27 November 2005

CounterHegemony 12 - George Lakoff – Framing the Debate (1 of 2)

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It’s quite late, so I’ll make this post quite short. Here’s the story / thought process around this episode.


1) Happy Thanksgiving, America! General Motors is going to be eliminating 30,000 jobs over the next few years. Oh, fear not, its just part of “GM North America's Four Point Turnaround Plan.” Which includes such amazing treats (for investors) as, Health-care Cost Reductions, a “Product Renaissance” (it’ll be just like renaissance fair, except with more Hummers), and a new Sales and Marketing strategy. Wait, that's only three. Oh dear, we’re in trouble.

2) So, Michael Moore delivers a proper Roman Catholic homily about it? At the Paul Wellstone Memorial Dinner, hosted by the Progressive Caucus of the Genesee County Democratic Party?


3) What gives? Let’s ask a linguist to help us make sense…


And so, I play for you a speech by renowned, respected, and clever guy named George Lakoff. Rumor has it that his latest book is on quite a few bookshelves of big-time politicians. It’s worth knowing what’s going on here, even if seems a little odd…

Music
Moby Dick, Led Zeppelin
The Greenhouse, Pigface
Prnavor, Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra
A Upsetting Dub, Lee "Scratch" Perry
Circle (Boredoms), Fischerspooner
Silence (Minimal Mix), Taiko
Sleeping In, The Postal Service

posted by Dan at 00:03 0 comments

19 November 2005

CounterHegemony 11 - Activist Methods IV

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So, a couple weeks ago U2 was in town on the Vertigo Tour; apparently shortly after they left L.A., they went up to the Bay area where Bono had an editorial board interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, which then podcasted that interview in 3 pieces over the following week. I've cut that down even further to bring you about 25 minutes of the interview, plus a few introductory remarks from me.

Very Very cool stuff.

I've always been a U2 fan, and have been following the One campaign which Bono promotes very heavily, and was really very impressed by lots of things he said in this interview, for lots of different reasons. First off, on the simple level of *what* he's doing, it’s impressive. Taking a leading role in a global campaign to make sure the wealthy world doesn't forget about the impoverished world. Second of all, I think his strategic sense comes through very clearly. Which is why I've labeled this as part of the Activist methods series.

Some observations:

  • Bono mentions something about being very well briefed in these meetings. This tells me two things. First, he's got people he's working with who are experts, policy wonks, researchers and other folks who put a lot of thought into these issues. He trusts them, they trust him. Second, he understands that he's a spokesperson - and that the expert-types need to trust that he can digest the technical information and spit out something that's persuasive to his audience.

  • Another observation he makes that I concur with is about a general approach to meetings, including meetings with folks who are not your allies. Go to them with a plan. If you sit there and list all of the ways they've failed, or get them so depressed about how horrible the world is, it’s more difficult for them to feel like they can trust you or to understand if you're really interested in the first place. Instead, if you simply identify the problem and spend the bulk of the time cluing your audience into a plan, asking for feedback, finding out how they can help, what they get in return for helping, then all parties are more likely to feel successful... and more likely to want to meet again for the follow-up.

  • Don't alienate the people who can change the situation. I almost got sick the first time I heard these because he speaks so highly of Bush in more than one segment. But, on second and third listen, its worth pointing out that his praise is measured and honest and that he simply does not criticize him. This is quite important -- don't talk trash about the people your stake-holders depend on, no matter how easy it is. And it’s not just Bush, its conservatives, religious folks, musicians and actors. Bono is name dropping left and right here because: 1) he's probably made it a point to let all of these other players know that doing this stuff is good for their name and its his responsibility to associate them together and 2) he knows that these other names are meaningful to different sections of the audience, which he needs to connect with in order to move them to action. Don't be afraid to name drop, but just be sure not to misrepresent what those names actually do or say (that could haunt you later).

  • Make sure your events aren't exclusive. Bono talks a bit about the fear they had going into the recent Live Aid show because it seemed dominated by "poodle-headed rock stars" - so he called Will Smith, Jay Z, who then took responsibility for reaching out to more of the hip-hop community. As a result, the event was much better, the audience was much wider, and nobody could say this was just a 'white thing.'

  • And, lastly, don't be afraid to go after the bullies, aka The Biggest Worst. Wouldn't you rather have them on your side? I highlight this in my commentary, but it’s worth repeating here. If you're putting a strategy together, it’s seriously worth mapping out the power dynamics on both your side and the opposition's. If you can find a way to meet with the most rabid people on the other side to find a way to either win them to your side or neutralize them from the start, you'll find it significantly easier to move your issue. If you can't achieve that, you may need to figure out a way to work around them - organize all of their allies? - establish some authority over them? divert their attention away from your issue? You get the point, but make sure not to let them distract you by pulling the same stuff with you!

Some links:

San Francisco Chronicle – www.sfgate.com

Full Bono Interview -

One Campaign – www.one.org

DATA – www.data.org


***Late additions:
Here are a couple more critical articles about Bono's One campaign

***

Music
Behavior Modification/We Will Rock You (Bipartisan Mix), Emergency Broadcast Network
Give Me My Auger Back, Psychedeliasmith
The Persuader, Avia
Ocean Jive, Seven Van Hees
Turtle (Bonobo Mix), Pilote
C Jam Blues, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
Nameless One No. 2, Sun Ra & His Arkestra
Jesus of Rio, Violent Femmes

posted by Dan at 20:19 0 comments

05 November 2005

CounterHegemony 10 - Human Rights

CounterHegemony 10 - Human Rights

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or subscribe to the podcast by pasting this URL into your podcatcher software (itunes, ipodder, etc.) : http://counterhegemony.libsyn.org/rss

So, I decided to do this show on Human Rights for a couple reasons. More personally, I suppose, because I volunteered with Amnesty International this week and found myself talking with folks attending the U2 show here in L.A. about how they could help get prisoners of conscience out of jail, hold the U.S. military prison system more accountable, or stand up to oppose the death penalty here in California. So, I kind of had my mind on the topic anyway.

But I think it’s one of those topics that leftists tend to know a few things about but never really dive into with much veracity. So in this episode, I outline three understandings of human rights that I’m most familiar with (read: there are others, and I’m not an expert on the topic). The first is that human rights are objective and a-historical. That is, we have them by virtue of being human – no one grants these rights, therefore no one can rightfully infringe upon them. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is the prevailing document describing this line of thought.

The second is an important, earlier version of that, most famously popularized by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. In this statement, Jefferson argues that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are given to men by their Creator, and it is their human responsibility to ensure that these rights are observed. Quite revolutionary – literally – in that it provided an important philosophical distinction from the authority of the British Crown, but, even more importantly, it sourced these rights to The Creator. One major criticism of this is that as such, one’s understanding of The Creator (and The Creator’s Agenda), strongly informs one’s understanding of and duty to respect human rights of others. To the extent that there is a shared understanding of WWJD, you have human rights, and the converse would be true, I suppose. I should note that I’d appreciate some comments on this one – I know I’m missing something important here.

Lastly, I posit the theory that Jeremy Bentham raised in relation to Natural Rights, essentially, that they’re all relative. To suggest that rights could exist naturally, outside the confines of society, is absurd, Bentham would say. This is because human have always lived in societies, and so this pure, natural state is a useless construction. Instead, rights are confined by the society in which you happen find yourself. Freedom is measured in inverse relation to your society’s constraints on freedom. While I think this is probably existentially true, I’m not convinced that the rejection of an ‘objective’ set of rights is so easily swept away.

So that’s this episode, and I’m going to just list a few human rights resources here for your reference:

oh, and as promised in the show, here are some resources you can follow for more info about the Paris Riots:


Music
Walk of Life, Dire Straits
Theme From Let's Go Native, Passengers
Burundi Black
Sorry ‘bout That, Harold Johnson Sextet
First Corner, Patrick Richard
Human Behavior, Bjork

posted by Dan at 15:21 0 comments