This video pretty much speaks for itself. Clinton is prone to resentment, and while resentment may feel “good” to the one who expresses it, it rarely seduces anyone other than fellow sufferers. First up is Obama setting the levels, so to speak. Watch what happens to the audience responses as Clinton speaks. The video is from SlateV.
February 28, 2008
Emotions and Politics, Take 2
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February 24, 2008
It’s All Over but the Counting
After the Texas debate with Hilary testing a gracious exit from her hopes of the presidency, not to mention the delegate totals and the virtual impossibility of her catching Obama, its all over but the counting. I predict that Obama will win the Democratic nomination and then the general election.
Whats happening here? The pundits for the most part dont get it. Obamas constituency, I believe, does though most could not articulate it in terms other than hope, inspiration, change, with some elaboration.
What we have is a rare moment in American history. Obamas mere words are regenerating an American cultural solidarity not seen since Martin Luther King, Jr.* Forty years after Kings death, his legacy appears in secular form in Obama. This solidarity is, of course, not all encompassing, but it does indicate a major rejection of the predominant social Darwinism of the past 20 plus years.
My first inkling of this arose when Obama starting reprising, I am my brothers keeper; I am my sisters keeper. A line, a concern, a commitment that could not have been uttered even two years ago. But after almost thirty years of the politics and economics of individual and corporate greed (by both major political parties), we hear again the historical call that the most fundamental, most human ground for society is not economic rationality, but, ala King, Christian charity (or Buddhist compassion, or ).
Another sign of the return of the commons.
*For an illuminating and thoroughgoing account of cultural solidarity (and more), see Disclosing New Worlds by Charles Spinosa, Fernando Flores and Hubert Dreyfus.
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January 27, 2008
Emotions and Politics
We talk about positions and policies and experience, but what matters most about candidates and their political narratives are the emotions they evoke — and it is emotion that propels us to action. Could what we see below in a video from Slate Video called “Hillary’s Inner Tracy Flick” contribute to Hillary Clinton’s high and steady negatives in the polls? Slate introduces it with
Don’t you just hate when some upstart comes along and threatens your best-laid plans? We were struck by how well one of Reese Witherspoon’s monologues from the film Election fits the narrative of Campaign 2008.
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May 20, 2007
Jerry Falwell, R.I.P.
An old order is dying, literally and figuratively. The death of Jerry Falwell harbingers an era of greater tolerance. The historical movement toward the acceptance of diversity of many kinds (a phenomenon of the mid-50′s and the 60′s) has been slowed by the rise of Falwell, Pat Robertson and their ilk in the 70′s and 80′s. Their profound though relatively short-lived influence on American political life reminds me of the saying that the brightest colors are reserved for sunset.
Certainly Generation Next has a more inclusive attitude to race, ethnicity and gender issues. And the current generation of evangelical leadership, while still uncomfortable with and rigid about these issues, can work with those they disagree with on issues that matter to both. The paradigmatic moment here being Rick Warren welcoming Barack Obama to his Saddleback (mega) Church and their shared commitment to fighting Aids in Africa. For a current New York Times take on the boomer evangelicals click here.
Now I know one should not speak ill of the dead. But the reverend’s passing should not be occasion for retiring “Jerry Falwell’s God,” a satire sung by Roy Zimmerman. Forgive me.
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April 9, 2007
Fernando Flores’s Work in the Harvard Business Review
From when he first started offering public workshops in 1982 until now, Fernando Flores’s groundbreaking work has stayed outside the mainstream of business thinking/writing. With the publication of “Promise-Based Management: The Essence of Execution” in the Harvard Business Review it has entered that stream. Click here for the article graciously provided free by the magazine. Once there, click on the “accept” button.
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March 27, 2007
Medieval Tech Support
No, this is not about the state of Dell or any other tech support provider, but rather a comedic take on on learning how to use a book. Funny and perceptive. From youTube via Fred Mitouer and Devil Ducky.
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March 26, 2007
On the Way to Universal Health Care
We’ll be the last wealthy country to provide at least basic health care to its citizens, but the day will come. My guess is 2011 when the next president (if a Democrat) is looking to be re-elected in 2012. What form it will take is unclear, but the push for single payer gets stronger with articles like this much emailed one from the New York Times, “Aged, Frail and Denied Care by Their Insurers.” The “money quote”:
The bottom line is that insurance companies make money when they dont pay claims, said Mary Beth Senkewicz, who resigned last year as a senior executive at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Theyll do anything to avoid paying, because if they wait long enough, they know the policyholders will die.
This isn’t what The Who were singing about with “Hope I die before I get old.” But the line may come to mean this for a lot of boomers if the health care system doesn’t become more effective, i.e., efficient and humane.
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March 1, 2007
Commitments of the inauthentic self
As human beings we are always already committed. The question is not whether we are committed, but what we are committed to. In the ordinary, average, everyday, “mass,” self that the German philosopher Martin Heidegger characterized as “inauthentic,” we find embedded certain commitments that are easily recognizable when they are distinguished. I take the following from ruminations by Fernando Flores whom I first heard speak of this some 20 years ago.
Commitments of the inauthentic self
1) To look good
2) To no action
3) To assessment and assessment about assessment(s)
4) To offending and being offended as a permanent possibility
5) To already knowing the answer and to questioning for answers and not open to questioning as inquiry
6) To shopping for novelty
The issue is not whether these commitments are right or wrong or good or bad. Rather the more useful concern is what kind of life, of experience of living they give rise to and continue for ourself and others.
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February 20, 2007
Television, ticking bombs and torture
The argument for using torture usually comes down to the “ticking bomb” scenario. A bomb is about to go off and, as the plot goes, the only way to stop it is to torture someone who you think knows where that bomb is.
Fox’s “24″ is based on the “ticking bomb” plot line. The necessity of the use of torture to save the day is an essential to the show’s narrative.
The current issue of the New Yorker magazine presents an insightful article that explores “24,” it’s popularity, and the politics of its creator. And along the way, the author covers both sides of the utility of using physical and mental pain debate by recounting a visit to the set by U.S. Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, the dean of the United States Military Academy at West Point and three of the most experienced military and F.B.I. interrogators in the country.
Engrossing reading. Click here for the article.
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Ralph, I Like the Lyrics, but the Melody Lingers Not
Ralph Nader is back running for president. I do not begrudge him taking another shot. I believe in democracy. Let 10,000 flowers (candidates) bloom. And yes, restructure ballot requirements for federal offices making access easier and uniform.
But at this stage of the game, he will have less electoral support than ever. Were not going to support, let alone follow, a scold. His mood is too dark for our times. And the music of mood is always more persuasive than the lyrics of political proposals — one reason for the Obama phenomenon.
Click here to listen to Ralph on todays KQED Forum program.
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