Category: Philosophy

I might not be around much tomorrow, having some plans re celebrating spending a half a century on this beautiful little planet, so I thought I would take today to condense what I have learned during my sentence time here on earth.

Tinfoil doesn’t work.



Apples straight off of the tree are very tasty.

The beauty of sunsets and sunrises are impossible to describe, paint, or otherwise capture, so don’t even try.

Tomatoes are not, as once was believed, poisonous.

There IS nothing to fear but fear itself.

Assholes are everywhere, and it is a choice to be one or not.

There is….gasp! …an unconscious but very real conspiracy by the rich and powerful to stay rich and powerful and to help their friends stay rich and powerful.

Sanctimony, hypocrisy and moral relativism are more common than ants.

There is no spoon.

There are, for some reason though, sporks.

Dear Diary,

One way or another, I’ve managed to survive here just short of one year.

For one reason or another, someone invited me to publish here.  If nothing else, I’ve done that nearly religiously.

[Agenda:  Write enough words so that pics of pandas and wild felines can be interspersed, so that those who don’t want to read the words might be entertained and those who usually read the words aren’t disappointed.

As I wrote this morning, my brain is mostly fried.  Left to my own devices, I might have written about Diane Schroer, but I overruled myself.  Maybe someone else should do that, I thought.]

So I spent two weeks wandering in the deserts, mountains and valleys of southern California…and another family.  The difficulty of living an examined life is constant monitoring the levels of context and metacognition roiling beneath the surface of every interaction.  One fences one’s in-laws at one’s peril when one knows that ultimately to the majority of them, for one reason or another, one is not family.  I’m welcomed because they love Debbie…who they still call Linn.  That’s enough to separate us right there.

The deeper level asks, whether for good or for bad, for happy or sad:

Step one is to establish locations and state of mind.

[Note:  Contains photos.  I have tried to minimize their file size as much as possible.]

Failed Conservative Policies.

There should not be one interview on national TV that does not include these words, and they are almost never spoken.  

We need to imprint this fact into the very fabric of America so that we can put an end to this slide to fuedalism that our country finds itself in.

America is not a ‘Conservative’ country.

Americans want:

• Universal Health Care.
  
• quality Public Education
  
• consumer protections
  
• a viable livelyhood
  
• good roads
  
• peace and prosperity
  
• their privacy
  
• personal freedoms
  
• reliable electricity
  
• clean energy
  
• reliable information
  

All of these things that Americans want, and none of them can be called Conservative.  

Getting Started

Barack Obama said something today that I think is beautiful from a framing perspective:

I mean it’s like these guys take pride in ignorance! It’s like they like being ignorant.

(hat tip to ruff4life at the Great Orange Satan)

I believe this is the counter frame to the Elitist Democrat.

Nobody wants to be ignorant, and depending on leaders who are proud of their ignorance and demand ignorance from their followers cannot be good for the running of a country.

Ignorance is simply not good public policy.

This is the second installment in the series. In my first installment, I established that in order to grok the future, it is necessary to understand the present and remember the past and that in order to influence the future, strategies must be emplaced. In this installment, I will attempt to show Docudharma nation that there are proven methods, techniques and tools available that can be used to develop strategies. These are proactive methods and can be used to focus our resources towards achieving our ultimate goals; whatever those may be.

There was this great essay the other day by Diane W: Code Talking White Trash & Exploitation Capitalism that is a must read for some uplifting real life political action.

Her framing used in the discussion was extremely interesting to me, as Diane NAILED it.  Here's some analysis of her framing from a comment I posted on her essay:

Initial Analysis 

There is NOT economic parity nor economic equal chance in this country. I have studied the actual demographics. The middle class is gone, honey, and 90% of the wealth in this country is now in 1% of the hands. There are no jobs. All these divisionary tactics keep us blaming eachother instead of the real problem. Greed. The haves and the have-nots.

• Fairness
• Opportunity
• Community/Empathy

I'll give you American Axle as an example. Those hard-working factory people, men and women who may have given as much as 30 years of their lives working their butts off, just took a 50% pay cut. Now the houses and student loans and their lifestyles had reflected a certain base pay, a pay no longer available to them. What happens to the broader market when all those people are foreclosed upon, because the money is no longer there? Are you going to yell “bootstraps” at all these workers?

• Fairness
• Opportunity
• Community/Empathy

When there are no jobs, neighborhoods die, stores close, people move away, schools have no tax-base. In the meantime GM exec's make 100 times what the factory workers who actually do the work make, and they send those jobs to goddamned Vietnam. Opportunity Empathy This is a class war. Husbands can't support their families, women have to work, kids have to become latch-key kids… Thats whats wrong with America!

A solution: No darling, at one time Lee Iaccoca took NO salary for a few years, probably cashed in one of his Lears to survive it, to keep his company up and running, to make sure workers could afford the cars they made. 

• Responsibility
• Accountability
• Empathy 

The PROBLEM isn't those people, the problem is the greed of the rich.

This conversation is OVER.

I love the conclusion. It's a done deal. 

This is also interesting because it flies in the face of Lakoffian (is that a word?) frame construction… Values first, then metaphor…It pulls the metaphor first, the illustration of the values.

I think this is the way that frames should be built. Once you have the illustrations, you deconstruct them pull out the values and improve and expand upon the illustrations that are similarly well understood and emotive.

I really love this, Diane. It has taught me a lot. I usually demonize Iococca because of the Pinto and accountability and responsibility, but you've tapped into the nostalgia and base assumptions that were in play during his success.

It's great.

Thanks.

Sometimes, it behooves us to take a moment unto ourselves for quiet reflection and contemplation, where we can behold once again the beauty and wonder of a world teeming with brilliant life in the cold, empty void of space.  Individually and collectively, it is easy to lose oneself in the day-to-day chaos that envelops us as social beings: the demands of one’s life, complicated by the demands of living and participating in a community of social beings who each have their own individual desires and who, together, form organizational structures that run the gamut from basic family, friends and neighborhoods to cities, states and nations — all competing for a varied, yet limited set of resources.

We develop patterns and follow them; if they were set to music, the beat and harmony would shift and change to reflect the ups and downs, ins and outs of life, and we would be the dancers — our lives set to the music, trying to move in sync with it. Sometimes, those harmonies skip and stutter. Other times, they become harsh and repetitive, playing the tune over and over and faster and faster until the dancer, exhausted, can do nothing more than run in place or die, unable to break free.

Below are some sayings compiled for no good reason, which is a pretty good reason.  Especially on a Friday.  A little night reading, I mean light reading–good because you don’t have to follow along.  These sentences only sporadically have anything to do with the ones next to them.  Or do they…?

The WeaveMothers, one and several, saw the thread snap.  It whipsawed through the firmament as the tapestry of reality sagged and fragmented.  Like so many other wherewhens, the place of weakness involved the worldtime of the brighter spot.  As much as they could experience Fear, they feared another stillbirth should the loose cable strike the brightness.

And, one and several, they wondered if it didn’t seem dimmer.

The Engineer seized the braking lever suddenly and pulled with all hir might.  The giant wheels locked and a plaintive squeal proclaimed the rending of the fabric.

The Storyteller ceased singing the song.  The Listener’s head turned to watch the Passenger fall from the seat and awaken suddenly.  On the Passenger’s head there was what could have been blood…near where there could have been other scars.  Some of the Passenger’s face came away in its forelimb.