Story: Bullshit Jobs

Book: Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, by David Graeber
Kindle edition ISBN: 150114331X; Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 15, 2018)

A “bullshit job” (henceforth referred to as a B.S. job) is a job that has no value. If it were to disappear, there would be no impact. Because “value” is so subjective, he leaves the definition of a B.S. job up to the worker. Do you see value in your job, even if it is an awful job? If so, maybe for you, it’s not totally B.S. Or do you see yourself as just a “cog” in the work machine? Or even worse: a useless cog?

It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs just for the sake of keeping us all working. And here, precisely, lies the mystery. In capitalism, this is precisely what is not supposed to happen. …

… this is the sort of very problem market competition is supposed to fix. According to economic theory, at least, the last thing a profit-seeking firm is going to do is shell out money to workers they don’t really need to employ. Still, somehow, it happens. …

The answer clearly isn’t economic: it’s moral and political. The ruling class has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger (think of what started to happen when this even began to be approximated in the ’60s). And, on the other hand, the feeling that work is a moral value in itself, and that anyone not willing to submit themselves to some kind of intense work discipline for most of their waking hours deserves nothing, is extraordinarily convenient for them.
[From the David Graeber’s essay, see below]

Community: How to Run Collaborative Projects That Don’t Fall Prey to Bureaucracy – Shareable

Today, when people call something “bureaucratic,” they usually mean that in a negative sense, but bureaucracy didn’t always have this negative connotation. About 100 years ago when many professional bureaucracies were being built, they were seen as a means of bringing quality control, predictability, and integrity to administrations. But bureaucracy has taken on a life of its own since its inception, and now is often viewed as self-perpetuating itself in thoroughly mediocre and banal ways.

Source: How to Run Collaborative Projects That Don’t Fall Prey to Bureaucracy – Shareable

Story: What Can We Do About the Politics of Resentment?

This is an excerpt from the Washington Monthly article by Nancy LeTourneau, April 14, 2017

Politics can only change laws, not hearts.

Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general of the United States, has said many times in recent years that the most prevalent health issue in the country is not cancer or heart disease or obesity. It is isolation.

My friends who are political scientists and/or pundits will hate that connection because it doesn’t speak to policy or even necessarily a political solution. But it is the very real phenomenon we are dealing with. I am reminded of how Derrick Jensen described the similarities between corporations and hate groups in his book, “The Culture of Make Believe.”

He said, “They’re cousins.”
I just listened.
“Nobody talks about this,” he said, “but they’re branches from the same tree, different forms of the same cultural imperative…”
“Which is?”
“To rob the world of its subjectivity.”
“Wait – ” I said.
“Or to put this another way,” he continued, “to turn everyone and everything into objects.”

Want to read more from this excellent article? Follow this link: Washington Monthly | What Can We Do About the Politics of Resentment? (If the article is “gone”, here’s an archive link: https://archive.ph/ATTYG )

Community: YaleNews | Politics against domination: A conversation with Sterling Professor Ian Shapiro

Ian Shapiro, Sterling Professor of Political Science, grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era. He recalls that people there could easily list the regime’s injustices, but often struggled to describe a just alternative.

This observation — people know what they oppose better than what they favor — informs Shapiro’s argument in his latest book, “Politics Against Domination.” He makes the case that resisting domination should be the overriding purpose of politics, both domestically and in foreign affairs.

He explains which form of government is best suited to prevent domination. (He argues it is not American-style republican democracy.) He also advocates a “stop the bully without becoming one” approach to foreign policy.

Shapiro, the Henry R. Luce Director of the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, recently discussed his book with YaleNews. An edited version of the conversation follows:

What do you mean by the term “domination” in your book’s title?

I think of it as the illicit use of power to get people to do things that are against their interests or that they otherwise wouldn’t do.

Read More: YaleNews | Politics against domination: A conversation with Sterling Professor Ian Shapiro

Story: Moral differences between liberals and conservatives

I heard the discussion again. “How could poor working people vote for Republicans. Don’t they see Republicans do NOTHING for them? Why are they so stupid?”

Check out this article for the answer:
Conservatives Live in a Different Moral Universe – and here’s why it matters (WebCite)

This is critical to understanding why people are rallying around Trump. Not to mention the whole rigid, no compromise Republican party.

Community Decision Making Processes – Part II

This is just a rough template or guideline for moving between different decision tools or processes, that were introduced in Part I. Its main purpose is to give a group some choices, for the times when some processes are not working. It is assumed that there will be people who know and can lead in facilitating the different processes.

Decision Flow Chart

Community Decision Making Processes – Part I

What is the Zegg Forum (or SD Forum)

From: http://www.nfnc.org/info-old/document_library/what_is_the_zegg_forum/

“A central and essential value for the Forum is trust. And there are two distinct but complementary fields of behaviour in every community that must be sharply separated before people can trust each other or not. The community must make a clear differentiation between problem solving involving information and factual discussions, versus a process designed to aid transparency of ideas and intentions. In both fields questions of power, money, sex and love will invariably arise. If these issues are not transparent, paranoias, distrust, and alienations arise which will invariably undermine the community’s problem-solving ability. The Forum is thus a critical process for ensuring the transparency so essential to the community.”

Holacracy as a new structure for organisation and decision-making at ZEGG ecovillage, Germany

Quoted from the first page: