[Fwd: Meanings and Institutions (was Re: [Fwd: Re: 7 years old Iranian genius])]

[Katha Pollitt <kpollitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> Beth wrote:
> >>How can we, as Marxists, create, promolgate and maintain a sustained
> >>understanding of meaning which fosters a immanently humane, as opposed to
> >>a transcendentally 'divine' and immanently inhumane, world?
>
> There have to be lively secular institutions that sustain such meanings.
> People need places to hang out. Secular left culture cannot grow without
> public spaces carved out for them: schools, union halls, camps, softball
> leagues, chorus groups, theaters, cafes, cabarets, etc.
>
> Yoshie

Hello, Yoshie, I'm glad you're back! I agree with you that   lively
secular institutions can sustain meaning without religion. it's not
surprising that countries with strong lefts are less religious -- the
parties and groups  make--used to make, actually -- a whole social
world, with mutual help, entertainment, etc.  Unfortunately, in US the
secular left culture you note has sharply contracted: it rode the
movement, and the movement is mostly gone. I went to Camp woodland,one
of many CP-associated camps.  how could such things survive the demise
of the organized left?
  So first the movement, then the lively secular institutions that
sustain it and make it warm and comfy. But the movement shows little
sign of obliging!