Living under the ruling class
I have opened a forum in the new Mother Jones Hellraiser Page Forum. When there are posts in the forum that have in-depth content I will bring them over to the Hellraiser website. To see all the posts and make contributions, please go to the Forum.
Forum Post:
This one was actually first posted on the Author’s Q&A at Goodreads. A long-time friend of mine during my days in knowledge management is Dave Pollard, who has an excellent blog called How to Save the World.
He sent me a question on my Google Q&A.
Dave asked:
"If we see our culture as a massive complex system, one where (as Dave Snowden's theory explains) we cannot 'solve' problems but only intervene in hopeful ways to try to understand and adapt to the current predicament, rather than trying to substantially reform/change it, then what is the most useful, effective and honourable way to live our lives under the hegemony of the ruling capitalist class until our teetering culture collapses and we can begin to create a more humane, sustainable, egalitarian culture?"
I'm worried Dave will think my answer too soft, but here it is:
My answer:
Good question, Dave. And I would have been frustrated by it before I researched and wrote about Mother Jones. And thought about her meanings.
I think what she had that is worth adopting now is eternal optimism, commitment, persistence, and a passion that would not be intimidated by the enormity of her task. To anyone's knowledge, she never ever admitted defeat (though she lost way more battles than she won) she never became discouraged and she never allowed herself to compromise.
Today's battle is even bigger than hers and the starting point presents a force bigger than the ruling class. This force is the very people she seeks to help, their apathy, insecurity and sense of defeat on the one hand and their false sense of well-being on the other.
Those who are pretending to have wealth by accumulating debt think they are somehow getting their fair share of America's wealth. But, they are not. This may be a wealthy country, but its people are not wealthy. And too many are poor, near poor, or about to become poor when they retire on Social Security.
Dave, I've admired you for years and this is no false compliment. I think you are a modern day Mother Jones. We need more, and we need to gather them together to create a unified (notice I avoided "organized") force.
You can find other topics and posts on my Goodreads Discussion Board.
Forum Post:
This one was actually first posted on the Author’s Q&A at Goodreads. A long-time friend of mine during my days in knowledge management is Dave Pollard, who has an excellent blog called How to Save the World.
He sent me a question on my Google Q&A.
Dave asked:
"If we see our culture as a massive complex system, one where (as Dave Snowden's theory explains) we cannot 'solve' problems but only intervene in hopeful ways to try to understand and adapt to the current predicament, rather than trying to substantially reform/change it, then what is the most useful, effective and honourable way to live our lives under the hegemony of the ruling capitalist class until our teetering culture collapses and we can begin to create a more humane, sustainable, egalitarian culture?"
I'm worried Dave will think my answer too soft, but here it is:
My answer:
Good question, Dave. And I would have been frustrated by it before I researched and wrote about Mother Jones. And thought about her meanings.
I think what she had that is worth adopting now is eternal optimism, commitment, persistence, and a passion that would not be intimidated by the enormity of her task. To anyone's knowledge, she never ever admitted defeat (though she lost way more battles than she won) she never became discouraged and she never allowed herself to compromise.
Today's battle is even bigger than hers and the starting point presents a force bigger than the ruling class. This force is the very people she seeks to help, their apathy, insecurity and sense of defeat on the one hand and their false sense of well-being on the other.
Those who are pretending to have wealth by accumulating debt think they are somehow getting their fair share of America's wealth. But, they are not. This may be a wealthy country, but its people are not wealthy. And too many are poor, near poor, or about to become poor when they retire on Social Security.
Dave, I've admired you for years and this is no false compliment. I think you are a modern day Mother Jones. We need more, and we need to gather them together to create a unified (notice I avoided "organized") force.
You can find other topics and posts on my Goodreads Discussion Board.
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