tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73937803795099972342024-03-06T01:13:13.700-06:00Ecological LeadershipImperfect thoughts on our imperfect world: merging leadership to ecology as a guide in chaotic times.
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.comBlogger125125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-50738610383840948892020-12-04T11:00:00.001-06:002020-12-04T11:00:46.891-06:00AFTER THOUGHTS – On Following Fool and So-called Servant-Leader Now Former CEO of Briggs & Stratton Todd Teske Down The Rat Hole<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Some quotes from the September 28, 2020 WISCONSIN EXAMINER: <b><u><a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2020/09/28/briggs-strattons-demise-greed-mismanagement-blaming-others/" target="_blank">Briggs & Stratton’s demise: greed, mismanagement,
blaming others</a></u></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">“Just days before filing for bankruptcy in July, Milwaukee’s
Briggs & Stratton Corp., at one time the largest producer of small engines
in the world and employer to 11,000 union production workers making a solid,
middle-class living, handed its top executives $5 million in bonuses, calling them
“retention awards.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">“Like vultures picking a carcass clean, these bonuses in the
run-up to bankruptcy have become an all-too-frequent way for corporate
executives to gift themselves with one last, egregious payday before stiffing
their workers and creditors.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">“The story of how Briggs got to this point is a morality
tale about modern American industrial capitalism. Briggs embodies the
anti-union race to the bottom characterized by contempt for hourly workers,
mismanagement and misjudging markets.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">“Declining sales, looming debt payments, then the COVID-19
pandemic with its dramatic drop in lawnmower sales all combined to
finally push the company into Chapter 11. Sales for the second quarter of 2020
were down by $107 million, or 18%, over the same period last year. The third
quarter results are expected to be even worse.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">“Despite obvious mismanagement, Briggs’ board of directors
in July <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2020/06/18/briggs-stratton-restores-executive-salaries-amends.html" target="_blank">made “cash retention awards”</a> of $1.2 million to CEO
and Chairman Todd Teske, $600,000 to Senior VP Mark Schwertfeger and lesser
amounts to other executives. Although the new owners abruptly dismissed Teske
on Sept. 22, he could still hang on to some or all of his $8.8 million golden
parachute, bankruptcy attorneys suggested to the <i>Milwaukee Business
Journal</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">“The day before filing for bankruptcy, Briggs’ board voted
to terminate the health and life insurance benefits of the company’s retirees.
Then, in late August, Briggs and the United Steel Workers local 7232 (the
successor to AIW 232) agreed to a severance package for the workers who will
lose their jobs. Most will get less than $5,000.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">“Briggs’ demise has, in reality, directly resulted from its
executives’ mismanagement, greed and pathological animosity towards the
unionized workers who had made them rich.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">THE END</span><o:p></o:p></p>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-85038175490107479552020-11-24T16:45:00.004-06:002020-11-24T23:46:04.323-06:00 STOP FOLLOWING THE LEADER – Even If He Claims to Be Ecological<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkET2Z89RFsFpHSdcbxRO12H8FT7HoxLOXN2sxe9m2aNc8YV8ydwFeai3E2W0wzbHi3xeH4gc32UsF42fvzz4qVnDN6TGk5Wlx8S5ljlnBB92rRM6uiomV4A3L32OmB8nFW3IGotgU2hDd/s2048/Road+Closed.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1366" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkET2Z89RFsFpHSdcbxRO12H8FT7HoxLOXN2sxe9m2aNc8YV8ydwFeai3E2W0wzbHi3xeH4gc32UsF42fvzz4qVnDN6TGk5Wlx8S5ljlnBB92rRM6uiomV4A3L32OmB8nFW3IGotgU2hDd/s320/Road+Closed.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I have decided to put an end to my life long trivial pursuit
of following-the-leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the
signs that it was time for this divorce came to me this summer while I was out
for a walk with my wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had stopped
by a mountain stream to soak our feet, and I noticed a group of preteen boys jumping
into a pool in the river upstream from us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was a bit confused about why one after another the boys would take
turns launching themselves from a large rock and leap into the air, where they then
contorted their bodies in such a way that when they reached the water surface
their faces and crotches smacked into the water in what appeared to be a very
painful impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">At first, I thought maybe the poor kids were in need of some
diving lessons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I saw a group of
similar aged girls on the shore of the river who seemed to mostly be ignoring
the antics of the boys, and I wondered if the painful water flops were some
sort of attempt to catch the girl’s attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But then it dawned on me as I watched the boys one after another repeat
a new version of the twisted-plop, that the boys were simply following the
rules for that profound childhood game of Follow-The-Leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">You would think the pain and humiliation of repeatedly
playing this game would be enough for a growing boy to find something better to
do with his time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But like the boys in
the game, I have had a hard time letting go of what has amounted to a lifetime
of basically following fools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twenty
years ago, I even got a leadership related masters degree, somehow thinking
that if I better understood the theories behind the leader, than perhaps the
game would come to hold greater meaning for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Once I graduated, I even figured I would find a job where I could work
for a more enlightened leader, or perhaps even join the ranks of the hallowed
leaders myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Eventually, I did figure out that 30 years or more of being
a professional follow-the-leader-er did have some rewards, and I was able to
quit my paid gaming days and live off the pension my life of folly had provided
me with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, like all professional
game players, I have had a difficult time just sitting on the sidelines
watching everybody else continuing to get smacked around, because their leaders
instructed them to do so. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, I
continued to look for ways to get back into the game, on a volunteer basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I clung to the idea that maybe there could
still be good leaders, who were guided not by the paycheck, but by looking out
for the people, and the planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">After some extended, long winded efforts to prove that
leaders could indeed be worthy of following, I realized that in a healthy
ecosystem, there really are no leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>None of the participants need to be told or guided by some more powerful
or wiser entity how to behave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They quickly
learn to get along, and any smackdowns they might receive reminded them to
cooperate with the other players, or suffer the ultimate penalty, which is
ejection from the ecosystem in one form or another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I am not sure where this conclusion will take me, but my
experiments in ecological-leadership have hopefully come to an end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I post this final summation of my findings
not to tell anybody else what to do, but hopefully to remind myself that if I
am feeling like I was smacked in the face and groin again, it is likely the
result of picking up my old habits and following some fool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For anyone interested in finding out where
this fool has gone, you may follow any of my newfound foolish antics I feel like
sharing at my <a href="https://placesiam.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Places I Am</a> blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Note to self - so long follower, and may your journeys
always be guided by yourself, and not some fool like me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-81844383719662429272019-12-12T18:56:00.000-06:002020-01-08T13:41:36.968-06:00CAN CORPORATE CEO’S REALLY BE SERVANT LEADERS? - PART IV<u><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What Are Peoples
Highest Priority Needs and How Are They Manipulated To Increase Profits as Told By Servant Leadership Prophets?</span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk26442726;"></span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In <a href="https://ecologicalleadership.blogspot.com/2019/12/can-corporate-ceos-really-be-servant.html" target="_blank">the last part of this discussion</a> on the servant-leader
practices of corporate CEO’s, I introduced Robert Greenleaf’s “best test” of
the servant-leader. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> Before I get into testing Todd Teske’s servant leadership claim, it is
important to take a bit of a detour to delve into what is meant when Greenleaf suggested
in his “best test” that the difference between leader-first and servant-first
leaders is manifested “in the care taken by the servant first to make sure that
other people’s highest priority needs are being served”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would also like to point out the other side
of this, that the leader first would manifest themselves by revealing how their
practices deny other people’s highest priority needs from being served. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The critical part in this best test is
understanding what is meant by “people’s highest priority needs”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I am not aware of Greenleaf explaining in detail what he
meant by “people’s highest priority needs”, perhaps he took it for granted that
these needs were obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Greenleaf’s
lack of explanation might play a role in why when many professors of servant leadership
write or talk about their own takes on the path to servant leadership, they
will often cite Greenleaf’s best test and then ignore the reference to serving
peoples highest priority needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At best,
they tend to go off on a tangent about what they think the path to servant
leadership is, leaving Greenleaf’s thoughts on the shelf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Typically these tangents include suggestions to:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>wash people’s feet or follow other examples
of some other religious, or corporate, or management consultant guru who will
deepen the followers spiritual life; love the people they serve by performing
acts of charity or martyrdom; become a better listener; hold more brainstorming
type meetings; love their wife and children; refer to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
in order to become a more enlightened leader; or simply follow other aspects of
their unique outline or esoteric flow chart to becoming a servant leader. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although these tangents can lead to
interesting reading, they mostly distract the reader (or listener) from really
understanding what it means when people’s highest priority needs are satisfied
and what the consequences are when they are not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Another possible explanation for ignoring the call to
empower people to meet their own high priority needs in the corporate world
might be the impact that that sort of behavior would have on the corporation’s
bottom-line ability to generate profit and grow, but then again maybe that is
just more distracting conjecture on my part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ignorance is not however an excuse for laziness when it comes to
exercising Greenleaf’s “best test”, so it is worth some more effort to clarify
what constitutes a high priority need. In order to get back on track, I will go
off on my own tangent and provide an explanation that I believe is an effective
model to understanding how best to serve people’s highest priority needs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The best source I
have found on defining human related needs comes from one of my favorite
economic gurus, Chilean economist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_Max-Neef" target="_blank">Manfred Max-Neef</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Max-Neef outlined what he believed
constituted human needs in his book <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130319153338/http://www.max-neef.cl/download/Max-neef_Human_Scale_development.pdf" target="_blank">HUMAN SCALE DEVELOPMENT</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Max-Neef’s ideas on human needs were a response to trying to
address development problems in Latin America that he believed were related to
economic policies imposed on it from its northern economic super-powered
neighbors to the north.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">These policies
did little to promote self-sufficiency of the Latin American people and instead
indebted them as a means to ensure the growing wealth of the leadership of the
super-powered neighbors.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As a possible
solution to what he termed “a world in crisis”, Max-Neef proposed what he
called Human Scale Development, which focused on “satisfaction of fundamental
human needs, on generation of growing levels of self-reliance, and on the
construction of organic articulations of people with nature and technology, of
global processes with local activity, of the personal with the social, of
planning with autonomy”.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As an alternative to the pillaging and plundering that was
typical of the economic system that dominated the world in order to increase
the profits of the privileged, Max-Neef proposed an economic system designed to
serve nine real human needs: Subsistence, Protection, Affection, Understanding,
Participation, Idleness, Creation, Identity, and Freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, there is
no hierarchy in Max-Neef nine needs, with the satisfaction of each need just as
important as all the others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Each of these needs than has four attributes or ways in
which the need needs to be satisfied: Being, Having, Doing, and
Interacting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From this there can be a
large range of options in how that need might be satisfied by what Max-Neef
calls the satisfiers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, the Subsistence/Being
need might be satisfied by the human who achieves physical, emotional, and
mental health; Subsistence/Having by obtaining food, shelter, and work; Subsistence/Doing
by working, feeding, procreating, clothing, resting, and sleeping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Max-Neef summarized this concept of human
needs in what he called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_Max-Neef%27s_Fundamental_human_needs" target="_blank">Matrix of Human Needs and Satisfiers</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The possible satisfiers of the human needs
could be quite large in theory, with some being more effective than others in satisfying
the need in question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Satisfiers of the
needs are categorized into one of five types:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Synergic – satisfiers that in the
process of satisfying one need also satisfy or help to satisfy other needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Community gardens where people have access to
land to grow their own food are an example of a synergic satisfier that
satisfies multiple needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides
providing food that satisfies the Subsistence need to eat and to exercise the
body; activities in the garden could also contribute to needs like Protection
where users would know they could go to obtain food; Understanding where the
gardeners could expand their knowledge of plants and how to grow them,
Participation where gardeners could interact with other gardeners, Creation
where gardeners could create beautiful gardens, and Freedom where gardeners
would be free to grow whatever sorts of plants and food they desired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Singular – satisfiers that satisfy
only one need and remain neutral as far as serving other needs go. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Welfare sorts of programs where those served
are given coupons to buy food at certain markets in order to satisfy one aspect
of the subsistence need to eat falls into this category.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Inhibiting – satisfiers that
typically over satisfy one need and, in the process, seriously impair the
possibility of satisfying other needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
diet consisting of mostly junk food might satisfy the caloric intake
requirements for the subsistence need, but in the process other nutritional
requirements are ignored and non-nutritional additives to the junk food contribute
to the unset of health consuming diseases like obesity, diabetes, and high
blood pressure; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which then consume the
consumer, their resources, and their ability to participate in processes that
would satisfy other more important needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Pseudo – satisfiers that stimulate
a false sensation of satisfying a given need, and oftentimes pursuit of the
pseudo-satisfaction prevents the real need from being satisfied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contributions to parasitic charitable
institutions would be an example of this where the contributor believes their
monetary contribution is in part satisfying their own needs for Affection and
Participation by showing they care by helping to pay for poor folks to get
access to food, clothing or shelter to satisfy their Subsistence needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, much of the money ends up padding
the pockets of the administrators of the acts of charity, and the other real
humans are left with their needs mostly unmet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Violators and Destructors –
satisfiers mostly aimed at meeting the need for Protection, that when applied
not only annihilate the possibility of satisfaction of the Protection need, but
also render the satisfaction of other needs impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use of pesticides and herbicides on factory
farms as a way of Protecting access to Subsistence
satisfiers of food not only kills the unwanted weeds and insect pests, it can
kill or seriously impair the farmworkers, their neighbors, the other creatures in
the environment, and the consumers of the poisoned food, thereby preventing
those folks from satisfying other important needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For a more detailed explanation of Max-Neef’s ideas on human
needs, refer to his books: <a href="https://www.greenbooks.co.uk/Book/67/Economics-Unmasked.html" target="_blank">ECONOMICS UNMASKED</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130319153338/http://www.max-neef.cl/download/Max-neef_Human_Scale_development.pdf" target="_blank">HUMAN SCALE DEVELOPMENT</a>, and <a href="http://3awww.alastairmcintosh.com/general/resources/2007-Manfred-Max-Neef-Fundamental-Human-Needs.pdf" target="_blank">REAL-LIFE ECONOMICS</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the book ECONOMICS UNMASKED, Max-Neef and coauthor Phillip B. Smith laid out how the growth obsessed
economics of our corporate controlled world was poisoning the biosphere, exhausting
the planet's natural resources, making the already rich and powerful more wealthy,
and combined with growth in human population destroying the habitats of other species.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This conclusion had a similar ring to what
Greenleaf was experiencing and hoped to address in his SERVANT AS LEADER essay.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Towards the end of the essay he pointed out
that his goal at the time was to make changes to a society plagued by “the
disposition to venture into immoral and senseless wars, destruction of the
environment, poverty, alienation, discrimination, overpopulation” which existed
because of “human failures”, and in particular failures in the dominate leaders
of society.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is my opinion, for whatever that is worth, that the
problems Greenleaf was trying to address 50 years ago, have not gotten better,
but exponentially worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is
because of this that I find it dangerous when people in leadership positions
today try to cloak their own leader-first styles with the moniker of “servant
leadership” while they ignore the impacts of their institutions on real people.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a possible route to avoiding this ignorant
form of leadership, I propose that Greenleaf’s concept of the manifestation of
servant leadership via focusing on “people's highest priority needs” and
determining what the impact of the actions of leadership are on people becoming
“more autonomous”, be combined with Max-Neef’s ideas on Human Scale Development
focused on “satisfaction of fundamental human needs” and increasing people's
autonomy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the next part of this
evaluation, I will attempt to apply this refined “best test” to CEO Todd
Teske’s Briggs and Stratton Corporation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-44628197480435664482019-12-01T17:17:00.000-06:002020-02-04T12:11:58.032-06:00CAN CORPORATE CEO’S REALLY BE SERVANT LEADERS? - PART III<br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Servant-leader Best Test (Or How to Analysis the Walk of
the Talker)</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://ecologicalleadership.blogspot.com/2019/11/can-corporate-ceos-really-be-servant_28.html" target="_blank">Previously in this series</a>, we reviewed Todd Teske's tales of his ascent to the servant leader throne while serving as CEO of Briggs and Stratton Corporation. To really figure out where leaders like Teske fall on the leadership
ladder, Robert Greenleaf in his wisdom proposed a test, which is often referred
to as “the best test“ of the servant-leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The test could be used to determine whether a leader was leader-first or
servant-first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a repeat of the test
that comes from Greenleaf’s <u><a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Robert_K_Greenleaf_The_Servant_as_Leader.pdf" target="_blank">THE SERVANT AS LEADER</a></u> essay: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The difference manifests itself in
the care taken by the servant first to make sure that other people’s highest
priority needs are being served.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
best test, and most difficult to administer, is this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do those served grow as persons?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do they, while being served, become
healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become
servants?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what is the effect on the
least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further
deprived?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In all the talks I have heard or books I have read, from
self-proclaimed servant leader CEO-types, I do not recall the talkers sharing
any “best test” results backing up their claims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One explanation for a lack of test results
might be as Greenleaf pointed – the difficulty in administering the test. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There may also be some confusion on the part of the CEO’s on
whether they should only apply the test to their private lives by focusing on
the warm and tender love they have for their families, and ignoring the test
when it comes to understanding the impacts of the tough love tactics they need
to apply when running a profit driven corporation whose primary test is limited
to shareholder value.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Despite the <a href="https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/corporation" target="_blank">legal protections offered the corporations</a> in granting the institution virtual “personhood” status and at the
same time shielding the real people who actually run the corporation (or profit
from it) from responsibility for the “corporate” actions, Greenleaf did not
recommend a separate easier to pass test for such folks when it came to the
servant-leader status. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did however recommend
a restructuring of the corporate hierarchy in which the CEO be replaced by a
first-among-equals type of board of peers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This idea was highlighted in the second of Greenleaf’s “servant-essays”
titled <u><a href="https://www.greenleaf.org/products-page/the-institution-as-servant/" target="_blank">THE INSTITUTION AS SERVANT</a></u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the section headed “Organization: Some Flaws in the Concept of the Single
Chief” he clarified that “To be a lone chief atop a pyramid is abnormal and corrupting.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He goes on to point out many reasons why the
lone wolf corporate CEO does not make a good leader, which I summarize as the pyramid
structure isolates the chief from the reality of what is going on at the bottom
of the pyramid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This unbalanced power
structure results in a top-down one-way dominated communication, no matter how
hard the CEO tries to listen to the soft distorted echoes from below that might
somehow reach the high tower that holds the ears of the CEO.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the end, the biggest difficulty I see in administering
the best-test to the CEO-led corporation is in accepting the reality of the
answers and what those answers would lead the administrator to conclude about
the outcomes of the practices of the CEO-led institution as a whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For I believe that it is the structure of the
institution (which meets the specifications of those who benefit the most from
such a design), which determines the outcomes, and not who the leader is or what
leadership style he or she professes to follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For as someone once said power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely, at least a long as power is doled out to a few foolish leaders, who
are unable or unwilling to hear or see what is happening below them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When your world is defined by the blinders of shareholder
value, despite what your mission may say, awareness on other impacts of the
corporate-leadership style are not possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And I would argue that CEO’s and the Corporations they lead would fail
the best-test with flying colors every time they took it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, the CEO’s have mastered the
fine art of talking the talk of servant leadership, but they are unable to walk
the walk when it comes to passing the best test.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Since Corporations like to hide behind their personhood
status when it comes to responsibility, I believe it is more meaningful to
apply Greenleaf’s “best test” to the Corporate-Leadership “person” than the
leadership style of the figurehead CEO and his family oriented life guided by
love-leadership, who seem to come and go with the changing tide or the ups and
downs of the market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That leads me to <a href="https://ecologicalleadership.blogspot.com/2019/12/can-corporate-ceos-really-be-servant_12.html" target="_blank">PartIV</a> of this topic where I will attempt to apply the best-test as best as I can
to the walk of the corporate-person of Briggs and Stratton Corporation, as led by
its Chief Executive Officer Todd Teske, which is easier said than done.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-66887319990957560452019-11-28T10:44:00.002-06:002019-12-01T17:46:09.041-06:00CAN CORPORATE CEO’S REALLY BE SERVANT LEADERS? - PART II<br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Todd Teske’s Servant LeadershipTalk (With Tom Talking
Between The Lines)<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In <a href="https://ecologicalleadership.blogspot.com/2019/11/can-corporate-ceos-really-be-servant.html" target="_blank">Part I</a> of this topic, I provided a lead-in regarding how
to determine if a leader is a servant as told by Robert Greenleaf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following that introduction, here is Tom’s
two cents – on multimillionaire CEO <a href="https://ecologicalleadership.blogspot.com/2019/11/todd-teske-ceo-servant-leadership-talk.html" target="_blank">Todd Teske’s talk</a> on what he calls his servant
leader journey, for what it is worth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At his first job out of school at Arthur Anderson (the
accounting firm that found itself in hot-water for cooking the books for Enron)
Teske’s motivation was to “make money” and to “show the world I was going to
make it”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He continued down that path
while at Arthur Anderson until he got married and began asking himself “What
kind of life do I want?” His answer in part was to “save up enough money to buy
a house and have a foundation to start a family”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then his daughter was born and “all of sudden
this bundle of joy comes along and now I’ve got responsibility for that”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he gave up on “being this driven I wanted
the next job, I want the next promotion so I can make more money”, and decided to
abandon the sinking ship of Arthur Anderson, to go and work for small engine
and associated equipment manufacturer, Briggs and Stratton Corporation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While at Briggs, his son was born, and Teske continued refining
his leadership style to one that mirrored his family life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teske believed that “servant leadership
starts with parenting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It starts with
your family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leading your family.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As his kids grew and entered the world of after
school sporting events to learn the fine art of competition, Teske wanted “to
be that dad who was there for his family” and make it to those after school
baseball games and swim meets to watch their failures and successes unfold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He built on his family-first leadership style when he was
promoted to President of the Products Group at Briggs. Starting out in that
role he asked himself “What does a President do?” and realized he didn’t want
to “go out and tell everybody what to do , because I have no idea what they
should do”. He choose the non-command
and control method (the stick instead of the carrot?) path of focusing on
trying to be “helpful”. Being helpful to
him meant getting “out of my office” and “sitting in meetings” where he “didn’t
say much and listened a lot” and “then started offering suggestions”. “And all of a sudden the people went; ok this
is sort of interesting”. And even though
Teske’s tells us that his suggestions apparently didn’t have anything to do
with the turnaround, he takes credit with the team by proclaiming, “we turned
the business around”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Teske doesn’t tell us what that turnaround entailed, but the
team-led results apparently played a role in getting the President of the
Products Group promoted to Corporate “Chief Operating Officer and all this
other stuff”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was there he “learned a
lot along the way as a servant leader”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
also does not tell us what sort of rewards the rest of the team received for
their part in the turnaround, but maybe it is safe to assume they got to keep
their jobs on the team, or at least most of them did if they survived any
future downsizing or streamlining that might play out, or perhaps it is better
not to jump to those sorts of conclusions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The servant leader he was then was profoundly promoted to the CEO of
Briggs where he was “ultimately now being in charge, being the CEO of a 2-billion-dollar
company – and understanding at the time that there is 7000 people that now
relied on me!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He made light of his new found power position by joking with
his now much bigger “team” that his real job was to “shake hands, kiss babies,
cut ribbons, and give speeches”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
then he would clarify for them, after the laughter and after shutting the plant
down and making all the workers come out and shut-up and listen to his speech,
that – ”You are the people on a day in and day out basis that, you are the ones
that matter, whether we are doing good in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can make decisions, but ultimately what it
comes down to is the decisions you make on a day to day basis, making those
engines, making those products, that is really what matters.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And switching hats from the servant leader to
the mission-driven-leader he also told them – “ You’re the ones that fulfill
our mission of providing power to people to get work done and make their lives better.”,
which I wonder if the Briggs advertising teams ever looked into making a jingle
out of based on the song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Epue9X8bpc" target="_blank">POWER TO THE PEOPLE by John Lennon</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That mission also makes mowing the lawn or
snow blowing the driveway sound pretty darn revolutionary and important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The workers apparently went back to the assembly line making
engines with renewed zest and zeal and Teske tried to figure out what to do
about all the new potential pesky perks his latest promotion offered. “Because
all of a sudden, I started getting all these people inviting me to these cool
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Masters, I am a big golfer,
I love golf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am terrible at it, but I
love it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kentucky Derby, the Packers
in the Super Bowl.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regrettably, despite
how much people wanted him, and cared about what he had to say, his passion for
competitive professional sports would have to be put on hold as he was not able
to “go to any of those, because they violate our integrity policy.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At first I felt a bit sorry for Teske at having to turn down
all the free tickets, but realized that if he really wanted to go, he probably
could have afforded to buy his own tickets (probably even in the luxury boxes,
not the cheap bleacher seats) with the new found good fortune of the <a href="https://www1.salary.com/T-J-Teske-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-BRIGGS-and-STRATTON.html" target="_blank">multi-milliondollar compensation </a> that came with the CEO title and the
restrictive integrity policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teske
concluded this phase of his leadership journey tale by throwing at the audience
the other sorry side of being a CEO – “You know CEO’s as a group are just
slightly above politicians when it comes to respect and values and everything
else, except individually people show you a lot of respect, wow I must be really
important.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was wondering if he ever
asked himself why that was the case – the lack of respect for the CEO issue,
not his new found realization of the importance of CEO’s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Teske’s struggles with power along his path to leadership,
and the bragging he heard from former CEO’s, taught him to tell people that “being
a CEO is what I do, […] not who I am!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Who I am is a leader, a servant-leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Who I am hopefully is a really good dad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Who I am is hopefully a really good husband.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who I am is somebody who wants to do things
in the community to make the community better.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And with a tip of his servant leader hat to the remaining workers at
Briggs and Stratton, he pointed out that “at the end of the day it is about all
these people that work at Briggs and Stratton today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is about all these people in the community
who want to do good things in the community to make the communities better.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t mention it, but an <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/615971/number-of-employees-at-briggs-stratton/" target="_blank">internet search</a>
reveals that during his tenure as CEO, employment
had gone down from the 7000 folks who he said worked for Briggs in 2010 when he
started, to just over 5000 in 2019 when he gave the talk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My guess is that the 2000 or so folks who
lost their jobs while Teske was out “kissing babies, cutting ribbons, and
making speeches” probably weren’t integral to the “doing great things” that
Briggs and Stratton was all about on that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The grand finale of Teske’s talk was another tip of the hat
to the Big CEO in the Sky who seems to be his ultimate guide in
leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the beginning of his talk
he temped the audience to listen to the rest of his talk by sharing from this
ultimate source – “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy, but
don’t love, I am nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I speak God’s word with power revealing
all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, if I have faith to say to
a mountain “jump” and it jumps, but I don’t love I am nothing. “ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He put his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_leadership" target="_blank">love-leader</a> hat back on and wrapped things up by revealing that the opening<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>quote was from 1<sup>st</sup> Corinthians Chapter
13 as cited in the “MISSION” and that the final verses reminded the
listener-reader that “’love never gives up’, and there it is – ‘Love cares more
for others than for self. ‘“<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Teske didn’t clarify what his reference to the “MISSION”
was, but it might be the book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565904/mission-driven-leadership-by-mark-bertolini/" target="_blank">MISSION-DRIVEN LEADERSHIP – MY JOURNEY AS A RADICAL CAPITOLIST</a> written by Mark Bertolini the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>former
Chairman and CEO of Aetna(the large health insurance agency who took away Bertolini’s
CEO title after merging with CVS pharmacy).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bertolini’s tale of CEO success and failure was apparently shaped in
part by his own run-ins with mountains where he suffered serious injuries in a
downhill skiing accident that forced him to rethink his own motivations as
CEO.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bertolini chose the more eastern-empire
inspired paths of yoga and meditation to guide him to his tough-love or
mission-driven leadership practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unless
I decide to go to the market and fork over some cash to get Bertolini’s book I
may never know for sure where Teske got his inspiration for the Corinthian
quote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doing a search for the term
“love-leader” on the internet reveals that there are quite a few other former
CEO types who jumped on the love-leader bandwagon by following the leader Saint
Paul who is credited with writing the first guide on the importance of using
love to navigate your way to success in the then Roman dominated empire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After this analysis of Teske’s talk, what I heard was that
he was indeed a typical leader-first (as defined by Robert Greenleaf) power and
money motivated guy, just like the rest of his fellow corporate CEOs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tried to temper his motivations for
material goods, money and power by following policies that portrayed him as
loving his family, his teams, and the communities where his corporation
resided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the end, money talks and
leads to promotions and more money and power, along with some other temptations
that should not be mentioned in front of corporate boards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, this is not the end of the story,
but merely my opinion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stay tuned for
<a href="http://ecologicalleadership.blogspot.com/2019/12/can-corporate-ceos-really-be-servant.html" target="_blank">the next part of this story</a> to be told in a coming post where we will look into
Robert Greenleaf’s “best-test” of the servant-leader and figure out if Teske
was more of a “creaking gate” or a love-lead-leader.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-7644024634121250742019-11-27T16:57:00.000-06:002019-11-28T10:48:18.609-06:00CAN CORPORATE CEO'S REALLY BE SERVANT-LEADERS? - PART I<br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Servant-First Versus Leader-First<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Over the years I have read a number of books written by and
listened to talks given by Chief Executive Officers of Corporations and other
upper management types, who are proud to announce their adoption of the
“servant leader” moniker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is my opinion
that the title proclamation has little if anything to do with the
servant-leader as defined by Robert Greenleaf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Greenleaf came up with the hyphenated version of the name and clarified
what he meant by it in his 1970 essay <a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Robert_K_Greenleaf_The_Servant_as_Leader.pdf" target="_blank">THE SERVANT AS LEADER</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Greenleaf answered the question “Who Is the Servant-Leader”,
by describing two extremes of leadership that he believed existed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is the servant-first version where
“becoming a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to
serve, serve first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then conscious
choice brings one to aspire to lead.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And then there is the opposite extreme of the leader-first who follows the
leadership path because of “the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to
acquire material possessions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For such people,
it will be a later choice to serve – after leadership is established.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The other day I received an email from the <a href="https://wisconsinservantleadership.org/" target="_blank">Wisconsin ServantLeadership</a> group that contained a link to an excerpt from a
talk titled <a href="https://vimeo.com/355127532" target="_blank">Who I Am Vs. What I Do</a> from Ted Teske with the tagline “Servant-Leader
and CEO of Briggs & Stratton”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
former student of servant leadership, the email perked my interest so I clicked
on the link and watched Teske’s talk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Finding the excerpt interesting, I went to the Wisconsin Servant
Leadership’s web page and found another link to <a href="https://vimeo.com/wiservantleadership" target="_blank">Teske’s entire talk</a> and
listened to that as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
may read a transcript of Teske’s talk that I produced <a href="https://ecologicalleadership.blogspot.com/2019/11/todd-teske-ceo-servant-leadership-talk.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Teske’s talk provides some good insights into the life and
thought of a corporate CEO and how the journey of leadership unfolds based on
life changing events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also reveals the
many leadership hats CEO’s can choose from in adorning their corporate head
with as they guide their vessels around or into the rocks. And I also believe
it reveals some of the inner motivations of CEO types, and that despite Teske’s
claims to servant-leadership fame, he and his fellow CEO’s are really not
worthy of the title as defined in the writings of Robert Greenleaf discussed
above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is my belief that for
corporations to be successful in their ultimate mission of serving the
share-holder and growing the corporation through profits, mergers, and acquisitions,
a leader-first<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CEO must follow the path
of power, profit, and material possession if they want to succeed in the world controlled
by global corporations, even if who they are is not what they do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The successful corporate leader needs to be flexible in the
image they portray to the selected audience if they hope to remain on top of the
ladder, and so they have to be willing to change their leadership hat many
times to keep up appearances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the
end what the audience should pay attention to is not the hat the leader is
wearing, or the talk that they talk, but rather to look back at the path they
have followed and find out what has or has not been trampled along the
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For it is the walk they walk that
defines them, not the talk they talk. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More on determining what the CEO walk is,
after the talk, which includes some of my color commentary in <a href="https://ecologicalleadership.blogspot.com/2019/11/can-corporate-ceos-really-be-servant_28.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a> of this
topic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-67975423580424267002019-11-25T20:26:00.001-06:002019-11-25T20:26:14.380-06:00Arrogant-Leader<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ar-ro-gance – a feeling or an impression of superiority
manifested in an overbearing manner or presumptuous claims<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lead-er – a person who has commanding authority or influence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">To proclaim oneself a leader is a declaration of arrogance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the best one can hope for following
such a proclamation is for the pro-claimer to profess the arrogance in order to
avoiding leading anyone except the leader down the path the leader chooses to
follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, I best just foolishly
follow my own path, and warn the few potential followers of my chosen path of
the folly they face in following me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anything
less is nothing less than something used to lead fish into a trap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-5862870728210489362019-11-23T11:40:00.003-06:002019-11-23T12:42:03.972-06:00Todd Teske CEO Briggs and Stratton Servant Leadership Talk Transcript<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What follows is a transcript of a talk from Todd Teske, The Chairman, President, & CEO of Briggs and Stratton Corporation on his servant leadership journey. The talk was presented on April 2, 2019 at the Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee Wisconsin at the Wisconsin Servant Leader City Tour Series. The transcript was written based on the video recording of the talk available at the following website: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/wiservantleadership">https://vimeo.com/wiservantleadership</a> . I will be posting some thoughts on this talk regarding Teske's version of servant leadership soon. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, let me just share something with you if I could. “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy, but don’t love, I am nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s word with power revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, if I have faith to say to a mountain “jump” and it jumps, but I don’t love I am nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned martyr, but don’t love, I have gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I am bankrupt without love.” And that is where Steve ended. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And so when Dick called me up, I have a tendency to be in front of people quite a bit, whether it’s video blog at Briggs, or something like this, or quarterly meetings in front of all our employees, that sort of thing it is always about the message – what do I want to convey. So, when Dick contacted me about servant leadership, I jumped all over this one because this topic is really important to me. And he asked me to share my journey. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now here is the problem Tom, there is no I in servant leadership, so I tried to figure out how to do this thing without using the word I, and unless I referred to myself in the third person which is kind of weird, I got to use the word I, so I apologize. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, what it caused me to do though is think about my life. And how did I get on this servant leadership journey. So, I am going to give you some specific dates, I am not going to take you all the way back from when I was born, don’t worry about that. But ultimately there are some really important dates that speak to me in terms of my journey. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The first one is June 15th 1987, that’s the day I started with Arthur Anderson. Now growing up, my folks did not have a lot of money, I was never wanting for anything, but we didn’t take vacations or anything like that, so what I really wanted to do, and I had to reflect on why did I think the way I thought, why did I act the way I acted was I was excited. I was going to go make money, I couldn’t wait to go make money because I never had a lot of money when I was a kid. So, I remember getting in my suit, and having the brief case and driving downtown to the Seven Seven Wisconsin Building and I was on my way to show the world I was going to make it. And that is what it was about. I never thought about servant leadership back then. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The second date is June 16th 1990. That’s the day I got married. So, I married this really, really wonderful woman. Who for now almost 29 years has put up with all my issues and faults and she has been a really great partner in life. Did I mention she has been a really, really great woman? She is here today; I got the date right. You know what that was important, but it was still about, Kim and I were planners and what Kim and I wanted to do was save up enough money to buy a house and have a foundation to start a family. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The real date that started servant leadership for me was August 3rd 1995, that was the day my daughter was born. You see up to that point it was all about I want to be a partner at Arthur Anderson, I want to make all kinds of money, I want that kind of lifestyle, then all of a sudden this little bundle of joy comes along and now I’ve got responsibility for that. And then Kim decided she was going (she was a teacher) and she decided she was going to be a 24-7 mom. So, what was happening was all of a sudden, I went from being this driven I wanted the next job, I want the next promotion so I can make more money to what kind of life do I want. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, in April of 1996 I made the decision to leave Author Anderson. I didn’t see my daughter, I didn’t like the lifestyle, so I left. I went to Briggs. And ultimately on August 2, 1997 was when our son CJ was born. And so now all of a sudden, I had to decide, what did I want. I never wanted to be CEO of Briggs at that point in time. But it was important for me to be a leader to my family, to be a leader for my kids. Because I contend that servant leadership starts with parenting. It starts with your family. Leading your family. I wanted to be the dad that was there when CJ struck out and when CJ hit the home run. I wanted to be the dad that was there when Taylor missed the flip turn in swimming and then got her personal best in a different meet. I wanted to be that dad who was there for his family. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So then continuing on at Briggs, on August of 2003 was another profound date for me, that is when I became president of our products group. Now up until that point I was pretty much in finance, accounting, it was all about the rules it was all about the numbers, did the debits equal the credits, all about the good stuff for all the accountants in the room. But ultimately this one was different, because I remember going up to Jefferson where my office was located and I sat in my office and I went – what am I supposed to do? What does a president do? So, I thought about it and I thought here is what I don’t want to do – I don’t want to go out and tell everybody what they should do, because I have no idea what they should do. But you know there are some people that would do that, you guys referred to it early this morning, when you talked about command and control and things like that. So, I thought no, no, no, how can I be helpful? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, I just got out of my office and started sitting in meetings, didn’t say much and listened a lot. And then started offering suggestions, I didn’t tell them what to do. And all of a sudden people went, ok this is sort of interesting. And this was a turnaround situation, and I didn’t have anything to do with the turnaround. The team did, we turned the business around. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And then I went on to be the Chief Operating Officer and all this other stuff and learned a lot along the way as a servant leader. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But the next really profound date was January 1, 2010. That was the day I became CEO of Briggs. That was an interesting day, not the day itself, but ultimately now being in charge, being the CEO of a 2-billion-dollar company. And understanding at the time that there is 7000 people that now relied on me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But here is what is funny about it, I relied on them. You see I joke with the team all that time that my job is to shake hands, kiss babies, cut ribbons, and give speeches. So today I have shaken hands, now I am giving a speech, I am working really hard today. But I go in to our plants and we shut the plant down and we bring everybody together and I tell them that and they all laugh, right? And I say no, no, you don’t understand. You are the people on a day in and day out basis that, you are the ones that matter, whether we are doing good in the world. I can make decisions, but ultimately what it comes down to is the decisions you make on a day to day basis, making those engines, making those products, that is really what matters. You’re the ones that fulfill our mission of providing power to people to get work done and make their lives better. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now what’s interesting about being a CEO is you have a choice. I learned this early on, right after January 1st. Because all of a sudden, I started getting all these people inviting me to these cool things. The Masters, I am a big golfer, I love golf. I am terrible at it, but I love it. The Kentucky Derby, the Packers in the Super Bowl. By the way I didn’t go to any of those, because they violate our integrity policy. So, don’t go back to Briggs and tell them I went to those, because I didn’t. But people wanted me to go with them to places, wow that’s really cool. People wanted me to come up and speak. Wow people care about what I have to say. You know CEO’s as a group are just slightly above politicians when it comes to respect and values and everything else, except individually people show you a lot of respect, wow I must be really important. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You see to this day, here is what I fight, every day. Being a CEO is what I do, being a CEO is not who I am. Who I am is a leader, a servant-leader. Who I am hopefully is a really good dad. Who I am is hopefully a really good husband. Who I am is somebody who wants to do things in the community to make the community better. Because here is the deal, there is going to be a day, where I am not going to be CEO anymore. Now if it is all about I and me, and everything else, you hear it, I hear it all the time from retired CEO’s. Because what they do is they say “Hi I am so and so, I am the retired CEO of - fill in a big company, and you know what I did when I was there? I did this, and I did this, and I did this” and you want to look at him, and you are really polite, and you want to go “you didn’t do anything, it is the people that work for you that you had the privilege of leading, I have no idea how well you lead, but you had the privilege of leading the people who did all that. So it is not about me, and I use the word I a lot. But at the end of the day it is about all these people that work at Briggs and Stratton today. It is about all these people in the community who want to do good things in the community to make the communities better. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So let me leave you with this. What I read to you to begin with was 1st Corinthians 13. It was out of The Message. And let me continue on with two more versus. But I think this second verse I am going to read to you really drives home what servant leadership is all about. What it goes on to say – “love never gives up”, and there it is. “Love cares more for others than for self. “ </span><br />
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Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-89730920301199191732018-11-01T18:56:00.002-05:002020-12-03T06:21:00.669-06:00Believe it or not.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">November 1<sup>st</sup> or All Saints Day as I recall from my days wandering around in the halls of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic grade School was one of those days where we had to go to Mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This attendance was likely an attempt to force us to make amends for having spent the previous night raising hell on Halloween.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our amends would come in the form of remembering the saints in heaven, and hopefully obtain forgiveness for gorging ourselves on candy and other sweets as we dressed up as our favorite monster, ghoul or demon the previous night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The saints we were to honor were those holy folks who had obtained a ticket to heaven in the afterlife, which allowed them to spend eternity with God the Father with his son Jesus sitting on His right side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since it was “All Saints Day”, we were obviously honoring both the select few upper-case “S” Saints, along with the more numerous but lesser known lower-case “s” saints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">We were taught that there were two existing paths that could lead to capital “S” designation – getting tortured and murdered rather than denouncing your Catholic faith, or the more convoluted path of living a relatively moral life (abiding by the Ten Commandments and that sort of thing, at least in the later part of life), followed by performance of a few documented miracles in the after-life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, the capital “S” designation could only be granted by the typesetters in charge at the Vatican, which meant those honorees had to have connections in higher places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The unnamed lower-case saints, were those folks who gained entrance through the pearly gates by leading a relatively holy life, hence passing the final judgement test issued by St. Peter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, their feats would remain anonymous back on planet earth since they lacked any current Vatican connections. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The odds of these folks getting into heaven were also apparently improved if those who knew them in life would chip in to have some Masses said in their name after they perished and hung out in purgatory for a while so they could finish learning the lessons they missed in life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lower-case saint designations were reserved for folks like grandparents and other somewhat kindly dead relatives we could be reunited with if we could achieve sainthood for ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Later in life I learned about another option for achieving sainthood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On this track, those with enough resources were allowed to basically buy a ticket to heaven by paying cash to designated officials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This route was similar to the first option in that these middle road saints got their names engraved on plaques somewhere in the Vatican or other higher places of worship commemorating their heaven-worthy contributions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This option was apparently eliminated to avoid the implication that heaven was a place only for the rich and famous – and instead clarify that besides paying, you also needed to pray, and obey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">My take away from the all-purpose school gymnasium/lunchroom/church where Holy Day of Obligation Masses were held was that if I wanted to spend eternity with the Big Guy in the sky, then I had better fly right and follow the examples set for us by the chosen few.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Otherwise the door option I might get could lead straight to hell where I could join the ranks of those condemned to eternal damnation, who I had honored the previous night in my bloodied monster costume.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we hellions could continue the path of tricking and treating through life where the threat of excommunication from the Church would symbolize our ultimate damnation, or we could follow one of the paths to sainthood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">For those of us lucky enough to be boys, the Priesthood was a pretty clear-cut path to heaven (although today’s headlines about the Catholic Church tend to indicate otherwise).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the priesthood required Vow of Chastity was a stumbling block, we could find a married patron Saint to guide us on our way. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite my fifth-grade teacher Mrs. Lowry’s prediction that Priesthood would be my path, I figured that I might be better suited to following the route of the married patron saint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">When I asked my mother which Saint she had in mind when she named me, she told me she didn’t really have a particular Thomas in mind, but if she had to pick one it would probably be the Apostle Thomas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doubting Thomas, I would learn obtained his title based on his skepticism outlined in Chapter 20 of John’s Gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John told us that when Thomas was informed by some of the other apostles that they had met with a risen Jesus after his apparent death on the cross, Thomas proclaimed that he would not believe such a miracle unless he could put his fingers in the crucifixion nail holes in Jesus’s hands, or the gash in Jesus’s side that finished him off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus of course wasted no time in rebuking Thomas for his renewed faith after coming face to face with (or finger to hole in the hand of) the risen Savior by pointing out “Because thou hast seen me, though has believed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Despite that warning that Jesus did not bless the unbelievers, and after few attempts at atonement for my unbelief with forced belief, I continue to follow the ways of my patron Saint Thomas and take the low road of doubt until proven otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life experiences have reinforced in me that blind faith in the voices from on high can lead to the following of fools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have also concluded that those who offer us carrot or stick motivations to live according to their prophesies don’t think much of our abilities to think <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for ourselves what to believe or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They use our fears or desires in an attempt to jerk us around and distract us from their own “sinful” ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And unfortunately, these management techniques seem to dominate not only our religions, but all of our hierarchical institutions that have hidden agendas for their flocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And so, I have concluded that although their may be a few saints out there that are worthy of their sainthood, that I will continue to pick and choose those I look to for inspiration, not based on their post mortem title, or their rank in the hierarchy of heaven and hell, but rather in the deeds of their life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, my goal on this November 1<sup>st</sup> will be to continue to follow the gospel of Tom, where “the proof is in the pudding”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-56847144796819708032017-09-17T11:29:00.001-05:002017-09-17T11:29:23.637-05:00Backside Covering<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The following is a response to an article titled “How (Not)
to Run a Modern Society on Solar and Wind Power Alone” and the comments
initiated by myself. The article was
written by Kris De Decker for publication in his Low-Tech Magazine and reposted
on the <u>Resiliance</u> website hosted by the Post Carbon Institute. The article and comments can be found at the
following link: <a href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-09-14/how-not-to-run-a-modern-society-on-solar-and-wind-power-alone/">http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-09-14/how-not-to-run-a-modern-society-on-solar-and-wind-power-alone/</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I know I promised not to come back here, but I have been
pondering my own and other comments from folks on this topic and felt a need to
perhaps apologize (as one commenter pointed out) for getting pissed off and
taking it out on the author Kris De Decker and the Post Carbon Institute, or
maybe confess my own guilt in having committed the “sins” I have accused others
of committing, but more than likely just gloat about my own righteousness. Use or lose any of this as those who bother
to read it see fit, or feel free to abuse me, for daring to revisit these
pointless accusations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So, let me start over for whatever that is worth (which is
probably not much), maybe clarify my points, and perhaps expand on what several
folks asked for in what I would propose as an alternative. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I believe that the thesis of Mr. De Decker’s article is contained
in the opening two paragraphs where he points out: “the potential of wind and
solar energy is more than sufficient to supply the electricity demand of
industrial societies, these resources are only available intermittently.” Because of the intermittency and other
factors like difficulty in meeting peak demand and need for storage, he
concludes that “matching supply to demand at all times makes renewable power
production a complex, slow, expensive and unsustainable undertaking”. However, “if we would adjust energy demand to
the variable supply of solar and wind energy, a renewable power grid could be
much more advantageous” and that “modern technology” could provide a way to
take advantage of these energy sources and keep a version of our industrial
society in operation into the future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The article then goes on to document the variable nature of
both wind and solar power, via references, statistics, graphs, and charts. It also explains how meeting existing power
demands with the variable source wind and solar would require an extremely
large infrastructure and backup fossil fuel plants or storage systems all of
which “would be just as CO2-intensive as the present-day power grid”, “have a
high impact on the land” and “require a significant amount of energy and other
resources”, leading me to believe that they would not be good for the
environment nor us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In the concluding section of his article titled “Adjusting
Demand to Supply”, he proposes “this doesn’t mean that a sustainable renewable
power grid is impossible. There’s a fifth strategy, which does not try to match
supply to demand, but instead aims to match demand to supply. In this scenario,
renewable energy would ideally be used only when it’s available.” And “if we let go of the need to match energy
demand for 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, a renewable power grid could be
built much faster and at a lower cost, making it more sustainable overall.” He claims that this adjusting demand renewable
energy supply system if built and operated in the United Kingdom, would only
result in electricity shortages on 65 out of 365 days of the year (18% of the
time). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Throughout the article there is little if any indication, data,
statics, or hints at what the impact would be on the ecosystem of building this
“sustainable” system and the new infrastructure it would need to operate. Was this by design or neglect or simply not
necessary? I however am quite sure that
the impacts would be similar to, those occurring currently and in the past from
our industrialized society. So things
like climate change, spices extinctions, loss of habitat, dead zones in the oceans,
wars, and other calamities will carry on as long as we treat our planet and our
neighbors as resources to use to keep our technology alive and our plundering
possible, even if those technologies are “renewable” or their usage is now
paced to match the variable rate of supply.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Based on this understanding of the energy supply system that
Mr. De Decker was proposing, I concluded in my pissed off state of mind that a summation of the proposal was that we
could “keep our "modern" society powered into eternity with
"green and clean" energy, ignoring the fact that this industrialized
society that views the planet and people as resources to plunder to keep the
profit in the pockets of the power-elite is the source of our problems.
Ignoring the impacts plundering the planet to obtain the resources needed to build
the "green and clean" infrastructure is the only way this works out
with a "happy" ending. Thinking it might be time to stop following
the "green washing" being put out by Resilience and the Post Carbon
institute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Several commenters responded negatively to my and other commenters
labeling the article and others published or publisized by the Post Carbon
Institute as “greenwashing”. Asher
Miller (who I assume is the executive director of the Post Carbon Institute)
responded to this accusation with “I find comments like these truly baffling. I
think anyone with an open but critical mind would be hard-pressed to lump
PCI/resilience.org in the "greenwashing" or
"techno-cornucopian" camp.
Usually, we're accused of being Luddites/Malthusians/doomers. To me, comments like the above show laziness,
ignorance, and/or a hardline view of collapse that is utterly fatalistic and
very likely wrong. And I'm always left wondering, why do you come here?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Obviously Mr. Miller was indeed familiar with some of my
best character traits (or worst depending on who you ask), and it was indeed my
lazy nature that prompted me to react with the original abbreviated response. It was also ignorant of me to assume that
other people had the same understanding of the term “greenwash” or the other
concept that came out in the commentary like “techno-cornucopian”. I actually prefer the term “techno-fundamentalist”,
and wished I would have used that term in any of my comments to point out that
it is that world view that I believe dominates Mr. De Decker’s article and others
I have seen publicized by the Post Carbon Institute. And I am indeed resigned to the fact that
like all the other complex civilizations before us, ours is indeed heading into
an unavoidable collapse, as we too have fallen into the trap of letting fools
have all the power in our society. So,
to make up for my ignorance and initial lazy response, below are some
definitions that I hope clarify what I mean by these terms and the words that
make them up. <br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><u>Greenwashing</u>– “a form of spin in which green PR or
green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an
organization's products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly.” (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><u>Technology</u> – “the practical application of knowledge
especially in a particular area” <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><u>Fundamentals</u> – “any
intellectual/political/theological position that asserts certainty in the
unquestioned truth and/or righteousness of a belief system.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“<u>technological fundamentalists</u> are those ‘unwilling,
perhaps unable, to question our basic assumptions about how our tools relate to
our larger purposes and prospects.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(<a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2008/08/25/technological-fundamentalism/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2008/08/25/technological-fundamentalism/</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps I am incorrect in applying these terms to the
article in question and the Post Carbon Institute. I do admit that I am indeed guilty of
accusing them of what I know for sure I am guilty of and that is the practice
of greenwashing influenced by my own technological fundamentalist
upbringing. I have worked most of my
life as an environmental engineer or specialist, working for industry,
consulting, and government. I used to be
convinced that this was noble work, that what I did was to preserve and protect
the environment by helping to design equipment and treatment plants to clean up
our wastewater and keep our rivers and lakes clean. I kept this same ethic to guide me working
for government environmental regulatory agencies enforcing the rules and
regulations that I believed were designed to keep our environment safe. About 12 years ago, after 20 or so years of doing
this type of work, and seeing the state of the planet, I started to question
this. I began to wonder if that is what
I was really doing. It seemed to me that
my work was much more about covering up the messes that our industrial society
was creating, than it was about protecting and preserving the planet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And to answer Mr. Asher’s question about “why do you come
here?”, it was at this point in my life I was first exposed to the work of the
Post Carbon Institute at a conference I attended on Environmental Sustainability. I don’t remember the name of the speaker from
the Post Carbon Institute, but I remember the thesis of his talk which was
basically that in the age of peak oil and climate change we needed to rethink how
we focused the goal of our societies and our priorities away from economic
growth and towards meeting the needs of people.
I liked that message and I looked up the Post Carbon Institute and began
following the work that folks who worked there were putting out. It seemed like a safe and sane place to go to
learn what I thought could be a new calling on how to make our way of life more
sustainable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And I found other resources
and learned about concepts like “greenwashing” and “techno-fundementalism” and
I realized I had been and continued to practice them and get paid to keep doing
them. I also realized to make a living
in our modern industrialized society, that if you didn’t practice them to a
certain extent or believe in them you would not make a living or maintain some
semblance of sanity. In other words,
despite my attempts at looking for ways to making a living in various places, I
could not find any place to work in my line of work that was not guilty of
these practices, nor am I aware of any such “utopias” existing within our industrialized
society. </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Based on this, it seems obvious to me (perhaps influenced by
my own insanity) that indeed we all our guilty of these practices, whether we
want to admit it or not.</span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What do I propose as an alternative? It is indeed ignorant and arrogant on my part
to even assume that I can solve the worlds environmental, societal, or energy
problems. I believe that the problems
with our societies and those of the past are indeed a result of giving the
power to make such decisions into the hands of few people or even a few
organizations or institutions. I also do
not believe that a solution will come out of the systems that have created
these problems. Looking to alternative
energy fueled systems to sustain the same old but modernized version of industrial
society is not where I will be looking for a solution. The solution is also not going to come from
focusing on whether we need a newer, simpler, older, or varied technology or
changing or modifying our tools. I think
that the solution will come from asking ourselves what do we really need as
human beings to thrive, living on a finite planet, within a fragile
ecosystem? And then individuals within societies
will need to determine what tools or technology should be used to obtain what
it is we all need. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Sorry if I am wrong, and best of luck to all in finding a
more meaningful way of life, as our society enters the world of collapse. And with that I really am done. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-36630528620121592232017-07-25T16:15:00.002-05:002017-07-25T19:50:37.385-05:00How Is Environmental Madness Possible? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZa1kK1IM3AzCrMUxJrzWTnuvBi1slj1PNXUUFSKIA3Iw3ybXlN2nCwm9vRNhf_UNitIaKHrbO-mJ932M44AC0rarNa_TMIeTt4wBRrBsxCKRZcQ0nkM2Z4HygHGjFIrAXyx-lOs2cIV-/s1600/DSC_0040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZa1kK1IM3AzCrMUxJrzWTnuvBi1slj1PNXUUFSKIA3Iw3ybXlN2nCwm9vRNhf_UNitIaKHrbO-mJ932M44AC0rarNa_TMIeTt4wBRrBsxCKRZcQ0nkM2Z4HygHGjFIrAXyx-lOs2cIV-/s200/DSC_0040.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">From Bruce K. Alexander <a href="http://www.brucekalexander.com/my-books/globalization-of-addiction" target="_blank">THE GLOBALIZATION OF ADDICTION – A STUDY IN POVERTY OF THE SPIRIT </a>(Pages 250-252)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Free market society requires the sacrifice of psychosocial integration
for the benefits of wealth. The resulting poverty of the spirit leave each
person, to a greater or lesser degree desperate for something that will provide
a sense of meaning and belonging. At the
same time that the free market dislocates people, it proffers pseudosolutions
for the misery of dislocation. As
corporations know that affluent people’s real material needs are already
satisfied, they peddle a multitude of consumer products that are designed to
fill the void of dislocation: enormous house, modish clothing, personal beauty products,
lottery tickets, electronic games and gadgets, gas-guzzling cares, sexual
enhancements, exotic foods, weight-loss schemes, and on and on. Because these products can only partly or
temporarily fill the psychosocial void, they are difficult to consume in
moderation. When they are consumed in
excess, their ever-increasing environmental and social costs must be pushed to
the periphery of consciousness, as in addictive denial. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If we take the time to really get to know the overweight
couple taking the four-wheel-drive car to the superstore to stock up on superfluous
merchandise in apparent ignorance of the environmental costs, we will see that
their motivations originate in the same addictive dynamics as clinically
diagnosed ‘shopaholics’. This couple
truly needs to consume excessively. No
matter how much they buy, they never get the feeling of personal satisfaction
and social importance that they are seeking.
They need to own that lavish home-entertainment center, because if they
could not dull their wits with incessant television and other entertainments,
they might become horrified by the state of the world and the role of their own
country in it. Their fragile, but essential, sense of the
rightness of things as they are could be shattered. Besides, keeping up with the media really helps
them to participate in conversations with their media-savvy friends. They need the big car to feel safe as they
drive, because people drive these days as if nobody cares whether they live or
die. In addition, having those other
vehicles in the garage for when they might be needed gives them a sense of
freedom, and without freedom what would they have, really? They need to buy materials to expand their
already excessive house, because it will then express the unique sense of taste
that they have so much trouble getting people to notice in other ways. They need more high-protein food and medical
care for the two dogs than is available to most families in the Third
World. Frankly, those precious little
yappers have a bigger place in their lives than most of the people they know in
the First World, never mind the Third.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They consume energy with the same avidity that they consume
material goods. After all, people who
have worked hard to put their money in the bank need some kind of recognition
and reward. If it seems they have every electrical
appliance and electronic gadget imaginable in their house, all flashing,
whirring, heating, and cooling at once, it is only their due. Besides, hydro-electricity is still cheap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They have their separate needs too. He needs to have all sorts of esoteric tools
that he doesn’t use now, because it will enable him to serve a real function in
the community when he can eventually afford to retire from his job, finish fixing
up the house, get away from the TV, and then turn to what has most fascinated
him, in the background, all his life.
She knows he will not have time to master any significant portion of
that complicated stuff, but she senses his yearning for a sense of worth, knows
his sensitivity to criticism on this topic, and values the stability of their
marriage. Besides, if she is considerate
about his stuff, he won’t be mean about her little indulgences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">She needs to keep the fridge packed with meat and vegetables
to feel like a good wife and mother, although most of it gets thrown out after
a while. It’s just that it’s impossible
to say when family or friends might show up unexpectedly for dinner or when she
might get back to regular cooking.
Besides, vegetable these days go all spotty; it seems like the
restaurants buy all the good stuff.
Plus, the clerks at the supermarket are so nice and chatty they almost
seem like good friends. And isn’t there
just a good feeling knowing you’re all stocked up? Taken together, all their scarcely used
merchandise constitutes the material scaffolding for the construction of a
fulfilling life that they genuinely need – but then, somehow never gets
built. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Of course, they do not consume every product in grossly
wasteful or addictive ways. And – you must understand – they already know about
the environment and they care. They
recycle. They only consume the products
that satisfy real needs, and view the inexplicable, overconsumption of others
with bitter disdain. They would not buy
things that are environmentally destructive unless they were really necessary,
as a buffer against depression and the other ravages of dislocation. They are not greedy, evil, or stupid. Rather, they are desperate to be recognized,
to belong, to have a purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They have been told throughout their lives that they can achieve
these goals if they just purchase the right merchandise. There are as much victims of dislocation as the
junkies who sleep in abandoned buildings.
I would imagine that they are also just as loved by the Christian God
for they, too, are poor in spirit – even if their oversized house is stuffed with
enough merchandise to enable some homeless, starving people to survive, and
even if their addictions are, collectively, more environmentally and socially
destructive than those of the much smaller number of heroin junkies. They suffer by comparison with drug-addicted
people in another way, too: their plight seems more hopeless. Although there is no way that they will be
able to buy a cure for their dislocation, they are doomed to keep trying
because so many voices are encouraging them to make another trip to the
mall. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Many affluent people have a smaller number of grossly
wasteful habits than the composite couple described here, but they are part of
environmental madness too. It matters little
whether this style of life is formally labelled ‘addiction’ or not. The essential facts are that the fundamental motivation
to relieve dislocation is the same as the motivation for addiction to drugs or anything
else, and this couple’s destructive way of life is as intractable as any other
kind of addiction, even now, as the polar ice caps melt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wasteful consumption is essential for the survival of a
bloated economy. There must be affluent
people to consume the products of the factories as wastefully as possible so
that more can be manufactured, because corporations that do not grow must
die. The eternal expansion of the free-market
society requires that people learn new needs and try the new products that are
continually being invented for their consumption. The composite couple described here must be
able to believe the barrage of propaganda that incessantly asserts that the way
they consume is not madness, but is ultimately for the best, in some deeper
sense. Multiplied by millions, they form
a perfect vicious cycle. They work compulsively; they consume compulsively; the
gross domestic product rises; the environment deteriorates; the poor get
poorer; everyone feels dislocated; they work more compulsively; they consume
more compulsively, the gross domestic product rises further; [and on, and on].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is not innate wickedness or stupidity that is destroying
our planetary ecosystem, so much as it is the increasingly desperate response
of countless people to the dislocation of their lives. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-921002196211279282017-03-14T14:49:00.001-05:002017-03-14T14:49:21.615-05:00Rural People Aren't Stupid<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oLwDM7Xk4DM/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oLwDM7Xk4DM/maxresdefault.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">“Rural people aren’t stupid”, proclaims Nina Eliasoph in her article “<a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/nina-eliasoph/scorn-wars-rural-white-people-and-us" target="_blank">Scornwars: rural white people and us</a>”.<span> </span>This urban
dweller first learned this lesson from her first contact with “white rural
people” in Sociology classes she taught at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.<span> </span>There she heard about the “empty towns
without jobs from which everyone tried to leave as soon as they could; small
farmers who worked so hard to compete against agro-businesses that they had to
pass up on sleep; and small communities with big drug problems”.<span> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">After a couple of months of hearing these stories she had heard enough, and
smelled their resentment (perhaps over the lingering smell of manure), and
decided that City folks like her needed to look into to the plight of these
rural whites.<span> </span>When she did, she found
that rural whites resented City folk because they would eat Wisconsin cheese,
but ignore the people who produced it.<span>
</span>She also reinforced her own belief that indeed some of these rural
whites were indeed “racist and homophobic”.<span>
</span>She was “shocked” that these white rural people would ignore Donald
Trump’s racism and sexism, and still vote for him.<span> </span>Apparently, such ignorance of these
characteristics on the part of urban voters for Democratic candidates (or their
spouses) is not so shocking.<span> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">At the root of her findings was that these hillbilly types apparently lacked
a realistic vision of how things work.<span>
</span>They need to remember the great Democratic New Deal that previous
politicians used to placate the angry rural people and other poor, so they
would buy into that great American Dream, where it was not only the wealthy
elites who could profit from our Representative Democracy, but every man and
woman, no matter what their color or upbringing, right?<span> </span>It’s not the grandmother or other kin who
raised them that they should be grateful for, but rather the government funded
infrastructure and institutions, all provided by the wise tax payers.<span> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">What white rural people really need is that religious zeal inspired by “political
gratitude”.<span> </span><span> </span>This is the stuff where we are thankful to our
government for rural gems like green hills and fresh streams, running water,
and not growing up in war zones.<span> </span>Of
course not everyone can experience these blessings: like the people in some poorer
Cities where the boom has busted like Flint Michigan, or certain communities
next to mountain top coal mines in the Appalachian Mountains, or the poor Muslim
folks who find themselves being bombed in our name in one our Wars On Terror
conducted outside our own boundaries on the other side of the planet.<span> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">So ignoring that stuff, the way to find this political gratitude is first to
listen better, and donate more money to the Sierra Club, and of course support
renewable energy, which without a doubt will bring better paying, more secure,
and safer jobs to rural areas than the current extractive industries who currently
prey on these places.<span> </span>Secondly, believe
in the magic of an economy that can provide for better pensions for one group
of people that does not have to be paid for by someone else, and that
environmental regulation and food safety laws are actually designed to protect
and serve the needs of rural people somehow <span> </span>– despite that fact that most of them are written
by lobbyists, political appointees, and politicians paid by or made up of the
wealthy elite.<span> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">If only rural whites stopped listening to Fox News, than rural America could
truly be great once again, or at least appear so in our visions of it.<span> </span>This is despite what these non-stupid people
are really experiencing “poverty, the lack of funding for education and health
care, the neighbors and kin who’ve gotten cancer from pollution, and so much
more.”<span> </span>These realities can all be ignored
if only progressives like Eliasoph could force these not stupid people into
believing in a different reality.<span> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div class="image-caption">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">It is proposals like this that remind me why I long to
return to my rural roots in Northern Wisconsin and leave the urban life I
retreated to.<span> </span>For the rural people I
know certainly are not stupid, and most of them did not need a PhD in Sociology
to figure that out.<span> </span>And they know better
than to believe foolish progressive story tellers who like to profess that all
is well with the American dream, as long as we tweak it a bit.<span> </span>It is likely that those who voted for Trump
choose the only option they could in voicing their complaints about a government
that does not serve them, but rather exists mainly to suck off their resources
to create more profits for the wealthy elites who indeed tend to converge in
the City, or behind their rural compound walls.<span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="image-caption">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div class="image-caption">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">So perhaps my kinfolk may not be stupid, but they are indeed
fools like the rest of us if they continue to believe that a government founded
by sexist racists designed to serve the wealthy elites, can do anything else
but continue to function the way it always has.<span> </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
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Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-73379754965551009392017-01-15T21:28:00.000-06:002017-01-15T21:30:23.196-06:00Liberties Taken with Obama’s Last Speech<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://frankroche.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/obamahope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://frankroche.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/obamahope.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Some twisted excerpts from US President Barack Obama’s <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/10/remarks-president-farewell-address" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">January 10, 2017 Farewell Address</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> as potentially
heard by </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Elite" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">the Power Elite</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p></o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "calibri";">Everybody sit down, nobody is following instructions!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">I witnessed working people in the face of struggle and loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The work has always been hard. It's always
been contentious. Sometimes it's been bloody.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Change only happens when ordinary people come together to
demand it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Our American idea — the <u>conviction</u> that we are all
created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among
them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A great gift that our Founders gave to us:
The freedom to “chase” our individual dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>America is exceptional — <u>for
those who follow.<o:p></o:p></u></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">In 10 days, the world will witness a hallmark of our
democracy— President-elect Trump.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">We remain the wealthiest, most powerful, on Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our boundless capacity for risk means the
future should be ours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's what I
want to focus on tonight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Our founders argued. They quarreled. They expected us to do
the same.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity — the
specter of terrorism, it will determine our future.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Our democracy won't work <u>without a sense</u> that
everyone has economic opportunity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">The good news is that today the economy is growing again – because
that, after all, is why we serve.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Our economy doesn't work (for most Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example you,) the top one percent has
amassed a bigger share of wealth and income.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Families, in inner cities and in rural counties, have been left behind —
the laid-off factory worker; the waitress or health care worker who's just
barely getting by and struggling to pay the bills — the game is fixed against
them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Government only serves the interests of the powerful. There
are no fixes to this long-term trend. (Applause). I agree!<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">The next wave of economic dislocations will come from the
relentless pace of automation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">We're going to have to forge a new social compact to
guarantee corporations reap the most from this country that's made their very
success possible.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">The disaffection and division will only sharpen in years to
come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There's a second threat to our
democracy — and this one is as old as our nation itself – race remains a potent
and often divisive force in our society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Workers of all shades are going to be left fighting for scraps while the
wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Applause.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">The children of immigrants, just because they don't look
like us, will diminish the prospects of our own children — because those brown
kids will represent a larger and larger share of America's workforce.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Our economy, (is) a zero-sum game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">If we're going to be serious about race, we need laws
against hiring (them), and in housing (them), and in (their) education, and in (getting
them into) the criminal justice system.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Our democracy is fiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Climb into his skin and walk around in it.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Blacks and other minority groups, (are) the challenges that
a lot of people in this country face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
middle-aged white guy, he's got advantages.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Slavery and Jim Crow didn't vanish.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">When minority groups voice discontent, they're engaging in
reverse racism or practicing political correctness. When they wage peaceful
protest, they're demanding special treatment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">For native-born Americans, it means reminding ourselves the
stereotypes about immigrants, and that's not easy to do.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Retreat into our bubbles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Start accepting only information, whether it's true or not,
that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that is
out there. (Applause.)<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">We're going to keep talking past each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We'll make common ground and compromise
impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that makes politics
dispiriting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Excuse ethical lapses – it's not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>dishonest, my mother used to tell me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Applause.)<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Challenge climate change, promise to save this planet – our
children won't have time, they'll be busy dealing with its effects: more
environmental disasters, more economic disruptions, waves of climate refugees
seeking sanctuary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Argue, deny the problem, betray future generations — the
essential spirit of innovation and practical problem-solving that guided our
Founders. (Applause.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is that spirit that
made us an economic powerhouse, and put a computer in every pocket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's that spirit —that allowed us to lure
fascism and tyranny; that allowed us to build a post-World War II order based
on military power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Applause.)<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Principles – the rule of law, human rights, freedom of
religion, and speech, and assembly, and an independent press – now being
challenged (by us) —as a threat to (our) power. The peril each poses is more
far-reaching than a car bomb or a missile.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">It (our tools) represent the fear of change; the fear of
people who speak or pray; contempt for the rule of law; an intolerance of
dissent and free thought; a belief in the sword or the gun or the bomb. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">The propaganda machine is the ultimate arbiter of what's
true and what's right – because of our men and women in uniform, because of our
intelligence officers, and law enforcement, and diplomats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">No foreign terrorist organization has planned an attack
these past eight years.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Our law enforcement agencies are more effective and vigilant
than ever. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">We have taken out tens of thousands and half their
territory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we all owe you a deep
debt. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Protecting our way of life, that's just the job of our
military. (Our) Democracy can buckle when we fear citizens, (we) must remain
vigilant against aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values
that make us who we are. (Applause.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">And that's why, for the past eight years, I've worked to put
the “fight against terrorism” on a firmer legal footing. That's why torture
worked, (and we) reformed our laws governing surveillance to (appear to) protect
privacy and civil liberties, as patriotic as we are. (Applause.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's why we cannot withdraw from big global
fights.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Democracy, and human rights, and women's rights, and LGBT
rights – no matter how imperfect our efforts, no matter how expedient ignoring
such values may seem, that's part of defending (our) America.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Extremism and intolerance and sectarianism and chauvinism
are the rule of law around the world (thanks to us!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Around the world the likelihood of war within and between
nations increases, (along with) our own freedoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">So let's be vigilant, but not afraid. (Applause.) Kill
innocent people, they cannot defeat America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Betray our Constitution and our principles in the fight. (Applause.) <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Rivals like Russia or China cannot match our influence
around the world — unless we give up what we stand for —another big country
that bullies smaller neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Applause.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-81427301481341609722017-01-09T21:11:00.000-06:002017-01-09T21:11:20.984-06:00Do Crazy <div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="av10q" data-offset-key="8uqi5-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/b660bc0fb2d14d2eaa31c5b7a815dad29f7cdc79/c=0-0-960-722&r=x408&c=540x405/local/-/media/2017/01/04/WIGroup/Milwaukee/636191226096002933-dayout08p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/b660bc0fb2d14d2eaa31c5b7a815dad29f7cdc79/c=0-0-960-722&r=x408&c=540x405/local/-/media/2017/01/04/WIGroup/Milwaukee/636191226096002933-dayout08p.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8uqi5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative; text-overflow: ellipsis;">
<span data-offset-key="8uqi5-0-0"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Life's too short, the world's crazy, I could die tomorrow, so I don't see any reason why you shouldn't do what you want to do. … I'm trying to do whatever I want just to show everyone, hey, you can do whatever you want, even if it's some crazy thing that seems impossible."</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8uqi5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative; text-overflow: ellipsis;">
<span data-offset-key="8uqi5-0-0"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8uqi5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative; text-overflow: ellipsis;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="8uqi5-0-0">Mike Summers on his winter hike along Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail. See the Journal-Sentinal article on his trip at the following link. </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8uqi5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative; text-overflow: ellipsis;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8uqi5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative; text-overflow: ellipsis;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/travel/wisconsin/day-out/2017/01/06/oregon-man-attempting-first-winter-thru-hike-ice-age-trail/96150562/">http://www.jsonline.com/story/travel/wisconsin/day-out/2017/01/06/oregon-man-attempting-first-winter-thru-hike-ice-age-trail/96150562/</a></span></div>
</div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-61299436085395597052017-01-09T12:12:00.000-06:002017-01-09T12:12:11.042-06:00Standing for Soil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbs6UgL5ntScC8VpQ4exNtb3Ao1-MfyAR6OxMl355Hl7xgfOHVsSoVkxtZqwZhPKvLqKIyxhSboDifetXx_MImhmd68FFv3GszHMSAZQemGRz1ifF71ziYQQMbBvW5qOhO6fz0Jvo1Y67F/s1600/DSCN0845.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbs6UgL5ntScC8VpQ4exNtb3Ao1-MfyAR6OxMl355Hl7xgfOHVsSoVkxtZqwZhPKvLqKIyxhSboDifetXx_MImhmd68FFv3GszHMSAZQemGRz1ifF71ziYQQMbBvW5qOhO6fz0Jvo1Y67F/s200/DSCN0845.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“A radical
movement capable of offering a democratic alternative to corporate capitalism
will have to draw on traditions that have been dismissed or despised by
twentieth-century progressives and only recently resurrected both by scholars
and by environmentalists, community organizers, and other activists. It will have to stand for the nurture of the
soil against the exploitation of natural resources, the family against the
factory, the romantic vision of the individual against the technological vision,
localism over democratic centralism.
Such radicalism would deserve the allegiance of all true democrats. “<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Christopher
Lasch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Democracy
and the ‘Crisis of Confidence’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">DEMOCRACY
JOURNAL, Volume 1, January 1981<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://democracyjournalarchive.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/lasch_democracy-and-the-crisis-of-confidence-democracy-1-1_-jan-2001.pdf">https://democracyjournalarchive.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/lasch_democracy-and-the-crisis-of-confidence-democracy-1-1_-jan-2001.pdf</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-17594661943672147392017-01-08T12:46:00.001-06:002017-01-09T12:22:38.335-06:00Follow-up thoughts on the Sustainability rant (after blood pressure has dropped back down).<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnq7CV6av17pYW7kBY8ZU5LOrRQdh6-p_hOEG1f2o472VegglMXD5NobZ5n57FIFwe1iA75pampgDrLicsexmBTQclxTgUzEzHZzCs0wOcp1apkMOv6hXDaO_31JARpw30aPakh1XQtXHv/s1600/DSC_9228.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnq7CV6av17pYW7kBY8ZU5LOrRQdh6-p_hOEG1f2o472VegglMXD5NobZ5n57FIFwe1iA75pampgDrLicsexmBTQclxTgUzEzHZzCs0wOcp1apkMOv6hXDaO_31JARpw30aPakh1XQtXHv/s200/DSC_9228.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Probably my
biggest frustration with the event yesterday (and events of that type) is they
do not provide a forum that encourages discussion of the issues presented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are a venue where the speakers present
as the experts, the audience sits back and takes it in and learn from the experts,
and maybe say something in support of or to ask a clarifying question or two at
the most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">In the case
of yesterday’s forum, some great topics in need of discussion came up:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>climate change, human population, economics, solar
and wind energy, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do believe that
all of these are critical issues that need to be understood if we are to have
any hope of changing the direction the human world is going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What troubles me however is that these topics
are sort of just lobbed out there and batted around with implications that if
we just refined, controlled, or reinvented them then everything will be “groovy”.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The event came across as much more of a
sales pitch, rather than a presentation designed to encourage understanding
about the topics presented. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">It is my
belief that major issues threatening humanity and the planet, things like
climate change, human population, loss of habitat, species extinction, war,
etc. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are all symptoms of a much worse “evil”
and that “evil” is our current global world view that is primarily shaped and
imposed by CAPITALISM or a system of civilization designed by the “elite” folks
to control everybody else so that they can have more wealth and more
power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And one of the keys to doing this
is to consume the resources of the planet to produce expensive and complex infrastructure,
designed to provide global access to more resources, more markets, and hence
more wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course waste disposal, illness,
or other negative side effects like climate change are denied or ignored or the
cost imposed on someone else – otherwise the whole thing would not be
profitable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">It is kept
in place using coercive methods imposed by governments who write rules, hire
military and police and other agencies to enforce those rules and keep the
people in line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Huge sums of money are
spent on advertising, education, and other manipulation techniques to convince
people that this is the system they need to follow. And it also depends on the
support of other various folks within the hierarchy to implement the rules and to
reward those who do these duties. And then once it is all in place, it is
difficult if not impossible for the non-elite folks to survive outside this
globalized economic/political system, especially when the support systems outside
the market are destroyed, outlawed, or impaired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These support systems include the likes of families,
neighborhoods, small local business, and the commons of our land, air, water,
etc. which are needed to obtain what we need to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">If you’re
interested in this topic, one of the best sources of explaining it all that I
have found has been in the writings of anthropologist John Bodley in his books CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY, VICTIMS OF PROGRESS, or ANTHROPOLOGY AND CONTEMPORARY HUMAN
PROBLEMS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure there are many other
authors and books that have delved in to the topic from other perspectives as
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">So what do
we do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is indeed the challenge,
especially when survival outside this messed up system is by design discouraged
by the cultural and material infrastructure that keeps it all in place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that the solution will come as we
learn to unlearn all that we have been taught growing up in this system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do that we need to understand what lies
behind the curtain of Capitalism – reading one of Bodley’s or other author’s
books on the topic might be starting point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Learning to
get along with our families and neighbors will be an important hurdle. These support
networks have by design been destroyed or dysfunctionalized by the “system” to
force us to have to go the market for things that we should be getting from our
friends, families, neighbors, or even obtain for by ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to rebuild our communities so we can
insure we meet our real human needs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Recognizing the
methods we use to “numb” out so we don’t have to think about all this stuff
will also is critical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These might be
the obvious things like drinking alcohol, or doing drugs; but also include the
less obvious like over working, or performing acts of “charity”, or
participating in the games provided by the empire like surfing the internet,
watching movies or sporting events, or playing other “games”, being consumed by
consuming “junk” food, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bruce
Alxander’s book THE GLOBALIZATION OF ADDICTION is a great source for more on
this topic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The solution to these mind numbing
issues is not to be found through righteousness or pharmaceuticals, but by
understanding that to survive in the insanity that defines our society today,
one needs to numb out in some way or another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">As we do the
above things, another step we need to take is to begin to understand what it is
we really need to thrive and survive – or what our real human needs are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the core they include the need for clean
air and water; access to healthy food and land; and access to healthy
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The writings of Chilean
economist Manfred Max-Neef might be one source of information that helps to identify
what it is we really need and not get sucked into buying what the market sells
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">We need to relearn
how to recreate a society that is designed to meet those human needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One example of a possible model for doing
this can be found in the Transition movement, which may not be perfect, but it
might be a start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This re-creation will require
we meet our real needs locally as much as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will need to learn to feed, cloth, and
shelter ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The energy we use to
accomplish these tasks will need to be locally sourced and not destroy us or
the planet by using it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Technology we
use will need to be about helping us to meet our needs, not about increasing the
profits of someone on the other side of planet or about creating jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Economy will be a subset of people, and
people will be a subset of planet – economy will be put in its place, and not
used to control us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can no longer
simply take what we want from others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">And last,
but certainly not <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">least</b> we need to
understand what it means to be human, and appreciate our place in the
planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately our religious institutions
have failed us here and instead of helping us to reconnect to the cosmos they have
instead been used to guilt us into complying with consumption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means we need to re-find that deep connection
to the planet and ecosystems that are the real source of all it is we need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shutting off our electronic devices and
spending time outside in nature will be one of the primary methods of
accomplishing this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finding respect, appreciation, or perhaps even
reverence for the planet will be the key to everything else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">And throughout
this we start practicing and experimenting with how to do all this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We reduce our consumption, we spend time with
our families and friends, we build community, we get rid of lawns and plant
gardens, we grow more trees, we learn to cooperate, we stop depending on the
market for our needs and start relying on ourselves and our communities, we let
go of blind faith in technology, we stop numbing ourselves and start thinking, we
stop listing to fools and call them out when they act foolishly, and hold them
accountable for their foolish acts, and we begin dismantling the current infrastructure and reclaim it to rebuild a new society designed by the people - for the people - with the planet in mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">So my goal
for the coming year is to find or perhaps create events where these sorts
topics can truly be discussed, understood, and perhaps even practiced, and not to
waste time or energy going to sales pitches designed to keep the same old game
going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Waiting for governments,
non-profits, corporations, or other institutions means relying on the same old
systems that have gotten us to where we are now – does not seem like a viable option
anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I indeed need to be the change
I want to see and I need to start living accordingly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-26274894028902146742017-01-07T19:41:00.005-06:002017-01-11T22:03:19.007-06:00Sustainability Criticism (or Rant?)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlK7O8wn1surdJEOFXp3T4-wMrnDUKFaV0NJ_J2O0had2InCh6p0Vds4qtLjjCvHZZTHPU-D2tWVe35pyLq6ZhXH2Bk7y4srWUxMb9X0JJGoMfTtHpzrOtbRdMcwBazk71ltP51J7lFCx/s1600/MR+danger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlK7O8wn1surdJEOFXp3T4-wMrnDUKFaV0NJ_J2O0had2InCh6p0Vds4qtLjjCvHZZTHPU-D2tWVe35pyLq6ZhXH2Bk7y4srWUxMb9X0JJGoMfTtHpzrOtbRdMcwBazk71ltP51J7lFCx/s320/MR+danger.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>sustainability</strong> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">[suh-stey-nuh-bil-i-tee]
noun: the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural
resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>crit·i·cism</strong> </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">[kridəˌsizəm] noun: the
expression of disapproval of someone or something based on perceived faults or
mistakes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>rant</strong> [rant] speak or shout at length in a wild,
impassioned way<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Lately I have not had much hope (perhaps
that is a good thing) that attending talks with the word “sustainability” in
the title will teach me much about how to achieve a “long-term ecological
balance” in my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, I usually
assume that the talk will be much more about promoting a new technology or “renewable”
energy source to sustain our current way of life (when I say “our”, I am
referring to life as a middle to upper class American).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when I first heard about the
“Sustainability Forum: Threats and Opportunities” that was held today (January
7, 2017) at the Columbia Heights MN Public Library, I was skeptical about
attending.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then I found more
information about the event (see this link for an example <a href="http://citizensforsustainability.org/2017/01/04/2017-call-for-big-picture-folk/"><span style="color: blue;">http://citizensforsustainability.org/2017/01/04/2017-call-for-big-picture-folk/</span></a>
) which proclaimed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">“At this crucial time in
world (and U.S.) history, when the future of civilization and life on this
planet hangs in the balance, and political leadership is swinging increasingly
to the authoritative right, it’s time for well-intentioned people to step up to
the plate. Hoping that “others” will take care of our collective problems will
not get the job done.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">I regained some hope (a mistake I believe
now) that this forum might be different. The talks being promoted in the flyer
I saw indicated that R. Michael Conley (the founder of Weathering the Storm) would
tell us about “The Perfect Storm: Our Sustainability Challenges, Alan Ware (a
research fellow at World Population Balance) would share his thoughts on “Making
the Connection: Overpopulation and Sustainability, and Matt Holland (editor of
“Best Practices” and apparently some sort of sustainability expert with the
University of Wisconsin System) would close out the forum with a foray into
going “Beyond Boom & Bust”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Mr. Conley began his talk with some simple basics
on what are the sustainability related challenges we face and explained how he
liked to compare the diagnosis of climate change to high blood pressure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both diagnosis are at first easy to ignore,
but if the symptoms are denied for too long, then eventually bad things can
happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">I was disappointed that he did not step
back and look at this comparison from the big picture view promised in the
forum promotional material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead I
came to believe by the end of the forum, that like high blood pressure (by this
time mine had gone up), he and the other speakers were apparently toting that all
we need to do is follow the doctor’s (or folks like the speakers) prescription
and swallow some pills that allow us to keep living the good life (or at least
believing in it).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">The pills seemed to be the likes of the
twin clean-green-renewable energy technological miracles of solar and wind
energy and their all American beneficiary of these new and improved fuels, the electric
car or lawn mower; and condoms to be shoved down the throats of those
overpopulation sources of our disease in the “developing” world like India and
China who simply need to take a pledge of using birth control and educating
their women folk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For think about the
impact on the planet if all those hordes were to obtain the simple pleasure of
a “Bic Pen” as Mr. Ware reminded us, and then if we get rid of them, then we could
avoid a future where we (American middle to upper middle class white-folk) had to
give up our electric cars powered by windmills and solar panels with the
resources to build the infrastructure now easily plundered from the depopulated
developing countries and avoid living in poverty ourselves (my take on his talk
anyway).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">So here’s to us, those who – have taken the
big steps of stopping our progeny at 1 or 2 or better yet opted for no
offspring at all; and have had the vision (and wealth) to be able to promote,
purchase, and install wind turbines and solar panels on our roof tops and in
our backyards, and purchase all that shiny new electric powered equipment and
entertainment devices that can keep our reinvented economy growing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as an afterthought – perhaps we owe at
least a token thanks to the over populated developing countries who we will
help to become depopulated for the opportunity for us to continue to plunder
the planet to find the resources to produce the new infrastructure that will
allow these “renewable energy sources” to be as the day’s closing song reminded
us – “reduced, reused, and recycled” into infinity so we can keep “our” economy
growing and glowing – right (or am I wrong)?????<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">I am sure the good folks involved in planning
and presenting this forum had no intention of leaving the audience as disgusted
as I was, but rather hoped to inspire more hope for our fossil fuel free
future, but I for one have become more resolved to hold strong to my renewed commitment
to avoid talks by perhaps well-intentioned “leaders” who fail to really step
back, open their eyes, and see the big picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For if they did, I think they would begin to see that to really convert
our current fossil fuel powered economy to so called “renewable” energies, is
at best a pipe dream designed to keep the American Dream alive for a little
longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But just like their fossil fuel brethren,
“renewables” designed to power an economic global super power like America, depend
on an extremely non-renewable infrastructure of a very limited lifespan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Solar panels don’t magically grow from the
ground, no matter how much “bio-mimicry” we use in the design process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the real world you need to mine silicon
for the solar collectors, aluminum ores for the frames, sand for the glass
encasements, copper for the wiring and new grids, iron for the new grid support
poles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The process of converting silicon
to solar panels uses large amounts of energy (typically of the fossil based
sort), uses hazardous chemicals to process the panels, and releases greenhouse
gases into the atmosphere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wind turbine infrastructure
is also not “clean and green”, nor renewable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is the need for steel to build the support towers, metals to build
the generators, petroleum to create the resin used to make the fiberglass
blades, huge concrete foundations buried in the ground to support the graceful monstrosities,
and more copper to create the transmission cables to carry all this “renewable”
energy to our homes and factories where we make it all happen (or at least used
to until we found out it is cheaper to build all this stuff in third world
countries where we don’t have to worry about the costs of clean air or
sustainable wages).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">So until our renewable energy gurus or
salesmen can start to provide some data, slides and graphs detailing what the impacts
from all these and other processes will be on the people and the planet and how
all this worn out infrastructure will be disposed of – I will not be buying
into the renewable unlimited energy fantasy future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if somehow we could achieve it (based on
previous experiences with such forays) I have a feeling that the side effects
would kill us off faster than any dose of high blood pressure or climate change
every could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">I suppose that makes me a doubter, a
denier, a skeptic, a cynic, rambling idiot, or a hopeless doom and
gloomer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I think it is time to
embrace these labels boldly and let go of a hope for this nightmare of ours to
go on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So called overpopulated third
world populations are not the source of our problems, but rather a convenient
source to blame, provide cheap labor to build our stuff, and find many mouths
to feed our excess industrialized grain to, so we can take their prime lands to
mine our minerals, grow our luxury foods like coffee or fruit, sugar, or other recreational
mind numbing drugs on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps I should not blame the speakers at
this particular event who are likely just telling the same tale that we all
seem to proclaim in one way or another in order to justify our own privilege, rewards,
and existence that depends on promoting the company line – that economic growth
(although perhaps it may needs some tweaking or “greening”) is the root of all
that is good (at least to those of us who get the goods).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also helps us to continue to deny the much
more likely reality that this economic growth designed to provide profits for a
few (and mind-numbing rewards to a few more) is actually the root cause of all
our symptoms of the dis-ease we are all inflicted by (and by all here I mean
everyone, the 1%, the 2%, the 10%, and even the overpopulated folks we like to
blame for our problems – the 90%).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Despite how much we would like it to be
true, “renewable” energy sources or population reduction is not the answer to
our problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather the reality is the
only prescription that will heal the ails we have begins by acknowledging the
limits of the finite planet we live on and then to thank our lucky stars that
we live on a planet that has provided us with an opportunity to even exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to stop listening to fools who make
up the 1% and their message regurgitated by us 10%-ers (whether we are right or
left leaning) that consumption, a growing economy, and competition are what it
is about (even if we “green” it up or make it more “sustainable”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to power down big time (and here we
refers to us white middle and upper middle class folks) and stop consuming a
bunch of crap that we don’t need. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we
Americans need to give up our dream world and start living like those “poor”
overpopulated folk we think we are better off than, and perhaps if they are
willing to teach us, learn from them how to survive on a lot, lot, less than we do now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Note that I am pretty sure that that means
giving up on the biggest part of the American dream – the personal automobile –
no matter what you use to fuel it or what color you paint it. We need to find
solutions not based on shoving into other people’s back yards things we would
not have in our own back yards, nor take from other people’s back yards what
our own backyards lack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead we need
to begin to live within the means available to us in our own yards and realize that
if we destroy our yard, we destroy ourselves, along with everything else that
lives there. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is the big fat
pill we need to swallow whole (even if it gags us), if we are to have any hope
of finding some sort of long term ecological balance in these miserable lives
we have allowed to be created.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">And that is the end of this rant, for now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-41111169011236466062016-10-07T10:21:00.000-05:002016-10-07T10:21:05.380-05:00Is Economic Growth Immature? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Some excerpts from David Korten’s YES Magazine article on “Why
The Economy Should Stop Growing - And
Just Grow Up”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It is time to reframe
the debate to recognize that we have pushed growth in material consumption
beyond Earth’s environmental limits. We must now shift our economic priority
from growth to maturity—meeting the needs of all within the limits of what
Earth can provide.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Global GDP is
currently growing 3 to 4 percent annually. Contrary to the promises of
politicians and economists, this growth is not eliminating poverty and creating
a better life for all. It is instead creating increasingly grotesque and
unsustainable imbalances in our relationship to Earth and to each other.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Families are
collapsing, and suicide rates are increasing.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Humans now consume at
a rate 1.6 times what Earth can provide. Weather becomes more severe and
erratic, and critical environmental systems are in decline.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We cannot, […], look
to the economic institutions that created the imbalances to now create an
economy that meets the essential needs of all in balanced relationship to a
living Earth. Global financial markets value life only for its market price.
And the legal structures of global corporations centralize power and delink it
from the realities of people’s daily lives.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The step to maturity
depends on rebuilding caring, place-based communities and economies and
restoring to them the power that global corporations and financial markets have
usurped.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Living organisms have
learned to self-organize as bioregional communities that create and maintain
the conditions essential to a living Earth community. We humans must take the
step to maturity as we learn to live as responsible members of that community.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">See the entire article here:
<a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/why-the-economy-should-stop-growing-and-just-grow-up-20160504">http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/why-the-economy-should-stop-growing-and-just-grow-up-20160504</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-67560712557714888852016-09-27T13:06:00.000-05:002016-09-27T13:07:04.220-05:00Stupid Work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://omicron.aeon.co/images/ff09a85a-8bc2-456c-9626-4858aa5a9f65/header_essay-gs3408868.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://omicron.aeon.co/images/ff09a85a-8bc2-456c-9626-4858aa5a9f65/header_essay-gs3408868.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Interesting synopsis of a study of stupidity in the workplace can be found at the following essay titled “<a href="https://aeon.co/essays/you-don-t-have-to-be-stupid-to-work-here-but-it-helps?preview=true">STUPEFIED – How Organizations Enshrine Collective Stupidity And Employees Are Rewarded For Checking Their Brains At The Door</a>” written by Andre Spicer. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“At the outset of our research, we suspected that organisational life would be full of stupidities. But we were genuinely surprised that otherwise smart people would go along with collective stupidity, and be rewarded for doing so. Mindlessly following rules and regulations – even if they were completely counterproductive – meant that professionals would be left alone. Using empty leadership talk would get ambitious people promoted into positions of responsibility. Copying other well-known organisations meant a firm could be seen as ‘world-class’. Launching branding initiatives meant that executives could focus on the easier work of manipulating surface images and avoid the much messier realities of organisational life. Following deep-seated corporate cultures often meant employees could be seen as committed organisational citizens while overlooking festering problems.”</span></i><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-83928280116569802312015-12-21T11:40:00.000-06:002015-12-21T11:40:08.334-06:00Egalitarianism vs. Hierarchy, A List<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here is a list of some of the books/papers from
anthropologists/archaeologists that I am aware of on the topics of egalitarianism
and it’s opposite hierarchy and control by the Power Elite. The ones marked
with an * are my personal favorites and might be ones to start with, and those
marked + I have, but have yet to read. I hope they help in your quest to
understand the downfall of man (and woman if she keeps following and being
dominated by him). </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">PAPERS:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">* James Woodburn, Egalitarian Societies, Man, New Series, Vol. 17, No. 3,
Sep 1982, p 431-451, <a href="https://libcom.org/files/EGALITARIAN%20SOCIETIES%20-%20James%20Woodburn.pdf" title="https://libcom.org/files/EGALITARIAN%20SOCIETIES%20-%20James%20Woodburn.pdf">https://libcom.org/files/EGALITARIAN%20SOCIETIES%20-%20James%20Woodburn.pdf</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Richard Borsay Lee, Power and Property in Twenty-First Century Foragers, A
Critical Examination, 2004, <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/17943/1/TSpace0098.PDF" title="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/17943/1/TSpace0098.PDF">https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/17943/1/TSpace0098.PDF</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Christopher Boehm,Conflict and the Evolution of Social Control, Journal of
Consciousness Studies, 7, No. 1-2, 2000, p. 79-101. <a href="https://libcom.org/files/Hunter-Gatherer%20Egalitarianism%20by%20Christopher%20Boehm.pdf" title="https://libcom.org/files/Hunter-Gatherer%20Egalitarianism%20by%20Christopher%20Boehm.pdf">https://libcom.org/files/Hunter-Gatherer%20Egalitarianism%20by%20Christopher%20Boehm.pdf</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Christopher Boehm, et. al., Egalitarian Behavior and Reverse Dominance
Hierarchy, Current Anthropology, Vol 34, No 3, June 1993. <a href="http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/readings/boehm.pdf" title="http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/readings/boehm.pdf">http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/readings/boehm.pdf</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Doron Shultziner, From the Beginning of History; Paleolithic Democracy, the
Emergence of Hierarchy, and the Reemergence of Political Egalitarianism. <a href="http://www.foti-peter.hu/Schulzinger_From_the_Beginning_of_History.pdf" title="http://www.foti-peter.hu/Schulzinger_From_the_Beginning_of_History.pdf">http://www.foti-peter.hu/Schulzinger_From_the_Beginning_of_History.pdf</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">* John H. Bodley, Socioeconomic Growth, Culture Scale, and Household
Well-being, A Test of the Power Elite Hypothesis, Current Anthropology, Vol 40,
No 5, Dec 1999. <a href="http://libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/pdf/Bodley%201999%20Socio-economic%20Growth.pdf" title="http://libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/pdf/Bodley%201999%20Socio-economic%20Growth.pdf">http://libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/pdf/Bodley%201999%20Socio-economic%20Growth.pdf</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John H. Bodley, Anthropology and Global Environmental Change, Encyclopedia
of global Environmental Change, 2002. <a href="http://libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/pdf/Bodley%20GB801-W.pdf" title="http://libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/pdf/Bodley%20GB801-W.pdf">http://libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/pdf/Bodley%20GB801-W.pdf</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John H. Bodley, Growth, Sustainability, and the Power of Scale, Dimensions
of Sustainable Development, Vol II, Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. <a href="http://www.eolss.net/Sample-Chapters/C13/E1-46B-27.pdf" title="http://www.eolss.net/Sample-Chapters/C13/E1-46B-27.pdf">http://www.eolss.net/Sample-Chapters/C13/E1-46B-27.pdf</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">BOOKS: </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">* John Bodley, CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: TRIBES, STATES, AND THE GLOBAL
SYSTEM 5th Edition ( <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Anthropology-Tribes-States-Global/dp/0759118663" title="http://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Anthropology-Tribes-States-Global/dp/0759118663">http://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Anthropology-Tribes-States-Global/dp/0759118663</a>
). </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John Bodley, VICTIMS OF PROGRESS, 6TH EDITION (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Victims-Progress-John-H-Bodley/dp/1442226935/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" title="http://www.amazon.com/Victims-Progress-John-H-Bodley/dp/1442226935/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">http://www.amazon.com/Victims-Progress-John-H-Bodley/dp/1442226935/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8</a>).
</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John Bodley, ANTHROPOLOGY AND CONTEMPORARY HUMAN PROBLEMS, 6TH Edition (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Anthropology-Contemporary-Human-Problems-Bodley/dp/0759121583/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" title="http://www.amazon.com/Anthropology-Contemporary-Human-Problems-Bodley/dp/0759121583/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">http://www.amazon.com/Anthropology-Contemporary-Human-Problems-Bodley/dp/0759121583/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8</a>)
are also quite good. If you interested in these, I would start with CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY, and then go to the next two if the topic really interests you.
</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">* Guy Gibbon, THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Minnesota-Prehistory-Mississippi-Region/dp/0816679096/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450712154&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=The+Archeaology+of+MN%2C+Guy+Gibbon" title="http://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Minnesota-Prehistory-Mississippi-Region/dp/0816679096/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450712154&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=The+Archeaology+of+MN%2C+Guy+Gibbon">http://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Minnesota-Prehistory-Mississippi-Region/dp/0816679096/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450712154&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=The+Archeaology+of+MN%2C+Guy+Gibbon</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Thoams Widlok and Wolde Gossa Tadesse, PROPERTY AND EQUALITY, VOLUME 1 –
Ritualization, Sharing, Egalitarianism & VOLUME 2 Encapsulation,
Commercialization, Discrimination. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Property-Equality-Volume-Ritualization-Egalitarianism/dp/1845452135" title="http://www.amazon.com/Property-Equality-Volume-Ritualization-Egalitarianism/dp/1845452135">http://www.amazon.com/Property-Equality-Volume-Ritualization-Egalitarianism/dp/1845452135</a>,
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Property-Equality-Volume-Commercialization-Discrimination/dp/1845452143/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51iFFnQYsmL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=0RT81JAE27SPSSHG3WR2" title="http://www.amazon.com/Property-Equality-Volume-Commercialization-Discrimination/dp/1845452143/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51iFFnQYsmL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=0RT81JAE27SPSSHG3WR2">http://www.amazon.com/Property-Equality-Volume-Commercialization-Discrimination/dp/1845452143/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51iFFnQYsmL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=0RT81JAE27SPSSHG3WR2</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">+ Frank W. Marlowe, THE HADZA, HUNTER GATHERERS OF TANZANIA. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hadza-Hunter-Gatherers-Tanzania-Origins-Behavior/dp/0520253426/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717337&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=THE+HAZDA%2C+HUNTER" title="http://www.amazon.com/Hadza-Hunter-Gatherers-Tanzania-Origins-Behavior/dp/0520253426/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717337&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=THE+HAZDA%2C+HUNTER">http://www.amazon.com/Hadza-Hunter-Gatherers-Tanzania-Origins-Behavior/dp/0520253426/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717337&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=THE+HAZDA%2C+HUNTER</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">+ Richard Borsahay Lee, The !KUNG SAN, MEN, WOMEN, AND WORK IN A FORAGING
SOCIETY. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kung-San-Women-Foraging-Society/dp/0521295610/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717463&sr=1-1&keywords=lEE%2C+%21kUNG+sAN" title="http://www.amazon.com/Kung-San-Women-Foraging-Society/dp/0521295610/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717463&sr=1-1&keywords=lEE%2C+%21kUNG+sAN">http://www.amazon.com/Kung-San-Women-Foraging-Society/dp/0521295610/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717463&sr=1-1&keywords=lEE%2C+%21kUNG+sAN</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Richard B. Lee, THE DOBE !KUNG. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dobe-Kung-Studies-Cultural-Anthropology/dp/0030638038/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717463&sr=1-2&keywords=lEE%2C+%21kUNG+sAN" title="http://www.amazon.com/Dobe-Kung-Studies-Cultural-Anthropology/dp/0030638038/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717463&sr=1-2&keywords=lEE%2C+%21kUNG+sAN">http://www.amazon.com/Dobe-Kung-Studies-Cultural-Anthropology/dp/0030638038/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717463&sr=1-2&keywords=lEE%2C+%21kUNG+sAN</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">+ Christopher Boehm, HIERARCHY IN THE FOREST, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hierarchy-Forest-Evolution-Egalitarian-Behavior/dp/0674006917/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717728&sr=1-1&keywords=boehm%2C+hierarchy+in+the+forest" title="http://www.amazon.com/Hierarchy-Forest-Evolution-Egalitarian-Behavior/dp/0674006917/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717728&sr=1-1&keywords=boehm%2C+hierarchy+in+the+forest">http://www.amazon.com/Hierarchy-Forest-Evolution-Egalitarian-Behavior/dp/0674006917/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450717728&sr=1-1&keywords=boehm%2C+hierarchy+in+the+forest</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">* Christopher Boehm, MORAL ORIGINS, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Origins-Evolution-Virtue-Altruism/dp/0465020488/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" title="http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Origins-Evolution-Virtue-Altruism/dp/0465020488/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Origins-Evolution-Virtue-Altruism/dp/0465020488/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8</a> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">+ Harry Walker, UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE: SELF, POWER, AND INTIMACY IN
AMAZONIA, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Under-Watchful-Eye-Ethnographic-Subjectivity/dp/0520273605" title="http://www.amazon.com/Under-Watchful-Eye-Ethnographic-Subjectivity/dp/0520273605">http://www.amazon.com/Under-Watchful-Eye-Ethnographic-Subjectivity/dp/0520273605</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Joseph A. Tainter, THE COLLAPSE OF COMPLEX SOCIETIES, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450718094&sr=8-1&keywords=tainter+the+collapse+of+complex+societies" title="http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450718094&sr=8-1&keywords=tainter+the+collapse+of+complex+societies">http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450718094&sr=8-1&keywords=tainter+the+collapse+of+complex+societies</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-7397162104652881982015-02-07T10:34:00.001-06:002015-02-07T10:34:13.114-06:00Message from the Future<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">An interesting vision for a better future –</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">"Our main aim is to live sustainably and cooperatively. We seek and enjoy a good life rather than material accumulation and privilege. We see ourselves as belonging to the earth rather than the earth belonging to us and do not see ourselves as superior to other living things. Similarly, our attitude of non-superiority applies to our view of other human beings. In our classless society all people are regarded as equal and treated equally throughout their lives and this has brought obvious benefits in terms of health, education, satisfying work and involvement in governance. The community not individuals own and regulate the land and its resources. Private ownership of land and resources has been fully replaced by cooperative ownership and organisation at the local community level."</i></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Read more below from Geoff Mosley’s message from the future at the following link:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://simplicitycollective.com/the-steady-state-economy-and-the-incompatibility-of-capitalism">http://simplicitycollective.com/the-steady-state-economy-and-the-incompatibility-of-capitalism </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>So what is your vision for the future and how do we get there? </b></span><br />
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<br /></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-75466917168507743172014-11-26T11:52:00.000-06:002014-11-26T11:52:03.366-06:00Climate Change Denial <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Being able to respond to threatening situations requires that one be fully conscious to what is going on. One of the biggest threats to humanities continued existence is climate change. To date little has really been done to address this threat. There has been much talk about whether the threat is real or make believe, and additional talk about if real, some simple solutions that might save us from ourselves. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Unfortunately most of this talk is muffled from the sand that fills our mouths as we bury our heads in the muffling material as a way to avoid becoming conscious of the reality of the situation we face. Erik Lindberg’s piece titled: Six Myths About Climate Change that Liberals Rarely Question provides us with an opportunity to pull our heads from the sand and begin to really think about what we need to do to address climate change. The full text is available <a href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-11-26/six-myths-about-climate-change-that-liberals-rarely-question">here</a>. Some excerpts from his “sixth myths” of denial follow:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Myth #1: Liberals Are Not In Denial</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">[…] liberal denial […] the belief that we can avoid the most catastrophic levels of climate disruption without changing our fundamental way of life. This is myth is based on errors that are as profound and basic as the conservative denial of climate change itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">[…] conservatives climate deniers understand that addressing climate change will, in fact, change our way of life, a way of life which conservatives often view as sacred. This sort of change is so terrifying and unthinkable to them, she argues, that they cut the very possibility of climate change off at its knees: fighting climate change would force us to change our way of life; our way of life is sacred and cannot be questioned; ergo, climate change cannot be happening. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We have a situation, then, where one half of the population says it is not happening, and the other half says it is happening but fighting it doesn’t have to change our way of life. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Myth #2: Republicans are Still More to Blame</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It is true that conservative politicians in the United States and Europe have been intent on blocking international climate agreements; but by focusing on these failed agreements, which only require a baby-step in the right direction, liberals obliquely side-step the actual cause of global warming—namely, burning fossil fuels. The denial of climate change isn’t responsible for the fact that we, in the United States, are responsible for about one quarter of all current emissions if you include the industrial products we consume (and an even greater percentage of all emissions over time), even though we make up only 6% of the world’s population. Our high-consumption lifestyles are responsible for this. Republicans do not emit an appreciably larger amount of carbon dioxide than Democrats.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Myth #3: Renewable Energy Can Replace Fossil Fuels </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Conventional wisdom among American liberals assures us that we would be well on our way to a clean, green, low-carbon, renewable energy future were it not for the lobbying efforts of big oil companies and their Republican allies. The truth is far more inconvenient than this: it will be all but impossible for our current level of consumption to be powered by anything but fossil fuels. The liberal belief that energy sources such as wind, solar, and biofuels can replace oil, natural gas, and coal is a mirror image of the conservative denial of climate change: in both cases an overriding belief about the way the world works, or should work, is generally far stronger than any evidence one might present. Denial is the biggest game in town. Denial, as well as a misunderstanding about some fundamental features of energy, is what allows someone like Bill Gates assume that “an energy miracle” will be created with enough R & D. Unfortunately, the lessons of microprocessors do not teach us anything about replacing oil, coal, and natural gas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Myth 4: The Coming “Knowledge Economy” Will be a Low-Energy Economy</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We like to pretend that the rest of the world can live like us, and we have certainly done our best to advertise, loan, seduce, and threaten people across the world to adopt our style, our values, and our wants. But someone still has to do the smelting, the welding, the sorting, and run the ceaseless production lines. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And, moreover, if everyone lived like we do, took our vacations, drove our cars, ate our food, lived in our houses, filled them with oversized TVs and the endless array of throwaway gadgetry, the world would use four times as much energy and emit nearly four times as much carbon dioxide as it does now. If even half the world’s population were to consume like we do, we would have long since barreled by the ecological point of no-return. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Myth 5: We can Reverse Global Warming Without Changing our Current Lifestyles</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The upshot of the previous sections is that the comforts, luxuries, privileges, and pleasures that we tell ourselves are necessary for a happy or satisfying life are the most significant cause of global warming and that unless we quickly learn to organize our lives around another set of pleasures and satisfactions, it is extremely unlikely that our children or grandchildren will inherit a livable planet. Because we are falsely reassured by liberal leaders that we can fight climate change without any inconvenience, it bears repeating this seldom spoken truth. In order to adequately address climate change, people in rich industrial nations will have to reduce current levels of consumption to levels few are prepared to consider. This truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Myth 6: There is Nothing I Can Do </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The problem is daunting; making changes can be difficult. But not only can you do something, you can’t not do anything. Either you will continue to buy, use, and consume as if there is no tomorrow; or you will make substantial changes to the way you live.</span><br />
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Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-82940776042702520662014-03-10T19:24:00.000-05:002014-03-10T19:24:00.020-05:00Permitting Pollution<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Minnesota Public Radio asked the following question – “<a href="http://blogs.mprnews.org/todays-question/2014/03/are-you-confident-the-proposed-polymet-mine-would-avoid-polluting-minnesotas-water/">Are you confident the proposed PolyMet mine would avoid polluting Minnesota’swater?</a>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My answer follows. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Having worked for 30 years in the environmental field, I
have come to understand that environmental regulations are not designed to
prevent industry from polluting; they are actually designed to permit
industries to pollute. The goal of the
writers of these permits is of course to encourage the mine operators to manage
the pollutants as best they can, so as to not cause any immediate threats to
the surrounding ecosystem out of which the mine will be carved. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But pollution will occur despite our best attempts to manage
it; even if there were no accidents, no equipment failures, or no operational
negligence along the way. Therefore, as
long as a mine is permitted to occur, it will pollute. And those pollutants will get into the
people, plants, and animals that depend on that ecosystem for their life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The process will begin when the land which is to be mined is
cleared off all life that exists there.
Runoff from the now denuded and disturbed landscape will begin to be
carried off the site by stormwater and wind, despite permit requirements that
require the mine to "control" this runoff with best management
practices. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The equipment used to clear the site, and mine the mine,
will pollute the air when the fossil fuels that power the equipment is burned
in the engines the move the equipment.
The pollution laden exhausts will then expand into the atmosphere, where
the pollutants will dissolve or be suspended in the moisture in the air, where
eventually some of them will fall to the ground and run into our surface and
ground waters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As the mining process continues, the overburden from the
mine will be stockpiled, and when the rains and the winds contact it, sediments
containing minerals and heavy metals that have been sealed in the earth will be
exposed to the biosphere, and the pollutants they contain will again continue
to run off the site, again despite any best management practices or treatment
required by a permit. Sure these
practices will again prevent some pollution from running off site, but no best
management practice or treatment system is 100% effective. And the reality is that any treatment system
used to treat the runoff will require more fuel to operate it, resulting in
more pollutant containing exhaust to be released into the air. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Eventually the mine will reach the groundwater levels. And when the natural biological and physical
filtration system that took billions of years to be placed is removed from the
site, some of the sediments containing minerals and heavy metals that are
mobilized in the mining process, and some of the equipment fuel or lubrication
fluids that spill in the mine will find their way into the groundwater, again
despite any requirements that the permit specifies to minimize these impacts or
cleanup the spills. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And then when the mining process is finished, and hopefully
the mine is “reclaimed” the metals and minerals and sulfates that will remain
will continue to leach into to the groundwater and stormwater that contacts
them. And again, any treatment systems
or management practices required by a permit will only remove a portion of the
pollution they contain, the rest will be released back into the surrounding
ecosystem and the now permanently changed ecosystem of the “reclaimed”
mine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So the only way to be confident that the proposed PolyMet
mine would avoid polluting Minnesota’s water, would require the concluder to
not understand the permitting and mining process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The question I have – is pollution of our ecosystem worth
the benefits of some short-term jobs, some metals to make some more stuff, some
tax money for the state, and potentially huge profits for the mining company?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> If your answer is
“yes”, I would ask – is this the best we can do? </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-90445674559365859422014-02-21T15:10:00.002-06:002014-02-21T15:11:12.156-06:001988 Wisdom On Leadership<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3734/12637422054_b784e47647_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3734/12637422054_b784e47647_o.jpg" height="172" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For this weeks thoughts on ecological leadership, I thought I would share some “wisdom” from the
author Kurt Vonnegut that he wrote in 1988 in the form of a letter offering
advice to the folks of 2088. Although we
are only a quarter of the way to Vonnegut’s intended audience in the year 2088,
it might be possible for us in 2014 to gleam some useful information from his
letter. Here is an excerpt:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Now that we can discuss the mess we are in with some
precision, I hope you have stopped choosing abysmally ignorant optimists for
positions of leadership. They were useful only so long as nobody had a clue as
to what was really going on—during the past seven million years or so. In my
time they have been catastrophic as heads of sophisticated institutions with
real work to do.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The sort of leaders we need now are not those who promise
ultimate victory over Nature through perseverance in living as we do right now,
but those with the courage and intelligence to present to the world what
appears to be Nature's stern but reasonable surrender terms:<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>1. Reduce
and stabilize your population.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>2. Stop
poisoning the air, the water, and the topsoil.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>3. Stop
preparing for war and start dealing with your real problems.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>4. Teach
your kids, and yourselves, too, while you're at it, how to inhabit a small
planet without helping to kill it.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>5. Stop
thinking science can fix anything if you give it a trillion dollars.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>6. Stop
thinking your grandchildren will be OK no matter how wasteful or destructive
you may be, since they can go to a nice new planet on a spaceship. That is
really mean, and stupid.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>7. And so
on. Or else.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.lettersofnote.com/2014/02/ladies-gentlemen-of-ad-2088.html">Read the entire letter here</a> thanks to the folks at Letters
Of Note . </span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7393780379509997234.post-2982247185860702182014-01-05T12:58:00.001-06:002014-01-05T13:00:53.303-06:00The Land Ethic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6rNwnHpoWz3DRB_l71DrIXAnvcLtjkmUV95jUGcuUmbARZKg-tlvCibmaecORoQPwaMsNceBhQifY7hhIolSntV3mx-NsesYsGEHL5nlBmnVE2IhqmrOTDdCrPss7wq1BMh_4UgKap1qn/s1600/Land+Ethic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6rNwnHpoWz3DRB_l71DrIXAnvcLtjkmUV95jUGcuUmbARZKg-tlvCibmaecORoQPwaMsNceBhQifY7hhIolSntV3mx-NsesYsGEHL5nlBmnVE2IhqmrOTDdCrPss7wq1BMh_4UgKap1qn/s200/Land+Ethic.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/leopold_bio.shtml" target="_blank">Aldo Leopold</a> was born in 1887 and spend his childhood
exploring the Mississippi River valley that dominated his hometown of
Burlington Iowa. He moved out east as he
entered adulthood where he enrolled in the Yale Forestry school where he got a master’s
degree in forestry. From their he got
his first job working for the newly formed U.S. Forest Service and moved to the
Southwest in New Mexico where he become supervisor of the Carson National
Forest. Eventually Leopold and his family
moved back to the Midwest, to Madison Wisconsin. In Madison, he eventually went to work for
the University of Wisconsin where he taught Game Management. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Leopold family purchased an abandoned
farm in Sauk County on the banks of the Wisconsin River where they converted an
old chicken coop into what would affectionately become known by the family as the
“shack” – the place where the family would retreat to and spend time restoring
the land that had been degraded by previous land use practices. It was from his lifetime of experiences of
living and working with the land that Leopold based his book <a href="http://www.aldoleopold.org/store/a-sand-county-almanac-and-sketches-here-and-there/" target="_blank">THE SAND COUNTYALMANAC</a> on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The ALMANAC is a collection of essays Leopold had
written. In Part I – The Sand County Almanac,
he shares writings from his time at the “shack”. Part II – The Quality of Landscape, is a
collection of experiences from the various places he lived, worked and played throughout
his life. The essays in Part III – A Taste
for Country, are a synthesis of the previous two parts that explain how there
is more to land than simply providing us a place to spend our leisure time and
that by paying attention to the land there is much we can learn. And
the concluding Part IV – The Upshot, is where Leopold brings it all together to
explain his ideas about why our culture needs to develop a land ethic and what
that ethic entailed. It is perhaps a
poetic tragedy that Leopold died from a heart attack helping a neighbor fight a
wild fire next to the “shack” property in 1948, before the ALMANAC was
published in 1949. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Some excerpts from <a href="http://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/landethic.html" target="_blank">The Upshot</a> follow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>When god-like Odysseus returned from the wars in Troy, he
hanged all on one rope a dozen slave-girls of his house-hold, whom he suspected
of misbehavior during his absence. This
hanging involved no question of propriety. The girls were property. The
disposal of property was then, as now, a matter of expediency, not of right and
wrong.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom action in
the struggle for existence. An ethic, philosophically is a differentiation of
social from anti-social conduct.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>There is as yet no ethic dealing with man's relation to land
and to the animals and plants which grow upon it. Land, like Odysseus'
slave-girls, is still property. The land relation is still strictly economic,
entailing privileges but no obligations.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that
the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. His
instincts prompt him to compete for his place in that community, but his ethics
prompt him also to co-operate (perhaps in order that there may be a place to
compete for).<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to
plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and
also respect for the community as such.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>One basic weakness in a conservation system based wholly on
economic motives is that most members of the land community have no economic
value. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>To sum up: a system of conservation based solely on economic
self-interest is hopelessly lopsided. It tends to ignore, and thus eventually
to eliminate, many elements in the land community that lack commercial value,
but that are (as far as we know) essential to its healthy functioning. It
assumes, falsely, I think, that the economic parts of the biotic clock will
function without the uneconomic parts. It tends to relegate to government many
functions eventually too large, too complex, or too widely dispersed to be
performed by government.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see,
feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy
flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals. Food chains are the
living channels which conduct energy up ward; death and decay return it to the
soil. The circuit is not closed; some energy is dissipated in decay, some is
added by absorption from the air, some is stored in soils, peats, and
long-lived forests; but it is a sustained circuit, like a slowly augmented
revolving fund of life. There is always a net loss by downhill wash, but this
is normally small and offset by the decay of rocks. It is deposited in the
ocean and, in the course of geological time, raised to form new lands and new
pyramids.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>A land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological
conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility
for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for
self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this
capacity.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land
can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land and a high regard for
its value. By value, I of course mean something far broader than mere economic
value; I mean value in the philosophical sense.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The 'key-log' which must be moved to release the
evolutionary process for an ethic is simply this: quit thinking about decent
land-use as solely an economic problem. Examine each question in terms of what
is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient.
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty
of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The mechanism of operation is the same for any ethic: social
approbation for right actions: social disapproval for wrong actions.</i></span><o:p></o:p></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0