Following Sylvis

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
-William Shakespeare

Pushing out the life-raft...

I must admit my mistakes. For the first 30 years of my life, give or take a few, I harbored a grave delusion. It is difficult for me to name exactly (that is what this blog is for), but at a good first approximation it was a serious over-statement of the power of the individual.

About six years ago- shortly after July 4, 2003- I started my own (very small) business here in NYC. I worked at it very hard (and so did my wife and even my parents- give credit where credit is due), and I (we) made it somewhat of a success. This experience in the "real world" of the consumer marketplace, and also of the real world of the City, greatly changed my estimation of what was possible, the effect people can have on each other, and the meaning and extent of one person's work.

In a word, it changed everything.

And yet, two years later, this change has not been completed. The scales, as it were, have still not entirely fallen from my eyes.

I am still "bound in shallows and in miseries."

To quote an earlier, (and yes I know) very strident piece of writing I did "The days pass without number, we are nameless, and the desert grows..."

Growth is a positive work. Time doesn't heal all wounds. Unconscious endeavor is cold comfort to the conscious mind.

The scales don't seem to be falling- let me try to scrape them off!

In 1994, I turned seventeen, started coming into an awareness of the world, looked at my future wife from afar (we wouldn't start dating until '95, when we had both graduated high school).

Since that time, we have seen the rise, maturation, and closure of some kind of historical or cultural cycle in the life of America. As far as I'm concerned, it didn't go too well. For most of it, I was just trying to keep up, but now I want to put my queer shoulder to the wheel.

"All that is real is National." - Pinky Paine

The "conservative revolutionaries" fighting the kulturkampf had that much right. Liberals do seem to want to escape or feel above their countries- certainly the baby boomers posed as "internationalists."

Can't be done without reference to a national identity. "Multi-cultie" is not enough. Gingrich and company were stronger and more influential in this last turn of the screw because they were more firmly rooted in America and her traditions.

Here, then- if I can finally get around to saying it- I want to dig for the roots of another American history. I have chosen as my starting point William H. Sylvis (1828-1869), founder of the first national trade union, the National Labor Union.

Why Sylvis? Because he was the first to comprehensively tackle the problems and politics of industrial (as opposed to agricultural) America- his legacy is still unfulfilled.

We must show them that when a just monetary system has
been established, there will no longer exist a necessity
for Trades Unions. -Wm. H. Sylvis

Without the concepts of political association that unions represent, there can be no real American democracy. It is to this legacy that I address my inquiry.

May providence guide me!