the Book (2004) Go HERE. What you’ll find
there: Book
excerpts, 35 media mentions, list of 50 public appearances, and more. Picture
at left: After one deadly-dull cover design was tentatively accepted, artist
Wendy Halitzer stepped in and produced this raucous and life-affirming gem. “Mark
Satin’s irritating Radical Middle is a timely clue to what gave
liberalism a bad name.” “[O]ne
of the most refreshing political books I’ve ever encountered. ...
[M]ust-reading for those who are trying to find a ray of sanity in our
present political climate.” “Passionate,
popularized, and personalized, with frequent asides about Satin’s [activist]
background. ... [A] fresh and
often original voice.” “[T]he
policy proposals cataloged here don’t fii neatly into the standard left /
right model. ... The most
provocaive ideas combine a leftist concern for the commonwealth with a
conservative instinct for individual responsibility and self-reliance. ...
Despite the occasional lapse, this book is moderate in tone and
intelligently reasoned – shockingly so.”
VII.
All of Radical Middle Newsletter (1999 – 2009) Go HERE. What you’ll find
there: All
120 major articles from the newsletter, listed and linked in backward
chronological order. Picture at left:
Cover of Issue #31 (web issue #60). “Mark
Satin sees ... radical middle politics as an innovation that’s ideally
suited to 21st century America.” “Satin
... sees [radical centrism] as a new, and original, political ideology.” “Satin
... attempt[s] to lift politics to a higher level of discourse.
His concise commentary [is] mixed with several parts idealism, a good
dose of realism, a touch of spirituality, and always heaps of common sense.”
VIII.
“BONUS” SECTIONS: MANUAL FOR DRAFT-AGE IMMIGRANS TO CANADA AND
THE TORONTO ANTI-DRAFT PROGRAMME (1967 – 1968) See HERE
for TADP; See HERE
for the Manual. If
you are wondering how a small-town boy from the Midwest could be driven so
far from the dominant “us-against-them” paradigm as to help invent and
spread the now finally emerging transformational / radical centrist
paradigm, then these sections are a good place to start.
The years 1967 and 1968 were a kind of shock therapy for me.
I had already watched my beloved SNCC cast off its white volunteers.
Now, as a Vietnam War draft refuser, I not only had to confront the
hostility of most liberals and conservatives.
I also had to contend with the arrogance of most pacifists and
socialists, who wanted draft refusers to go to jail or at least go
“underground” and live half-lives with fake IDs.
The Manual and my 24 / 7 work with American war resisters in
Toronto were my immediate responses to this overwhelming lack of empathy and
connectivity that I felt in the world.
They would not be my last. “In 1968, Satin
wrote what would become an underground bestseller, the Manual. ...
He quickly became the media’s go-to guy for draft-dodger
information, the [TADP] office a drop-in center for teenybopper
‘volunteers.’ ... But he
did himself no favours back home.”
IX. STUDENT NON-VIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE IN MISSISSIPPI (1965) Go HERE. "I wrote
[this short story] in 2015 and offer it here as my contribution to the deep truth-telling
that needs to take place, by people of all races, if this nation is ever to
become healthy and whole. [It]
X.
... AND HERE ARE MY 12 BEST POLITICAL WRITINGS EVER Just look HERE. What you’ll find
there: Brief descriptions of each of the 12, and links to them all “[O]ccasionally I
would write more encompassing or more reflective or more self-critical pieces,
and as I’ve grown older I’ve begun to think of that as my best work.
In addition, I’ve begun to see that what I was doing in those uneasy
pieces evolved over time, in ways that I think the radical social change
movement itself needs to evolve, if we are ever going to ... take the lead in
healing and transforming this nation.”
XI.
Statistics for This Website, 2000 – Present See below. Source since 2006:
Urchin Software Corp. Moral: You can
build a website by word of mouth alone. Year 2000 25,521 article views (aka "pageviews") Total through 2015
5,574,658 article views "How much can you synthesize? How much do
you dare to take in?" |
ABOUT THE RADICAL MIDDLE CONCEPT 50 Thinkers and Activists DESCRIBE the Radical Middle 50 Best Radical Middle BOOKS of the '00s GREAT RADICAL MIDDLE GROUPS AND BLOGS: 100 Great Radical Centrist GROUPS and Organizations 25 Great Radical Centrist BLOGS SOME PRIOR RADICAL MIDDLE INITIATIVES: Generational Equity and Communitarian platforms 1990s First U.S. Green Party gatherings, 1987 - 1990 Green Party's "Ten Key Values" statement, 1984 New World Alliance, 1979 - 1983 PDF of the Alliance's "Transformation Platform," 1981 SOME RADICAL MIDDLE LESSONS: What the Draft Resistance Movement Taught Me What the Civil Rights Movement Taught Me SOME PRIOR WRITINGS BY MARK SATIN: New Options Newsletter, 1984-1992 (includes back issue PDFs!) New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society, 1976, 1978 (includes 1976 text PDF!) OTHER 50 Best "Third Way" Books of the 1990s 25 Best "Transformational" Books of the 1980s 25 Best "New Age Politics" Books of the 1970s NOT JUST RADICAL MIDDLE: 50 Current Political IDEOLOGIES 50 Current Political MANIFESTOS
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