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Friends,
This episode of the show, with novelist, essayist, playwright, and organizer Sarah Schulman, connects to a quote that inspired the very first episode of AEWCH. It’s from Christian philosopher and writer G.K. Chesterton:
When the business man rebukes the idealism of his office-boy, it is commonly in some such speech as this: “Ah, yes, when one is young, one has these ideals in the abstract and these castles in the air; but in middle age they all break up like clouds, and one comes down to a belief in practical politics, to using the machinery one has and getting on with the world as it is.”… But since then I have grown up and have discovered that these philanthropic old men were telling lies. What has really happened is exactly the opposite of what they said would happen. They said that I should lose my ideals and begin to believe in the methods of practical politicians. Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics. I am still as much concerned as ever about the Battle of Armageddon; but I am not so much concerned about the General Election… the vision is always solid and reliable. The vision is always a fact. It is the reality that is often a fraud.”
Right now, various states’ refusals to mediate in terms of Palestinian liberation have amplified both vision and the practical action. The vision is clear: total liberation from war and state violence. And the practical actions are brought into focus each day: tactics and strategies to demand governments support ceasefire.
The movement for peace in Gaza is bridging the visionary and the practical. It is teaching us the lesson that both are vital, but that those in power generally want to diminish the vision and reduce us to what they define as “practical.”
It’s not just the political realm that benefits from keeping the vision in play while figuring out the right practical steps to take.
There are overlapping questions, also, in art: How do I tell a story but stay true to my imagination? How do I innovate but communicate through the mediums that others understand? How to I express through the astral realm of the unconscious but keep the conscious mind in play?
Sarah Schulman’s life expresses a unique movement between the vision and the practical. She is a great articulator of concepts that are often deeply felt and held but not easy to communicate. This talent is on full display in two of her best known books, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repairand The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination. She’s also on the advisory board for Jewish Voice for Peace.
I hope this episode offers strength to you.
Best,
CH
MORE ON SARAH
Sarah is a prolific writer,Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT Up New York, 1987-1993, and perhaps most relevant books to this episode are Israel/Palestine and the Queer International and her novel The Child. There’s also a new book of good interviews with Sarah, Conversations with Sarah Schulman.
Conner Habib 