This circularity of reasoning is the petard of conservatives, their so-called liberal apologists, and the neo-liberals who would make us believe that buzz-words like "responsibility" and "civility" are the cure to all our current social ills. People who are in denial about the rapacious and destructive forces of corporate capitalism and greed.

The truth is that they would strip us of the fraternal and socially responsible glue which it took over a hundred years to build: the solidarity of working class, common people.

They will say that they are defending the middle class while wholeheartedly supporting so-called fiscally responsible policies which have had the net result of shrinking the middle-class, increasing the numbers of the poor, and impoverishing (most specifically) women and children in our society - all the while touting themselves as the voices of reason and tradition. Beware those words: reason and tradition. More buzz-words and as dangerous to your well-being as hell. They are usually spoken before the axe falls on your neck.

For example, who is the promoter of these homilies of social unity that these New Traditionalists, these Puritans in denim, hearken to: William Bennett. This man has and always will be a conservative flack and nothing less. We should build a monument especially dedicated to his hypocrisy.

He wanted to destroy the Department of Education while Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Education. He belongs in that pantheon of infamy instituted when Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt --- the man whose office was mandated to protect our environmental legacy --- stated publicly (and proudly) that "We don't need to worry about saving the forests, Jesus is coming any day now."

Huh?

Some people writing today, or appearing on your television screens, want you to forget that these HISTORICAL FACTS ever occurred. I don't. That is why I am a Radical.

I am a Radical because I believe we have NOT exhausted all of the possible systems of government which can produce well-being for the human race. In my humble opinion, we have only begun to scratch the surface. Like Bertrand Russell, like Albert Einstein and Albert Schweitzer, I have the sense that we are only beginning to become logical and compassionate and respectful of life. I am a Radical because I KNOW that what passes as logic today would not past any mathematical test, let alone serve our best interests into future generations.

I am a Radical because in my heart-of-hearts I know that nationalism does not work.

I am a Radical because I am also an optimist who believes in our human legends. I remember both our legends of Gilgamesh and of Ozymandias. That is why I am a Radical.

I am a Radical because I know - or, at least suspect - that the glib among us are not as perseverant as the clumsy but good-natured fools who want to spread the well-being around.

I am a Radical because I DO NOT believe that history is over as Dinesh D'Souza, Rush Limbaugh, and their ilk do.

Most of all, I am a Radical because I don't believe that the human spirit can be contained in sociological, ontological or philosophical theorems. I identify with the peasant class. I am a Radical because I believe that those most willing to lecture, advise and counsel would be better off spending their time LISTENING.

There is a great deal to be learned from listening (one of my favorite pastimes).

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR:

• the poor are resilient and angry
• the working class is disappearing because of greed
• a day of reckoning is inevitable
• those who would poison the very air are poisoning themselves
• a day of reckoning is inevitable
• stocks and bonds mean nothing compared to having heart
• a day of reckoning is inevitable.

Not Social Darwinism, but the ability to embrace uncertainty and possibility.

• Liberals want to fix the machine,
• conservatives want to unleash the machine,
• libertarians want to speed the machine up,
• and revolutionaries want a new machine.