What in the hell …

I often think that a fair bit of things related to this stuff is all bullshit, but I have to say, I find the category “non-antagonistic contradiction” in Mao’s writings to be really interesting. It makes me want to read more Mao. (And makes me wish I remember more of the stuff I know I’ve read but somehow didn’t retain.)

Anyhow, it seems to me quite reasonable to say that in any organization that wants to or objectively does contest the prevailing states of affairs in some way, there will likely be disagreement. Given the potential stakes for these organizations, disagreement can easily become conflict. This stuff happens, in my experience.

It seems to me it’s important to avoid treating the other side in a conflict as analogous to the organizations’ opponents. It’s also important to avoid becoming narrowly focused on getting one’s way in a conflict for the sake of getting one’s way. On a related note, it’s important to try hard to tell the difference between one’s own investments in the outcomes of a conflict and a more sober assessment of a conflicts’ implications for the organization (and the class). It is particularly important that one not get into the habit of treating all disagreement as always-already conflict. It’s is also particularly important that one understand how conflicts and disagreements link to larger matters, again as part of not simply seeking to have one’s way.

Some conflicts will be composed of multiple conflicts. It is important to see how conflicts link up (or how pursuit of one can be at cross purposes with pursuit of another). It is especially important to retain as much involvement as is feasible in other work in the organization beyond intra-organizational conflict, for the sake of one’s credibility and even more so for one’s happiness and effectiveness.

Victories, comrades, victories! The fire in the belly needs success if it is not to gutter and go out. Thus I celebrate my trouncing of my archnemesis! I waged a long and arduous battle this evening against Microsoft Word and its loathsome formatting dictates. I nearly succumbed from the heat of its insistent italicizing but with perseverance I … um… persevered.

Onward!

This is a thing, not sure what. Somewhere between a think piece, the start of research goal or plan, and a rough draft for something. Stilted/wooden in tone but writing it out helped me out.

Disabled people routinely report discrimination in hiring, consigning them to unemployment or lower paying jobs than their able-bodied counterparts. The scope and sources of contemporary employment discrimination based on ability are beyond what I can address here. For now, I want to address some aspects of employment discrimination based on ability in the early to mid-twentith century United States. I want to begin with what will sound like an ugly assertion: employment discrimination against disabled people made sense for much of the twentieth century. (more…)

Working in a university often sucks. Of course, this is not unique and compared to many other options it’s better, and of course it all depends on what your job is. A post over at Perverse Egalitarianism about some philosophical work that I don’t really understand turned into in part a discussion about universities and academic work. Check it out. One of these days I’m going to get my act together and read all the back issues of Workplace and start to work more on conditions in this industry. (And not in a crappy way.) First I gotta take care of some stuff, like unpacking, and catching up on some of the work I’m behind on.

The English write Jeremy Bentham used the phrase once (I believe he actually said “upon” and not “on” but whatever). He wasn’t talking about The Coming Insurrection but he could have been. That’s the title of a whack job piece of what I recently heard aptly described as lifestyle communism - little different from lifestyle anarchism except in the resources it (ab)uses, calling to mind Paul Mattick’s suggestion that Marxism might be the last refuge of the bourgeoisie (most notably the petit bourgeoisie, or upper strata cultural producers who aspire to petit bourgeois [qua celebrity] status). Here’s a good review of why the book is crap. (more…)

Occasionally people say things and you’re like “that’s what I’m talking about!” Part of why I have this blog is to record those moments and phrases for my later use. A commenter at Perverse Egalitarianism recently prefaced a comment with the clause “following a self-absorbed tangent.” I think from now on I’m going to describe my own blog and my participation on other blogs with the phrase “following a self-absorbed tangent,” it’s a really apt phrase. Tacking across narcissism resulting in the occasionally meet up. But enough chit chat, let’s talk about me. (more…)

The public library system in Minneapolis pisses me off. They have a really good collection of music and great books, and a helpful knowledgeable staff. But a lot of branches are only open 40 hours a week and their understaffed. And the fines are really high. My hunch is that the problem is that people are in charge who don’t value or understand public libraries. Jerks.

The librarians and the collection are great though. Case in point: (more…)

By ‘you’ I mean ‘me’ of course. I was also making an allusion - clever allusionist that I am - to a Green Day song; I found an old mix tape recently, or maybe my wife found it, of hostile songs including that one. Anyhoo -

My blog is turning four! Holy crap! I’ve been doing this thing for a long, long time! That’s crazy!

This is the first ever blog post I did here. I just glanced at it briefly, I find some of it cringe-worthy (I try to maintain a general sense of shame about anything I thought more than 6 months ago, unless I happen to still think it and even then it’s probably best to err on the side of feeling embarrassed) and I really don’t relate to much of it. I do relate a bit at a sort of meta-level, the post was partly me saying “I’m gonna use this blog thing as a way to try to get clearer on some ideas,” and a bit of “I’m going to use this blog thing to make myself write more because writing is terrifying and won’t get less terrifying unless I do it more.” Both of those are still true though I definitely feel a level of progress.

There’s some quote I can’t really remember, about … someone … that they had conducted their education in public. Me too, for better and for worse. No plan to stop for the time being, though.

But yeah, four years. Woot! And if I count the first time around over at interactivist then I hit the four year mark in February. Weird.

In other news, I bought a finger board recently (my internet connection’s being slow or I’d put a link up here). I got it used for a real bargain at the climbing gym. I put it up in the basement at the new place, screwed it to the floor joists. I can do an embarassingly low number of pull ups on it. I’ve started to do flexed arm hangs on it with different numbers of fingers, and negative pull ups, and using a chair a combination of squats/stair steps and pull ups - using both my legs and my upper body. I put a sheet of butcher paper on the wall in the basement and hung a marker near it, to track workouts on it. That will help me measure progress and keep on track. Not where I want to be, but on the road to being there. The cool part is that no matter what I do with the board my forearms get a major work out, which will be a big help with climbing. While I definitely want more upper body strength (and plan to get it!) the reality is that I’ve had way way more climbs limited by my forearms wearing out than my arms and lats. I may put in a small climbing wall in the garage too, buy some plywood and 2x4s at the home improvement store and tack them up to the inside of the garage, then add holds to it to be able to get a quick workout that way at home.