Category Archives: that’s political

I’m always pondering how to build a better world. Or how to survive this one. I read, think, dream, act. It’s all here: utopias, dystopias, the hidden workings of power, resistance, organizing, and action.

A Weekend at Potlatch/Foolscap

Posted on February 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

I spent the weekend at a “reader’s spa.” Chocolate fondue, rest time, reading time, conversation, coffee, brunch, board games, even a masseuse at the ready.

Actually, it’s not called a spa.You could call it a weekend-long book group meeting, with food.

But it’s not called a book group either. It’s called a con, short for convention. But it’s unlike any other con I know about. I’m not altogether sure how to explain it. First off, it was a hybrid between two different cons — Potlatch and Foolscap. I’ve never been to a Foolscap, but I’ve been going to Potlatch for years. It is all about science fiction/fantasy book fandom, and beyond that it means different things to different people. There’s a hospitality suite with free food (and a donation kitty, of course) and hardworking volunteers. There’s a “book of honor” rather than a “guest of honor”, and the book provides a focal point for conversations that take place. As for the conversations, there are two kinds of programming: panels and microprogramming. The panels are decided in advance and involve lots and lots of audience participation. Usually the audience talks more than the panelists. The microprogramming are events that get decided on the spur of the moment. People write them up and then people attend them.

(Now when I said there was a book of honor rather than a guest of honor, that only applied to the Potlatch side of things. Foolscap has a guest of honor – in fact, two. Nancy Pearl, celebrity librarian, and Michel Gagné, artist and cartoonist. And they were responsible for the chocolate fondue.)

Potlatch is extremely well suited for introverted readers and writers. We just plain have difficulty with conversation. Not only that, but we do conversation differently. Actually, what I mean is that *I* do conversation differently. I hear something, and it sets something off in my mind, and then I take a long time to mull it over. Or I read something in a book, and although I might like to talk to somebody about it, maybe nobody around me has read the same book and then before long I forget whatever it was I wanted to say. So in general, in my daily life, I simply don’t talk about what matters most to me.

Put another way, cocktail party conversation is hell for me.

At Potlatch, on the other hand, I might attend a panel with something pre-prepared to say. Or I might spark off some idea somebody else had. Or I might derive some casual conversation to share with somebody later in the elevator. Or I might just remain silent and then go home and write about it later.

That would be now.

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Censorship on overdrive

Posted on July 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

What is censorship? A central committee allowing publication and distribution of approved items only? 

What’s the role of a public library? Historically they’ve taken a stand against book-banning.

What is censorship in the digital age?

What is the role of a public library in the digital age?

All these questions and others have been churning around in my mind ever since reading this post:

http://aqueductpress.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-most-people-dont-know-about-e.html

Overdrive, the (for-profit) provider of ebooks for public libraries, holds a monopoly on providing ebooks, probably for purely pragmatic reasons (they’re the first to come up with a system the library could actually use), which would be one thing if they allowed for downloading of ALL books, but they don’t. Only approved books–that is to say, only books put out by major publishers–that is to say, only books with the information that the corporate interests who control the publishing industry want us to have.

I’m wondering about intellectual freedom for my children, brave new pioneers of the “screen-time generation.”

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Stop frothing at the mouth

Posted on March 7, 2011 | 2 comments

An open letter to lefties who shout because they don’t think anybody is listening or tell the public to “wake up” because they think it’s asleep.

Dear Lefty,

Please allow me to comment on a major failing of the U.S. Left: its tendency to rant, froth at the mouth, proclaim the end of the world, panic, and generally drown folks in jargon. Activists who talk that way are often seen, and not unreasonably, as deranged.

“But the world’s going to hell in a handbasket!” you might reply. “People have to listen!”

Nope. You have to learn how to communicate.

Until then you are, in effect, building a concrete wall between your issue and the people who might otherwise get involved. You know — those people you call “apolitical.”

Here’s a book to start with. It’s a practical guide for parents: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. Or you could just read the title and take it to heart. Try not to blow off the second part of that title, the “listening” part.

Here’s a picture of its gorgeous cover, complete with a link to the book on Powell’s. (But if you decide to order it, go to powellsunion instead (type in powellsunion.com or http://www.ilwulocal5.com/support) , because then the union gets cred and a bit of cash.)

Yours truly,

SnarkyLeftyGirl

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Inanna and Nanshe

Posted on February 27, 2011 | 4 comments

I learned about the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses as a child. But the Sumerian ones? Only recently. Here are a few tantalizing details about Inanna (goddess of writing, civilization, war, love, sex changes, and much more) and Nanshe (goddess of social justice).

Inanna

She’s a major god in the Sumerian pantheon, a direct descendant of Nannu, the primeval mother of heaven and earth. She was worshipped for thousands of years and bears a strong resemblance to other lands’ goddesses, such as Ishtar, Aprhodite, and Venus. Sumerians sang many hymns and told many stories about her.

Enheduanna, the first person ever to sign her name to a work of writing, prayed to Inanna as her personal god.

Inanna is the one who first brought civilization to the people. Sumerians tell of the divine me’s — no translation is possible because they’re laws, events, and qualities; for instance: irrigation, the flood, suffering, joy. Once upon a time, Enki had all the me’s, and Inanna, his daughter, journeyed to visit him. They drank a lot, and then he gave her all the me’s. He later regretted it and sent minions after her to retrieve them, but too late!

In another story, Inanna journeys to the underworld, just because she can. Her sister, who rules the underworld, has her stripped naked and killed, but she gets out again with the help of her faithful assistant. But the underworld demanded somebody in her place, and that somebody turned out to be her faithless husband Dumuzi.

Nanshe
Nanshe is the goddess who looks out for widows, orphans, beggars, the debt-slave — the socially disenfranchised. She’s in charge of making sure that weights and measures are fair and accurate. And boy, does she run her temple like a tight ship. For instance, her temple hymns say:

“If the grain does not suffice for these rites and the vessels are empty and do not pour water, the person in charge of the regular offerings does not receive extra.”

I should think not!

The hymns also specify that priests can be fired or denied rations if they step out of line. People who ate and say they didn’t are also in trouble, as are mothers who deny food to their children.

She’s a powerful goddess, Nanshe, who “cares for all the countries,” who delivers the powerful to the powerless, who “sees into the heart of the Land as if it were a split reed.”

If You Had to Choose
Sumerians worshipped the entire pantheon, but they had one god in particular as their personal god. If you had to choose between these two, which would you serve? This question has special significance to me right now, because with everything going on in Libya, in Wisconsin, etc., it seems like right now is the time for some good social justice action — but what my soul craves is a long bath in the sea of story. I haven’t been writing stories in a year or more, and the lack is painful. Can I do both?

More Goddessy Goodness

For the authentic best-guess translations of Sumerian texts, check out the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. That’s where I snagged the quotes about Nanshe (A hymn to Nanshe: translation).

Nanshe, along with Inanna, also appears in Enheduanna’s temple hymns. There’s a lovely PDF of some of the hymns here.

I first met Enheduanna in the book Humming the Blues: Inspired by Nin-Me-Sar-Ra, Enheduanna’s Song to Inanna by Cass Dalglish.

The best place for a retelling of Inanna’s stories is the book Inanna by Kim Echlin and Linda Wofsgruber. It made me want to cry for poor Dumuzi, and for Inanna, who apparently regretted banishing him to the underworld. The somewhat stilted language of the “authentic” translation is made more accessible in this retelling, and the poetic spareness lets the beauty of the story shine through.

Previous Post: Enheduanna and Gilgamesh

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Information Overload

Posted on February 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

Tunisia, Egypt, Wisconsin, Libya.

Governments taking up arms against their citizenry.

We’re in the midst of social change, and the reports are coming instantly.
One Facebook, three blogs, one set of forums, two email accounts, one wiki, one blog reader.

Ten books about Sumer.

Kids off school for the week and myself not writing, to say any of what I am thinking about any of this.
Information overload, and I am not alone in that. It’s hard to write online thoughtfully and especially hard to give the online written word the sustained attention it needs.

On top of this, I have commenced my second weight loss attempt through Weight-Watchers, which I expect to be successful, but which I bitterly resent, especially having recently read somewhere that at any given moment, thirty percent of women are dieting.

For most of human history, though, and in most places in the world, the main struggle for humanity has been to get enough food in our bellies.

Which brings us back to Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Full circle.

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Online manners, please!

Posted on February 10, 2011 | 2 comments

Disclaimer: I have no complaints about manners on people commenting on this blog. Other than the spammers, that is. No, I’m complaining about some of the online forums I’m on.

My forays into online forums have been super-disappointing. People get tetchy about all sorts of things, and respond in an annoyed way, and next thing you know you have a flame war going. Even worse is that the only posts that seem to get attention are the ones where somebody is fighting. The ones where interesting questions get posed seem to die an early death.

Where, oh where, is the serious, thoughtful, polite discussion?

We totally need an Emily Post for online conversations. Weigh in, folks, what are some good online manners?

Especially manners that encourage online conversation – say what to do instead of what not to do. (As a side note, I read and respond to comments to this blog even if they’re a week late, or a year, or whatever.)

One of my favorites is Kloncke’s guidelines for dhammic posting, which she gave when she guest-posted at Feministe.

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/06/21/dhamma-comments-an-experiment/

The feministe comments are decent but IMO something is missing . . . tone, maybe?

http://www.feministe.us/blog/comments/

Here’s another comment policy from a fave blog, Zero at the Bone. I like the “be respectful” part and the “be nice” part.

http://zeroatthebone.wordpress.com/comment-policy/

There’s a bit about tone right here. Like the bit about “nobody can read your facial expression online.”

http://lifehacker.com/#!126654/special-lifehackers-guide-to-weblog-comments

One other gripe: conversations that die just as they get interesting. It seems like conversations often have a life span of a day or two. What’s up with that???

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transvestites and worker uprisings

Posted on December 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

I went to see a play tonight about transvestites, worker uprisings, feminist revolution, and stuff like that. You know. Elementary school production of Peter Pan.

After the lowly pirate worker took charge of the pirate ship, she put a pink bow tie on the Jolly Roger.

Jolly Roger with Pink Bow Tie

I was wondering what they would do about the Indians in the book, since we are in the twenty-first century, after all, and it is no longer acceptable to make caricatures of indigenous peoples. They were transformed into “the wild ones.” Good call.

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How Gossip Affects Groups

Posted on December 3, 2010 | 1 comment

Gossip is usually seen as problematic and wrong, but everyone does it. Why? It’s true it can be very damaging, but does it also serve a productive function? If so, is there a good way for groups to handle it – play with fire, but using tongs?

With no further ado, here are a couple of sociological and anthropological articles to see about the role of gossip as it affects groups.

Gossip and Group Unity

The topic “gossip” in the Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology talks about these positive and negative functions of gossip in groups:

  • Helps maintain group unity, morality and history
  • Lets members debate group norms
  • Gives individual members a map of their social environment
  • Enables groups to control cliques
  • Keeps fights within the group to project harmony to the outside world
  • Helps individuals gain power through selective distribution of power

I can see how any of these bullet points could be good or bad, depending on circumstances. But overall, it looks like gossip has an important role in group definition and unity – which is a fundamental need of groups.

Gossip and Power

This article talks about the way gossip, both positive and negative, affects the gossiper’s power over the gossip recipient in a workplace: “Passing the Word”. (Full citation: Passing the word: Toward a model of gossip and power in the workplace by Nancy B Kurlandand Lisa Hope Pelled. Academy of Management. The Academy of Management Review. Apr 2000; 25, 2; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 428)

The main takeaway is that gossip can confer power in an organizational setting.

Positive gossip can make the gossiper seem like an expert, draw others into their social circles, and make the recipient feel like the gossiper might spread positive news about themselves. Negative gossip can also coerce the gossip recipient, by making the recipient think that the gossiper might spread negative news about themselves. And gossip, of course, can backfire and reflect badly on the gossiper.

Gossip and Social Networks

The chapter “Gossip and Network Relationships” talks about how the strength of bonds within a social network can intensify or weaken the power of gossip. (Citation: “Gossip and Network Relationships” by E.K. Foster, R.L. Rosnow in the book Relating Difficulty: The Processes of Constructing and Managing Difficult Interaction.)

Some key concepts:

  • A social network may be dense or sparse in its connections
  • In a dense social network, people have equal access to a map of their social environment
  • The advantage of a dense social network is a) that individuals who are more in line with the group have more influence; and b) people will be more aware of the group’s norms
  • If people can exchange gossip freely, the social network is denser
  • Groups can have gatekeepers, who limit the exchange of information between people and have more power as a result
  • The information provided by gatekeepers can be difficult for group members to verify
  • Dense gossip networks limit the ability of gatekeepers to control information
  • A strategy for limiting the power of gatekeepers is to form social ties around them.
  • The structure of the gossip network can benefit or harm the group. Groups can fracture along gossip lines.

This is also about gossip and power. I was most interested in the information about gatekeeping – how gossip can be used to restrict information by causing mistrust, and also how gossip can be used to get around gatekeepers.

This is what I’m thinking about: Gossip confers power. Gossip affects groups and the individuals within groups in both positive and negative ways. So what happens if a group actually gets together and talks about its gossip – laying out a map of its social networks and gossip networks, and setting ground rules for gossip that reflect the way people actually do it?

Other Gossip Citations

Here are some other articles that might be of interest:

Foster, E.K. and Rosnow, R.L. “Gossip and Network Relationships.” Relating Difficulty: The Processes of Constructing and Managing Difficult Interaction. Kirkpatric, Duc, and Foley. 2006. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Gluckman, M. (1963) ‘Gossip and Scandal’, Current Anthropology 4 (3): 307–15

Haviland, J. (1977) Gossip, Reputation and Knowledge in Zinacantan, Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Heilman, S. (1978) Synagogue Life, Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Paine, R. (1967) ‘What is Gossip About? An Alternative Hypothesis’, Man 2 (2): 272–85

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Burned-Out Activists

Posted on October 13, 2010 | Leave a comment

Last week I went down to the Central library for a meeting with some activists. We did some work and talked about this and that. Then the topic of burnout came up. Somebody or other had put in lots of good work and then left the movement entirely.

“Still, that’s great if somebody can come in and give it their all for a year,” somebody said.

Really? Is that good? To work yourself like a dog for a year and then give up, leaving everybody else in the lurch and needing to work twice as hard because you are gone?

“It would be better if they could put in half that much effort for two years,” I observed.

You know, or a quarter for four years, or whatever.

Lefty activists get to feeling that there’s some crisis that needs their immediate attention, and that most of the world is oblivious to it, and that they are urgently needed because they’re the only ones who can help. Well, yes, the world is in crisis, but the thing is, no one person can fix it.

I take inspiration from the Serenity Prayer, used in AA to help folks chill out: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” (And holy moses, somebody needed it bad enough to tattoo it on their body!)

And the airplane advice: “Put the oxygen mask on yourself first.”

So how can activists prevent burnout?

1. Recognize the signs. If you wake up thinking about your cause every day, you’re in the danger zone.
2. Put in half the effort. Keep your commitments, but make half as many.
3. Take a day of rest. If the Judeo-Christian God did it, so can you.
4. Take a vacation.
5. Curb those messianic thoughts. That’s right, you’re not the Judeo-Christian God.
6. Ask for help.
7. Think ahead two weeks. Are you coming up on anything that’s going to demand huge amounts of effort? If so, consult #6 and #2.
8. Look around you. Is somebody else in your group verging toward burnout? Can you help?
9. Find something you enjoy doing, and then go do it every day.
10. Laugh.

Well, those are some answers. But they lead to a large and important question:

Can I take my own advice?

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Charter Schools and the Reason Foundation

Posted on October 3, 2010 | 2 comments

Charter schools are on the rise nationally, despite no evidence of success and evidence of real harm to students. Seattle has voted down charter schools time after time, but 2010 might be the year they establish a firm foothold in our most vulnerable neighborhoods. Charter school companies like KIPP and GreenDot are coming to town to give public and private lectures, probably in an effort to pass state legislation allowing charter schools. Meanwhile, the school superintendent seems to be pushing to close schools that have failed under No Child Left Behind.

What’s behind this huge push?

A previous blog post talked about the influence of billionaires Fordham, Gates, and Broad in the recent anti-union efforts of the organization NCTQ. These billionaires have charter school plans as well, which I’ll discuss in another post.

But another key player is the Reason Foundation, a major libertarian organization partly funded by billionaire David H. Koch. (The Koch brothers fund the Tea Party, and their father, Fred Koch, was a founding member of the John Birch society.)

Through this foundation, Koch has been gaining greater and greater power over public policy. This power is leading to changes in our laws that the vast majority of Americans probably do not want.

The mission statement of the Reason Foundation says:

“We use journalism and public policy research to influence the frameworks and actions of policymakers, journalists and opinion leaders. Reason Foundation’s nonpartisan public policy research promotes choice, competition, and a dynamic market economy as the foundation for human dignity and progress.”

This agenda of “choice, competition, and a dynamic market economy” is especially dangerous for our public schools. But that’s the direction our nation’s schools are taking, and it’s because of the behind-the-scenes power of billionaires and organizations like the Reason Foundation and the Fordham Institute.

The Reason Foundation policy paper “Fix the City Schools: Moving All Schools to Charter-Like Autonomy” by Lisa Snell, proposes that schools perpetually compete with one another based on the results of standardized tests, and perpetually close when they fail to meet standards that have been imposed by the top.

Snell writes: “The bottom line is that the district seeks continuous improvement by assessing performance of all schools, closing the lowest performing schools and creating alternate opportunities for students in the least productive schools.” In other words, “the essence of this policy brief” is to “close failing schools, open new schools, replicate great schools, repeat.”

What makes this technique so damaging to students is that charter schools, on the whole, don’t provide a better education. One third of charter schools do worse than public schools – while only one sixth do better, and one half do about the same. This means that approximately one third of students in these closed schools will move on to an even worse education. And every time a school closes, all the students face severe disruptions.

These are not just theoretical outcomes, but represent the actual, lived experience of millions of students in districts where charter schools have taken hold, as in cities like New Orleans, Chicago, and New York. (David H. Koch, by the way, is the richest and most powerful resident of New York City.) It has been devastating for the most marginalized children – poor children, children of color, special education children, and English language learners.

But the actual suffering of children does nothing to deter the Reason Foundation or school district leaders in cities targeted for charter schools. Snell interviewed Louisiana State Superintendent Paul Pastorek and described his vision for public schools:

“There was an article written the other day called ‘Try, Try Again,’ and I think it epitomizes our strategy. We’ll give it to a charter operator. We’ll let them work it. If they fail, we’ll bring in another charter operator and if they fail, we’ll bring in another charter operator until they get it right.”

Our struggling kids can’t wait while policymakers and state superintendents try out this charter experiment. They need real change now. They need an end to the punitive measures in No Child Left Behind.They need librarians, counselors, social services, and tutoring. They need equal access to excellent education, regardless of income, race, ability, or language. They need qualified, experienced teachers with union protections. They need small class sizes.

Because there are no quick fixes.

Because education isn’t about “high performing” or “productive” schools.

It’s about the kids.

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