The Wild Reed: May 2023

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

The Biblical Roots of “From Each According to Ability; To Each According to Need”

Earlier this month, Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson appeared on Sean Hannity’s show on the Fox News network. Hannity is a notorious blowhard who constantly interrupts and steamrolls his guests and attempts to play “gotcha” with them. He was true to form when “interviewing” (if you can call it that) Marianne, who, to her credit, more than held her own. “She was quick and clever and delivered,” noted one YouTube commenter in the days after the segment was broadcast. “She actually demolished Sean on his own show,” said another.

At one point when pressing Marianne on the type of economic system she supports, Hannity attemptd a gotcha moment by trying to get her to agree with the following quote by Karl Marx.

From each according to ability;
to each according to need.

Marianne clearly did not recognize the quote as coming from Marx, which was a pity as she could have turned it around on Hannity, a self-avowed Christian, by highlighting that this particular phrase has its roots in the Bible.

In a 2021 article for The Conversation, Belgian philosopher Luc Bovens notes that although the phrase “From each according to ability; to each according to need” was popularized by Marx (left) in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program, its origins are in eighteenth and nineteenth-century France where a number of philosphers – “all committed Christians whose social programs were inspired by their faith” – borrowed versions of the phrase “from French Bible translations of the time, and defended them on scriptural grounds.”

Following is an excerpt from Bovens’ article.

“To each according to needs” comes from the Book of Acts documenting the practices of early Christian communities in Jerusalem. In the Book of Acts, believers “were together and had all things in common” and sold their possessions and distributed the proceeds within the community “as any had needs.”

In French philosopher Étienne Cabet’s utopian novel Voyage en Icarie, Cabet tells of a fictional community who practice similar communal living arrangements. He later went to the U.S. and founded a number of “Icarian communities” in the second half of the 19th century, that practiced communal ownership of goods and were governed by egalitarian ideals.

“From each according to ability,” is likewise found in the Book of Acts: “So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.” Cabet and [French socialist politician] Louis Blanc both construed this phrase as a call for Christian servitude. They believed society to be a cooperative venture in which people of means should contribute more.

“To each according to ability” is in the Gospel of Matthew. In the Parable of the Talents, a master gives his servants different amounts of money – or “talents” – and goes away on a journey: “To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.” Upon his return, he praises the servants who have invested and increased their allotment but condemns the one who buried the money and simply returned it.

For [French political theorist] Henri de Saint-Simon, the phrase meant putting jobs and resources in the hands of the most qualified and entrepreneurial people and taking them away from nobility. This would lead to greater productivity, benefiting everyone, and in particular, the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in society.

. . . [Today] “To each according to need” can be applied to the debate over health care. The aim is to take the provision of health care away from market forces and to make it freely accessible to all who need it. “From each according to ability” is what underlies a concern for the common good and a conception of society as a cooperative venture, with mandatory public service as a matching policy proposal.

“To each according to ability” is at the core of equal opportunity – an ideal that underlies affirmative action legislation and various policies to increase the accessibility of college. “To each according to work” maps onto the ideal of equal pay for equal work and the push for minimal wage policies, mainly benefiting manual labor jobs.

Monday, May 29, 2023

May Vignettes

NEXT: June Vignettes

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Spring Awakens!
• Beltane and the Fire Within
• Photo of the Day – May 8, 2023
• Spring . . . Within and Beyond (2022)
• Spring . . . Within and Beyond (2021)
• Photo of the Day – May 2, 2020
• Let the Greening Begin
• New Spring Green
• Following the Footprints of Spring
• Spring Blooms
• “Jubilation is My Name”: Spring in Minnesota
• Full Bloom
• Spring Garden
• In the Footsteps of Spring

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Quote of the Day

The [tentative debt ceiling] deal [between the White House and Republican leaders] represents the worst of conservative budget ideology; it cuts investments in workers and families, adds onerous and wasteful new hurdles for families in need of support, and protects the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations from paying their fair share in taxes.

– Lindsay Owens
Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative
Quoted in Jake Johnson’s article,
“Progressives Condemn Biden-GOP Debt Ceiling
Deal as ‘Cruel and Shortsighted’”
Common Dreams
May 28, 2023

NEXT:
Rashida Tlaib: Quote of the Day
– June 1, 2023

Related Off-site Links:
Biden and McCarthy Reach Debt Ceiling Deal to Avoid Default – Mike Lillis (The Hill, May 27, 2023).
Debt Ceiling Deal Keeps Non-Defense Spending Roughly Flat Until Fiscal 2024 – Reuters (May 27, 2023).
White House and McCarthy Move to Lock Down Votes After Striking Deal to Avoid Default – Claudia Grisales, Ximena Bustillo, Franco Ordoñez, and Joe Hernandez (NPR News, May 28, 2023).
Rep. Pramila Jayapal Says White House Should “Worry” About Progressive Caucus Support for Debt Ceiling Deal – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, May 28, 2023).

UPDATES: Debt Deal Raises Military Spending and OKs West Virginia Pipeline While Introducing New Work Rules for Food Stamps – Democracy Now! (May 30, 2023).
Manchin and Biden’s Horrible Mountain Valley Pipeline Push – Allie Rosenbluth (Common Dreams, May 30, 2023).
It’s on McCarthy to Find Votes for Ransom Package, Say Progressives – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, May 30, 2023).
Far-right Members Threaten a “Reckoning” Over McCarthy’s Debt Limit Deal – Barbara Sprunt and Deirdre Walsh (NPR News, May 30, 2023).
Debt Ceiling Bill Passes in the House, Advances to the Senate Days Ahead of Default Deadline – Christina Wilkie (CNBC News, May 30, 2023).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – May 10, 2023
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• Republicans Pose an “Existential Threat” to American Democracy
• The Big Switch
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Remembering Tina Turner

I was saddened to hear this past Wednesday of the passing of the great Tina Turner.

Dubbed the “Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll” and ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as among the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time,” Turner died at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, aged 83, after years of health issues that included high blood pressure, kidney failure, a debilitating stroke, and intestinal cancer. Her husband Erwin Bach was at her side.

Although I can’t say I was a dedicated follower of Tina Turner’s career, I did see her in concert at the now non-existent Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1985. She was in Australia as part of her Private Dancer Tour. Her 1984 album Private Dancer, considered her big “comeback” album, was a favorite of mine in the mid-1980s.

Subsequent recordings by Turner, though commercially successful, just didn’t appeal to me as much as Private Dancer, though “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” the theme song she sang for the 1985 film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, in which she also starred as Aunty Entity, was and remains a definite favorite.

Above: A screencap from the music video for “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” featuring clips from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. To view this video, click here.

Above: Christmas Day 1985. I’m 20-years-old, sitting with my brother Tim and our next-door-neighbor and friend Jillian, and wearing the t-shirt I no doubt purchased at Tina’s concert earlier that year.

In remembering Tina Turner this evening for “music night” at The Wild Reed I share below the audio of “Steel Claw,” one of my favorite tracks from Private Dancer. (To view a live performance of the song click here.)

I love the pairing of Tina’s raspy vocals and knowing delivery with “Steel Claw”’s pointed social and political critique (though I don’t share the song’s overall cynicism with regards to trying to disrupt the status quo and thus transform society). I wish she had recorded more tracks featuring this fiery combination. We sure could have used as much of this type of critique as possible (sans the neoliberal-induced cynicism) in the hyper-consumerist and status-obsessed ’80s!

SongTell.com says more about the meaning of the song.

“Steel Claw” [written by Paul Brady and performed] by Tina Turner is a commentary on the corrupt and unfair nature of society, particularly with regards to power structures.

The song describes a world where those in power (“some rich bitch lying by the swimming pool”) make their own rules and benefit from the system at the expense of those on the fringes of society (“so many people hanging on the edge”). The “steel claw” in the song represents the cold and impersonal arm of the law that maintains this unfair status quo, making it difficult or impossible for ordinary people to break free from the system. The chorus warns against trying to fight against this system, as the “lock is on the door” and there will be “hell to pay.”

The song suggests that the odds are always against those who would challenge the system, as the wheels of power are heavily stacked in favour of the ruling class. This creates a sense of desperation and hopelessness for those living under the steel claw’s grip. The bridge suggests escapism and the temptation to ignore the problems of society through drug use and other distractions. However, this ultimately leads to a sense of despair and even suicidal thoughts.

Overall, “Steel Claw” provides a bleak and cynical view of society, highlighting the difficulties faced by those without power and the near-impossibility of challenging the established order.

It’s just a television wonderland
Just one more fairytale about a rich bitch
Lying by the swimming pool
Life is so cool
Easy living when you make the rules

Last Friday was the first time
It only took about a half-a-minute
On the stairway
It was child’s play
The odds come out even
When you give up believing in a

Cold law, steel claw
Try to get on board but the lock is on the door
Well, I say no way, no way
Don't try to get out or there’ll be hell to pay
I don’t know who’s right, who’s wrong
It really doesn’t matter when you’re lying in the gutter
It’s a see-saw
A long hot battle with the cold law
Is what you get for messing with the steel claw

The politicians have forgotten this place
Except for a flying visit in a black Mercedes
On election time
They cross the line
And everybody runs to catch the pantomime

If they could see what’s going on around here
So many people hanging on the edge
Crying out for revolution
Retribution
The odds come out even
When you give up believing in a

Cold law, steel claw
Try to get on board but the lock is on the door
Well, I say no way, no way
Don’t try to get out or there’ll be hell to pay
I don’t know who’s right, who’s wrong
It doesn’t really matter when you’re lying in the gutter
It’s a see-saw
A long hot battle with the cold law
Is what you get for messing with the steel claw

Sometimes I think I’m going crazy
Sometimes I do a line, make me laugh
Make me want to take a joyride
On the high tide
Sometimes I’m contemplating suicide

Meanwhile Eddy is on the west coast
I know he’s making out with some sweet senorita
Up in Frisco
You and I know
The odds come out even
When you give up believing in a

Cold law, steel claw
Try to get on board but you find the lock is on the door
Well, I say no way, no way
Don’t try to get out or there’ll be hell to pay
I don't know who’s right, who’s wrong
It doesn’t really matter when you’re lying in the gutter
It’s a see-saw
A long hot battle with the cold law
Is what you get for messing with the steel claw

I close this post with the following Sunday Morning profile that originally aired in October 2018. In it, Tina Turner talks with CBS News’ Gayle King about her life of adversity and triumph, and her memoir, My Love Story.

NEXT: What Life Taught Tina Turner

Friday, May 26, 2023

In This “Global Fascist Moment,” a Message to the Target Corporation: Giving In to Fascism Doesn’t Prevent Violence. It Emboldens It

Earlier today I heard Jeff Sharlet being interviewd on MPR Radio. You may recall I spotlighted Sharlet recently at The Wild Reed by sharing excerpts from his April 5 appearance on Democracy Now!

Sharlet’s the author of the recently-released The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, in which he documents how the language of “civil war” has become central to right-wing rhetoric and mainstreamed by former President Donald Trump, Congressmember Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other Republicans. Sharlet also observes that what’s happening in the United States is part of a “global fascist moment.”

Here in the U.S. we see evidence of this “moment” in all kinds of ways, with fascist elements within the Republican party working to (and in some places actually succeeding in) banning books, enacting voter suppression laws, criminalizing drag shows, banning healthcare services to trans people, and implementling harsh abortion bans.

Corporations that label themselves “LGBTQI-friendly” have also come under fire from these same elements. Here in Minnesota, for instance, it’s been reported that the Target retail corporation “is removing some merchandise celebrating Pride Month from store shelves after facing a backlash against the products, including threats against the safety of its workers.”

In a statement on its website, Target management said:

For more than a decade, Target has offered an assortment of products aimed at celebrating Pride Month. Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work. Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior. Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.

The Associated Press reported that “conservative activists and media” have recently criticized Target for selling “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits that allow some trans women to hide their genitalia.

In response to all of this, a Facebook friend of mine posted the following.

Dear Target,

One of the ways that fascists win is when those with the power to resist voluntarily acquiesce to their violence. I know that you are doing this in an attempt to protect your business and your employees, which is understandable, but the message you are sending to the LGBT community and its allies is that your support of our community is merely as shallow as the money we spend in your stores. Real support is using your power to push back against the fascism that is a direct threat to your LGBT employees and the larger community. Disney is a good example to follow if you are looking for a corporation to emulate.

Giving in to fascism doesn’t prevent violence. It only emboldens the fascists and makes the violence you are trying to prevent more likely.

Please do better.

Signed,

A loyal customer.

And finally, here’s some additional food-for-thought from trans journalist Erin Reed.

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Saaxiib Qurux Badan

I walk into the garden,
I will not lose my way.
A bed of roses is waiting for me there,
At the autumn of each day.

. . . I walk into the silence,
I hear the garden call my name.
A bed of roses still waiting for me there,
In the paradise we’ll make.

– “The Long Ride Home”
by Kiki Dee and Carmello Luggeri
(from their 2022 album The Long Ride Home)

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Undone
• Allow Everything to Rest Right Now
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – February 14, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – January 16, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – January 4, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – August 25, 2022
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – February 13, 2022
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – November 25, 2021
• Just One Wish
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – June 29, 2021
• Blue Yonder
• Somalia Bound
• My Love, “Return to the Root of the Root of Your Own Soul”
• Adnan . . . Amidst Mississippi Reflections and Forest Green

Image: Saaxiib Qurux Badan (“Beautiful Friend”), Minneapolis, MN – Michael J. Bayly (5/24/23).

Quote of the Day

From the phone in my bedroom, this photo looks like she, Ms. Turner, was looking at the sky, the sun, maybe Jupiter, her ruling planet as a November Sagittarius. The perseverance of her life, which comes through her singing voice and her commitment to live a FREE life inspires me. Different songs of hers speak to different parts of my life. “Private Dance” speaks to my sensual side, “Better Be Good To Me” speaks to my resilient side, “Let’s Stay Together” speaks to my unapologetic and ETERNAL belief in EASY AND HARMONIOUS MONOGAMY. Her song “I Don’t Wanna Fight” speaks to my willingness to reconcile when I disagree with a loved one. Thank you Ms. Turner for your inspiration. Fly high.

– Rhone Fraser
via Facebook
May 24, 2023

NEXT: Remembering Tina Turner

Related Off-site Link:
“Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll” Tina Turner Dies at 83 – Mike Davidson (Reuters, May 24, 2023).

Opening Image: Michael Ochs

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Photo of the Day

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Urbanscapes
• High-Rise in Afternoon Light
• Photo of the Day – June 28, 2022
• Photo of the Day – May 20, 2022
• Photo of the Day – September 1, 2012
• Photo of the Day – December 20, 2010
• Photo of the Day – May 8, 2010
• Central Station

Image: “St. Paul Cityscape II” by Michael J. Bayly.

Monday, May 22, 2023

Quote of the Day

Much of my life energies have gone toward what I call “living democracy” in which we each have both economic and political power.

So, how does shifting my diet serve democracy?

In nourishing ourselves we make multiple choices daily. That alone gives food special power. With each choice I know I am sending signals back through the food chain for sane, fair use of our Earth.

Suddenly, my every bite has delicious purpose. As a vegetarian, I’ve loved knowing I was protecting animals and avoiding massive waste. But now I wonder whether “vegetarian” captures the full impact of such food choices. So, what if we reconceive good eating as not just “plant-based,” but “planet-healing”?

When our dietary habits incorporate environmental, justice, and health awareness as well as animal welfare, might we be “planetarians”?

I believe that with every step aligning our lives with our deepest truths, we become more convincing to ourselves and thus to others – and more likely to take our next step and the next . . . with ever greater courage. And that’s exactly what our planet needs now more than ever.

– Frances Moore Lappé
Excerpted from “‘Vegetarian’ . . . Why Not ‘Planetarian’?”
Common Dreams
May 22, 2023

Related Off-site Links:
Frances Moore Lappé in Conversation with John Torpey – The Graduate Center, CUNY via YouTube (March 8, 2023).
“We Have a Diet That Is Literally Killing Us.” Why Frances Moore Lappé’s Groundbreaking Diet for a Small Planet Is More Relevant Than Ever – Kate Bradshaw (Palo Alto Online, September 2, 2022).
Celebrating 50 years of Diet for a Small Planet with Frances Moore Lappé and Daughter Anna Lappé – Scott Tong and Allison Hagan (WBUR.org, October 11, 2021).
The Godmother of “Plant-Based” Living – Steven Kurutz (The New York Times, November 20, 2021).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Biophilia, the God Pan, and a Baboon Named Scott
• Examining the Link Between Destruction of Biodiversity and Emerging Infectious Diseases
• As the World Burns, Calls for a “Green New Deal”
• Something to Think About – January 19, 2023
• Something to Think About – March 9, 2013
• The Art of Being Kind

Image 1: Cody O’Loughlin for The New York Times (2021).
Image 2: Harvest Urban Farms.

Saturday, May 20, 2023

Digging Deeper With Benjamin Booker

For “music night” this evening at The Wild Reed I share Benjamin Booker’s song “Believe,” from his 2017 album Witness, a collection of recordings that Pitchfork notes “makes retro music feel modern, reflecting on racism in America while drawing on blues, soul, and gospel.”

Booker himself says, “[Witness] is about taking care of each other and pushing yourself to be a better person.”

The music video for “Believe,” directed by James Lees, has Booker playing a soldier undergoing military training. Said Lees in a statement at the time of the video’s release:

We wanted to create something inherently musical and entertaining whilst still being a meditation on the themes within the song: being lost and directionless and the inherent human need to find a sense of belonging.

In talking to Raisa Bruner of TIME magazine in 2017, Booker said the following about “Believe.”

I was reading a bunch of stuff like Jean-Paul Sartre and that Don DeLillo book, and they point to the absurdity of life and how ridiculous it is that everything around us is constructed and man-made, and I started to think about that. You can get to a dark place, because when you take away the things around you, the social constructs and the things you’ve grown up believing, you start to wonder just what it is that you believe in and who you are as a person. I think that part of [my] trip to Mexico was about removing myself from my comforts and the people around me and the things I was used to, and trying to figure out who I was as a person.

. . . [“Believe”] in particular is about how people tend to try to fill voids in their life with different things: religion or politics, or people join the military or things like that, just trying to fill this void. But this song is about [how] you are the solution to the problems that you have, and you have to dig deeper. That’s what I’m hoping people take away from this song. That change and that void is only going to be filled by you.

The Wild Reed

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

The Biblical Roots of “From Each According to Ability; To Each According to Need”

Monday, May 29, 2023

May Vignettes

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Quote of the Day

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Remembering Tina Turner

Friday, May 26, 2023

In This “Global Fascist Moment,” a Message to the Target Corporation: Giving In to Fascism Doesn’t Prevent Violence. It Emboldens It

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Saaxiib Qurux Badan

Quote of the Day

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Photo of the Day

Monday, May 22, 2023

Quote of the Day

Saturday, May 20, 2023

Digging Deeper With Benjamin Booker

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