We Got a Grip, Sort of Have you ever wondered what life was like for your parents as a kid? Thinking back, I remember my parents telling me stories of how they used to have to walk across downtown Caldwell in order to simply exchange a single word with one another. My mom mentioned one time, “The kids now days have it easy compared to her time era (about a 19 years difference); if you wanted to see or talk with anyone at all, you would have to go very out of your way to achieve that.” Of course, meaning nothing to me at the time, being a fifteen year old kid who just got his first ever cell phone and all, I didn’t care to avert my attention away from a brand new vividly-glaring screen of my very own first phone for even a second of slight underestimating comprehension; the first indication of something I noticed now was originally manufactured as a benefitting advancement, evidently, is really doing just the opposite. In the book titled “Getting a Grip,” author Frances Moore Lappe focuses on bringing to life what is known as Living Democracy. She states, “because of the way human brains work, we probably won’t be able to recognize what Living Democracy is unless we believe that it is even possible to begin with.” So as much as anything else this so called “new” goal for the book is to enable us a third person perspective; to that of which is happening all around us; but, still invisible to most. Living Democracy is essentially a way of life, no longer something done to us or for us, but what we ourselves create. “Thomas Jefferson understood democracy as citizens’ everyday participation in public power. Active liberty, the principle of participatory self-government, a primary force shaping the system of government that our Constitution creates.” –Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. What I believe is to be very similar, Living Democracy is always changing incorporating the new experience and the old. As such is that more and more people reject the view of democracy as set system , and more of a system at which is driven by core human values (not an assortment of basic rules and guidelines most would find a hard time fallowing completely anyways). So, how does this relate to the story of significant change in technology and the people who are affected by these advancements? Well, I believe that with every word expressed (in this overbearingly timid world we live in) is now socially being challenged with the indifferences of what’s also visually perceived at the time being. I believe, in a sense, being aware of how people function emotionally could be a good thing, right? But, this is not the case. More and more people are beginning to understand subliminal messages in the everyday things (like the words and images we see on billboards, and T.V. screens) what are only “blockading” or “camouflaging” our most feared and suppressed emotions; a place we love to never go. The corporate driven messages instilled within have been drilled into our thoughts and are in all reality damaging more than just our inherited judgment of materialistic values; but also our, emotional, ethical, philosophical morals and values; effecting the way we all interact as a mass community (socially, emotionally, spiritually), but at what cost? Surely, this cannot be our fate. Yeah, it’s easier to write things out when we communicate because then we can filter our thoughts, but when placed face to face things change and we all tend to be more emotionally blocked, causing the only truths to be understood subliminally. In Getting a Grip, Frances Moore Lappe brought up the topic of Thin Democracy in comparison to Living Democracy. She depicts the idea around a more “simplified” view, which states “Neuroscientists using MRI scans discovered that when human beings cooperate, the same parts of our brains light up as the ones aroused when we eat chocolate.” Even a moment’s reflection would tell us that we are simply just hardwired to enjoy cooperation. Also, we’re problem solvers (Thin Democracy’s assumptions shrink humans to spectators, shoppers, and whiners), Living Democracy makes the assumption that we are all does; a clean cut opposition, but what would that mean? Lappe says Living Democracy is dynamic, never finished, a work in progress, to which each new generation applies the lessons of its experiences. This means to me, Living Democracy isn’t limited to redressing a single injustice, it’s able to create a more inclusive, or, fairer way of making a decision. In truth, we can only hope to all be joined in a newly born essential policy reflecting such, deeply shared values that would be considered learned; non-automatic. Lappe in “Getting a Grip,” said, humans are innately social beings (ever come across that before? Aristotle, duh) she said “It’s true, but that doesn’t mean we are necessarily created knowing how to “do democracy” and effectively. So what she’s saying overall is that, more and more people worldwide are coming to understand democracy but not as something we simply inherit and defend, but as a learned art. So, sequentially I believe if we could somehow enforce these very diplomatic views, to a mass, that is only upon the Masses; would only ever just be a small stepping stone left to cross a wide and treacherous river. Finally, there is power-creating. Not controlling the political verse causes the obsessing over who’s got power and who’s losing it as if there were only so much to go around) but the real genius is in what they call “one-on-one” organizing strategies. These strategies involve face-to-face meetings allowing ordinary people to discover their own capacities because someone finally is listening. Ability to analyze power and self-interests into such organizations, with the goal of a better self, people within such organizations prosper. Lappe mentions in her book “Getting a Grip,” National People’s Action group documents there being a possible racial “redlining” in lending, which was supposed to help pass the federal Community Reinvestment Act. After taking these things into account, I then realized that this action has brought more than over a trillion dollars into poor neighborhoods, which to a large extent means culture has a set of expectations that is only beginning to take place: How will we behave toward one another? What can we expect to see from the community? What are the unspoken rules and guidelines that we all just assume followed in our daily interactions? In sense, a culture of “living democratic people” can be defined as a culture that builds and instills trust, connectedness, and the hope for a better tomorrow; I hope to be a part of something like this one day. “True; as fear is stoked (which means the handling of hot coals, most commonly with steam engines), trust shrinks, but reflecting even for a moment we realize that trust is still ubiquitous (defined, existing or being everywhere especially at the same time). Maybe, like cooperation so ubiquitous, we don’t register it happening at all. Every time we put a bite of food in our mouths, we put our lives into the hands of a supply chain of strangers. Every time the light turns green and we press the gas pedal, we trust strangers also capable of doing us great HARM.” –Frances Moore Lappe. There are ten Arts of Democracy mentioned in “Getting a Grip.” If you take a look, you’ll see something similar to this. • Art One: Active Listening, which is- the beginning step for the speaker, to search for meaning, finding solutions, and solving issues within the problem itself (if entails). • Art Two: Creative Conflict, which is- confronting others in ways that produce growth, and positive influence. • Art Three: Mediation, which is- facilitating interaction to help people in conflict hear one another, taking consideration of others as well as themselves. • Art Four: Negotiation, which is- problem solving that meets some key interests of all involved. • Art Five: Political Imagination, which states- the re-imaging of our futures according to our values. Art Six: Public Dialog, states- public talk on matters that concern us all. • Art Seven: Public Judgment, which states- public decision making that allows citizens to make choices they are willing to help implement. • Art Eight: Celebration, stated- expressing joy and gratitude for what we learn as well as what we achieve. • Art Nine: Evaluation and Reflection, which said- assessing and incorporating the lessons we learn through action. • And finally there is Art Ten: Mentoring, which stated- supportively guiding others in learning these arts of public life. The art of living democracy is simply listening, understanding, and attaining the overall consciousness with-held; but, is it really that simple? That’s why English professor Peter Elbow uses active listening as a teaching tool. Originally out of Massachusetts, he came up with what is called “The Believing Game.” After looking more into our social behavior within the culture, I began to see that we are indeed OVEREMPHASIZING on the importance and significance of critical thinking. We’re taught to find the symbols and flaws in any argument whether it’s face to face, or not. I believe the advancements in personable technologies/programs has made even the best of ideas, look bad. A creative idea with “far-reaching” advantages (like Facebook or Myspace) would be altered or ignored all together; why? Because, these things contradict conventional wisdom and knowledge. Growing up in an environment like the one we live in now (where important “learned-communications” are stunted), we must take action immediately in order to fix what will only be an emotional disability for people in the future. In other words, translation of our very own language is being lost to the incidental walls we put up ourselves, with the comfortably associated narcissism implied through as to where we socially networking online; in result, we all tend to be more emotionally blocked. Simply put, we just rather not be confronted at all. How would one even begin to avoid this? One strong argument I thought was fit said we can all learn to make a conscious and disciplined effort to pretend, or trying new ideas as the top overall proposal, and then see what is needed in order to adapt or be improved on after such knowledge based growth takes place; but, (how else would you even know without finding out first anyways?) this is not realistic at all to say the least. Dropping our tendencies to identify problems when interacting, frees us from the emotional “knots” created when trying to secure the relationships within. Although we fear power imbalances naturally, there has to be a way to possibly balance this out. I doubt there is anything noticeably yet, but with the power of knowledge and truly comprehending what it means to be self-conscious in “real-time,” social networking and living (life?) democracy creates citizens deliberating over shared values; the decisions of what should and should not be a market commodity to begin with. So, let’s not banish or eliminate our freedoms of speech, but rather push for educational reform in the way we now socially network. Because of the technological indifference in “instant-message” or even text, we become slightly more narcissistic. Then, transference takes place, and then we completely dismiss what is going on entirely elsewhere; waiting passively to make a conscious decision through such devices. Has our culture been on a roller coaster ride of emotional and psychological “need/want” biases all this time? And, if we have had little control over this thus far, isn’t time we wake up, and make change? Plus, we need to look behind the curtain because I believe there to be a very large picture as to why corporations are pushing for a more “singular market,” rather than just adjusting to each regionally segregated environments and emotionally diverse groups throughout the world, so ask your self this. If there’s an economic recession, but still a technological BOOM, who are the ones funding these groups to keep running and accordingly to such a marginal increase? The thing is though, I believe “they” never really cared if we all went bat shit crazy or not. So, what does this all mean? Well, as long as they are making a substantial amount of money in the process, they will only continue to take advantage of us, the now “Singular Market”; we are trained to crave and want/need what they want us to; no matter the situation know this is really taking place. In the end, what I can see as a more nearer future than originally anticipated. I can see what the world might look like if we cared not make even a slight significant change now. The image I picture could best be described by the “image-perfect” view Bruce Willis had in the hit movie, “Surrogates.” Released 2009, the idea of society creating a remote controlled humanoid robot (who’s only soul purpose of “being” was merely to impersonate its user, who is only in slight physical risk in a dangerous world painted with the all too realistic picture of how our very own social “profiles” would look like physically. Could you imagine if our Facebook profile actually took a form of its own and physically became a depiction of you, at which you could customize and control? What would it look like? Would it maybe look like the person you have as your profile cover photo album right now? Due to the common human disadvantages (like disease and/or violence) incorporated with angst, fear, and loathing, little to no positive motivation is backed by endless waves of presumptuous feelings and effect. No even a single person in that “surrogate” world would walk out of their own front door in fear of death or illness; that is no way to live. What could have possibly only been an demonstration of time and technological advancements of that world (a fictional analogy yes, but also a clear and clean cut depiction of how adjacent our own physical, mental, and emotional dependencies on the tech used today really is) which we know now, is not too dissimilar from the way we are currently networking and all staying in touch. Ultimately, it’s the act of emotional violation that’s wrong with most of the marketing advertising campaigns. Because of the endless amounts of incoming wealth for such that’s all the above, it is only in allowance to whatever it is they want us to feel (even to begin with). So, take this socially putrefying culture and help those who cannot find the answers we all tend to seek universally. Why? Because, social connectedness is one of the most overlooked problems (I believe) we all have to face in our culture today. Personally, with the hope and faith of a “self-cauterizing,” the open wounds created from my own fears still remain unhealed and vulnerable. Originally as a reminder of a lesson well learned, it’s become infected; of course not as bad as it once was what remains is merely a reopened scar, but really it’s become a whole new wound on its very own; so, to sum up everything again I will say this again “Every word that’s said today gets challenged with the indifference of what’s visually perceived at the time being. Yea, it’s easier to write things when we communicate, because, we can filter our thoughts. But, when placed face to face things change, and we all tend to be more emotionally blocked, causing the only truths to be understood subliminally. I fear the loss of translation in our own language is being lost to the very (Facebook) “walls” we (as a culture, as the masses, as a “social-network”), put up ourselves as a defense mechanism; due to the comfortably associated and preferred use of terminology in “instant-messaging,” we rather not be confronted at all anymore.” –me “Something there is that doesnt love a wall, that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, and spills the upper boulders in the sun, and makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair where they have left not one stone on a stone, but they would have the rabbit out of hiding, to please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, no one has seen them made or heard them made, but at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; and on a day we meet to walk the line and set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each and some are loaves and some so nearly balls we have to use a spell to make them balance: ‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned’ we wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game, one on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across and eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, Good fences make good neighbors. Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder if I could put a notion in his head: ‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isnt it where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall Id ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesnt love a wall, that wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him, but its not elves exactly, and Id rather he said it for himself. I see him there bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top in each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me- not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father’s saying, and he likes having thought of it so well he says again, “good fences make good neighbors.” –Robert Frost, Mending Wall...
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 09:38:19 +0000