Democratic Underground - Buried in the Foley firestorm. . . I'll probably give it another shot in a

couple days.

This is a critical message that folks on "our side" need to get. Our strengths are also our biggest weaknesses (focus on systems, not people; "realism" that often blinds us to the reality of infinite possibility; pragmatism; reluctance to assert absolute knowledge when we actually have all the facts we need; reluctance to accuse/punish).

We need to recognize these counter-productive tendencies and make a conscious effort keep them in check, and cultivate new habits.

Top five destructive habits we must break to effectively solve our common problems and fight for the public good.

Instead of just going for what our pragmatism tells us we can get (and achieving far less than that), we need to cultivate the habit of going for the whole shibang;

Instead of "saving our energy" for fights we think we can win, we need to take up the good fights, even if we are "sure" it will just be a the charge of the light brigade;

Instead of believing we must be miserly in allocating resources from a limited pot; we must recognize that when we are passionate in fighting on principle, we can inspire and multiply those resources tenfold;

Instead of just focusing on "fixing the system" so it "doesn't happen again," when wrong-doers betray the public trust we must be willing to go after them personally.

Instead of inserting unnecessary qualifications and caveats to every assertion; we need to boil things down and understand that there are in fact absolutes in life. More often than not, we know all we need to know, even if we don't think we know all there is to know.

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