Monthly Archives: May 2012

What is the currency of bureaucracy? Knowledge? Veto power? Sycophancy?

Posted on May 31, 2012 by dwighttowers

I write not enough about bureaucracy, despite it being a category on this ad-strewn site. There’s Parkinson’s Law, the Peter Principle, the Pournelle’s law, Galbraith meetings and all that. Max Weber wrote about it occasionally. I am gestating some thoughts … Continue reading →

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There’s a (Japanese) word for “Pretending to believe”!!!

Posted on May 29, 2012 by dwighttowers

Tatemae and Honne (Japanese): What you pretend to believe and what you actually believe, respectively from http://sobadsogood.com/2012/04/29/25-words-that-simply-dont-exist-in-english/ How cool is that!

Posted in framing | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Green Visions, Red Mist and Flouncer’s Remorse

Posted on May 28, 2012 by dwighttowers

Flouncer’s Remorse is a concept that is more fun to invent than to experience. Trust me on this. I let anger and frustration and powerlessness and disappointment cloud my judgement.  I let those things give me “permission” to ask permission … Continue reading →

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Poem: What is a Social Movement? by Marge Piercy

Posted on May 27, 2012 by dwighttowers

What is a Social Movement? <snip> It goes on one at a time It starts when you care To act, it starts when you do it again after They said no It starts when you say we and know what … Continue reading →

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The first rule of facilitation is you do NOT facipulate

Posted on May 26, 2012 by dwighttowers

I broke my “meetings” rule. To be fair to myself, my attendance at this particular meeting (where I was supposed to facilitate the afternoon session) pre-dates my “no more meetings” promise… I am not going to say much, cos I … Continue reading →

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Canada’s Bill 78 and Mexico 68; elites get nervous when the rabble link up…

Posted on May 25, 2012 by dwighttowers

So the Grauniad has a story entitled “Canada student protests erupt into political crisis with mass arrests More than 500 people were arrested in Montreal on Wednesday night as protestors defied controversial new law Bill 78.” This bit leapt out … Continue reading →

Posted in activism | 3 Comments

Two days away(ish) from the internet

Posted on May 24, 2012 by dwighttowers

Went down to London on Tuesday evening, and, besides a sneaky check of email this morning, was away from IT for two days. And the world didn’t end. I read a lot of books (well, two and a half) and … Continue reading →

Posted in a little self-knowledge, internet culture | 1 Comment

Up like a rocket, down like a … social movement

Posted on May 22, 2012 by dwighttowers

Following on from the recent post on evaporative cooling, this excerpt from Suzanne Staggenborg’s “Social Movements”  has new resonance While individual movements maintain themselves in various forms, periods of intense protest activity by multiple movements do not last forever. Cycles … Continue reading →

Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism | 3 Comments

The wisdom of crowds versus theodicy; theodicy wins.

Posted on May 21, 2012 by dwighttowers

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is a brilliant mix of cheap knob gags and the Big Questions. Here’s the latest below.  

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Learning in social movements, post #001

Posted on May 20, 2012 by dwighttowers

Now that I’ve suspended my project to collect anecdotes of horribleness from allegedly public meetings, I need a new obsession.  I could do worse than the nature (or absence!) of learning in social movements. I am about* to unleash a … Continue reading →

Posted in activism, competence | Tagged , , | 3 Comments