Thursday, January 31, 2008

THE ELECTION IS OVER: WE CAN DO MUCH BETTER - Start Again The Day After The Election

Great movements are created by the realization that there is something far greater that we all dream about and that we can only turn the dream into reality by compromising, sharing and talking honestly with others - recognizing that that each of us will be more powerful by marching with these others than if we continue to walk alone. And November 4 is only nine months away.

The morning after the election, a news conference could be held declaring the new movement and announcing a national conference at which delegates would select a handful of issues to guide the movement.

Two unusual rules:
The first would be that the only issues discussed would be those about which there was a reasonable opportunity of agreement.
The second would be that agreement would not be expressed by majority vote but by some form of census.

This is not a fantasy.
was a national conference attended by 125 members of over 20 third parties
At the end of the weekend we had full consensus on 17 issues and a high degree of agreement on others.
Even some of us who had organized the conference were stunned.
+++


THE ELECTION IS OVER: WE LOST

Sam Smith
Thursday, January 31, 2008
http://prorev.com/2008/01/election-is-over-we-lost.html

That's a headline borrowed from a piece I wrote four years ago when John Kerry locked up the Democratic nomination. The lead: "The winner is a supporter of three of the worst government decisions of our time: the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, and the Bush education law."

It's a little different this time. None of the winning candidates will have been members of Skull & Bones and you can argue, as sadly many do, that Barack Obama's initial opposition to the war cancels his later acquiescence. In politics, the best shift is to do wrong initially and then correct it- not the other way around.

There is, to be sure, a great difference between the two remaining major Democratic candidates: Obama has integrity, the Clintons do not; only one alleged crook has showed up on the Obama big backer list; with the Clintons they litter the place like packing peanuts on the floor after opening a package.

But while that provides a choice and an important one, there is another that we also need - restoring the First American Republic and ending the second robber baron era - which is no longer on the table with departure of John Edwards. We are left with corporatized, conservative compromisers who add mightily to the argument that the Democratic Party should be forced to change its name to end the consumer fraud it purveys.

So what do we do about it? Some will stay home on election day, others will support a Nader or a Green, likely Cynthia McKinney. The Democrats will be, as usual, furious that a certain number of voters still believe we live in a democracy and choose someone other than those assigned to them by the DNC. While Ralph Nader may make what seems to some the wrong political decision, it is a sign of the corrupt, cynical nature of our times to look into the face of moral integrity and dismiss it as an act of ego.

Even from a tactical standpoint, it is no worse than a Democratic Party that has known for eight years that it was unraveling and failed to do anything for progressives and Greens except to insult them. These folks deserve to be treated at least as well soccer moms or a hedge fund traders, but instead they are ridiculed and scolded and then the party wonders why they don't get their vote.

So whatever happens, don't blame Nader or McKinney. It is absolutely inconceivable that one could have a party doing as poorly as the Democrats and not have a visible and active opposition.

People, including many of my friends, will take markedly different approaches to the dilemma. Some will place priority on personal witness - i.e. the Nader or Green approach - and some will take a more pragmatic course. My own view is that politics is inherently more of a pragmatic than a moral matter and that, besides, even if you have the most righteous cause, espousing it in the middle lane of Route 95 at rush hour may not be the best way to go about it. I have long considered myself a backyard Green, believing that history clearly shows the strength of such parties is in their local organizing and not in those all too rare chances to make an impact in a national election.

Far more important, though, is an approach to the next few years no matter who wins and what part one plays in the election. One of the biggest problems for progressives has long been the lack of an easily identifiable agenda. A new movement could be launched the day after the election. A broad coalition of groups and individuals could declare itself the real opposition to whoever ends up in the White House. Even those who work hard for the Democrat could make clear their commitment ends with the closing of the polls, after which they will join in the revival of the American republic.

The only ground rule between now and then should be that no one is allowed to argue over election strategy.

The morning after the election, a news conference could be held declaring the new movement and announcing a national conference at which delegates would select a handful of issues to guide the movement.

Two unusual rules could prevent this from turning into the sort of internecine blood bath that progressives seem to love. The first would be that the only issues discussed would be those about which there was a reasonable opportunity of agreement. The second would be that agreement would not be expressed by majority vote but by some form of census.

This is not a fantasy. One of the steps taken that led to the creation of the national Green Party - out of state groups and factions that had plenty of differences with each other - was a national conference attended by 125 members of over 20 third parties ranging from the socialists and one of the last members of the American Labor Party to Greens, Libertarians and members of Perot's Reform party. At the end of the weekend we had full consensus on 17 issues and a high degree of agreement on others. Even some of us who had organized the conference were stunned.

Great movements are not created by arguing over Roberts Rules of Order, by winning narrow parliamentary victories by dubious means against natural allies, by publicly scolding those who don't agree with you and by excoriating those whose view of virtue diverges from your own. They are created by the realization that there is something far greater that we all dream about and that we can only turn the dream into reality by compromising, sharing and talking honestly with others - recognizing that that each of us will be more powerful by marching with these others than if we continue to walk alone. And November 4 is only nine months away.

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Monday, January 28, 2008

Attempts To Dominated Are Halted by Not Believing Others Are Better, High Self Esteme, Spiritual, Cultural & Moral Values,

Lord Macaulay's address to the British Parliament
2 February, 1835
http://www.frostfirezoom.com/lord-macaulays-address-to-the-british-parliament-in-1835


"I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, i propose that we replace he old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."
===



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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Reflective Happiness

"More than education, more than experience, more than training, resilience determines who succeeds and who fails."
---

“Positive psychology” focuses on the roles of positive emotions, positive thought patterns, and positive relationships in relation to human flourishing.


Well-being, broadly understood as frequent positive emotions, regular experiences of engagement, and a satisfying sense of meaning, matters far more than was once believed. People who experience high levels of well-being are more successful across a wide range of domains (e.g. work, love, health).

“happiness” or well- being could be decomposed into three more scientifically manageable components: positive emotion (the pleasant life), engagement (the engaged life), and meaning (the meaningful life).

gratitude and forgiveness exercises that enhance how positive memories can be

Positive emotions about the future include hope and optimism, faith, trust, and confidence, and these emotions, especially hope and optimism, are documented to buffer against depression

positive emotions can have a lasting impact on well-being
experiencing positive emotions engage in a broader array of social and personal behaviors generally identified as creative, collaborative, cooperative, and connective.

broader array of responses to situational challenges and build relationships and psychological resources within themselves that make the successful execution of one of those responses more likely

literature on depression documents a downward spiral in which depressed mood and narrowing thinking perpetuate each other.

the engaged life, a life that pursues engagement, involvement, and absorption in work, intimate relations, and leisure
highly engaging activities.

to enhance engagement

identify peoples’
talents and strengths [and nurture more talents and strengths]
and then help them to find opportunities to use these strengths more.


identifying [and creating] and employing and individual’s strengths.

use of their strengths report higher levels of engagement
and subsequently reported greater
satisfaction.

pursuit of meaning.
belong to and serve something that one believes is bigger than the self.
a sense of satisfaction and the belief that one has lived well
sense of meaning and are strongly correlated with well-being
use meaning to transform the perceptions of their circumstances
to fortunate

increasing meaning leads to greater productivity.
hear about the impact that their efforts had on that person’s life.

the Declaration of Independence made “the pursuit of happiness” a founding principle

happiness goes deeper than just witty quotes and omnipresent clichés.
positive book reviews as of higher quality and greater forcefulness.

a shared vocabulary for addressing wellbeing and resilience. Such a common language and set of experiences help re-shape culture away from the “negative is smart” and “negative is real” biases and toward a “positivity works” mindset.

"More than education, more than experience, more than training, resilience determines who succeeds and who fails."

high levels of individual well-being are beneficial
more productive, make better decisions, and recover better from adversity.

simple exercises such as “Three Blessings” or “Using Your Strengths in a New Way” can result in individuals and groups who are much better able to address both the obstacles and the opportunities they encounter.
promote well-being

more creatively and effectively both as individuals and in relationships to others.


maintain this higher state of functioning with greater conscious understanding and in the face of more severe challenges.

exercises are effective in both decreasing depressive symptoms and increasing self-reported well-being.

+++


Positive Psychology Research
http://www.reflectivehappiness.com/

Research Compendium

The Science behind Reflective Learning
http://www.reflectivehappiness.com/images/ResearchCompendiumV2_1_2.pdf
I. Executive Summary

Why Well-Being Matters
Theoretical Structure

The Pleasant Life
The Engaged Life
The Meaningful Life

Data on the Three Lives
II. Program Data- Empirical Support
III. Program Explanations


Reflective Learning is a company that uses research from the University of Pennsylvania to improve business results and individual performance. Based upon research by Penn’s Positive Psychology Center, our web-based programs are offered as independent programs, or may be used as part of a blended solution with other distance learning and face-to-face applications.

I. Executive Summary
Individuals and teams that experience frequent positive emotions, engagement, and meaning perform better in a host of ways that matter to us as individuals and organizations. Our current level of understanding allows us to deploy positive psychology applications through online delivery mechanisms in real world situations with reasonable expectations of success.

Why Well-Being Matters


“Positive psychology” focuses on the roles of positive emotions, positive thought patterns, and positive relationships in relation to human flourishing. The field was promoted by Martin E. P. Seligman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, while president of the American Psychology Association in 1998. Dr. Seligman emphasized the need to broaden the focus of psychology from minimizing mental illness to promoting full, rich lives. Today, the field encompasses the work of a wide array of researchers in psychology, sociology, health, medicine, organizational studies, business management, and other disciplines. These researchers have produced a significant body of knowledge that continues to expand. Hundreds of new scientific articles are published each year, and the field has been the subject of major articles in The Wall Street Journal, Time, Scientific American, Psychology Today and other major publications. Popular books make many areas of the research accessible to the general public (see the attached reading list).

Positive psychology covers subjects ranging from recently identified states such as “flow” to age-old virtues such as wisdom, courage, love, and justice. It includes hope and optimism, mindfulness, morality, and “grit.” These are neither trivial nor purely academic topics, and the work in this field has consequences significant enough to have already garnered a Nobel Prize in Economics (Daniel Kahneman, Princeton, 2002). Organizations as diverse as Best Buy and David’s Bridal (the largest bridal store chain in the country) have implemented positive psychology-based programs with favorable results (Zaslow, 2006). Positive psychology’s focus is on helping healthy individuals lead richer, fuller, more productive lives.

Positive psychology’s results are accessible, both cognitively and experientially, to individuals from all walks of life and with widely-varied educational backgrounds. Those who are interested do not have to take the findings of positive psychology on faith; they can try them out for themselves. Reflective Learning’s products facilitate learning, understanding and application of positive psychology’s findings.

Well-being, broadly understood as frequent positive emotions, regular experiences of engagement, and a satisfying sense of meaning, matters far more than was once believed. People who experience high levels of well-being are more successful across a wide range of domains (e.g. work, love, health). In a recent comprehensive review and meta-analysis by Lyubomirsky, King, and Diener (2005), compared to their less happy counterparts, people who reported high levels of well-being were: - More socially active and likable - More likely to be married, and to have successful marriages - More altruistic, exhibiting more pro-social behavior - In possession of higher self-esteem - Living longer; Having better physical health and stronger immune systems; coping better with being sick when they do get sick - In possession of better conflict resolution skills - Exhibiting more creative thinking - Earning more money and performing better at their jobs - Less susceptible to negative influences from advertising, cognitive biases such as own-race bias, etc. - More resilient and better able to find positive meaning in adversity

These are but a few of the many findings thus far discovered. Research findings have moved far beyond the level of simple correlations, with both longitudinal and experimental data pointing to the conclusion that although a bidirectional relationship exists between well-being and success wherein each builds upon the other, it is more often the case that well-being comes before success. For example, simple measures of well-being (e.g. a one-time assessment of an individual’s levels of positive affect taken during college years) can predict income and success years later controlling for factors such as socioeconomic status, gender, and GPA (see Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener for an extensive review). A similar trend seems to be the case for resilience; Tugade and Fredrickson (2004) found that people who reported frequent positive emotions and continued to experience them over the course of a month showed increased resilience at the end of that month. This effect was dependent on the continued experiencing of positive emotion (e.g. resilience only increased if people continually experienced positive emotion).

Theoretical Structure Seligman (2002) proposed that the unwieldy notion of “happiness” or well- being could be decomposed into three more scientifically manageable components: positive emotion (the pleasant life), engagement (the engaged life), and meaning (the meaningful life). Each exercise in the Employee Excellence suite is designed to further one or more of these.

The Pleasant Life
The pleasant life is what hedonic theories of well-being endorse. It consists of having a lot of positive emotion about the present, past, and future, and learning the skills to amplify the intensity and duration of these emotions. The positive emotions about the past include satisfaction, contentment, fulfillment, pride and serenity, and we developed gratitude and forgiveness exercises that enhance how positive memories can be (e.g. Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005; McCullough, 2000; Seligman et al., 2005). Positive emotions about the future include hope and optimism, faith, trust, and confidence, and these emotions, especially hope and optimism, are documented to buffer against depression (Seligman, 1991, 2002). Positive emotions about the present include satisfaction derived from immediate pleasures. We offer exercises for learning to savor and increase positive emotions in the past, present and future.

One way of understanding the way in which positive emotions can have a lasting impact on well-being comes from Barbara Fredrickson’s "Broaden and Build" theory of positive emotions. According to this model, negative emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness have specific behavioral consequences that are easily recognized and have been long understood. The "fight/flight" response to the perceived threat in the environment is one such response. Sadness results in withdrawal, which can be a survival response when the sadness is produced by loss occasioned by threats in the environment. The positive emotions are weaker, but more frequent. They are more interconnected and do not have the highly-patterned behavioral responses of the negative emotions. Rather, individuals experiencing positive emotions engage in a broader array of social and personal behaviors generally identified as creative, collaborative, cooperative, and connective.

Positive individuals develop a broader array of responses to situational challenges and build relationships and psychological resources within themselves that make the successful execution of one of those responses more likely (Fredrickson, 2000). Fredrickson and colleagues have provided evidence that positive emotions counteract the detrimental effects of negative emotion on physiology and attention (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005; Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998) and promote creativity, broadened attention, and efficient decision-making in their own right (Isen, 2003). They also contribute to resilience in crises and ability to find positive meaning in adversity (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2003; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). The cognitive literature on depression documents a downward spiral in which depressed mood and narrowing thinking perpetuate each other. In contrast, Fredrickson and Joiner (2002) reported that positive emotions and a broad thought-action repertoire amplify each other, leading to an upward spiral of well-being. Reflective Learning programs are designed to harness this theory by identifying and amplifying positive emotions.

The Engaged Life
The second route to well-being in Seligman’s theory is the engaged life, a life that pursues engagement, involvement, and absorption in work, intimate relations, and leisure (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Flow is Csikszentmihalyi’s term for the psychological state that accompanies highly engaging activities. Time passes quickly. Attention is completely focused on the activity. The sense of self is lost. According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow occurs in situations where an individual is making use of his skills in a way that is challenging, stretching his abilities to the limit, but not so difficult that it is frustrating. Seligman (2002) proposed that one way to enhance engagement and flow is to identify peoples’ highest talents and strengths and then help them to find opportunities to use these strengths more. We call the highest strengths signature strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Many of the Reflective Learning products include significant components on identifying [and creating] and employing and individual’s strengths. ReflectedBestSelf is built around this theory and, ResilienceOnline, R4Power, Penn START and the EmployeeExcellence suite include components of it in their material.

Hodges and Clifton (2004) explored the impact of “strengths-based practice,” teaching employees to use their strengths in their work. They found that employees whose work is shaped to make use of their strengths report higher levels of engagement in their work, and subsequently reported greater job satisfaction.

The Meaningful Life
The third route to well-being in Seligman’s theory involves the pursuit of meaning. This consists in using one’s signature strengths and talents to belong to and serve something that one believes is bigger than the self. There are a large number of such “positive institutions:” religion, politics, family, work, community, and nation, for example. Regardless of the particular institution one serves in order to establish a meaningful life, doing so produces a sense of satisfaction and the belief that one has lived well (Myers, 1992; Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). Such activities produce a subjective sense of meaning and are strongly correlated with well-being (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005). A consistent theme throughout meaning-making research is that the people who achieve the greatest benefits are those who use meaning to transform the perceptions of their circumstances from unfortunate to fortunate (McAdam, Diamond, de St. Aubin, & Mansfield, 1997; Pennebaker, 1993).

In addition to resulting in greater general well-being, increasing meaning leads to greater productivity. For example, Grant et al. (2007) found that callers at a fundraising organization spent 141% more time on the phone with potential donors and ultimately raised 171% more money when they had recently been given the chance to interact with one of the beneficiaries of their organization’s fundraising, and hear about the impact that their efforts had on that person’s life.

Data on the Three Lives
Peterson, Park, and Seligman (2005) examined the role that these three lives played in life satisfaction in 845 adults who responded to a survey over the internet. They found that each way of pursuing well-being – pleasure, engagement, and meaning – independently contributed to life satisfaction. Furthermore, they found that people high on all three reported especially high life satisfaction, higher than would be predicted by looking at the contribution of the three lives separately. In other words, pleasure, engagement, and meaning appear to have a synergistic effect when an individual is high in all three, having an effect that is larger than the sum of its parts, and leading to what Peterson, Park, and Seligman (2005) call a “Full Life.” In contrast, people who were low on all three reported lower life satisfaction than would be predicted based on the effects of each life on its own; the authors called this the “Empty Life.” Seligman and colleagues then studied the pleasant, engaged, and meaningful lives of 327 young adults at the University of Pennsylvania (mean age = 32.51 years, SD= 6.63; 53% women, 69% Caucasian); the sample included clinical depressed (n=97), nondepressed psychiatric (n=46), and nondepressed nonpsychiatric (n=184) students. Clinical depressed students experienced significantly fewer positive emotions, less engagement, and less meaning in their lives than did nondepressed psychiatric (d=.37) and nondepressed nonpsychiatric samples (d=1.17). Seligman and colleagues then measured life satisfaction as a function of pursuing each of these three lives. They found that the pursuit of meaning and engagement were robustly (p  .0001) correlated with higher life satisfaction (rs = .39 and .39, respectively) and lower depression (rs = .32 and .32, respectively), whereas the pursuit of pleasure, surprisingly, was only marginally correlated with life satisfaction (r=.18) and lower depression (r=-.15) (Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006).

Despite these findings, and even though the Declaration of Independence made “the pursuit of happiness” a founding principle for our country, happiness and its pursuit generally get bad press and suffer from significant negative biases even in the business world. Happy individuals are often viewed as intellectual lightweights who “just don’t get it,” or Pollyannas who shut their eyes to the negative in an effort to remain happy despite the cold, harsh reality of the world.

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” Earnest Hemingway

“One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.” William Feather

“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.” Gustave Flaubert

Google reveals that when the phrase “fat, dumb, and ____” is used on the web, 97% of the time it is as “fat, dumb, and happy.”

This view of happiness goes deeper than just witty quotes and omnipresent clichés. Some years ago, a Harvard Business School researcher, Teresa Amabile, found that subjects tend to rate the authors of critical book reviews as more expert and competent, even when knowledgeable, independent judges evaluated the positive book reviews as of higher quality and greater forcefulness. Reflective Learning’s products supply tools for businesses and institutions and provide users with a shared vocabulary for addressing wellbeing and resilience. Such a common language and set of experiences help re-shape culture away from the “negative is smart” and “negative is real” biases and toward a “positivity works” mindset.

Dr. Shatte- "More than education, more than experience, more than training, resilience determines who succeeds and who fails."

The body of literature has convincingly demonstrated that high levels of individual well-being are beneficial for businesses and institutions. Employees are more productive, make better decisions, and recover better from adversity. There is still significant work to be done. What is the cost of a unit of productivity improvement when realized through increased employee wellbeing versus purchasing of technology or recruiting better skilled workers through higher salaries? When a company faces difficult times, what is the return on investment in resilience training for employees versus the cost to respond to lawsuits from dissatisfied employees and the sap on productivity from depressed morale? The questions identify a glaring inefficiency in the current marketplace: online positive psychology training can be used to boost individual, corporate, and institutional performance, in a cost-effective, scalable, and rapid way. The tools offered by Reflective Learning are so new that no significant ROI data exist yet. Rather than discourage organizations from deploying the tools, this should encourage visionary leaders to seize the first-mover advantage and realize the value of these tools before others in their industry.

Considering the above-described findings of positive psychology, it becomes easier to understand how seemingly simple exercises such as “Three Blessings” or “Using Your Strengths in a New Way” can result in individuals and groups who are much better able to address both the obstacles and the opportunities they encounter. These exercises promote well-being – a state where we function far more creatively and effectively both as individuals and in relationships to others.

A more focused, deeper process such as that embodied in Resilience Online® or R4Power® increases ability to maintain this higher state of functioning with greater conscious understanding and in the face of more severe challenges. Further, the online delivery method embodied in Reflective Learning’s products has been shown to be effective in a large scale, random-assignment, placebo- controlled test of several of these products (see below).

II. Program Data- Empirical Support The exercises that appear on reflectivehappiness.com have been tested in a variety of populations – from young adults in university settings, to therapy patients, to nationally representative samples ranging from ages 18-85 – and in a variety of settings – from anecdotal case studies, to lab experiments, to web- based interfaces, to group and individual psychotherapy. Our findings consistently suggest that these exercises are effective in both decreasing depressive symptoms and increasing self-reported well-being. Furthermore, the exercises appear to be widely accepted by users; not only are compliance rates high, participants often continue to use them even when the study no longer requires them to do so.

III. Program Explanations Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D. first began piloting these exercises when he taught five courses at the University of Pennsylvania involving a total of more than 200 undergraduates, with weekly assignments to carry out and write up various exercises. Many of these exercises form the basis for the EmployeeExcellence suite. These seemed remarkably successful; life changing was a word not uncommonly heard when students described their experiences with these exercises. The popularity of the Positive Psychology course at Harvard (855 undergraduates enrolled in spring 2006) is likely related to the impact of this material on the lives of users.

In the next phase of piloting these interventions, Seligman taught more than 500 mental health professionals (clinical psychologists, life coaches, psychiatrists, educators); each week for 24 weeks, “trainees” heard a one hour lecture and then were assigned one exercise to carry out in their own lives and © 2007 David N. Shearon and Acacia C. Parks-Sheiner Page 10 of 16 with their patients or clients. Once again, at the anecdotal level, they were astonished by the feedback from mental health professionals about how well these interventions “took.” These pilot endeavors yielded so many powerful “case histories” and testimonials that he and his colleagues began efforts to put positive psychology interventions in more scientifically rigorous designs.

In January of 2005, www.reflectivehappiness.com was opened. This product is a consumer version of the corporate program, EmployeeExcellence. The site has a book club, a newsletter, and forum discussion of positive psychology each month, but more important, one new positive psychology exercise is posted each month. The first month’s exercise was the Three Blessings exercise. In the first month of operation, 50 subscribers had scores in the range of severe depression scoring 25 or higher on the Center for Epidemiological Studies – Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977). Their mean was 33.90, close to what might be termed extremely depressed. Each of them did the three blessings exercise and returned to the web and average of 14.8 days later. At that time, 94% of them were less depressed, with a mean score of 16.90, which is down into the border of the mild-to-moderate range of depression. We replicated these findings several months later with essentially the same results. Although this was an uncontrolled study, such a dramatic decrease in depression over a short period of time compares favorably to medication and to psychotherapy.

Below are the details of three recent studies that have tested these exercises using more rigorous, controlled experimental designs:

1. Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson (2005), Individual Exercise Over the Web1 This study tested the efficacy of three exercises – Using Your Signature Strengths (N=66), Three Blessings (N=59), and Gratitude Visit (N=80) – when 1 Seligman’s research group is in the process of replicating this study and examining several other exercises included on reflectivehappiness.com: Which Door Opened, Active and Constructive Responding, Savor a Beautiful Day, Positive Service, and ABCDE Disputation. given to individuals of a wide range of ages and demographics over the web as compared to a placebo condition in which participants wrote about their early memories (N=70). Participants’ depressive symptoms and self-reported levels of well-being were assessed before and after they used the exercise for a week, then at 1-week, 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month follow-ups. They found that Using Your Signature Strengths decreased depressive symptoms and increased well-being immediately, and that this effect remained through 6-month follow-up, while Three Blessings showed a delayed effect, with increased well-being and decreased depression starting at 1-month follow-up and remaining through 6- month follow-up. The Gratitude Visit exercise had the largest immediate effect, but the effect faded by 1-month follow-up.

For the first two exercises (Signature Strengths and Three Blessings), the longevity of the effects depended on whether or not participants continued to use their exercise after the initial 1-week period during which they were required to do so; many participants opted to continue using their exercise, even though they were not explicitly asked to. The Gratitude Visit was a one-time exercise, and it was not possible for participants to continue using it, so it is not surprising that the effects faded. However, it is possible that, in larger interventions that include the Gratitude Visit among other exercises (see below), the immediate surge in happiness that results from doing the exercise might foster participants’ receptivity to other exercises.

2. Seligman, Rashid, & Parks (2006), Study 1 – Group Positive Psychotherapy This study tested the efficacy of six exercises, five of which are included, in some version, in the EmployeeExcellence suite – Three Blessings, Using Your Signature Strengths, Gratitude Visit, Active and Constructive Responding and Savor a Beautiful Day.  Participants were young adults with mild-moderate depressive symptoms (substantially above the normal range, but not suffering from clinical depression), who were randomly assigned to receive a series of six 1.5-hour workshops once a week (N=16), or to a no-intervention control condition (N=21). Each week, they practiced one of these exercises and then discussed their experience in the workshop group. Participants who received the 6-week © 2007 David N. Shearon and Acacia C. Parks-Sheiner Page 12 of 16 group intervention showed significantly fewer depressive symptoms and significantly greater satisfaction with life at the end of the intervention compared to the control condition, whose symptom levels remained constant. These effects lasted through 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year follow-up assessments.

3. Seligman, Rashid, & Parks (2006), Study 2 – Individual Positive Psychotherapy In this study, young adults with Major Depression seeking treatment at the University of Pennsylvania’s counseling center were randomly assigned to receive either 14 weeks of Individual Positive Psychotherapy (N=11), or 14 weeks of the usual psychotherapy treatment provided by the center (N=9). In addition, a group of 12 individuals receiving medication management from the counseling center were matched on demographic variables and baseline characteristics with participants in the positive psychotherapy group, and they served as a second non-randomized control condition. The positive psychotherapy condition contained a variety of exercises, many of which appear on reflectivehappiness.com, such as Using Signature Strengths, Gratitude Visit, What Door Opened, Active and Constructive Responding, Strengths Date, and Savoring a Beautiful Day. At the end of the 14 week period, participants who received positive psychotherapy reported fewer depressive symptoms and were significantly more likely to have attained remission from Major Depressive Disorder than individuals who received the center’s standard psychotherapy, or medication management. They also reported improvements in global life functioning that were larger than those observed in either comparison condition. In summary, three randomized controlled trials suggest that the positive exercises on reflectivehappiness.com are effective means of decreasing depressive symptoms (and, in one instance, treating clinical depression) as well as increasing well-being and life functioning when given in person or over the web. Although this research is still in the early stages, it shows great promise

IV. References
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience.
New York: Harper Collins.
Fredrickson, B.L. (2000, March 7). Cultivating positive emotions to
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Fredrickson, B.L., & Branigan, C. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the
scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition and Emotion, 19,
313-332.
Fredrickson, B.L., & Joiner, T. (2002). Positive emotions trigger upward
spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychological Science, 13, 172-175.
Fredrickson, B.L., & Levenson, R.W. (1996). Positive emotions speed
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Emotion, 12, 191-220.
Fredrickson, B.L., & Losada, M. (2005). Positive affect and the complex
dynamics of human flourishing. American Psychologist, 60, 678-686.
Fredrickson, B.L., Tugade, M.M., Waugh, C.E., & Larkin, G.R. (2003).
What good are positive emotions in crises? A prospective study of resilience and
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2001. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 365-376.
Grant, A.M., Campbell, E.M., Chen, G., Cottone, K., Lapedis, D., & Lee, K.
(2007). Impact and the art of motivation maintenance: The effects of contact with
beneficiaries on persistence behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, 103, 53-67.
Hodges, T.D., & Clifton, D.O. (2004). Strengths-based development in
practice. In P.A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.), Positive Psychology in Practice (pp.
265-268). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent
positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131,
803-855.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K.M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing
happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General
Psychology, 9, 111-131.
McAdam, D.P., Diamond, A., de St. Aubin, E., & Mansfield, E. (1997).
Stories of commitment: The psychological construction of generative lives.
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McCullough, M.E. (2000). Forgiveness as a human strength:
Conceptualization, measurement, and links to well-being. Journal of Social and
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Myers, D.G. (1992). The pursuit of happiness: Who is happy – and why.
New York: William Morrow.
Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002). The concept of flow. In C. R.
Snyder & S.J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 89-105). New
York: Oxford University Press.
Pennebaker, J.W. (1993). Putting stress into words: Health, linguistic, and
therapeutic implications. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 539-548.
Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2006). Orientations to
happiness and life satisfaction: The full life versus the empty life. Journal of
Happiness Studies, 6, 25-41.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Seligman, M.E.P. (1991). Learned optimism. New York: Knopf.
Seligman, M.E.P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive
psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. New York: Free Press.
Seligman, M.E.P., Steen, T.A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive
psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American
Psychologist, 60, 410-421.
Seligman, M.E.P., Rashid, T., & Parks, A.C. (2006). Positive
psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 61, 774-788.
Tugade, M.M., & Fredrickson, B.L. (2005). Resilient individuals use
positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 320-333.
© 2007 David N. Shearon and Acacia C. Parks-Sheiner Page 15 of 16
Isen, A. (2003). A role for neurophysiology in understanding the facilitating
influence of positive affect on social behavior and cognitive processes. In C. R.
Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp.582-540).
New York: Oxford University Press.
Zaslow, J. (March, 2006). Happiness, Inc. The Wall Street Journal, Vol.
XX, pp. P1. Retrieved from
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114263698678301765-
search.html?KEYWORDS=happiness&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month on Sunday,
October 7.


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Global Evolving From Corporate Unhealthful Foods & Healthcare To Whole Person Wellness

http://www.garynullforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39

The Alternative Organic Health-Care movement is about solving and removing the corporate-made health crisis. The exposure to so many toxins and unnatural processed foods is the direct cause of the humanities health crisis today, all over the world.

- To evolve out of our corporate-made crisis we need to educate ourselves and others to change and evolve.


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Friday, January 25, 2008

Video of the Week: The Beauty of Planet Earth



Jan 25, 2008

The Beauty of Planet Earth
An Emmy Award-winning BBC nature documentary, Planet Earth is the first high-definition video series to provide, in the words of its makers, a "definitive look at the diversity of our planet." The series' narrator, Sir David Attenborough, notes: "Planet Earth is more a celebration of our planet than a lament about the state of it. It shows what is still there. In some areas there is no doubt that we are doing damage to our world but at the same time, there is a vast amount of uncharted and untouched wilderness." This video excerpt unleashes the elegant beauty of that which is home to all of us.



KarmaTube is a repository of inspiring online videos coupled with small, be-the-change actions that everyone can engage in. Our newsletter reaches 13256 active subscribers. Thank you for your partnership in service.

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Hamas beats Israel's Gaza siege - Opens Wall To Egypt

Hamas beats Israel's Gaza siege By Tim McGirk/Rafah Crossing  Time Magazine                      January 23, 2008 http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1706252,00.html   It took explosives to do what diplomacy couldn't: allow Palestinians to go on a shopping spree. The siege of Gaza, imposed by Israel and the international community after Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory last July, ended abruptly before dawn on Wednesday when militants blew as many as 15 holes in the border wall separating the territory from Egypt. In the hours that followed, over 350,000 Palestinians swarmed across the frontier, nearly one fifth of Gaza's entire population.  Some Palestinians craved medicine and food ? goats appeared to be a hot item ? because Israel had cut off most supplies from entering Gaza as punishment for militants' firing rockets into southern Israel. Students and businessmen joined the throng heading for Egypt. There were scores of brides-to-be, stuck on the Egyptian side, who scurried across to be united with their future bridegrooms in Gaza. And some, like teacher Abu Bakr, stepped through a blast hole into Egypt simply "to enjoy the air of freedom."  The previous day, President Housni Mubarak faced the wrath of the Arab world when his riot police used clubs and water hoses to attack Palestinian women pleading for Egypt to open the Rafah crossing in Gaza. And despite pressure from Israel and the United States, Mubarak wasn't about to order his men to use force to restrain Palestinians rendered desperate by Israel's siege. The Egyptian President said he ordered his troops to "let them come to eat and buy food and go back, as long as they are not carrying weapons."  At 2 a.m. on Wednesday, Palestinian militants detonated explosive charges knocking out slabs in the 26-foot concrete border wall, and by dawn, Gazans were racing to the open border on donkey carts and tractors and in cars. Once through the holes, they trampled across barbed wire, vaulted over fences and picked their way gingerly through cactus. Many carried heavy suitcases and said that they were never coming back to captivity in Gaza.  But most Gazans were in a mad scramble to go shopping, and they returned with everything from goats to tires to jerricans full of gasoline. One stout woman in a veil threaded nimbly through barbed wire with a tray of canned fruit balanced on her head. The Palestinians cleaned out every shop on the Egyptian side: By afternoon, there was nothing to buy within a six-mile distance of the border; and even the Sinai town of El- Arish, three hours drive away, had been sucked dry of gasoline. One taxi driver who brought back cartons of cigarettes and gallons of gas to resell for a profit in Gaza said, "This should help feed my family for several months."  Israel expressed fears that Hamas militants would use the breach in the border to bring in weapons. One Palestinian said he witnessed dozens of Hamas men who had been stuck in Egypt for months crossing into Gaza. Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Aryeh Mekel told newsmen, "We have real concerns that they can now freely smuggle explosives, missiles and people into Gaza, which makes an already bad situation even worse."  Hamas moved quickly to capitalize on the mass celebration of the border's breach. The movement's parliamentary leader, Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh, called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt to join in urgent talks to find a formula for keeping the Gaza-Egypt border permanently open. Haniyeh said Hamas was prepared to set up joint control of the border with the President's forces, bringing an end to a hostilities between the two factions that erupted last July when Hamas militants chased the President's Fatah militia out of Gaza.  Now that Gazans have exploded out of their besieged enclave, it may be up to Israel to seal up the border again, since the Egyptians are showing no signs of doing so. Israel had put the economic squeeze on Gaza's 1.5 million people ? a policy described as "collective punishment" by many aid organizations ? hoping it would turn the Palestinians against Hamas. But with the siege broken, even if temporarily, Hamas has earned the gratitude of hungry Palestinians and reinvigorated its popularity in Gaza.


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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Legendary Activist Grace Lee Boggs - Becoming The Leader We Are Looking For

King’s call for a radical revolution of values against not only racism, but materialism and militarism, has a resonance that it hasn’t had in previous years. In previous years, the holiday was almost turning into a shopping day. But this year, I think we have the opportunity really to look in the mirror and ask ourselves: what does King’s legacy mean to us now?

at the end of his life, King was looking at our crisis, a profound spiritual and material crisis, and he said that we had advanced economic growth at the expense of community and of participation, that our works had become larger and we ourselves had become smaller.

take advantage of his legacy to say this is a question of choice, we are not at the mercy of circumstances. We are human beings. We can become more purposeful.

the way of empires, we don’t have to continue to go that way.

there is something in King’s message that we have to internalize in order to rebuild our cities, to redefine our cities, to re-spirit our cities?

have what he called self-transforming and environment-transforming programs that they could engage in and begin to be of use and to serve,

look at Obama and see that younger people, a new generation is emerging and looking for the kind of healing that this country needs, that he has unleashed that, though his policies are not that different from Clinton’s. But he has unleashed an energy in the young people particularly, which has great promise.

he has also helped to unfreeze the unity that existed among blacks. He has helped us to see that all blacks are not the same.

a very important development,
 There was an unfreezing that began to take place in the Jackson administration when the Federalist Party died, That same kind of unfreezing is going on right now.

I’ve never had this much hope.

Dennis Kucinich is much more on the right track. In fact, I support him.

Kucinich’s policy of a single-payer system is much more progressive, not only for the health of our bodies, but for the health of our minds and our spirits.

redefining leadership.
leadership has within it the complexities of followship and that followship is not what we need,
we have to become the leaders we’re looking for in relationship to our local daily circumstances.

 turning point
Montgomery Bus Boycott
in 1955
 showed that there was an opportunity for a new society to be built on people who are transforming themselves and who are not just opposing those who oppress them.

I would urge and encourage those who oppose the war to point out how we have to change ourselves and not only blame
+++


“An Opportunity to Look at Ourselves and Reorder Our Priorities”–Legendary Activist Grace Lee Boggs on the Ailing Economy, the Legacy of Dr. King and the 2008 Race

January 22, 2008

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/22/ive_never_had_this_much_hope


As we head out of Dr. Martin Luther King Day into the South Carolina Democratic primary, the Democratic presidential contenders repeatedly invoke Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s legacy in their campaigns. We speak with Grace Lee Boggs, the legendary 92-year-old civil rights activist, who has been pivotally involved with the civil rights, black power, labor, peace, environmental justice, Asian American and feminist movements. Bogg recalls King’s legacy in terms of “a radical revolution of values against the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism.” [includes rush transcript]

Guest:

Grace Lee Boggs, 92-year-old civil rights and environmental justice activist. She has lived in Detroit for fifty-four years and writes for the weekly Michigan Citizen. In 1992 she co-founded the Detroit Summer youth program, and her autobiography Living for Change was published in 1998.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn right now to this week, coming out of the federal holiday marking Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s birthday and the Democratic presidential contenders vying for a crucial win in the South Carolina primary this coming Saturday. South Carolina has the sixth-largest African American population in the country. About half the state’s registered Democrats are African American.

Senators Clinton, Edwards and Obama all paid homage to the revered civil rights leader. Senator Obama spoke at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday. This is the church where Dr. King had once been a pastor.

    SEN. BARACK OBAMA: He led with words, but he also led with deeds. He also led by example. He led by marching and going to jail and suffering threats and beatings and being away from his family. He led by taking a stand against a war, knowing full well that it would diminish his popularity. He led by challenging our economic structures, understanding that it would cause discomfort. Dr. King understood that unity cannot be won on the cheap, that we would have to earn it through great effort and determination.


AMY GOODMAN: That was Barack Obama in Ebenezer Baptist Church, a packed crowd at Dr. King’s church on Sunday night.

Grace Lee Boggs is a ninety-two-year-old activist who has been pivotally involved with the civil rights, black power, labor, peace, environmental justice, Asian American and feminist movements. She was born to Chinese immigrant parents in 1915. After receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy, she came to Detroit in 1953, where she married African American labor activist Jimmy Boggs. In 1992, she co-founded the Detroit Summer youth program to rebuild and renew her city. Her autobiography, Living for Change, was published in 1998.

Grace Lee Boggs writes a weekly column for the Michigan Citizen. Her latest piece looks critically at the promise of Barack Obama against what she sees as the real legacy created by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Grace Lee Boggs recalls this legacy in terms of “a radical revolution of values against the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism.” In a 2004 article commemorating Dr. King, Grace Lee Boggs writes his “prophetic vision is now the indispensable starting point for 21st-century revolutionaries.”

Grace Lee Boggs joins us now from Detroit, Michigan. Welcome to Democracy Now!

GRACE LEE BOGGS: I’m glad to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s great to have you with us. So, as we come out of Dr. Martin Luther King Day, I mean, you were there through the movement, through his assassination, through the fight to get even this day marked as a federal holiday, which was a tremendous battle. One of the last states to recognize it was the one, well, where the Democratic primary is coming up this Saturday, in South Carolina, the first place where there will be a majority of African American voters in a primary. And that’s the Democratic primary in South Carolina.

First, your thoughts on Dr. King and how this election year relates to his legacy—or doesn’t?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, I think that when I recall previous celebrations of Martin Luther King’s birthday, there’s a fierce urgency about this year, in part because it’s also the fortieth anniversary of his assassination. But there’s a planetary emergency. There’s a calamity of our war, of the occupation of Iraq. There’s the tanking of the economy. And all these things are coming together at a time when King’s call for a radical revolution of values against not only racism, but materialism and militarism, has a resonance that it hasn’t had in previous years. In previous years, the holiday was almost turning into a shopping day. But this year, I think we have the opportunity really to look in the mirror and ask ourselves: what does King’s legacy mean to us now?

AMY GOODMAN: Grace Lee Boggs, I have a question, as you were talking about the economy for a minute, and we begin with the very troubling figures around the world of what’s happening. You were, how old, something like fourteen in 1929, so you remember the Great Depression.

GRACE LEE BOGGS: I remember, but not as—it wasn’t as vivid to me now than as it is now, because, you know, I was a child. My father had a restaurant. We had plenty to eat. And I had no sense of the real—of where this country is, and I think we—I didn’t have, and I think no one had, that we would be in such dire states.

By the way, you used the word “troubling” about the economy. I see a less-than-robust economy not as a troubling, but as an opportunity for us to look at ourselves and reorder our priorities. And I think if this—you know, if this were happening in China, if the economy was tanking, we might say that’s good. That’s a way to save our economy. But we see it happening to us here, and we worry about it. And we don’t see how what we have done and the way that we have tried to be robust in our economic growth has created all these crises for the world. That’s why I like to start looking at the economy. How can we take advantage of this opportunity, this crisis, to reorder our priorities?

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me throw that question back to you. How can we?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, you see, that—what people don’t realize is at the end of his life, King was looking at our crisis, a profound spiritual and material crisis, and he said that we had advanced economic growth at the expense of community and of participation, that our works had become larger and we ourselves had become smaller. Just think about that. Think about how we have to look at our humanity in the way that King was looking at it. And knowing that he was about to be killed, that his life was—I mean, that he was not going to see the promised land, as he said, with us, but that he was facing these issues and that this is his legacy to us this year.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you find it frightening, Grace Lee Boggs, that here we are at the height of military might in the United States, the most powerful military country on earth, and yet we have a shaky economy, which could mean that in order to assert itself, the US will push harder militarily to maintain its supremacy because of its insecurity around its economy?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: But it doesn’t have to do that. If we take advantage of his legacy to say this is a question of choice, we are not at the mercy of circumstances. We are human beings. We can become more purposeful. We can choose. We don’t have to go the way of empires. Or, going the way of empires, we don’t have to continue to go that way.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and then come back to our guest, the legendary activist, Grace Lee Boggs. She’s ninety-two years old, continues to speak around the country, writes for the weekly, Michigan Citizen.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest is Grace Lee Boggs, legendary peace activist, has lived in the same house in Detroit for more than half a century. Did you know Paul Robeson, by the way, Grace?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: I’m sorry, I didn’t get that. Did you ask me—

AMY GOODMAN: Did you know Paul Robeson?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: No, I did not. I did not know Paul Robeson. As a matter fact, I was in a Trotskyite group, and we had all sorts of misgivings about Communists. And I have some sense of his importance, particularly since I moved to Detroit and began living in the black community. But in the rarified atmosphere of New York among New York radicals, one had a tendency to, you know, disregard or underestimate what was going on in people who were pro-Communist or friendly with the fellow travelers of the Communist Party.

AMY GOODMAN: You didn’t work directly with Dr. King. You did know Malcolm X. Can you talk about the tensions at that time and how they inform what you think should be happening today?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, you know, like many Black Power activists in the ’60s, I tended to think of King as somewhat naive with his advocacy of nonviolence. And it took me a lot of time to be—I identified with Malcolm much more, as many of us did in the movement in the North.

And it took the rebellions of the ’60s, the late ’60s, and the crime and violence that began to erupt in our cities following—particularly in Detroit—following the rebellions for me to ask, you know, is it possible that there is something in King’s message that we have to internalize in order to rebuild our cities, to redefine our cities, to re-spirit our cities? And it was in really beginning to face the problems of a de-industrialized Detroit and a crime-ridden and a violence-ridden Detroit, that Detroit—that King began to mean more to me, as I began to work with young people and see how much they needed to have what he called self-transforming and environment-transforming programs that they could engage in and begin to be of use and to serve, as I began to understand the alienation of young people in our cities and the alienation that King understood, that he grasped as he tried to understand both the Vietnam War and the rebellions, the urban rebellions.

People have very little idea of how hard he really struggled with that issue. We are so used to turning him into a cliché that we don’t relate the challenges we now face now to the challenge that he faced at the end of his life and that Malcolm also faced, by the way. Malcolm came back from the Hajj in 1964 saying, “I’m a Muslim, and I’m a revolutionary, but I don’t know where I’m going from there. But I know I have to crawl before I walk. I have to walk before I run. And I don’t think I’m going to have time to do that.” So I feel that in trying to understand both King and Malcolm and also to understand the billions of Muslims all over the world who are really trying to find another road to modernity other than that of the United States and the calamities that it has meant for them and for the world, that we need to understand how much we have to look into the mirror at ourselves.

AMY GOODMAN: Grace Lee Boggs, there has been a debate over the last few weeks among the presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, about the power of King. Also, last night they debated in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For the first half, they were really going at it. Then they sat down, and they agreed on a lot of things. And one of the things that Barack Obama said when asked whether—you know, who would Dr. King endorse, something like that—the debate happening on Dr. King Day—Barack Obama said he wouldn’t endorse any of us. He was speaking as a presidential candidate. He said he would be leading a movement to pressure us. Can you talk about how you’ve seen this debate play out over the last few weeks and where you stand?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, I think that—I think it’s wonderful, by the way, that both Hillary and Obama are running and that they’re frontrunners in this campaign, because I think they help us to see that it’s not a question of race or gender, it’s a question of whether we encourage the movement and unleash the movement of people from below or whether we try to run things from above, from the White House. And though I consider myself a feminist, I have to look at what Hillary stands for in terms of top-down leadership. And I have to understand—have to look at Obama and see that younger people, a new generation is emerging and looking for the kind of healing that this country needs, that he has unleashed that, though his policies are not that different from Clinton’s. But he has unleashed an energy in the young people particularly, which has great promise.

And he has also helped to unfreeze the unity that existed among blacks. He has helped us to see that all blacks are not the same. I think that people have become—that in the interest of unity, blacks who have not actually been in the same place—some of them are in the White House and some of them are in the Supreme Court and some of them are in the Congress, and others are groping with very fundamental questions of daily life. And that that split actually exists in the country, that it actually exists in the community, but this campaign has helped us to see, to begin to grapple with that difference.

AMY GOODMAN: Grace Lee Boggs, you’re not—

GRACE LEE BOGGS: That’s a very important development, not just for the black community, but for this country. There was an unfreezing that began to take place in the Jackson administration when the Federalist Party died, and we had the beginning of the birth of the Democrats. That same kind of unfreezing is going on right now.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Grace Lee Boggs. She is in Detroit, Michigan. You are not usually deeply involved in electoral politics, yet here you are deeply believing in the significance of what’s happening this year. What has changed? And did you ever have hope in other electoral years, in other presidential—times of presidential elections?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: I’ve never had this much hope. I’ve never had—because I think this one is unique. You know, policy-wise, I think Dennis Kucinich is much more on the right track. In fact, I support him. But he does not have that particular combination of a Kenyan father and a Kansas mother that can help unleash different energies. You know, sometimes—he can’t help it, of course, but sometimes it takes a certain person to do that. And I don’t think—it’s not—to me, it’s not so important, the electoral politics. How they will develop, I don’t know. But when I felt that energy of young people, and I feel it around here, and I think of what Fanon said about each generation emerging out of obscurity must define its mission and fulfill or betray it. We’re living at one of those tide times.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think are the key issues right now? And for people who are grassroots activists, as you are, what do you think their role is in this year of a presidential race that you think is so key?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, Barack Obama used a phrase in his speech at Ebenezer, which I think we have to sort of embrace. He said we have to lead “by example.” That’s what we have to do. He can do it—maybe he can. I don’t know. But we had charismatic leaders in the ’60s, and they almost all got gunned down. And if we depend so much on charismatic leaders, not only are they in danger, but we do not exercise our capacities in relationship to our situations to create the world anew. And that’s where we are. If you want—

AMY GOODMAN: What about Barack Obama’s stance on healthcare, which is not very different from Hillary Clinton or John Edwards?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Oh, not at all. I mean, his is just as much in sort of the box of the insurance companies as Hillary’s. That’s why I think that Kucinich’s policy of a single-payer system is much more progressive, not only for the health of our bodies, but for the health of our minds and our spirits.

But that—it’s not a question. This is not a question. We are not at a time where we debate policy. I remember when I was in the radical movement, how we’d debate policies, how we had this phrase “critical support.” And we were actually trying to vie with other people for leadership. And I don’t think that’s where we are now. I think we’re redefining leadership. We’re understanding that leadership has within it the complexities of followship and that followship is not what we need, that we have to become the leaders we’re looking for in relationship to our local daily circumstances.

AMY GOODMAN: Last night in the debate in Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton said to Barack Obama, “Yes, you admirably opposed the war in 2002, yet you took the speech that you gave in your fierce opposition to the war off your website, and then you ultimately voted again and again for funding for this war.” Your response to that, Grace Lee Boggs?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, that’s the sort of thing that, if I were concerned with Obama and supporting him, that’s one—also if I were competing with him—that’s the sort of thing I would do, too. But I’m not. What I’m trying to do is encourage the capacities, the energy, the creativity, the imagination, that exists in people at the grassroots to redefine and rebuild our society. If we want to live in freedom from terror, we have to begin looking at ourselves, redefining who we are, redefining who this country is and reassessing what it is within our capacity to do.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what you think the most important turning points in history have been in your lifetime?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, Rebecca Solnit wrote a wonderful article on the revolution of the snails, and it was on Common Dreams last Wednesday. She’s a wonderful person, by the way, a remarkable writer. And I think that, for me, the turning point was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, when a concept of revolution emerged that was different from the revolutions that people had embraced and tried to carry out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, revolutions which were chiefly to take power and which they, we so subsequently discovered, made those of us who were struggling to take power very much like those from whom we had taken the power. And in 1955, in response to the brutality of Southern racism, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Alabamans in Montgomery began—carried out a boycott of more than one year of the Montgomery buses in which they showed that there was an opportunity for a new society to be built on people who are transforming themselves and who are not just opposing those who oppress them.

AMY GOODMAN: Grace Lee Boggs, we only have thirty seconds, but I wanted to ask if you see some kind of similar movement needed today around the issue of the Iraq war, that goes on despite the lack of attention to it in the presidential race?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Yes, I think what—the difficulty with most of the opposition to the war is it’s only opposition. The opposition to—I would urge and encourage those who oppose the war to point out how we have to change ourselves and not only blame the war on Bush, though he is to be blamed, of course.

AMY GOODMAN: Grace Lee Boggs, I want to thank you very much for joining us, legendary civil rights activist, speaking to us from Detroit, Michigan. Her autobiography is called Living for Change. And that does it for today’s show. This just in: the Federal Reserve has cut its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point. It’s the largest one-day cut in interest rates in almost a quarter of a century.



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