The Benevolent Tool

A soldier enlists in order to protect his or her nation, family, and friends.
A citizen becomes a police officer in order to protect society from crime.
A citizen becomes involved in politics hoping to create a change in society.
An individual works with a non-profit with the intent of helping society.
A graduate becomes a social worker so that they can shape a better society.

These are the reasons that the benevolent tool gives when asked why they do what they do. They believe that they are doing good by choosing a public service career. Fighting crime, passing progressive legislation, killing terrorists, and providing help to those who need it bolsters their belief that they are creating change, that they are creating a better society. What no one ever discusses, and I presume most people never see, is the role they play in maintaining the status quo.

Political Spectrum

Here is a picture I made showing a political spectrum. I made it after realizing that political spectra exist in every country.

Sorry this is a short post, it's late and I'm tired.

"CASH IS KING" - my professor

Sitting in my class, listening to my professor talk about major types of business firms, and I realized this:
Creating an incentive for the public to start businesses or existing business to create jobs, an economic system most always has to create advantages that are directly disproportional to the public well-being.

UC Davis Student Protesters Pepper Sprayed by Campus Police

This weekend, the world watched footage of UC Davis' student protesters being pepper sprayed by the UC Davis police. The students were protesting police brutality in solidarity with students at UC Berkeley. According the the Chancellor, the actions of police officers were horrific. The chancellor has been asked by students and faculty to resign, but she has declined and asked everyone to move forward.

As the chancellor claims to have the campuses' students safety as her number 1 priority, she refuses to step down from her position. I feel that she should resign in order to set a precedent for accountability. By being an example of what will happen when authority is abused, she can protect future political dissent and create a safe place for students.

Let's Solve Wealth Inequality

Fellow Americans that aren't reading this, I propose creating a federal minimum wage of $20.00.
By raising the minimum wage in the country, we can shrink the wealth gap while lowering the taxes on everyone. This will affect the 1% but they will see a dramatic decrease in taxes to the point where this will even out. The tax money that is then collected would be enough to allocate to the necessary aspects of infrastructure and the safety net.

This could be step one in the right direction. We would then have to make changes to every aspect of our life. In order to create a better society we need to reconstruct health, gender norms, consumerism, pollution, racism, xenophobia, heteronormativity, and authority.

Keith Olbermann speaks about the role and effects of Bloomberg's actions in The OWS movement

Seems like Bloomberg might have revitalized The Occupy Wall Street movement. It's time to escalate this and include the apolitical

Estranged Labor within Occupy Wall Street pt.2

To be removed from the final project is to be estranged from one's labor, so I guess I don't really mean there is Estranged Labor within Occupy Wall Street. I guess the reason why I said there's estranged labor within the movement is because I was thinking about how one does not have full control over what one does since one has to get it approved by the general assembly. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's the vibe I got from being down there. I really wanted to form an outreach group, but there already was one and I thought they wouldn't be down with my radical ideas. I guess I'll never know since I didn't ask. I guess I take back my statement that there is estranged labor within a voluntary participatory movement.

REVITALIZE THE MOVEMENT!

Occupy Wall Street is losing it's popularity. No one's talking about Occupy Wall Street. If this continues on for too long and the occupy movement dies we're going to look back and die to go back in time and do things differently.

Estranged Labor within Occupy Wall Street

I'll be blogging about this tonight or tomorrow. Just posting it to remind myself.

One Huge Aspect of Our Time Period

We are living in a time where tradition and science coexist.

science is integrated into our traditional lives.

Those who try to live a completely traditional life struggle because science contradicts their life. Those who try to live a scientific, reasonable life realize that it is hard to do in a predominantly traditional world.
Those who manage to get by live a balanced life of traditional and scientific.

This definitely is one huge aspect of our time period.

EDIT: And when I say tradition I mean more than just religion.

Science and Tradition

A number of writers, researchers, intellectuals, non-intellectuals are looking for some explanation that will expand our understanding of society. It's true.
Perhaps they are doing it for fame, money, respect, but perhaps they are doing it for other reasons that are personal. I actually can imagine a therapist presenting this explanation. But they are the ones who have ambition necessary to discovering truth and resolution.
I just want to throw some words out in order to visualize the subjects that I am concerned with. Politics, political party, ideology, problems, global, culture, inequality, science, medical, philosophy, family, emotions.
Political parties embody ideology and agendas and supporters and tactics.
Ideology embodies an explanation of the world.
Social problems are the issues that we are concerned with.
Globalization reminds us that we are interconnected.
Culture is a term we use to describe behavior specific to a group.
Inequality is concerned with injustice and justice and power and conflict and opposition.
Science is concerned with truth and methods and reason.
Medical is concerned with health and life and cures.
Philosophy is concerned with logic and reason and issues of humanity.
Family is concerned with a group of people related biologically or through contract that have a deep bond and loyal relationship.
Emotions are related to feelings and reactions to issues.

This word vomit intends to place subjects on paper so that I can visualize them and make sense of them. For example, the family and culture are at times in conflict with reason and therefore in conflict with science and philosophy. and emotions are perhaps related to language and without language emotions can seem unreasonable.
Science would say that family does not have a vital function except for cultural roles. Culture is therefore problematic to the society and political reasonable rational world. Can science and tradition coexist? Perhaps the issue that I can take from this is that we live in a world where tradition and science coexist, where reason and tradition coexist. But are they coexisting? Perhaps they do coexist, but it seems like they are in conflict for those who see the world from a logical, reasonable viewpoint. . . . till next time :)

I don't want to do my homework. I'll write about the 99%

I just received an E-mail asking me to support Occupy San Jose this Thursday, November 17th. In the email the sender wrote "make the country work for the 99%," and I thought to myself how the hell could the country work for the 99%? And I realized that Wall Street has to be destroyed because it is the heart of corporations. Wall Street acts like a mechanism pumping oxygen or literally cash into corporations provided by investors. Those investors then require corporations to return a profit which is maximized through low-wages and high prices. But corporations could become cooperatively owned... Well that would be hard to maintain considering the size of corporations which probably average 27,000 - a million employees. So I imagined the nation without corporations. A nation of mom and pop shops, and then I realized the presence of competition creates an environment where inequality and corporations are inevitable. So in order to get a nation that works for the 99% we could get rid of corporations, and competition. SIDE NOTE: Competition isn't an intrinsically bad thing, competition in a capitalism is a bad thing. END SIDE NOTE. So we can take control of the means of production allowing everyone access to goods.

If we were to create a society where the means of production were not privately owned, and a society where competitors were not rewarded with power and wealth, we would have to reduce our standards of living. Resources would become scarce. But material possessions are not that important. Material possessions don't make us laugh, they don't make us happy, we don't love them, we don't need them, and we don't want to spend time with them more than we want to spend time with each other.

In order for the country to work for the 99% competition must go, our standards of living must be lowered, and we must work together to create a society that supports one another.

Field Notes

So I'm doing some research on the behavior and attitudes of workers in general.

Here are my notes from today. I took them on my new phone so there are a lot of typos. Skip to the bottom for the summary.

Laughing during conversation
Have a magical day
Tells the customer how much change
Today total
Phone number
Smiling
Customer acts like a dick
Worker doesn't know says ill check on that
Worker walking around looking at products
Talking about personal life with customer
Welcome to pets mart
Do you have a pet card so i can save you some more money
Thank you have a wonderful day - cashier
Worker who was chilling wasn't doing shit

Welcome to Davidson bridal what event brings you in
Didn't belong he knew it and asked again why i was there

Ross
Not welcomed
I can help who is next in line
"i want you to know Im going to be splitting the line."
On the phone
Pop music
Says thank you and hands receipt
Security mumbles they must really be pissd
African American woman isn't really talking to customers
Workers talking about customer or boss
Folds clothes and bags them
Worker tells woman she can't watch her cart because its policy
Security is whispering
Asked are you looking for the restroom
Scans tags
Here you go. Have a nice day
Hello how are you
You can go ahead and slide your card
These tags definitely don't want to process
Both laugh
Card doesn't work. Worker says sorry about that.
Would you like your receipt in the bag

Dollar tree
Worker says thank you
Dollar tree worker isn't bubbly
Latin looking cash register isn't bubbly

Can i help you
Phillipina woman doesn't really chat it up with the client
She says next customer
Can i help you
She takes care of transaction says sign here please gives him change
Hispanic man sells mcdonalds isn't loud
He says how much something is and talks about the product
Kids meal 26 says a worker
The man makes a drink for the customer
The customer waits at the counter for her drink
He wears a uniform
Starts off what he says with uhh
He says that's all announces the amount and takes the money
He then get them their drink
Woman grabs clothes yo hang up. She then speaks to her co worker in Tagala
Worker picks up phone - Phillips and says thank you for calling milpitas wal mart
I sit on a bench on my phone

i pulled into the McCarthy Ranch parking lot. Parked in the middle of four stores and walked into Pet's Mart. I remember the white middle age woman working at the cash register being really enthusiastic about everything. I thought she had too much energy for the job. I remember thinking how strange it sounded when she said "have a magical day." After I left her I walked over to the dog hospital and overheard a man sort of speaking to a worker with an attitude. That worker, a semi-young white male, left that customer to check on something. I then walked over to the fish and lizards and saw a young man sort of standing around not really working on anything. I thought it was strange but imagined myself doing the same thing. I left the store and went to Marshall's. There were so many employees when I walked in. Maybe 3 cashiers, who were all women, were ringing people up. I remember two of them were sort of heavy women in their late 20s. The Latina was chatty, while the African American woman was almost speechless. There was a man, white mid 20s, on a phone but it looked like he was on hold. Another lady, told the line she would be splitting them up and sent one woman to the Latina cashier. The two security guards were men. One was Hispanic and the other was African American. Both looked like they were in their mid 20s. I remember the security guards and a young lady were talking about something related to someone being pissed. Then I walked around the store and was asked by a women putting hanger sizes on hangers if I was looking for the bathroom. I said no and left.
I then walked in to David's Bridal whatever. I was immediately approached by a man asking what I was there for. I said I was just browsing and he asked again. I quickly left since there were no customers, and I felt uncomfortable. I went to the Dollar Tree and saw the huge line. After walking around the store I found out there were only two employees. Both were young Latina that spoke Spanish to each other. The cashier wasn't really chatting with the clients.
I then went to Wal-mart and hung out around the return section. An old Phillipina was not chatting with people and exchanging them money for their items. The man at Mcdonalds was a Hispanic male in his late 20s. He wasn't really chatty and he just took the customers' money and gave them drinks. In the fitting room, two old phillipina ladies chatted in Tagala. I left and felt unsatisfied.

-I noticed co-workers treat customers differently than they treat each other.
-And I noticed that culture might affect how one treats a customer and probably superior and co-worker.
-And how someone defines "good worker" might be related to their culture.

Alone Together

I'm starting a magazine with some friends and I'm thinking of topics to write about. The topic of being alone but in spaces where there are other people. Like a coffee shop, or a city. Any thoughts?

Capitalism and The US

I've begun thinking about the hybrid form of capitalism we have in this country. True capitalism should have been overthrown by now. But unions and more importantly government's relationship with the economy adulterates capitalism in The US from being pure.
Here are some examples:
-Illegal businesses: Drugs, prostitution
-Government subsides
-Tax Breaks
-Bail outs

Would this count as intervening in the market?

Came up with a good metaphor

"You and I are like a venn diagram. We have some things in common, but we have more differences."

Figuring out where to invest my time

I've been thinking about grad school for a while, and today I thought "the culture of the economy" is a decent contender. Expect future posts to be related to the culture of business and the economy.

Here's another video to help you understand the economic catastrophe

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Dallas Male Rapper Attempts to Build a Movement to Destroy Gender Norms

Home on a Friday night

Man, I need to get the fuck out of Milpitas. Being home on a Friday all alone is so depressing. I'm actually embarrassed to be on Facebook because it is broadcasting to everyone on FB "Hey Ellis is at home alone on a Friday night, tell everyone!"
To make it worse, I have a class tomorrow and I have a presentation or something and yeah. FML.

Just watched: Exposed! The Weird Rites of The Hippies. on Netflix

Hippies were the agents of the revolution. They revolted against everything "right," clean, accepted, because they wanted to be free of all the constraining aspects.

7 ways to overcome political apathy

11/2/11 General Strike in Oakland

I wasn't sure what to expect from today's general strike. I assumed there wasn't going to be many people there until last night when it was semi-viral on Facebook.
When I showed up the size of the crowd was smaller than I expected but probably around 2,000+. At first I was turned off by all the music and dancing, but excused it as part of a movement. Now that I think about it, an Egyptian I met recently, called Occupy SF a party, and frankly Occupy Oakland resembled a party. I wandered around the area and was attracted to the huge black banner that said destroy capitalism. I didn't see anyone that looked worth talking to so I drifted towards the socialists. I argued with some salesman selling some socialist literature about how having a vanguard movement was not much better than the system we have now. He disagreed and I did my best not to tell him to STFU. I then ran into Ali & Greg. We hung out for a little while. Then I ran into Greg and he told me Wells Fargo got smashed, so I went to check it out. Amazed by the Damage, I stood around for a few minutes. It was almost time for me to leave so I headed back to the center of everything. I stood around next to the feminist and queer protesters. After about ten minutes we started marching to the Oakland ports. Once we reached Castro st. where my car was parked I broke away from the group and headed to my car.
I spent a lot of time today thinking about my political identity and justifications for it. I think we spend a lot of time worrying about our political identity when in reality it's not that important. I think it can sometimes get in the way and political junkies need to address that issue. After I left I came across a wiki page: anarchism without adjectives, which pretty much was an idea created by an anarchist who saw adjectives as more problematic than helpful. OK. Bed time.