'Small may be beautiful' in new politics

     Many grammar school bicentennial celebrations were a gang of young citizens excited and totally involved in singing and dancing praises of the past.
     This poses the question: Would these children sense any of the buried, embarrassed ambivalence of their post-Watergate, post-Vietnam, post-oil crisis parents and teachers?
     "What would you like to see develop in the politics of the United States in the next 24 years?" I asked in my most casually probing voice. Frank, 35, and old friend, a professional, had done some teaching and other work in both the private and public sectors of our economy.

"Small is beautiful"

     "Small is beautiful," he said, and explained, "We need to develop a new way of thinking of economic matters, and then find methods of making those ways politically viable. And we won't have to do that entirely on our own.
     "The raw material producer countries of the world will help us learn the lesson. The so-called oil crisis is only the beginning.
      "Small cars consuming less fuel and lasting longer, taking up less space, needing less expertise and technology to maintain, are all a reality in this country today; not because we saw the need, but because the oil-producing nations organized under the leadership of Venezuela and taught us a very important lesson.
      "They raised their prices for oil because they knew it was a capital resource that would run out on them. And then where would they be? No capital in a capitalistic world? So they raised their oil prices -- collectively -- and made it stick.

More expensive lessons

     "We should be thankful for the lesson because the price has been very low. Our next lessons will be much more expensive."
     "What do you mean?"
     "Oh relax," he said, "I'm not another doomsayer. I'm just saying that it takes humans awhile to create political symbols to deal with new realities. 'Small is beautiful' is a new political reality. We'll find ways of expressing that reality as time goes by.
     "Maybe within our current political vocabulary -- maybe with a new political vocabulary. The point is that we have begun to learn from the small countries. We still call it by names which mean we were forced: boycott, cartel, etc.

OPEC gives signals

     "That's the only way we can accept the fact that right now, but the politics of the future for the USA will be about creating appropriate symbols and making acceptable this new political reality. The OPEC nations have given us a signal, a warning, a friendly warning: big and more are not always better; join with us; our experience is also valid and it will become more and more valid.
     "Actually, our military defeat at the hands of a small country was there for all of us to see -- the same message. But our political vocabulary was lacking the symbols to make that acceptable then. And Watergate intervened and was seen as separate and an aberration -- so the message was even more messed up, but the Vietnam thing said it all."
     "Aw, c'mon, Frank, The Vietnam war meant 'small is beautiful'? Isn't that a little much? Come down to earth and let's talk sense. how come none of the 1976 presidential candidates are talking like you say they should?"

Has ready answer

     Frank was ready. "That's exactly it. Our mainstream political vocabulary is not equipped to say it yet. But why do you think fewer and fewer people are paying attention to mainstream politics?
     "And, of course, then we say those candidates who do take the risks really didn't want to be president or didn't have it to be president anyway or he wouldn't have said such and such a foolish thing. But that can't go on forever, can it?"
     Alexis is small and beautiful and, at 35, has sandy hair, and easy smile and aggressive, direct brown eyes.
     After building up to it, I said, "are you political at all?"
     "You've got to be political to go through a divorce -- successfully -- that is, without getting beat up in the process."
     "That's not exactly what I had in mind, rather elections, policies, programs, things like that."

No one pays attention

     It didn't take Alexis long to say, "You mean that public relations stuff? That's not real politics. Nothing important gets decided that way, and besides, hardly anyone pays any attention to it any more."
     "We feel many institutions need to be demystified. People should be able to be healthy without becoming dependent on a technological system run by a few for the good of a few.
     "Nuclear power moratorium, learning circles, food co-ops -- does your kind of politics have a future, Alexis?"
     "Oh, I'm not sure any of us have a future. But let's make our own educational experience - we've also been indoctrinated. We all have experienced the "death" in the mainstream institutions and are responding the way we know best. It'll probably take a long time for anything viable to come of it but there are a lot of people around this country followin'' what we're doing," she said.
     "I don't know if it will work, but I know the other way doesn't. How about joining our meeting?"
     "I don't know, I'm probably busy."

-- Rod Bunker
UWEC, Dept. of Political Science

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.