Archive for October 7th, 2009
Some Votes Count More than Others
If you want to watch a sobering video demonstrating that some votes just count more than others, give this one a look:
Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Politics: Tom Ferguson and Noam Chomsky.
Don’t worry. It’s bipartisan. Both sides will cringe.
This is why community building is important. It transcends sides. If you don’t have the cash to buy influence, you have to organize to press your interests among the powerful so you don’t get run over too badly. Or even to just cut through all the noise. But more importantly, when you build community you open new opportunities that don’t always involve fighting the powerful. This is what Saul Alinsky missed. I know, I know. He’s the so-called father of community organizing, and he’s all the rage these days among the too-cool out there. But I think his community building concepts were disingenuous. Don’t do what Alinksy did. If you do and you are successful you may end up looking a lot like what you fight. I can’t help thinking about that watching Ferguson and Chomsky. Instead, organize to build something new. Build to distribute power so everyone is a leader and everyone is a follower and everyone benefits. See Grace Lee Boggs on that last point.
Planning a Wet and Windy Nomi
A few guys from the Tokyo OpenSolaris User Group will be getting together tomorrow night for a beer (nomikai). Martin Schmidt from the Osnabrück OSUG in Germany will here, so it will be great to meet him and talk all things East and West. But there is also a big hairy typhoon spinning its way to Tokyo. So, we may get wet.
