I Need You to be Wicked

I'm in the middle of writing a grant that stresses structural change. It is helping me to outline and synthesize my work as a VISTA at my project site.

As I look at what we do on the side of human development, I now find myself looking at what our job is on the structural side. Sure, working with individuals and training groups is fine and dandy and one way to effect change. But when we call ourselves an "employment initiative" I think I am missing an opportunity to be the social change agent I hold back on. I need to be wicked; I need to be rebellious.

One of the parts of our work is to be the voice of poverty on the development corporation committee. But we don't always take the opportunity to be the real voice. I know they are making mistakes, but I'm afraid to point them out. I need to not shake in the face of power like I do sometimes. But to be that radical, the voice from the distance at times, I fear I will be "unprofessional." I think I need to re-frame this as being "non-traditional" or "unconventional" because that is what we need. Nothing annoys me more than yes-men who shake their heads without pushing for understanding. Communication is a burden and takes so much time. But time is much more valuable than money when you are solving a problem.

I shouldn't be afraid to dominate a conversation when I have something valuable to say. But I am. I'm a woman, I'm young, I'm not informed in "their way" [business] which is the blessing and the curse.

What if I did rant against the machine when I am at the machine. I am not in the machine, I am meeting the machine. Do I have the confidence to throw a wrench in the machine because I'm the only one who understands it is a monster?

I don't know, but I appreciate the opportunity to synthesize my projects in this grant and ask these questions. Not bad for something to do on a Monday.

the perfect table

In Reply to Gustavo Gutierrez:

"The poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and is not ethnically innocent. [It is not independent of geography.] The poor are a by-product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible. They are marginalized by our social and cultural world. They are the oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labor and despoiled of their humanity. Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order." Gustavo Gutierrez in, "The Power of the Poor in History"

I totally internalize this quote. Some days I think it is dangerous that I think about an entirely different social order. It is the most radical to be able to imagine something which has never been seen or doesn't exist. 

What if Wal-Mart didn’t sell cat toys because they thought it was wrong that children in the same town were going hungry while people bought toys for animals. Or, what if instead of not selling them, items were ranked by their necessity. If you want to buy a stupid cat toy, instead of 100% profit made on it by the company was %10 back to the retailer and 90% to charity. Items wouldn’t all be need v. wants, but how much need v. want would determine their profitability.  Shoes, clothes, tools, all are necessities, but cat toys, and $400 toys for individual backyard playgrounds? We have plenty of playgrounds and people need to learn to share. If you really want that ridiculous personal backyard playground or metal John Deere collection, you should have to be responsible for the social inequality that is the consequence of your wealth. It isn’t that things shouldn’t be created, made or sold, but they should have a much more transparent consequence. In my new social order, in my head, that is where I am going.  

I can imagine  a world where that gatekeeper who answers the phone at a “service” agency actually wants to help me live in a house and keep my job. And they would know how to do it. There isn’t a “no” in this world where people care. Our conversation wouldn’t be “I can’t help you” but “this is really horrible, can I help you think of some alternatives together.” Even on the phone. With a stranger, at 10am on a Friday. I can imagine that when bad days happen for individuals, there is a business plan that doesn’t penalize individuals, but rather is organized to fill that gap and be sympathetic to it. 

This would mean business has to maintain “fat” but not at the top in the bank account, but be over-staffed on the line. It does mean more time on teaching diversity of positions to employees, which is not a “well oiled machine” because it isn’t specialization. It is the opposite of industrial organization, in ways. I do think people want to do this, but they don’t know how, or maybe the person in charge of this change is busy with the crisis of what wedding dress her daughter is going to wear, but for whatever reason, it isn't happening when people want it to happen.


Is to think outside the box dangerous? It makes it hard for me to be "professional" some times because I really want to be angry at inequality. I am angry with comments like "the poor will always be with us" because they concede there is no solution and don't think about solutions, just continuing with out asking questions about why. I am angry. Anger can be a positive motivator to get me out of bed some days. I have to get up and fight a war on the poor. But some days I also have to ride around with those who maintain the problem and try not to make them do less, but show get them to do more of the good they are doing.


*sigh*

Democracy Suspended- The return of Absolute Bullshit

Democracy Suspended at ISU

In case nobody has heard yet, the ISU faculty senate, which is the faculty's democratic decision maker on campus, has been suspended. Welcome to facism.

"facism - def.a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism."


Mr. Valias has lobbied the Idaho State Board of Education for this power. This is after a more than 75% overwhelming vote from the faculty senate of no confidence in his leadership. This means they don't trust him. So what do you do if you don't like a group that doesn't like you - expel their rights. And that is exactly what happened this afternoon in Moscow, ID.

Fascism - It isn't just for Moscow, Russia anymore.

But this isn't just about those two warring groups. This is about the right to democracy for all Idaho citizens.

"The extent to which a people of a nation can democratically decide what goods and services they are going to produce and consume [in this case education,] under what conditions these goods and services are to be produced and consumed [contracts with teachers], with what entities they will engage with trade and under what conditions this trade will take place [bargaining], how the resulting wealth will be distributed [wages], and what effect all of these actions will have on the nations  natural resources  and environment, is the extent to which it is a nation. Only the organized working class can maintain the existence of America." This is democracy.

But how Mr. Vailas works, when you do organize and work democratically, and he doesn't like the result, he can just suspend your right, like he suggested and lobbied for, AND succeeded doing at the state board of education meeting today in Moscow.

Don't think this action is an independent on the larger context of the right of democracy a free society. The faculty senate is just a type of organization. For their rights to be denied to the people who work day-in and day-out to help a generation of leaders, is a tragedy.

Students need to stand up for the rights of democracy. People died for the right to vote in a democracy. They were beaten for the right. They went to jail for the right.

YOU won't be killed, you won't be harmed, and you won't go to jail. But if you won't stand up, who will?

Stand in solidarity with the ISU Faculty senate. You don't even have to stand. Print some stickers on mailing labels and pass them out in class. Make some fliers to get a group together and go to the student senate meeting next Monday night. Tell your student leaders you want a statement to show that students support democracy at home, not just abroad in places like Bahrain, Tunisa, and Egypt. Get some safety pins and some color of ribbon and start a campaign. Wear hats made out of newspaper and write your message for the faculty members on it. You never have to say a word.

But you do have to take a risk. America is just an experiment, and it has always demanded risks. Now is your time to do something, before you don't have the right to do anything.

More on Watson V. Watson

"It has become increasingly possible to design computing systems that enhance the human experience, or now — in a growing number of cases — completely dispense with it." from the NYTimes article. 

 That's what I was trying to say.

WATSON vs Dr. Watson

Isn't it ironic that the machine that is now being built to replace people, shares a name with Dr. Watson, from the Sherlock Holmes series?

Dr. Watson was the storyteller, and was the human piece of the story. Detective Holmes was logical, like Data or Spock from the Star Trek series. Watson balanced him out.

Now we have a computer that is built to behave in the human sciences. The goal is to make a computer that can understand natural language. Its goal is to be a quick and correct as the ultimate machine, homo sapien sapeins.  Do we really want machines to be equal with humans? Do we want them to be better than humans? I understand the whole idea WATSON started was "can this be done" but wasn't that the same question Frankenstein started with? Will we be better off as animals, if machines can do that which makes us unique.

Robots...RoBOTS!

Creepy robots. What is next, taking on several people at once while sword fighting. Eeeek!

It is a Vicious Cycle

Health, employment, and food are a vicous cycle. If you don't eat healthy, you get sick, if you get sick, you can't work, if you can't work, you can't eat, if you don't eat, you get sick, and so on, and so on. 

But really, THIS IS A VICIOUS CYCLE. LOL!

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BDSM and Social Justice

At first BDSM and social justice are not complementary ideas. For those who don't know BDSM is actually 6 ideas. BD is Bondage and Discipline. D/s is Domination and submission. S&M is Sadism and Masochism. Social justice is the idea that all people deserve dignity by society. It is my BDSM experience that leads to my deepest thoughts about social justice.

BDSM is often viewed through a sexual lens. People think that people who are into BDSM are into kinky sex. While kinky sex may be part of BDSM for some people, to me it is about a conscious relationship that clearly identifies power roles and where both partners are working together to "master" the roles. This means that both partners are required to communicate about their experience. BDSM, if well practiced, is 90% communication, and about 10% actions. It is consciousness raising.

To be a "Master" or "Mistress" the goal is to master techniques of power. But you can't master something without knowing a lot about it. We see people working on being a master at power everyday. It is often the same as leadership. It means setting the best example, striving to improve Ones self, and using small details in ones life to control it. Being a Master/Mistress or Dom/Domme (Dominatrix) to another means that as they lead, they also are teaching self control to the submissive partner. This means that there must be correction. Correction is discipline.

Discipline has a long history of use and its place in society. The most thorough explanation of the history of punishment and society is in the book "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison" by the philosopher, Michael Foucault. He also wrote "The History of Sexuality" because power and sexuality cannot be disconnected. Power is, in this descriptions a political technology. It is also the tool that social justice must use to bring about equality. Social justice can't pretend power doesn't exist, but it needs to be used responsibly. Discipline is one way of wielding power and can also be a tool of good. This is how it should also be viewed by those practicing BDSM.

Being a good Domme, in BDSM, means knowing how and being able to perform as a good submissive in the correct context. At work in the business world, not all Dommes are in positions of power. They must know when and how to be submissive to give power to others. That is what leads to true mastery of the skills of power.

Dommes must also be very conscious of lower participants power. I learned a lot about this from the paper "Sources of Power of Lower Participants in Complex Organizations" by David Mechanic. In the social justice world, power use doesn't happen just in the board rooms, it happen in a very real way and the most often at the doors of organizations. Dommes recognize that it also happens in personal relationships and is called "topping from the bottom." Submissives who engage in this behavior (especially sexually) are sometimes referred to as "power bottoms." Real masters have to recognize this, not just as a flaw, but as a power disruption that has to be addressed by communication. This is also how it works in organizations. The secretary is the gatekeeper to people, and influences access and information flow. Their sort of power should be respected. A Mistress knows how to use this external power in a positive way. So does a good manager and a good leader. In the end, this person is sometimes the best ally for change.

In organizations striving for social justice, we have to understand and use
coercion and persuasion
influence (overt and subvert)
Power and communication
Marketing and image control
Submission and social powerlessness as an exercise of power dissection
Affective best practices for change
Ritualized expression of pain as a group and as an individual


In BDSM the successful Mistress or Master is also responsible to be very conscious of these things. I know my BDSM experience is what influenced and continues to influence my work in social justice. Anybody else?

Shopping from a Poverty Perspective

I read the COOLEST article the other day. It is called "Behavioral Economics and Marketing in Aid of Decision Making Among the Poor." You should read it. It explains the logic in decision making, especially about financial products, for people in poverty. I knew what it was saying, intuitively, but until I read the article, I couldn't explain the logic to others. Now I can, and I want to share my experience using the logic it provided when I went shopping last night.

First, I think you need a little background. My car broke down two weeks ago and it cost 50% of my months pay to fix it. A whole paycheck went just to fixing the car. So I have been broke beyond broke. I didn't overdraft any money, but I was tempted to. I was running dangerously low on food. When most people think "low on food" they think they mean good to eat food. I mean I was literally low on food. I had 4 cans of corn, 2 cans of peas, 4 eggs, some coffee creamer (no coffee), 3 frozen bananas, and spices. That is literally all the food I had at home. It isn't because I haven't gone shopping, it is that I don't have money to spend on food. Not having enough leads to the habit of not shopping for food.

I am also in the habit of filling my cars  gas tank anytime I have to buy gas. My dad taught me that the top half of the tank costs just as much as the bottom. It would make sense to fill it up and save time later. The bad habits come when you know you don't have enough. If I know I only have $20 dollars to live and eat on for 2 weeks, even if the empty light comes on (like it did last week) I can't fill the tank. I want to do it, I know in the long run that $20 dollars to fill the tank and I save time later, but that isn't my primary goal. My goal is to get just enough to keep as much of the $20 in my pocket for the next emergency.

I was thinking about this last night as I was shopping for groceries for the first time in about a month. I was looking at the things I needed, like soap, shampoo, tampons, deodorant, ect. I was looking at them in terms of price, not value. I knew I couldn't spend more than $200 on everything (food and personal products, and still planned on $40 for gas) I need for the next entire month. The long-term benefits of buying in bulk are clear. I know that each unit is cheaper. But when I was looking at buying the extra large box of tampons, not the smaller cheaper box, I realized that I needed the extra $3 sooner than I needed the product. Contact solution was the same way. I needed some, and it cost about $9. I know I should have bought the duel pack for $18 but I needed to keep $9 in my pocket more because it was the only $9 I had. Really, I couldn't even bring myself to spend $18 on any one product on my trip. It would have been the most expensive item, and been worth, say, 10 cans of soup. If I bought the single bottle of solution, I could have what I needed (the solution) AND 5 cans of soup, which I also needed. It isn't economical as dollars per unit, but it is economical for fluidity of use.

 When most people teach financial literacy, they go about teaching the unit value and how to calculate it. It is what people learn in school. Education is taught at the middle-class level, and unit calculation is practical if you have enough money, and want to save more of it. It is the logic of what to do when you don't have enough that we aren't teaching. Maybe that is why education as we teach it now only works for some people, and not anyone. We are teaching a logic with no real application. My hope for BankOn is that we do something different. We move beyond the logic, and come up with a good reason why I should go ahead and fill my gas tank when I know it means I won't be able to eat tomorrow.