Ipecac

Oh my, you don't look good at all.  A little greenish.  Stomach upset, maybe?  Well, I know it's no fun, but you really do need to get it out of your system.

And I have just the thing to help you: Tikkun's Michael Lerner responding to Chris Hedges.  Go ahead and read a bit—it shouldn't take more than a few paragraphs before nature takes its course.  Here, let me hold your hair.

What?  You need something even more powerful?  Well, then, take a look at the declared purpose of Tikkun's summer conference: to "Support Obama to BE the Obama You Voted For".*

Oops, sorry—should have warned you to turn your head away from the screen before quoting that.  But really, don't you feel better now?

ASTERISK: Compare with Hedges' critique of "useless liberals":

The only talent they seem to possess is the ability to write abject, cloying letters to Barack Obama—as if he reads them—asking the president to come back to his "true" self.

AND ALSO: If you click through on the link above you'll see that the photo accompanying Lerner's bloviations contains a nearly canonical example of a "shit-eating grin".  Which makes perfect sense when you think about it, given the vast amounts of shit he's consuming.

Comments

[KDelphi]

Ok...I need to ask a coupla questions here..I realize, suddenly, that I did not know that there was a "spiritual progressive" movement, and, that i dont know what that is supposed to be (that could be s serious question)...second, is his main problem with Hedges article that he didnt use enough "positive language" (what, "those smart drones didnt kill as many people as Hiroshima"??type "positive"??)(this is not a serious question, and, John, you didnt grab my hair fast enough and i just curled it...yuk,,,lol)

So, Obama is "
not a liar" ("cause, like he's met him alot and stuff" and he's
really likeable")but his main problem is that he "fails to tell the truth"....???? Consider how that used to play out when you were a kid ..."I didnt lie, I just didnt tell you..."

I also do not understand this "sympathy for Obama" stuff, and fear it must be coming from those who think that obama had a "rough childhood" with 2 weeks on food stamps and all...I think I'll reserve my exhausted empathy for those on food stamps their entire lives...I know that his mother had to fill out insurance forms while she was dying of caner..that is awful (not that Dems will do anything about that), but, my father didnt when he died of brain cancer because his "insurance" dropped him as quick as they could...

Another point, meandering some here, is that NO, it will not be a "
challenge" for Organized labor to "reenergize the base"..they wil do what they always do when a Dem screws then over (ie Clinton)..they will vote religious conservative or Tea Party...an answer to that would be to actually DO SOMETHING for them when you are in power, but, it seems that that is not "nuanced" enough for a sympathy inducing figure like obama...

I would also like to ask the Rabbi, why he needed to make the article so long, when he was not actually challenging "established wisdom" at all..."est. wisdom" is "take what the Dems will give you, because GOP are worse"...and btw, while youre dying from a lack of shelter or food or a lack of medical treatment, dont "die angry"--just be "positive about it", because getting angry about it "brings neo-liberals down" and they cant enjoy their lifestyle...barfbarfbarf...

Obama is the worst thing to happen to progressives since Reagan...

[Euripides]

Shorter Rabbi Lerner:

Chris, go to your room and let the grown-ups talk.

I think that piece was one of the best examples ever of someone living up to a stereotype.

[John Caruso]

I realize, suddenly, that I did not know that there was a "spiritual progressive" movement, and, that i dont know what that is supposed to be (that could be a serious question).

"Spiritual progressive" basically means Michael Lerner, so the fact that you don't know about it probably means you haven't read much of his stuff. For which I envy you, because reading Michael Lerner is like being drowned in a vat of tapioca pudding by people who have pillows for hands, and every time you come up for air they tell you they feel your pain.

Ironically, Hedges is someone who actually is 1) both spiritual and progressive and 2) deserving of respect. I can't stand Lerner, though. I knew someone who worked closely with him once, and she said he was pretty much exactly the pompous, self-aggrandizing buffoon he appears to be.

[KDelphi]

LOL...I agree, John...I like Hedges..I am sortve a "non-spiritual " progressive (socialist?), but I like sincere spirtual people...

[Catherine]

"For which I envy you, because reading Michael Lerner is like being drowned in a vat of tapioca pudding by people who have pillows for hands, and every time you come up for air they tell you they feel your pain."

Oh, John, way harsh and lacking in compassion, and, also, way funny.

It's always amazing to me that supporters of Israel/Zionism find it unembarrassing to use the argument (over and over) that since Europe committed a genocide upon Jews, Jews have the right to commit a genocide upon non-Europeans.

But what do I know? BDS!

[ms_xeno]

KDelphi:

"...I also do not understand this "sympathy for Obama" stuff, and fear it must be coming from those who think that obama had a "rough childhood" with 2 weeks on food stamps and all..."

Well, Clinton I was lesson enough that one can survive a "rough childhood" and still mature [sic] into a smug, entitled, bullying asshole.

[Donald Johnson]

Tikkun is a good magazine though--for all his faults, Lerner allows some great people to publish in it. Hedges for one, Jerome Slater for another.

[Duncan]

I believe that in addition to Lerner and Tikkun, the "spiritual progressive movement" includes Jim Wallis and Sojourner. Plus maybe whatever is worth of the Catholic Worker group, exemplified by Dorothy Day. But terms like "progressive" don't mean much. Nor does "spiritual." Would Martin Luther King Jr. count? Noam Chomsky used to say that the sanctuary movement, which sheltered Latin American refugees during the Reagan years, was made up of "conservative" Christians. The only real opposition to scientific racism in the US and Germany came from Roman Catholics (in Germany) and fundamentalists (in the US).

I agree that Lerner's a pompous git, but I don't have much use for Hedges either.