Radical Middle -- What's In a Name?

"Satin sees what he calls radical middle politics as an innovation that's ideally suited to 21st century America."
-- Nancy Beardsley, Voice of America newswire, July 27, 2004

Why “Radical Middle”?

Radical Middle Newsletter doesn’t just report on innovative political ideas, books, and national meetings. It expresses an emerging political perspective and sensibility that we like to call “radical middle.

We call it a “sensibility” as well as a perspective because it’s not necessarily positional. Journalist E.J. Dionne expresses it as a series of questions (see Thinkers and Activists Try To Describe the Radical Middle elsewhere on this website). Political philosopher Andrew Schmookler found he could best express it through a fictional e-mail discussion among people of divergent views (Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide,1999).

As a political perspective, it’s not a "safe" middle ground between the extremes of left and right. It’s off the traditional left-right spectrum . . . free to gather up ideas from everywhere.

But it's not counter-cultural, either. Some of its spokespeople -- including our editor -- grew up in the alternative culture and learned first-hand the limitations of a utopian politics disconnected from governing.

It’s “radical” because it’s seeking solutions that are holistic and sustainable. It’s “middle” because it accepts that you can’t change people very much. The Biblical vices will always be there . . . in every one of us, in fact.

Although the radical middle perspective can't be summed up in a couple of glib phrases, here are some aspects that Radical Middle Newsletter likes to stress:

One-world citizenship. A commitment to overarching human values and to a cosmopolitan identity as world citizens.
Business and law. A recognition that what's going on in certain boardrooms and law offices today may be more important -- and more promising -- than what's going on in the traditional political arena.
Consciousness. A recognition that values, virtues, attitudes, religion, and culture may have more to do with individual happiness -- and social progress -- than economic growth.
One-world compassion. A refusal to accept that the well-being of people in Rumania or Nigeria or Malaysia is any less important than the well-being of people in Arizona.
Ambition, achievement and service. In the Sixties it was a badge of honor to drop out. The strategy backfired. Today most socially committed young people are rushing to become doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, social workers, academics, and that is -- or can be -- a good thing.

The radical middle infuriates many activists because it’s in love with messy, ambitious, exuberant humanity. It says “YES!” to science and technology, to entrepreneurship, to bringing us all into One (admittedly imperfect) World. And it infuriates many others because it wants to give everyone, and we mean EVERYONE, a fair start in life. Most of its preferred solutions won’t be debated on the floor of the Senate anytime soon.

The best thing about the radical middle perspective, though, is that it’s just beginning to be articulated, examined, refined. YOU can still affect it. And in many different guises, it’s emerging everywhere -- in Silicon Valley, in community groups that don’t just focus on protest, in the words (if not often the deeds) of Vaclav Havel and Tony Blair, in over 100 organizations both prominent and obscure. . . .

Some say it could emerge as the humane governing philosophy of the 21st century (see Thinkers and Activists Try To Describe the Radical Middle).

And many say the best place to watch it emerge is Radical Middle Newsletter.

Radical Middle's Board of Directors created this vision-and-purpose statement in 1999 and I still stand by every word. (Okay, maybe not the Tony Blair reference.) For my description of the "third force in American politics" two decades earlier, see my contribution HERE. And for a description of the radical middle today, see the preface to my book Radical Middle: The Politics We Need Now HERE. -- Mark Satin

THE RADICAL MIDDLE CONCEPT:

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50 Thinkers and Activists Describe the Radical Middle

50 Best Radical Middle Books of the '00s, UPDATED

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Over 25 Arguably Radical Middle National POLITICIANS

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50 Great Radical Centrist Blogs (incl. Our Top 10), ANNOTATED

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