Latest / Mechonomist Podcast / Asheville and Politics as the Art of the Possible

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Asheville and Politics as the Art of the Possible · Mechonomist Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good afternoon, everyone.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're here on the eve of Election Day.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if you hear a little crying in the background, it is my son.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: He is a little noisy these days.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So just bear with us.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times people talk about politics being the art of the possible.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they use that as an excuse to force you to choose one or the other as if those
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: were the only possibilities.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: let me tell you,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I spent some time in Asheville,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: North Carolina last week,
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: and there are much larger possibilities than just blue or red.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I took some equipment.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: We raised some money.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Our network,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: ERON,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: raised some money,
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: and we took some equipment from Montgomery,
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Alabama to Asheville,
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: North Carolina to Asheville Tool Library.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And when we got there,
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: it was just bustling with energy,
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: dozens of people there,
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: a large tool library on like a five acre compound.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they're handing out, people are coming and going, handing out equipment, meals, clothes, you name it.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: They were giving it to people.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just really encouraging.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: We also got to spend some time with an AFC style group.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: garage up there called Asheville Garage Goblins and the work that they're doing.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we were able to help them a little bit,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: but really,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: it was just really encouraging to see a different type of politics.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I got back,
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was communicating with the people up there about how encouraged I was seeing what
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: they were doing.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they turned me on to this magazine called The Asheville Blade.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And The Asheville Blade made the argument that Asheville is two cities,
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: that one of the cities is Capitol and Copse,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: like most cities,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: but the other city is a mutual aid city,
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: a city in which people,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: the politics,
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: the art of the possible,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: the possibility is that there is a politics based on helping each other.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And they juxtapose the people at the compound, the mutual aid compound,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: handing out food and coffee and clothes to the city,
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: posting up police officers at a local grocery store to keep people from getting
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: access to those things.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So in these times, man, we live in both exciting and depressing times.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: But in these times, it seems like nothing is possible.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, nothing has changed.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, the genocide is going to continue.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: That Trump is going to get elected.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that he's going to deport millions of Latino immigrants.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you just... It's just terrible.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you can get really depressed about it.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I do.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's not...
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: what we got going on in the south and in alabama with our network is good is really
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: good but it's not as many people as in just in one city in nashville north carolina
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: and when you see that you get really encouraged and you understand that politics is
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: much bigger than blue or red it's can be that political power can be based on
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: genuinely helping people in time of crisis
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And not just in a time of crisis, anytime.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just helping people, political power can and should be based on those who help.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, that's what mutual aid is all about.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's an economy based on sharing and helping,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: and political power should be derived from service to fellow human beings and not from,
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: as they said in Pirates of the Caribbean,
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: bargains struck with eldritch creatures.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, happy to see it, man.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really happy.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really excited.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: It gives me hope for what we're doing and the work that we're doing.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I know that there's a struggle in Asheville and that struggle can seem insurmountable.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: But as somebody from the outside, man, y'all have already won.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all have already won.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all have the institutions there.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all have the resources there.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all have the people there.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I just, it gives me hope.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: It really does give me hope.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, check out what's happening in Nashville, North Carolina.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll see y'all next time.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Peace, y'all.