WCAT Radio The Open Door (January 4, 2019)

January 4, 2019For our first panel of the New Year, we’ll revisit three of Peter Maurin’s “easy essays” (below). While they are disconcertingly simple, they masterfully succeed in promoting “the clarification of thought.” They also call to mind the American Solidarity Party’s commitment to a new politics. Please join us! Not a LiberalThey say that I am a radical.If I am a radicalthen I am not a liberal.The future will be differentif we make the present different.But to make the present differentone must give up old tricksand start to play new tricks.But to give up old tricksand start to play new tricksone must be a fanatic.Liberals are so liberal about everythingthat they refuse to be fanaticalabout anything.And not being able to be fanaticalabout anything,liberals cannot be liberators.They can only be liberals.Liberals refuse to bereligious, philosophical or economic fanaticsand consent to bethe worst kind of fanatics,liberal fanatics.Not a ConservativeIf I am a radical,then I am not a conservative.Conservatives try to believethat things are good enoughto be let alone.But things are not good enoughto be let alone.Conservatives try to believethat the world is getting betterevery day in every way.But the world is not getting betterevery day in every way.The world is getting worseevery day in every wayand the world is getting worseevery day in every waybecause the world is upside down.And conservatives do not knowhow to take the upside downand to put it right side up.When conservatives and radicalswill come to an understandingthey will take the upside downand they will put it right side up.A Radical ChangeThe order of the dayis to talk about the social order.Conservatives would liketo keep it from changingbut they don’t know how.Liberals try to patch itand call it a New Deal.Socialists want a change,but a gradual change.…I want a change,and a radical change.I want a changefrom an acquisitive societyto a functional society,from a society of go-gettersto a society of go-givers.