Paul Rogat Loeb; Soul of a Citizen

Broadcast 4/7/2010 at 7:08 PM EDT (5 Listens, 6 Downloads, 272 Itunes)
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Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear,winner of the 2005 Nautilus Award for the best book on social change. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time, whose wholly updated second edition will be released in March 2010. See www.paulloeb.org


Paul Rogat Loeb soulofacitizen.org
The Impossible will take a little while

Soul of a Citizen new edition

Paul Rogat Loeb member page on OpEdNews.com 70 articles

Will be in Philadelphia on April 16, at the Free Library.

how do we act on issues and take a stand.

When people do act, they feel a lot better about themselves.

Rosa Parks real story--

What are the stories we tell ourselves about citizen involvement? Parks, King, Mandela, Ghandi. IF we k now the wrong story, that limits us.
Parks didn't act alone, on a whim. She took training sessions, was an officer of NAACP.

You have to be conscious.
What are we trying to achieve, who are our allies, , what stories do we need to tell.

Parks action required conscious action, community, persistence.

"History is made by a collection of seemingly small actions adding up together."

Our lives are always, very, very interconnected.

think about how you got involved in activism and almost always, there is a person who got you involved in some way.

move to podcast:Â 21:20

social change always happens from the bottom up.
It's always that process of popular pressure

We validate by acting in the world.

burnout

Progress is incremental. It builds on itself.
You have to keep pushing after your victories to realize their full potential.

Martin Luther King says is always a series of PARTIAL victories.

Have to ask, how do we build on that? Instead of saying, gee, we lost.

unforseen fruits.

Widening the circle.. Christian Coalition and Moveon worked together on net neutrality.
 find ways to build coalition with those outside our regular circles.
How to build coalition with tearpartyers.
people who have been screwed-- listening to their stories,

The Cynical Smirk

You have to exercise power.

politics is organized people versus organized money.

Love-- affects what you care about, what you fight for.
  useful to recognize common humanity wherever you can.

Books

Heroes zinn, King, union activists-- the ordinary people I write about.

Mandela talks about the multiplication of courage. I can read a story about courage and be inspired by it. At any point, you hear a story of courage and it inspires.

1:06 Bill McKibben, Eduardo Galleano, the all have a core theme-- bearing witness, talking about the difficult realities and asking us to act.

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