The KPFA Crisis Created a Commonality of Purpose and Activism Peter Phillips 12/1/99Historically, people in neighborhoods in the U.S. would sit on their front porches on weekends and serve ice-tea or lemonade to friends and neighbors who dropped by. Often the radio was on playing music or a political discussion, or the local newspaper available for review and gossip. Community problems were often discussed and the socio/political issues of the day reviewed.
In the 1950’s the developers of the suburbs in the U.S. stopped building front porches on homes. It was deemed that the new life style in the suburbs and the addition of TV would no longer make front porches functional other than to keep off the rain. TV tended to keep people inside and isolated from friends and neighbors. The contemporary addition of computers, VCRs, and various other forms of electronic entertainment further compounded the isolation of individuals in society. Sociologists call this historical trend anomie, or the loss of community values, norms and shared understandings. Except for a few media outlets like KPFA, media became entertainment instead of a discussion tool for shared evaluation, and political problem solving.
This past summer thousands of us realized that we have a community of interest in KPFA. It is part of the core foundation of our intellectual life. It gives us issues to discuss and a diversity of culture and opinions that very few media sources provide. A vast void in our lives was created when the KPFA staff was locked out and only canned programming prevailed. More importantly we collectively realized our shared loss through demonstrations, meetings and activism. A commonality of concerned KPFA listeners became self-aware recognizing that we collectively have supported and relished KPFA for over two generations. This is a healthy sign for any community when its members become collectively self-engaged. We lost an opportunity to celebrate our golden anniversary, but we found our shared concerns though active resistance to the Pacifica Board of Directors.
Today, we have KPFA back on the air and the formation of an independent KPFA Folio that will serve as the front porch for our community of shared interest. Rebuilding local community based activism and open discussion of issues is essential for the collective health of our communities. The KPFA Folio is one step in the right direction. Finding commonality of issues and active supportive communities of purpose is essential to resisting anomie, isolation, entertainment media, hypercommercialism, and the corporate directors of the world.
Peter Phillips
Director Project Censored
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