Page 4 RAIN June 1979 Dear Steven, I want to thank you for your article, "Drawing the Circle Wider." It makes many points that I have also tried to make in my book and in my talks·-the need to share our understandings with others; "the validity of each person's perspective;" the ' practicality of our ideas; and the need for an opening to the supposedly conservative American mainstream, as distinct from the traditional 1930s-60s us-against-them-type left. A couple of supplementary thoughts. When you mention that we find it difficult to identify with working people, I am not sure what you are driving at. The point I make is that we are so careful not to alienate economically lower class people that we often tend to come across in an incredibly condescending manner to them-simply assuming that they have a built-in need to jump onto the production-consumption merry-goround and never really conveying our own learned, and valid, sense that the production-consumption merry-go-round isn't really worth the bother. Also, you point out that people in the circle have not been reaching out to each other "lest they lose track of their constituencies." I think it may be more accurate to say "\est they find themselves having to compromise the interests of their constituencies." There is a split in the circle that I can't ~ Project LEO Our friends at AERO have again come up with a ll outstanding project tbat should inspire similar efforts elsewhere. Here's tbe outline. For details on their intensive II-day training .~essilJ n, see the April-May '79 issue of Sun-Times. [0 keep up on all of AERO's activities (exciting school e7lergy programs, the New Western Energy Show. energy legislation. etc.) send $15 to join AERO and receive the Sun-Times to Alternative Energy Resources Organization, 435 Stapleton Bldg., Rillings, MT 59101. - TB AERO has launched what promises to be one of the most exciting and useful projects we've undertaken in years. We are hiring eight 'Local Energy Organizers,' whose salaries will he paid with money from the state Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). One organizer will work in each of 6 towns: Havre, Hamilton, Helena, Bozeman, Roundup, and Miles City, and 2 will work in Billings. The purpose of the project is to aid and encourage citizens in learning about renewable energy and energy conscrvation, in learning about how they and lhe town are currcntly using do justice to in this letter but that I often refer to in verbal shorthand as a split between the New Age and the New Left. By this I mean basically a split between those who see themselves as standing at the beginnings of a political tradition that is beyond left and right (hardly the beginnings, incidentallyit goes back to the beginnings of American history), and those who see themselves as basically extending the socialist tradition. Those who hope to reconcile pc;ople to one another in the context of a series of life-giving ethics and values (within which there might be many different policies and economies, rcgionally delemlined), versus those who hope to replace one socioeconomic class with another in the context of a particular economic Ism. Anyway: much of the hesitancy that you speak of is a result, I think, of the fact that New Age-oriented people and groups rightfully suspect that linking up with New Left people and groups will require them to give up many of their insights and understandings, such as their advocacy of the importance of simple living and dleir commitment to reduce dependency on the government as well as on big business. My response to this split- and I detect this also in your article- is tQ pOint out that more and more people are able to ee beyond 'the cliches of the left (and the right) and that our natural allies are nOl traditional leftists but are all those mainstream Aml:!ri~ans who would move in a New Age direction if they felt they could do so without starving in the process. energy, and in beginning to take an active part in energy decisions and projects that will begin the transition of each of these communities to the use of energy conserva6on measures and renewable energies. Each organizer will work toward the following objectives: • Airr ng the establishment of a renewable energy task force in the community, composed of concerned citizens from as many sectors as possible. • Encouraging the involvement of the task force (and other citizens) in energy dccisions affecting the town: e.g. REA activities, local planning deCIsions, local initiatives, etc. • Encouraging citizens to consider- and aiding them in looking into-the establishment of one or more renewable energy facilities in the community. An important additional objective for each organizer will be to facilitate the development of a body of knowledge about the community's energy use and possible renewable energy use and conservation measures, and the appointment of a person from the local task force to " represent" the town (along with that town's L.E.O.) at a week-long energy workshop September 23-30, 1979, at Feathered Pipe Ranch in Helena. Amory LOVinS, renowned proponent of the "Soft Energy
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