working life and system justification theory at work

Working in the so-called "real-world" is an interesting affair. I think i'd rather be a starving artist. Then again, I'm hardly starving, so maybe just an artist. But how? I can't even draw letters.

Ah, but could I just become an eccentric? Or wait. Maybe I already am an eccentric, and trying to pretend to be some normal guy is really tiring me out, and probably making me even weirder than I really am.

But what is weird anyway? Does it just mean you don't conform? If you dress funny, or if you talk funny, or if you just don't quite conform to the boring, bland, totally whipped, strip-mall, celebrity obsessed persona, which seems to represent the present American identity. Does that make you weird? I wish more people would decide that to conform to that socially constructed identity is totally insane. With 6 billion little people like us out there, all the same in our differences, we can't expect to agree with everybody. But maybe if we were more accepting of diversity, not just in color or culture, but in indiviual personality, we could find ourselves getting along with just about everybody. Besides, if we all just practiced being utterly ourself, maybe the people we truly want in our life would materialize around us.

I think people today are just generally having a hard time. I mean our idols and heroes, in Hollywood, on stages and super-domes, in St. Moritz, in penthouses, mansions, and leer jets, are living lives so detached from the normal existence of most Americans, that we can't possibly feel content in our "normal" lives and jobs. I'm one of the lucky one's, I live in Aspen, an isolated paradise in the middle of a vast American jungle of Wal-marts, Star-bucks, Mcdonalds, massive developements, and human beings living on top of each other like they never have before in history. Our monkey ancestors would be sorely disappointed in us.

We have a few things going against us as a human species. We shouldn't have very high expectations of each other. Especially Americans; only considering the amount of medications we are on to "make us happier," it would seem that we are the most miserable bunch of people in the world. We are the richest country in the world, we are the most powerful country in the world, and yet our education is dismal, we have a larger number of our population incarcerated than in any other country, civilized or uncivilized, and we have masses of poor (when compared with our role-models in the media), a punished consumer class, who are subjugated, manipulated, and worked to a breaking point, for the benefit of a disgustingly extravagant, wealthy few. Almost sounds like the circumstances that would cause a revolution.

In a world where you practically have to have a billion dollars (and do we really ever stop to think about how much money that is?) to be one of the top 500 richest people on earth, you are most definitely comparatively poor if you make under $100,000 dollars a year. How can you compete, or feel good about yourself when our whole society seems to celebrate ridiculous wealth, fame, and instant fortune. How do you feel in your cubicle? Worthy? On your way to being ultra-rich? Or just reading people magazine?

But what is the point of having 1 billion dollars anyway? I don't care what The Donald says, I think having that much money is ridiculous. If you are worth even 100 million dollars, and you have your portfolio conservatively invested, and are making a 10% return on your money, (you should get a new investment adviser if you aren't making 10%), that means your salary is 10 million dollars a year. You are making 10 million dollars a year. How can people possibly legitimate needing more than 10 million dollars a year in spending money? And if there really is no point in being a billionaire (at a one billion net-worth, again conservatively invested, you are making 100 million dollars a year), then why are we all so obsessed with getting there?

Think about that workers of the world. And from childhood, we are taught not to care, we are taught that we can have that wealth if we work hard, and pay our dues. Well that is a big lie. Why are we even taught to want that much wealth? The American Dream is an exception not the rule. We should keep in mind that generally, if you are born poor you will die poor, and if you are born rich, you will die rich. If the present model wasn't destroying the environment, exterminating hundreds of species per year, and making the world a less safe place for my future children, I might just shut up, and be the rich guy I was born to be, but things are too funky for that. Change needs to happen.

When I worked for one of the many corporate machines I felt that in some ways it was like working in an office of zombies, it was like everyone had forgotten how, or maybe never been taught, to think outside the box. Maybe it is because they have been so conditioned not to experience their personal power as independently thinking human beings. All that power has been taken away,because there is someone above them, and someone above them, and our whole institution, even the General Manager, who is smart and has an open mind, and knows a good idea when he sees one, has somebody above him, who has somebody above him, and you keep going and going; and finally you get to a corporate machine. And that machine doesn't have a brain or a heart. And that machine, owned by the shareholders, is eating our souls, helping destroy our society, and disabling us as human beings.

We have either forgotten, or never been taught, that to do is to do, and the people at the bottom have the power, because we are the one's who choose to do, or not to do. Does it ever feel like "they" need a monkey to do the job they want done? The problem is, i'm not some trained monkey; and they need a trained monkey for the job they want me to do. In fact, I don't think a monkey would do the job either. The monkey would probably run back to the forest to forage for bananas.

They have told me to "pay my dues," "take the licks." They have tried to mold me down. It's just that old line, telling us to do the things we don't want to do, so that we can get where we want to go. What a crock.

The secret is this: If you aren't doing what you want to do, you are probably not moving in the direction that will make you a happy content human being. We have to create the reality we desire, and I for one, want a different reality than the one I see when I turn on the tv, or go out into the jungle of urban sprawl and soul-less, corporate powered suburbia. I think we can do better.

Highlands Closing Party

The Highlands Closing party was a beautiful adventure in ski and happiness. The mountain was alive with the Old Aspen Spirit. Smiles and neon danced and the blood of this little mountain town ran thick through the one-pieces, costumes, and general merriment. It felt like the old days, and I had to ask myself: why the hell don't we dress like this every day? DJ Dylan styled some fine tunes, and we danced. More 80's classics would have really taken it to another level, but we'll just have to wait for next year; maybe we can get New Order to come and play. We'll have more pictures up soon at yellowjumpsuits.com.

I hope these fine Argentinian ladies never leave our valley! Que Guapas.

Meet Castor, our Business Operations Manager

Look at these two! What a team.

We are simply here to make some general repairs on reality

An All-Star Team on the way up the Bowl

I'm speechless

A Rest-Stop at the top of our Aspen World

There was more love at this event than at any Aspen shin-dig i've attended since 1986

Let's keep the love flowing in the Valley

This was next to our little vintage ski-wear outfitting booth

Big thanks to the Ski-Co folks at Highlands who welcomed us with open arms.

With folks like these here, why would we live anywhere else?

Spirit awards go to both these gents

A Powerful Team

the little dog was the cutest thing on the mountain

Speechless again

Richards denies snorting dad's ashes

Check Out This Group of Our Membership Across the Seas

And A Few Appear Here!!

I'm at the desk in Aspen. Sitting here, listening to bird songs and dub reggae. Not a bad moment. This has been one of the greatest weekends of my life. Pg. 160, the cowbird. Page 162, Scarlett Taninger. Pg. 163, Cardinal. Pg. 165, Rose Breasted Grosby. Pg. 163, Blue Grosby. Indigo Bunty.

I'm considering my life. Feeling fantastic, enhanced by a buzz. Skied all day. Party on the back side apres ski, then got stoked on huge wet sunset back-side-Aspen tow-in laps, hosted by Mr. Maui Elston himself driving the Snowmobile. Nice. Skied with Mr. Justin, Dan the Man, and Kurk the Fantastic. Christian blew my mind with a speed take-off yank that nearly broke me. I'll never connect and commit to a tow-rope unless I know for sure that the snowmobile driver knows i'm there.

173, March Sparrow. Pg. 174 Pine Woods Sparrow. Pg. 175, Tree Sparrow.

Life is good in Aspen, Colorado. There is a big secret lying here, and while I don't want to go giving it away, I just have to say, life is so good living here. I'll tell you the truth. I work pretty hard (although i've spent lots of time not working hard), in a uniform, and mostly keep a smile on my face. I try to skin up a mountain when work is over now that it's spring and it stays light late.

I ski every damn moment I can, whether it's my lunch break, or a Saturday or Sunday, when I just can't miss. I have to ski. It is like heroin. (I've never done heroin, but I really like skiing.) Pg. 179, McCallans, Long Sparrow.

Life is good. Choose a good one, and choose to be happy. I swear to god it works for me. I drink like a fish in my free-time, I party hard, and ski hard, and love hard, and smile as much as possible, and talk about happy things as much as I can; and it works. Let me recommend it highly.

Life is so good, skiing, being outside, being with the best people in the world, living in one of the best towns in the world.

I blow it sometimes, and get stressed out, do something dumb, or hard, or painful, and i'll forget how lucky I am, for a lonely second; but when I remember how good it is, how much I have to be grateful for, I just can't help but smile again; and tell somebody next to me that we are the luckiest people in the world.

Mr. Gore on Top of His Game

"Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all your friends feel that there is something special in them. To look at the sunny side of everything and make your Optimism come true. To think only of the best, to work only for the best, to be the best, and expect only the best. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature a smile. To give so much to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble."

This was written by Christian D. Larson (I have no idea who he is, but what a little nugget.) My boss gave it to me.

Be Well.

A

The Hill

Give me a break Hillary Clinton, you rubber, meaningless, undefined blob of politicianness. You decline to say whether Homosexuality is Immoral? You tell people that it is for others to decide. Who? Deciders like George W. Bush? How sickening.

Hillary Clinton is no leader. A leader, one would hope, is capable of having an opinion. George W. has opinions, he's a leader all right, it's just that he has this overwhelming tendency to lead in the wrong direction. But just because he is a dumb leader, doesn't mean he's not a leader. He would tell you that homosexuality is immoral, and he'd be wrong. He would also probably defend himself by telling you about what God thinks. Never a good sign. Can't we start thinking for ourselves, instead of being led by what we think a made up God thinks, and by politicians who won't even tell us what they think? Jesus (where are you now)!!??

Homosexuality exists in every animal species. If it is immoral then The Creator is "immoral." The Hill is just amorphous. A sorry blob of meaninglessness, wasting the people's time. Come on people, take back your power, demand to know what your "leaders" actually think! If they talk about what they think God thinks, realize that you are in trouble. Run away.

Get Positive

Can we improve our lives by changing our perspective and learning new ways of thinking and seeing the world? I think the evidence suggests we can.


Can we begin to create a different reality by understanding the limitations of the present moment? Can we begin to reinvent the modern world? Are we victims of our own thinking? Yes.

We are living in the future. We have new information before us. We've suddenly got these wacky movies like "The Secret" showing on Oprah. Movies that question our accepted ways of seeing, movies like "What the Bleep Do We Know," are available at the nearest video store. What happens if we start to fill our minds with the best information out there? I think it can make us feel happier and healthier.

I like the fact that quantum physics tells us we are all connected. It breaks us down even deeper than the truth that we are one human race, existing on a tiny planet in one universe in a whole lot of space. This is the apex of human intelligence. We have the information, but at least speaking for myself, it is difficult to conceptualize it and make it mean anything concrete. Our culture is still pretty stuck in old modes of thinking which don't necessarily fit with the new information available to us. As a society we often unconsciously restrict our potential by acting and responding to life with habituated ways of thinking that are not in our best interest.

One form of new psychology out there sheds some light on why it seems so difficult for us to see and understand our shortcomings. System Justification Theory first emerged in 1994, and was developed by John Jost and Mahzarin Banaji. Jost is a professor of psychology at NYU, Banaji is a professor of psychology at Harvard. System Justification Theory explains why we are psychologically programmed to protect and defend the modern reality even though it is damaging, to us as human beings, to our planet, and to our emotional, physical, spiritual, and actual resources. I think it is possible that if we become conscious of our programming then we can begin to reprogram our minds. The following is an excerpt from John Jost's NYU faculty website at www.psych.nyu.edu/jost/:

There are two major goals of system justification theory, and much of my experimental and survey research has addressed one or both of these goals. The first goal is to understand how and why people provide cognitive and ideological support for the status quo, even when their support appears to conflict with personal and group interests. The second is to analyze the social and psychological consequences of supporting the status quo, especially for members of disadvantaged groups.

System justification theory addresses the holding of attitudes that are often contrary to one's own self-interest and therefore contrary to what one would expect on the basis of theories of self-enhancement or rational self-interest. Thus, our research focuses on counter-intuitive outcomes, such as the internalization of unfavorable stereotypes about one's own group, nonconscious biases that perpetuate inequality, attitudinal ambivalence directed at fellow ingroup members who challenge the system, opposition to equality among members of disadvantaged groups, rationalization of anticipated social and political outcomes, and tendencies among members of powerless groups to subjectively enhance the legitimacy of their powerlessness and, in some cases, to show greater support for the system than do members of powerful groups.

Current research interests include the study of complementary stereotypes in which members of high and low status groups are seen as possessing distinct sets of advantages and disadvantages. Gender stereotypes, which stress that women are communal but not agentic, whereas men are agentic but not communal, represent one important example of complementary stereotypes that may serve to preserve support for the status quo. Other examples that we have explored include "poor but happy," "rich but miserable," "poor but honest," and "rich but dishonest" stereotypes.

Finally, I am interested in the underlying cognitive and motivational differences between liberals and conservatives. In other words, my collaborators and I are exploring the psychological basis of political ideology. In particular, we are carrying out studies to determine whether certain epistemic and existential variables (such as uncertainty avoidance, need for cognitive closure, and death anxiety) are associated more with conservative or right-wing political orientations than with other political orientations. One focus is on whether certain situational factors (such as those pertaining to stability and threat) are capable of bringing about change in the endorsement of political attitudes.

I think understanding where we are now can help us imagine our way out of it.

If we can start identifying primarily as a human race, which could really do a better job functioning as a species, dependent on each other for health, happiness, and survival, we might be able to start materializing these possibilities.

Either way, check out "What the Bleep Do We Know," if you haven't already seen it.

Ipod Nightmares and the Corporate Machine

I'm only 27 years old, but I can remember the good old days, when the customer was always right. I keep being reminded that in the world of today, that's just not true anymore. I keep coming into contact with these corporations, and despite their human representatives, I am continually reminded, by these "corporate interactions," that I am not a man. I am a dollar.

I own an ipod and a PC, and it's the ipod I have to thank for getting me out to see the Apple machine at work. I was in New York a few days and have now visited a couple of the legendary Apple Stores, the mid-town store, which is a big fancy glass square, with underground shopping, bright white lit, hip 24-hours a day, and the down-town store, in center of cool SOHO, at 103 Spring.

What a crock this company is. They have suavely branded themselves so successfully, as the hip, indy, thing to be, that they have an army of zombies out there, who you can spot by our uniforms, often dressed in thrift/retro t-shirts, colorful shoes, overcoats, and scarves, with little white earbuds, we all think we are SO anti-establishment, so independant, and so in-the-know. We have "I"-pods, little symbols branded cool. White. And i'm just another Zombie, trudging the streets of New York trying to find the Apple store so I can get my damn ipod replaced because the headphone jack just stopped working one day, about 6 months into my new, utterly over expensive (it's gotten a bit cheaper since I bought it, but still $300 for something smaller than your hand...) 60 gig gadget. The ipod, in fact most Apple stuff, is big money gear, no matter how indy you think you are. I wonder how many folks have an ipod in Darfur? Somehow I don't think that's Apple's target demographic.

Now don't get me wrong, I think the ipod is awesome. I can carry around over 6000 songs in my pocket. It has made one of my life-long dreams ( of walking around with a soundtrack for my life) come true. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford one. This ipod is actually my second. So I guess I'm a loyal customer. I just want to talk about the deplorable fact that such a supposedly "cool" company treats it's customers (in this case me) not like a human being, but rather like another soulless dollar, falling, like an automaton, into their greedy little fingers. It made me feel sick. And it took my time, 4 days in New York City to get my ipod replaced, even while it was still under warranty. First the big mid-town store gave me the solid shaft. No appointments. I mean, I don't know how they can call their little support centers "genius bars," because all the lines of people with all their faulty equipment seem to indicate that Apple is the only genius in the room. I mean what makes us such faithful customers? I think it's that we are blinded by this genius brand. We think that Apple=Cool.

But they aren't cool at all. They are a corporate monster. They make products that break, and then you go into their cool ass stores and it's almost impossible to get out without buying something more. It makes sense, in this sick business way. Make an imperfect product that people think is perfect, and have your repair center (genius bar) inside your store, that way you keep the people who are most likely to buy from you (because they've bought from you before) right where you want them (in your store where they are most likely to buy from you again). That is Genius. I can almost imagine them brainstorming it out in a meeting at corporate headquarters. It does make "business sense." But it doesn't make people sense.

Now it could just be a coincidence that they got me into their stores 3 times, in as many days, just because my ipod headphone jack stopped working one day. I don't know, it could be. But when it comes to business there are so rarely coincidences. Most decisions are made with the bottom line in mind. What is the bottom line? We all know this now. It's not the well-being of humanity, or even the individual, or even the sales clerk, no. The bottom line is the profitability of the machine. It's not about OUR wellness. It's about "corporate wellness."

All I know is that once I made my appointment, made my way downtown to the trendy SOHO Apple center, got in line, checked in, got seated on a bench with 20 other waiting geniuses, waited 10 minutes to get in front of an Apple "genius," talked to this character and listened to him tell me why the best bet for me getting my supposedly under warranty ipod replaced was to pay 60 something dollars, and I'd get a possibly used ipod replacement with an extended warranty. hmm. I thought they would have just checked to see if my less-than-year old ipod really was broken, not by my own hand, and then they would give me a new one. Not quite. Not in the world of the Geniuses I guess. Nope. Instead, he just kept asking me questions, told me that the way it worked was that even though it's under warranty for 1 year, after 6 months it starts costing me for replacements... huh, then I'm just like "OK, no big deal, I'll do the 60 dollar thing, just give me my replacement." Then we two geniuses sat across from each other for 10 more minutes, while mr. Apple typed away I don't know what all into the computer, and then he told me there were no replacement ipods.

NO REPLACEMENT IPODS!! So I had made an appointment online, told them online the day before that I needed a replacement ipod, then next day went all the way down there, stood in line, did my thing, and then they tell me they don't have any ipods!! And listen folks! "I'm in the Apple store!!," down the stairs from the genius bar there is a display with every ipod known to man, people are buying them one after another. There are ipods in this building and the genius behind the bar knows it. We look at each other. I give him my George Bush smirk. He laughs uncomfortably, anticipating my next words, and says "I know, I know, we do have ipods here, but they are a different inventory... I can't give you a new ipod, even though we have bundles." Can they send me my new (used) replacement ipod? No. I need to go back to the store to pick it up. hmm. Strange. I must return to the store. Genius.

So I get the call a day later that my replacement ipod is in, I can come pick it up, pay a thirty dollar replacement fee, (60 dollars if I want another year of warranty), and aren't I lucky. So I go. I want a working ipod, and i'm willing to pay for it. The sad thing is that if they told me I had to buy a new one, I probably would have. (I am Zombie.) So I go, and I've told this story a couple times by this point, trying to process this scary information, and bouncing it off my friends and fellows, and I just go ahead and get in line with the other geniuses. I Wait my turn to sign in, they tell me to sit down, wait and I will be called in the order I was received. I finally get in front of a person. We go through the process. Keyboard keys are punched, numbers into the system, get my email (again), telephone (again), making sure they can find me should they ever run out of customers and need to remind me how cool they are and how much I need them. I tell the guy how these weird business practices seem kinda non-sensish to me. I tell this man the story. I've been here 3 times, I bought this ipod with the understanding that there was no "replacement" fee. I tell him that I thought 1 year warranty meant 1 year warranty, not "6 months then the fees start." I tell him my story. And here's this Apple trained guy, a worker, a cog in the Apple Machine, and what i'm saying makes sense to him. I got out my debit card to pay my fee, and with a smile he told me: "don't worry about it." He took his human initiative and waived the fee.

I couldn't believe it. I was actually right in my crazy thinking, and this guy actually heard me and agreed. Here we were, two human beings, and even though he worked for the machine, he still saw the reality of the wacky bottom line. He actually looked at me as a person, and not as a dollar sign. We were rebels then, and the scariest thing is that this actual customer service experience felt foreign to me. But man did it ever feel nice. REAL genius happened that moment at the genius bar. One human being looking out for the well-being of another. When the corporation beat me down, there was a man there to pick me up. So there is hope. "Every culture has the seeds of its destruction and the seeds of its redemtion." (MH. Scott, 1991)

Feeling happy, after my free replacement ipod, a gift from the real genius, having saved $ 60.00 dollars that would have been in Apple's fat pocket, I was feeling generous. I walked over to the goods department and bought a new pair of headphones and a new computer cable. Total: $75.00. I am zombie.

Back to Ward

If you don't know the story, (Bill O'Reilly seems to have mostly forgotten about this little former passion of his), the University of Colorado at Boulder is still trying to fire one of their long standing, and most prolific professors, Ward Churchill. The big attention started, from the Governor of Colorado calling for his dismissal, to the main-stream media picking up the story and painting him as this terrorist loving, maniac communist, cop-killing, threat to the social order, because of a small article he wrote (not in a scholarly publication, nor speaking for the University, simply giving his opinion), in which he likened the members of the corporate elite (who do help pay for a good deal of our governments actions), who died in the 9/11 attacks, to "little Eichmann's."

Eichmann was a Nazi. He wasn't a soldier, he didn't work at a concentration camp, he probably never saw anyone die. He arranged train schedules. He was a cog in the terrible and hideous process of committing genocide. He was tried for War Crimes, and rightly, found guilty. Ward was making a point. The people who work for the companies in the World Trade Center, many of their jobs do, somewhere down the line, cause someone, somewhere, some distress. LITTLE would be the key word in Ward's statement about the likeness between Eichmann and participants in a capitalist system which does do a lot of damage around the world.

All of us who live in modern society, who are the benificiaries of the present social order, are on some level committing genocides, at least directly against a number of species, (please see any number of reports on Global Warming, pollution, habitat destruction, etc.). So let's just give him the benefit of the doubt to begin with, and assume that Ward was trying to provide a context for deeper thought. I don't have to agree with him, but I can at least admit that the article was well thought out, and the comment taken out of context, and blown out of proportion by an obsessive, uptight media. Ward Churchill's ideas fundamentally threaten the present American image of itself, they question our legitimacy, they force us to look at ourselves from a different perspective, and the system under threat does draw strong reactions.

Many academics around the country are speaking out against Ward's dismissal, arguing that it is an attack on academic freedom and intellectual thought. As a published scholarly author, free thinker, tenured professor, and activist, Ward has a lot of people who support him. I just want to join the ranks and offer my personal experience as his student to the argument against his dismissal.

I want to come to the defense of my former professor. He was probably the most influential teacher of my college career. He helped open my mind and wrap myself around some far out ideas. Professors like Ward Churchill helped change the way I think.

Here's a guy (me) with a few things going against his intellectual career. I was a pretty conservative kinda guy once, (certainly not the type who'd be defending Ward Churchill, or admiring of him, or both.) There were a few years when I used to sleep with a gun under my pillow. I was basically a republican with liberal tendencies; I guess I was a closet liberal. According to at least one interesting study, there are actual differences in some of the common habits of the types of people who end up liberals or conservatives. Like a good liberal, I'd always liked having a lot of colors around. I was always a touch messy (I still can't keep a room neat), I had always been curious about other cultures. I had always identified more with the global community than with my core family, religious, or national identity. I took solace in a multitude of different spiritual belief systems. I always reading some out there book about some distant, foreign religion. I danced a lot, often alone. I was actually a pretty fair mix between my mother, a hippie type, and my grandparents, historically conservative, who I went back and forth between (continent to continent) my first few years of life, finally settling with the grandparents in Colorado till they sent me to boarding school when I was 12. It was a lot like going back and forth between red states and blue states. A fair mix I may have been, but a conflicted one. It's hard to be a conservative (generally this means believing in the defense of the status quo) and also believe that all human beings are equal, and deserve to be taken care of.

Anyways, my mother was this far out lady, who's had her share of gurus and traveled the world seeking the spiritual walk. My grandparents, on the other hand: Houstonians, Oil on one side, and a Scotch Presbeterian Doctor on the other. Good, Loyal, Republicans. The only fly in the mix was that my grandma turned feminist, and divorced my granddad after 40 years of marriage when I was twelve. But somehow I came out of it rooting for the underdog. The two of them oppressed each other so much over the years, I can't really say which of them wore the pants. Maybe they both thought they did.

The point is that I was what you might call unconsciously conflicted in a number of ways for a number of years. I didn't really know what I believed, but I always believed strongly and outspokenly, and in retrospect, I can see that most of my beliefs were conflicting. I believed I was connected to the world, but I also believed WE were better than everyone else.
When I walked into Ward's classroom the first time, in the fall of 2002, I had just been realizing
and enjoying a new liberal potentiality which I had only first discovered having landed comfortably in the liberal arts in 1999. I guess it might have started earlier; maybe in my first class at the University of Colorado at Boulder: Political Science 1101, Summer, 1998, fresh before my senior year of high school. My teacher was an out-spoken Communist and prairie dog advocate who regularly put herself in the line of fire to get hunters to stop shooting her cute little friends. I think she got through to me somehow, but I didn't quite understand what it meant yet.

I still wanted to believe that all the Republicans around (my whole family except for mom) actually knew what they were talking about. To interject here! I just want to give a shout out to Republicans, who are dedicated believers, and understandably so. I think it was Ward who told the story about an Indian who once said that Reagan's Trickle Down Economics felt eerily like getting pissed on; but it does feel good to pee.

I'm just going to reluctantly and humbly admit that when I started college in 1999, I was an ardent Clinton criticizer and I voted for Bush. I used to blab away about why Clinton wouldn't have been elected if it wasn't for his Chinese connections, and blah blah blah. I couldn't stand Al Gore, I thought he was boring, and I was a gun owner type. I thought the world was a dangerous place. When 9/11 happened I was damn pissed off, I thought it was all "their" fault, and I was glad that we had a "decider" like Bush as President who would do something about "those people in the Middle East." Today I have a hard time believing that I ever believed those things, it's like looking in a mirror and not recognizing the person you were.

American Studies, Women's Studies, Sociology, and Churchill style Native American Studies really helped adjust my perspectives and beliefs. Thinking about how much people pay to go to retreats to have their personality adjusted, sometimes 50,000 dollars for a month, makes me laugh at how cheap an in-state liberal arts education is in terms of it's life-changing potential. To think I could have ended up in Economics for my education, sitting in an office today making too much money to make too much money for some corporation instead of sitting here contemplating the meaning of life. I owe that change to professors like Ward Churchill, who choose to go to work day after day, not getting paid what they probably deserve, saying the same thing over and over again, year after year, just to get through to a dumb kid like me every once in awhile.

Bill O'Reilly once said about Ward Churchill, in a phone conversation with Governor Owens, that "...he's making 100,000 dollars, or close to it... Of taxpayer money," as if it were an outrage that he was making so much money... How much does Bill O'Reilly make to talk his nonsense, (much of which is most certainly as much nonsense as the most non-sense that Ward has ever spoken)? How much do CEO's get paid to work to better-less the world than Ward works in his sleep to try and better it? I can't put a price on the value of the work that Ward does to open closed minds like mine. It's about education, about big, heavy, in your face ideas, which don't fit with the way we are trained to see reality, which often make us feel sick, uncomfortable, and guilty; they make us feel like there is something wrong with the picture, they make us question why we are not doing something to stop the train.

Ward always taught us as students, first and foremost, that if we want to talk, we better be ready to substantiate our argument. That guy had the most ridiculous foot-notes in his books. He backed up his talk. And if you didn't want him to make you look like a damn fool in front of the rest of the class (he never hesitated to make this mostly white, mostly well-off, bunch of us uncomfortable), you learned real quickly to know what you were trying to say, and you had better be ready to defend it against the strongest, fastest, most blunt, intimidating, fact-filled, straight talk, logic, I've ever seen. The guy does a good job. There is no greater service to the minds of all of us, than to be expanded. The Ward Churchill's of the world are invaluable. We do not need to agree with everything they say, but we have the great opportunity to let them inspire us to at least think about what they are saying.

It took some true believers like Ward Churchill to help me figure out who I am, and what I believe. I just want to paint him in that true light right now. He is a teacher. And he is the best damn teacher the University of Colorado has. Bill O'Reilly should be spanked for how much trash he has talked about Ward and the Governor of Colorado should be forced to wear an "I'll promise to try and learn something new today" hat for a year. Ward has won teaching award after teaching award, and he is a student favorite. I took three of his classes and used to go talk to him in his office hours because it made my brain expand. He made me angry, he inspired me to react, he just made me think. I always went looking for that guy, even though he is the gruffest, tuffest, often grumpiest old intimidating guy I know. That's just Ward.

Would you expect a guy who everyday writes, lectures, and thinks about the inequality and wrongdoing his government has perpetrated, and perpetrates, at home and abroad, economically, militarily, and environmentally, to have a rosy character? Would you expect him not to try as hard as possible to identify with a non Patriotic-American identity (The Cherokee Nation), which is certainly a group which does far less damage as an entity than the United States of America, and is therefore probably a healthier identity to participate in as a group member?

As an alumni of the University of Colorado at Boulder, I want to call on my school to do whatever it can to keep him as a professor. He deserves an apology. The Regents and the Dean should have been behind him all the way, defending him and reminding people that he is a beloved and celebrated member of the faculty. The students have honored him again and again. If the University of Colorado leadership believes in their choice of students at that University, then they should be trying as hard as possible to keep Ward around. CU wouldn't be the same without him, and his absence would be a tragic loss. He makes people think. He makes his students think. Everyone is allowed to disagree, but at least Ward Churchill forces people to ask themselves questions they are generally conditioned not to ask. We are only too-lucky to have him. I could have left his class in total disagreement with him. There were plenty of students who never took to his style or radical beliefs. Professors like Ward help young minds figure themselves out. I'm totally comfortable in my shoes today, as an ardent and out-of-the-closet liberal who believes some serious changes would make the world a better place. (Let's just start with Gore/Obama ticket in 2008, if another Red president wins I'll cry.)

I will close with this. Ward didn't teach me to think like him, (he probably hates Al Gore more than he hates Bush or vegans. Ward likes guns, his right to smoke wherever he pleases, and he likes to wear sunglasses indoors.) I'm not a little Ward, I'm probably still more of a little Eichmann when it comes right down to it. Ward isn't a danger to students, his absence is a danger to students. He helps people figure out how to think for themselves. He is a de-programmer, and he deserves his job.

Anyone for LCD?

We used to get high when we got high. I remember a time, before I ever had a cell phone, before there was such a thing as high definition, before 9/11, back when reality TV was new and interesting and not gross. I remember those days, and I remember taking drugs to get high. I took drugs to warp my bored mind. Now I am afraid to take anything, lest things get any weirder. I noticed a big sign today advertising some new special flat screen television, as a man stood next to me talking on a flip cell phone, which was ultra thin, with a clear plastic flip top, and I thought to myself, I've never seen anything so mind warping as this modern moment on even the strongest Acid. It was a moment which was both awe inspiring and sad.

Things are moving so darn fast now in modernity. We don't just have electricity ( a pretty strange thing to begin with), which has led to these things called phones, computers, the internet, and lights at night, but we have wireless phones, wireless internet, super high definition televisions, everything we even conceive of seems to materialize by our hands. It might sound like i'm on acid right now, but is anyone noticing that we have planes flying through the air with us on them? We have submarines, deep beneath the surface of the sea. We have fish farms, cow farms, we have big, strong guns. We have tasers, tear gas, laughing gas, prosac, and valium to mellow it out. We don't sell LSD over the counter, but we do sell a pretty altered sense of reality. THIS REALITY.


Look around. We are being sold, and we are selling, this altered perception of reality, this modernity. As if it were real, we are selling it and buying it all the time. We make it real with our perception. We are raised in it, and as we are raised in it, it seems like the norm. It takes a few years to catch up to us that things aren't quite as they were.

I took flying for granted as a kid. I didn't really think, "wow!! I'm getting on a big piece of metal, and it's going to fly me through the air." I just assumed that it was normal, just like phones, cars, gas ovens, microwaves, skyscrapers, nuclear weaponry and power, and the myriad other oddities that were just there from my first breaths, and therefore, like the sky being blue, like the fact that bears shit in the woods and Popes are Catholic, even before you learn what a bear is, or a Pope is, they just are, and it doesn't seem weird. Then the cell phones landed, the internet landed, wireless landed, and suddenly the newness of it all, the Brand Spanking Newness, just whacked me.

When I think about it, I am forced to acknowledge that nothing is real but what we make real. The ever-changing nature of reality forces me to believe this. We are talking about the earth going from round to flat, from flat to round. We are talking about the possibility that human perception is truly the creation of realities. And these realities actually affect human beings, their lives, their experiences, and therefore, their perceptions, which in turn affect the perceptions of their off-spring. We are reality creating machines.

What does a cell phone mean? Maybe it simply means that I can talk to another human being who is on another continent, at the same moment, in a different "time zone," without any wires connecting us. But what does that mean?

If we were alive 20 years ago, and were having a conversation, and I told you that you could go stand alone in a pasture in China while I went and stood alone in a pasture in Wisconsin, and then we could put these plastic, battery powered devices up to our heads, and we could talk to each other as if there were only a curtain between us, you would have told me I was wrong, and you probably would have thought I was crazy; and you would have been right. But when I tell you that it's true today, you just say "yep, I know, it's just reality?" What does that mean?

It suggests, I think, that the world is more than flat or round, or inhabited by people who speak different languages, who are black, white, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic, Christian, who are Americans, French, Iraqi, or in any and all other assorted ways "different" in terms of perception....



It suggests, I propose, that we don't have a clue what is really going on. It suggests that the greatest thinkers at any one moment are most certainly as blinded by their preconceived notions of reality as those contemporaries of Columbus who "knew," by way of fact, that the world was flat.

So my friend. What does that mean?

Bush's Best Beans

I watched a little piece of our 43rd President's history tonight. It was the most complex, detailed, articulate speech of his Presidency. It was a mighty good try. Whoever wrote it was gifted, with a fine intellect, an attention to detail, and a definite capacity for complex thought. The President read it well. Indeed it may have been his finest reading. It was his opus of spoken language.

I can only imagine the high fives he got from Cheney, Rice, Rove, (maybe a guest appearance by Rummy?), and whatever other members of the Steam Team were waiting for him behind the red curtain to congratulate him on the job well done.

He didn't stumble, bumble, jumble, or crumble, the President and his words were one. He sounded like Anderson Cooper, but the steam he spoke, though he didn't go and choke, is still bound for poop scoopers. I was impressed.

But let's get down to the core issues.

He admitted, or at least the speech-writer did for him, that the responsibility for mistakes is his own. Nice.

He's gonna have soldiers knocking on doors throughout Baghdad. That's gonna go over nice, everybody loves a knock on the door, machine guns invited in for coffee and tearing the place apart looking for WMD's (an AK47 or two??) in the dusty Whirlpool Dishwasher.

He's not going to talk to Iran, Syria, he's not going to do that whole diplomacy thing, he's buttering us up to Attack them, telling us how much all the bad stuff in Iraq is their fault. Hmm, come on, I don't really need to say anything here do I?

He's going to send in more troops, gonna kick it up a notch, but only to numbers we've had in there before, but somehow he thinks that's going to be enough, even though it wasn't before. OK sounds like a good plan. Same Same. But different. More of the same, but it sounds like changing something. Great idea.

He says we've got to "advance liberty," but we are going to do it by increasing our troop numbers in a country where the majority of citizens don't even want us. Right.

He said "Al Queda" in that Texan drawl. OK, NEWSFLASH!! PGWB It's not working anymore.

He's listened to the advice of everybody around, lots of generals, senators, former president's, and he hears what they are saying but he's just gonna GO HIS OWN WAY. Oh wait, does it sound like he's listening to someone? Wait, wait, who's that I hear in the background? I hear their cackle whispers coming out from behind his ear bud reciever. AHAH! There they are again. It's the Neo-cons. They're like the 87 Raiders, they're mean, and dumb, and I see them on bumper stickers everywhere.

He's listening to somebody, and they put together a good speech for him to read, and boy he must have been practicing. But it's not looking good. It doesn't add up. This war doesn't add up. Beware Middle East!! They are waiting for you to blow something up in America! Hey Iran! Those boats off your shores aren't there to fish. Beans and steam, beans and steam, beans and steam. Great speech. Too bad it stunk.

Justice and Memory

I remember the first Iraq war. I was about 10 years old, and I was a big sharp shooter with my 22 caliber rifle. Somebody bought me a whole bundle of targets with Saddams face on them. So I've shot at this man before. Back in those days, I guess I bought the whole "this man is the enemy" thing as much as a 10 year old can buy anything.

I think the first President Bush made a good decision not pushing onto Baghdad and toppling Saddam 16 years ago. In part, he said it was because there was no viable exit strategy. We are now in a position to feel what that's like. We are about to send 10's of thousands more of our soldiers into a country in chaos, and we've been in there for more than three years. If we want to be honest with ourselves, we are forced to admit that three years post Saddam, the country is a whole lot worse off than when he was it's leader.

I'm not saying that we should praise Saddam, or not hold him accountable for his crimes as a leader. I'm not saying that he was a "good guy." I'm just saying that when we look at the facts we might admit that the American government is responsible for as many Iraqi deaths as he was, maybe more. Someone might respond: "well Andrew, wait, he was an oppressive leader, who kept most Shiite Muslims out of the political elite. He crushed would-be opponents, he did not allow free elections, he violently kept the Kurds from separating into their own nation-state." I would be forced to respond: "you bet. That's all true." But he also kept the country at peace for more years than it was at war. He was a leader who protected a Sunni minority who would have been oppressed more under Shiite leadership than the Shiite majority were oppressed under his leadership. Baghdad was a bustling metropolis, with a beautiful museum, nice restaurants, shopping districts, and electricity 24 hours a day. Their weren't curfews, you could go shopping without fear of a suicide bomb exploding you into a million different pieces, Al Quaida was not a welcome entity. In fact, Saddam considered fundamentalist religious/terrorist organizations as enemies to his regime, and did not allow them to exist under his watch.

He came to power from humble beginnings, born into a family of shepherds. He fought his way up, educated himself, with the help of the CIA, studied law in Egypt observed by US and Egyptian intel during an exile there, returned to Iraq, and there helped repair a country in tatters. He did terrible things, ruled as a tyrant, but it would seem in retrospect, he did it, not only in his own benefit, but also that of the country. Under the Arab Socialists, (of which he was a part), Iraq came to have free health care for all citizens, free education up to the highest levels, he helped modernize Iraq's economy, worked with many of the world governments, meeting with the highest officials of France and the US, for example, on many occasions. He did more for women's freedoms than maybe any other Arab leader.

Should he be hanged for his crimes. Maybe. But as we, America, are now experiencing, Iraq is no easy place to get under control. How are we now trying to impose order in Iraq? With violence and killing even more drastic than that used by Saddam himself. Why aren't our leaders going to hang? Figuratively I think they should, but literally, probably not. People do make mistakes.

As Ghandi said: an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

US State Capitals

Show me an American kid this age who can rock this knowledge! I bet there are a lot of Americans who could list the whole Mcdonalds menu though. Bad sign. How many Americans can even name one region in India? All i'm saying is we should spend a bit more time branching out and learning more about the rest of the world and a little bit less time celebrating our fictitious superiority.

Why Virgil is the Anti-American One

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — In a letter sent to hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed a serious threat..." This fella Goode is a damn fool, and no damn good! Americans are afraid that we are a terrorist target for Muslim extremists. Yes we are! Bombing the Middle East, I can promise you, is the last thing that will remove us from their bulls eye; but pressure from moderate Muslims will, in the end, be the only thing that ends the violence, and prevents more terrorist attacks on American soil.

Goode said: “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped,” and he vowed to use the Bible when taking his own oath of office. I fear that people like Mr. Goode, with their prejudiced attitute, are risking my own, and other Americans lives by inciting the hatred, against us at home and abroad, of people who have a right to believe what they choose to believe. The more Muslims we have in our country, and the more we welcome them and treat them with the respect they deserve as human beings, the less of a terrorist target we will be. Our Country was built upon a foundation of freedom of religion, the right to practice one's own faith and not to be persecuted for it. If we were to live up that foundation, and not allow fanatics like Goode to get away politically unscathed when they subvert the American way with hateful rhetoric, we would also be protecting ourselves from future terrorism. We should remember that Thomas Jefferson, one of our celebrated founding fathers, kept a heavily read copy of the Koran, and studied it. If we as Americans showed more interest in the Koran, and were more welcoming to the Muslim community, we would be doing a great service to ourselves by demontrating that we might not be deserving of the wrath the extremist Muslims are hell bent on incuring against us.

The more American troops who are killed in Iraq, the more of an outcry there is at home to end the war. Nobody likes to see "their own" under fire and dying. While I subscribe to the belief that all humans are brothers and sisters, that there is no "us and them," I am well aware that this is not a prevelent view-point in practice. Generally we separate ourselves on customs, social values, religion, or color, but across the board people generally don't like to be blown up, shot, gassed, or chopped. I'm certainly not a big fan of living in fear of being murdered because somebody thinks i'm different.

America should embrace Muslim people, if we elected a Muslim president, I can almost guarantee that extremist Muslim terrorists would have a much harder time garnering support for their terrorist operations against us. If the majority of Muslims felt like we, as Americans, (and we should remember the great number of American Muslims who ARE AMERICANS) were not against "them" and their way of life, they would be far friendlier towards us, and the extremists in their midst would have little support for their murderous ways. The fastest way to bring about that change is to actually be welcoming to the Muslim people, to do the opposite of this idiotic Representative, and show them that we are not their enemy, instead of giving them evidence that we are.

The Wrong Color to be in Iraq

White. Of the 14 people captured in the recent raid on a convoy in Iraq, only the white ones were "kidnapped," 4 Americans and an Austrian; the 9 Asian drivers were released. Seems that we are getting a taste of our own medicine. Arabs in our country have to beware, and in our dealings with them in their own country (in this case Iraq) they are even more subject to terror. They can be taken and held indefinitely without probable cause. They can be stopped and searched in airports just because they look a certain way. I think it is a tragedy that these American contractors in Iraq have been captured, and that they may die when they were only over there trying to make a buck, and maybe even thinking that they were doing some good. But they were in Iraq profiting off an illegitimate war, and we are at home and abroad treating free human beings with no regard for the laws of men [and women]. This is another case where we must first find fault with our own ways. To just jump to blaming the Iraqis who have kidnapped these men, is to ignore our own role in their behavior. Maybe they are trying to show us something. They released all the contractors but the white ones. I wonder how many white American prisoners there are in Guantanamo? I'm not saying the kidnappers are right, they aren't, but neither are we. WE ARE MANIFESTING NEGATIVE OUTCOMES WITH NEGATIVE ACTION. That whole reap what you sow thing comes to mind....

Is president Bush an idiot?

Can you believe this was on MSNBC? WOW... Can't really imagine this on FOX news, but it's entertaining, that's for sure. Entertaining like a horror movie.

Here are members of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs this morning, praying during a service in which the founder of their church, who had just been fired, admitted, from the pulpit, that he was guilty of sexual immorality, and that he was a "deciever and a liar." So he's human. What a surprise?

If I had never seen the inside of a church before, or seen how people behave in there, I might look at this picture and think these people are on drugs. I've seen people behaving more "normally" at raves and Grateful Dead concerts. I'm not saying that people should act "normal" in life, I mean all the touching and singing and holding the hands up and stuff is probably the best thing about church, if you ask me. The bummer part is that these human beings end up fighting against themselves needlessly. This guy Ted Haggard was the head pastor, and also, it seems, a part time Meth-head and fan of gay sex. The poor guy describes his other life though, as "so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life." Poor guy. What a waste of energy. (Well OK resisting doing drugs which are made from household cleaning products and over-the-counter cough medicine is probably time well spent), but man, there is nothing wrong with being gay. Yet, according to a Denver Post article, the head of the oversight commitee, a pastor Larry Stockstill, said "he is confident Haggard would regard homosexuality not as a predisposition, but as a temptation to be fought." JESUS! Then he went on to say that "Haggard is not in touch with truth and reality." So this pastor, who thinks that one's "god-given" (if you will) sexual tastes are sinful and should be fought against, especially such simple proclivities as adult, consensual, homosexual sex, which has been observed in numerous animal species, and in other mammals also, this guy is in touch with reality? I don't think so. Whatever this God is, if It is all powerful, then I think if It didn't want homosexual sex to happen, it probably wouldn't. These are the problems one starts running into when they take a book likethe Bible as "scripture." We have to remember that it was just people who wrote that book, people just like Ted Haggard, people who had plenty of misconceptions about what was right and wrong, but plenty of them were probably having a little gay sex on the side as well, and probably feeling guilty about it. I mean come on people let's move on.

I feel bad for Ted. I think he probably chose the wrong profession. But i'd venture to bet that the poor guy was raised to feel guilty about his "urges." Maybe he thought that if he really just kept praying, stayed close to the church, and preached "God's word," then he'd get "better." Doesn't seem to have worked out that way. He just ended up looking like a hypocrite, which he is. As are most of the people in the picture up top I bet. Some of them are probably gay, mostly in the closet probably, some probably do drugs, (that guy standing a few rows back with his arms in the big V, I'm thinking he's smoked a little bit of the funny stuff), most of them probably masturbate and are either having or looking forward to having pre-marital sex. I say right on. Sex is great. In fact that big church is probably a great place to meet girls, if the people on the pulpit weren't so consistently (as Pastor Larry Stockhill would put it) "not in touch with truth and reality," I'd probably go there to meet some. Maybe when they toss the Bibles in the bin, a little bit of balance and reality can begin.

Another fine day on google news

Today is an especially down day in the world of news. It all started this morning at my German Girlfriends house. She has cable. Which means CNN and FOX News (in English). CNN is nothing great, but it's not nothing, nor is it as entertaining, or addictive as FOX. Watching FOX News is like looking at a horribly disfigured, leg-less, wheel-chair bound, cross-eyed, stump-armed, burn victim. It makes you cringe, feel shame, get a sickly ache in your stomach, doesn't compute, and yet you can't look away; then you look away, but seconds later you sneak another look, seconds later you're changing the channel back to the torture chamber that is FOX news. So this was the start of my day. Listening to John Kerry clips over and over and over again. As if showing John Kerry saying something stupid is going to keep the republicans from losing the House, and maybe even the Senate. Not likely. Then they show clips of Bush trying to fumble out a criticism of Kerry's speach. As Bush lumbers forward, he is just able to articulate that: "words are important." Thanks buddy.

On FOX they just keep talking, but then you try to remember what they were saying, and you realize that they don't really say anything. They had some guy on to talk about the same old line, Democrats are weak on defence. Blah Blah Blah. I can't stop watching this stuff. And I totally disagree with all of it. I'm not sure if there are like subliminal pictures of paradise being broadcast beneath the facade of meaningless right-wing blather. The newscasters all seem like middle-aged kindergartners, whenever they try to articulate their own ideas, it comes out jumbled and sort-of dumb, almost as if they are all trying to emulate the President's speech. Then when they get something out without a hitch, they have that Bush smile, which says proudly: "that's right, I can talk."

Well that was all depressing, and then on, to news.google.com when I arrived home to the internet connection. OH MY GOD. It's almost as if the Economist and Business Week articles i've been reading the last two weeks have been filtering up. The economy is slowing. America is in trouble. I predict that the two articles in last weeks Economist and International Herald Tribune will come along as well, by tomorrow tops on google news the masses will be reading how London is the new financial capital of the world. The Federal Government has taken too many bites out of the Big Apple. Too many regulations. International business leaders have a difficult time even entering the United States through our handicapped TSA run airports. Who wants to fly in a country where you can't bring a damn bottle of wine on the plane anyway? Let alone invest in that country. Welcome to news.google.com, welcome to America. Bad news, more bad news, and politics, yucky politics. But some good stories to look into are the story about Diebold, the maker of the paper trail lacking, hackable voting machines which about a third of Americans will be using this year to vote in the mid-term elections. There is also a fantastic opinion letter by Karen Finley: http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20061102/cm_huffpost/033060