Gaia Community: L'el's Blog

Socratic Vegetarianism

http://Lel.gaia.com — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:32:21 GMT

Today I learned that Socrates was in favor of vegetarianism. In Book II of Plato's Republic, he posits the structure and customs of an ideal society.

At one point, he describes the vegetarian diet of the people to Glaucon, and states:
"...with such a diet they may be expected to live in peace and health to a good old age, and bequeath a similar diet to their children after them."

Glaucon is skeptical that people would want to life a life as simple as Socrates suggests, and pushes for the inclusion of more luxuries in the societal model, including meat-eating.

Socrates: And there will be animals of many other kinds, if people eat them?
Glaucon: Certainly.

S: And living in this way we shall have much greater need of physicians than before?
G: Much greater.

S: And the country which was enough to support the original inhabitants will be too small now, and not enough?
G: Quite true.

S: Then a slice of our neighbours' land will be wanted by us for pasture and tillage, and they will want a slice of ours, if, like ourselves, they exceed the limit of necessity, and give themselves up to the unlimited accumulation of wealth?
G: That, Socrates, will be inevitable.

S: And so we shall go to war, Glaucon. Shall we not?
G: Most certainly.

*btw: Plato's Republic can be read online at: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html

Tags: plato, vegetarianism, meat, war

Clinging to the "People Don't Change" Story.

http://Lel.gaia.com — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:30:40 GMT

"A study suggests that when people are encouraged to believe their
behavior is predetermined-- by genes or by environment-- they may
be more likely to cheat."

This explains why so many people are so invested in the negative--
and fixed-- worldview that other people don't change.

If _other people_ don't change then surely _you_ can't, either,
right?

Tags: thoughts, change, psychology, behavior, determinism

My 5th Grade Perfect World

http://Lel.gaia.com — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:06:10 GMT

Recently came across a composition I wrote in 5th grade:

My Perfect World

It would be a better place to live in if the world was not divided into states, countries, counties, etc. Then the world would be like one huge team working together instead of small teams working apart.

And on another page:

The World would be a better place if people didn't have giant houses made of many trees and cover a big area. It would be a help to us and small animals, it would help everyone giving us more oxygen to breathe. It would help the small animals like rabbits and mice a place to hide from enemies.

Hee.

Tags: dream, childhood, world, peace

O on LS

http://Lel.gaia.com — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:38:50 GMT

Barack Obama, being interviewed by the LA Times:

"One of the luxuries of going to Harvard Law School is it means you can take risks in your life. You can try to do things to improve society and still land on your feet … I come from a lot of worlds and I have had the unique opportunity to move through different circles. I have worked and lived in poor black communities and I can translate some of their concerns into words that the larger society can embrace."

Many professionals do not understand how much freedom to take risks they actually have.

But more than that, I love his remark about living in different worlds and moving between different circles. It is the antithesis of the reality subscribed to by characters in Tom Wolff novels-- and many now-jobless Wall Street types-- who still believe that "there are no second Acts in American lives."

Nothing could be further from the truth. We lead many, many lives-- in succession, and all at once. A way of living to be sought out and celebrated.

Tags: life, living, opportunity, reinvention

Indoctrinating Hierarchy

http://Lel.gaia.com — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:16:19 GMT

Today I read an essay with a tone a bit more radical than my own thoughts on law school. But certain sections spoke to me; and inspired fantasies of someday setting up my own law school (possibly overseas) geared towards students who want to practice in California (where going to an ABA-approved-- aka conventional-- law school is not required for taking the bar).

[Pedagogy and] grading as practiced teaches the inevitability and also the justice

of hierarchy, a hierarchy that is at once false and unnecessary.

It is unnecessary because it is largely irrelevant to what students will do as

lawyers. Most of the process of differentiating students into bad, better and good

could simply be dispensed with without the slightest detriment to the quality of

legal services. It is false, first, because insomuch as it does involve the measuring

of the real and useful skills of potential lawyers, the differences between students

could be “leveled up” at minimal cost, whereas the actual practice of legal

education systematically accentuates differences in real capacities. If law schools

invested some of the time and money they now put into Socratic classes in

developing systematic skills training, and committed themselves to giving

constant, detailed feedback on student progress in learning those skills, they could

graduate the vast majority of all the law students in the country at the level of

technical proficiency now achieved by a small minority in each institution.

Law schools convey their factual message to each student about his or

her place in the ranking of students along with the implicit corollary that

place is individually earned, and therefore deserved. The system tells you that you

learned as much as you were capable of learning, and that if you feel incompetent

or that you could have become better at what you do, it is your own fault.

Opposition is sour grapes. Students internalize this message about themselves and

about the world, and so prepare themselves for all the hierarchies to follow.

...A second incapacitating device is the teaching of doctrine in isolation from

practice skills. Students who have no practice skills tend to exaggerate how

difficult it is to acquire them. There is a distinct lawyers’ mystique of the

irrelevance of the “theoretical” material learned in school, and of the crucial

importance of abilities that cannot be known or developed until one is out in the

“real world” and “in the trenches”. Students have little alternative to getting

training in this dimension of things after law school. It therefore seems hopelessly

impractical to think about setting up your own law firm, and only a little less

impractical to go to a small or political or unconventional firm rather than to one

of those that offer the standard package of postgraduate education. Law schools

are wholly responsible for this situation, They could quite easily revamp their

curricula so that any student who wanted it would have a meaningful choice

between independence and servility.

Tags: law, law school, dreams, hierarchy, ideology

A New Mindset for Rebuilding Our Economy

http://Lel.gaia.com — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:16:03 GMT

President-elect Barack Obama has announced his intention to restart the
American economy with hundreds of billions in new spending on
transportation, public works and energy.

But what worked during the Great Depression may not work quite
as well today.

Restarting economic growth this time around will require a new social
and economic framework that is in line with the new idea-driven
economy.

The trouble is: We remain trapped in the mental models of the old
industrial economy.

The way out of the current crisis involves creating the social and
economic conditions within which the new system can evolve. 

The first step must be to reduce demand for the core products
and lifestyle of the old order.

Source

Tags: economy

Thoughts on Gifts

http://Lel.gaia.com — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:36:31 GMT

A beautiful entry.

Tags: gift, giving, holidays

Does the Free Market Corrode Moral Character?

http://Lel.gaia.com — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:22:38 GMT

A conversation series by the Templeton Foundation. Check it out.

In brief, the answers by respondents:

To the contrary
It depends
Yes, but...
No.
Of course it does.
No! And, well, yes.
Certainly. Or does it?
Yes, too often.
No, on balance.
We'd rather not know.
Not at all.
It all depends.
No.

Also, where else are you ever going to find responses by Garry Kasparov, Bernard-Henri Lévy and uh, Rick Santorum, all in one place?

Tags: big question, morality, religion, free market, economy, society

I Walk By You Everyday, I Always Look Away

http://Lel.gaia.com — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:58:01 GMT

This is beautiful. And a real challenge. To watch is to recover some humanity.

Tropfest NY 2008 winner, "Mankind Is No Island" by Jason van Gend

Tags: youtube, homeless, love

Siona & the Invaders

http://Lel.gaia.com — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:10:30 GMT

The other day, Siona had a dream that the Russians had invaded Gaiam.  

I'm not sure that there was more to it than that, but this is how I imagine
such a thing would go down:

RUSSIANS: WE ARE HERE TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPANY.
HAND IT OVER NOW!!!

Siona: Okay.

RUSSIANS: RESISTANCE IS-- -WHA? Okay?!?!?

Siona: Okay. You can have it-- if you want it.

R: We can?

S: Absolutely. But, Russia? First we need to sit down and talk about
what's best for you. Actually, why don't you lie down on the carpet?
Close your eyes and tell me what it feels like, in your body, to be
an invader. Mmmmm. I see. Now think of a time when you felt
invaded. What does that feel like in your body? --Oh you poor
thing, you've been through so much, haven't you?-- Okay now
let go of that image and return to your body consciousness in the
present: safe in this room, breathing one breath at a time.
What does it feel like for your body to be at peace,
in synergy with the universe?

R: [Big sigh, releasing tensions and arms stockpiles it didn't even
know it had]

S: Now why don't you go home and settle into this new consciousness.
Allow yourself let go of the thought- the storyline in your head-- that
leaving now is failure, or returning empty handed. This opportunity
wasn't the right fit for you-- it was holding you back. The sooner you
leave, the sooner you can discover and pour your energy into creating
the right opportunity for you. Who knows? Maybe invasion will be the
right thing at another time-- or maybe it will take a different form.
Musical, perhaps? Like the British Invasion? Anyway, look inward to
your strengths and work from there. You're going to do *amazing* 
things, I just know it.

R: [Tears in eyes]. Thank you Siona, thank you. I came here to destroy,
but I'm going back to create so much more. I owe you so much.
I don't want to be presumptuous, but... would it be okay if I named
my firstborn child after you? Or maybe all my children?  Or if you prefer
ritual sacrifices in your name, that's cool too.  It would be an honor!!!

Tags: siona, humor

Small noticing

http://Lel.gaia.com — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:03:38 GMT

Whenever I call my Dad, whether at home or at work, his initial Hello? often inflects downwards, with a bit of tiredness, conveying that this phone-answering business is a bit of a chore.

But as soon as I say, Hi Dad, the instant he knows it's me and not some customer or telemarketer or divorce lawyer, his voice brightens with a sharp upward slant. It's all warmth and optimism and love.

That moment, poised between his unknowing Hello? and his cheerful Hello! is one that I've come to anticipate when I dial his number. It's like I have this secret, for a split second, knowing that he doesn't know his mood is about the be uplifted, in this parental pavlovian reaction, just from the sound of my voice, a mere moment down the line.

Tonight was the first time I told him that I noticed the change in voice tone, and that I appreciated it. Of course he said "Of course! I'm always glad to hear it's you."

...

I don't think I've ever not appreciated what a wonderful presence my dad has been in my life; for all of the affirmative things he has been to me.

But it's only lately I've thought more, in an internalized way, about how lucky I am about the things he was _not_ to me; about the baggages he and my mom didn't burden me with.

A friend confided in me recently about the troubles in his marriage, and revealed that many of their issues stemmed from sexual abuse each had suffered at some point in childhood at the hands of trusted adults (the wife from her father; the husband from his nanny).

I've heard similar tales from other friends. But although my upbringing was not perfect --especially in the unhealthy relationship (non)communication modeled to me through my parents' marriage-- there were enough of the right ingredients, most notably an absolute knowledge of my parents unconditional love for me, that it has taken me a while to really feel through what it would be like not to have that basis in navigating life. To understand, on a deeper than cognitive level, why people have certain habits or reactions or patterns in their lives.

I am lucky. And I can pass it on. I was given much, so I have much to give.

Tags: childhood, love, parenting, dad

Forest Kindergarten!

http://Lel.gaia.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:12:50 GMT

This makes me so happy. Some of my best early childhood memories are from wandering the endless forest behind my house.

Waldkindergärten

Germany has about 700 Waldkindergärten, or "forest kindergartens," in which children spend their days outdoors year-round... Only a fraction of German children attend Waldkindergärten, but their numbers have been rising since local parent groups began setting up these programs in the mid-1990s, following the lead of a Danish community. Similar schools exist in smaller numbers in Scandinavia, Switzerland and Austria. The concept is sparking interest far afield -- even in the U.S., whose first Waldkindergarten opened in Portland, Ore., last fall.

Ms. Kluge says no child has ever asked for a toy. The children improvise instead with what the woods have to offer.

Tags: kindergarten, education, forest, nature, wonder

"Painting Bitten By a Man"

http://Lel.gaia.com — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:00:45 GMT

Tags: art, meditation

The Disappeared

http://Lel.gaia.com — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:25:33 GMT

It's sad to see that someone has packed up their profile, and left this site. Goodbye?

.

Loss

Tags: loss, gaia, community, people, love

The Train Robbery that Made Corporations Persons

http://Lel.gaia.com — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:20:57 GMT

Yep, I'm excerpting this article yet again. But this passage was really helpful to me in understanding how the intellectual foundations for corporatocracy came about.

The defense... of wealth must find a legal manifestation.

...Jacksonian and abolitionist ideas before the Civil War produced a constitutional vision of free labor and free contract. This constitutional vision celebrated the right of ordinary individuals to own their labor. Laissez-faire was defended as a means of keeping government from giving special benefits to the wealthy.

...In what Clinton Rossiter called the “Great Train Robbery of Intellectual History,” laissez-faire conservatives appropriated the words and symbols of early nineteenth-century liberalism— liberty, opportunity, progress, and individualism—and gave them an economic reinterpretation that served corporate interests. They massaged and refitted the existing rhetoric of free labor and the right of ordinary citizens to pursue a calling into a sophisticated defense of corporate power and privilege that smashed labor unions, protected sweatshops, and eviscerated health and safety laws. By the turn of the twentieth century, the best legal minds that money could buy had reshaped the liberal rights rhetoric of the 1830s into a powerful conservative defense of property that they claimed was the rightful heir to the best American traditions of individualism and personal freedom.

Of course, I said to myself while reading this, much of this flows from the idea that corporations have "personhood"-- but wait, this was BEFORE that decision. This revisionism was what made corporate personhood possible.

A similar transvaluation of values is overtaking the free speech principle today. The right to speak has been recast as a right to be free from business regulation.

...We are living through a Second Gilded Age, which, like the first Gilded Age, comes complete with its own reconstruction of the meaning of liberty and property. Freedom of speech is becoming a generalized right against economic regulation of the information industries. Property is becoming the right of the information industries to control how ordinary people use digital content. We can no more capitulate to the Second Gilded Age’s construction of these ideas than to the constructions offered in the first Gilded Age. We must offer a critical alternative to this construction, much as progressive thinkers did a century ago.

Tags: corporations, corporatocracy, language, freedom, freedom of speech, progressive

Interactivity on Their Terms

http://Lel.gaia.com — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:50:34 GMT

More from my reading assignment (reminds me of the uniqueness of Gaia's willingness to have a conversation about/alter its terms of service).

New telecommunications networks allow ordinary people to communicate with vast numbers of fellow human beings, routing around existing media gatekeepers and offering competing content. People are no longer simply consumers of prepackaged content from mass media companies that are controlled by a limited number of speakers. Instead, people can use the new telecommunications networks to become active participants in the production of public culture.

But the very same technologies that offer these possibilities also offer media companies ever new ways to advertise, sell products, and push their favored content. Thus, just as in the case of intellectual property, businesses that control telecommunications networks will seek to limit forms of participation and cultural innovation that are inconsistent with their economic interests. Once again, the goal is not necessarily censorship of unpopular ideas but rather diversion and co-optation of audience attention. Businesses want to direct the Internet user toward increased consumption of their own goods and services as well as the products of their advertising partners. Recognizing that there is money to be made in advertising, sales, and delivery of content, telecommunications companies do not want to be pure conduits for the speech of others, and they do not want too much content competition from their customers.

Instead, they want to use the architecture of the Internet to nudge their customers into planned communities of consumerist experience, to shelter end users into a world that combines everyday activities of communication seamlessly with consumption and entertainment. In some respects, businesses seek to push consumers back into their pre-Internet roles as relatively passive recipients of mass media content. In other respects, however, they openly encourage interactivity, but interactivity on their terms—the sort of interactivity that facilitates or encourages the purchase of goods and services.

[bold added]

Other types of businesses may be able to get away with this more, but I think there will be more pressure for social networking sites to be more responsive and acknowledge user participation in shaping terms of service (as Gaia has). This has already happened to some degree with those other sites MyBook and FaceSpace, but primarily as isolated incidents regarding specific points (rather than as an ongoing dialogue process). When Google et al. get the open source social network model up and running, that is likely to shift TOS norms toward user interests, and perhaps towards having more user participation in the drafting of such terms. Maybe. Possibly. IMHO.

Tags: gaia, gaiam, terms of service, media, capitalism

A Capitalist Theory of Freedom of Speech

http://Lel.gaia.com — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:37:42 GMT

Excerpt from a reading for my Cyberlaw class, in the context of how Telecommunications companies claim that regulations (such as requirements to devote some portion of bandwidth to public broadcasting) violate their First Amendment rights as speakers and editors "to convey they content they wish to as large an audience as possible" (while simultaneously claiming their intellectual property rights trump the freedom of speech rights of users):

Implicit in these arguments is a controversial capitalist theory of freedom of speech. The theory is controversial not because it accepts capitalism as a basic economic ordering principle, but because it subordinates freedom of expression to the protection and defense of capital accumulation in the information economy. The capitalist theory identifies the right to free speech with ownership of distribution networks for digital content.

The argument that structural regulation of telecommunications networks restricts the First Amendment rights of telecommunications companies ties the right to speak ever more closely to ownership of capital. Arguing by analogy to print media, the capitalist theory of free speech
identifies the right to produce and control digital content with ownership of a communications network.

Nevertheless, conflating the right to speak with the right to control a communication network is problematic for two reasons. First, because they are conduits and networks, digital communications networks are designed to provide access to multiple voices. However, under the capitalist theory, these conduits exist primarily to promote the speech of the owner of the conduit, just as newspapers exist to promote the speech of the newspaper’s owner.

The second problem follows from the first: Content providers who also act as conduits have
incentives to favor their content over the content of others. For example, cable companies may be tempted to favor streaming media and digital music coming from the company’s content providers and advertising partners, while slowing down or refusing content coming from competitors, or, for that matter, from subscribers who want to be their own broadcasters. Broadband companies may seek to provide “walled gardens” or “managed content areas” which limit consumer access to that of the company’s proprietary network and its approved content partners.

[bold added]

Tags:

Dispatch from Edwin on Helping Kenya

http://Lel.gaia.com — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:56:22 GMT

The last few weeks have been tough ones for Kenya and Kenyans. We have seen what started off as a political problem sparked by the December elections turn into violence and tragedy. While I continue to be hopeful that current mediation efforts led by Kofi Annan will lead to a return of some level of normalcy across the country, I also recognize the destructive spiral things are taking in some parts of the country, notably in the Rift Valley. Every passing day without a solution makes this become a longer entrenched conflict that is beyond the elections. And I fear we have turned that corner.

All leaders at all levels need to understand that the current increase in militia activity is just a marriage of convenience. Once the “reason” for the sponsored conflict is resolved, the young men will still be there, hungry, with no incomes, with machetes in their hands. And they now know how to kill and maim.

Current Red Cross numbers indicate about 1000 people dead, and over 300,000 displaced. The conditions in the make-shift camps across the country are simply
heartbreaking, which is why with a growing group of young professionals via the Pamoja Youth Foundation, we have launched “Jaza Lorry!” Literally translating to “Fill the Lorry/Truck!”, the initiative is motivating assistance for those displaced, and channeling it to them through the Kenya Red Cross.

For individuals in Kenya , you can buy items and
drop them off in the Jaza Lorry box at every Nakumatt, Uchumi and Tuskys.
For those outside Kenya ,
we have partnered with mamamikes (http://www.mamamikes.com)
Kenya ’s leading online marketplace to channel donations and vouchers.
For any donations which do not fall into any of the above categories (e.g., in kind donations from companies), feel free to email me back and we can discuss the most appropriate way of channeling them.

Please give what you can.

This is a long road we are on, and it will take quite some work to heal the tears we
have experienced in our social fabric. Let us have the courage to take the first step.

-edwin

macharia2007@gmail.com

Tags: kenya, africa, violence, poverty

A Modest Proposal for Congress

http://Lel.gaia.com — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:55:33 GMT

Those of you who watched West Wing may remember that the code name for the US President is "POTUS" = President Of The United States.

Similarly, the acronym of the judicial branch is SCOTUS = Supreme Court Of The United States.

The legislative branch, however, is simply called "Congress".

But wouldn't it be wonderful if it were nicknamed the Legislature Of The United States.

That is, LOTUS?

Imagine if that was the name, the peaceful image, associated with our major governing body. Wouldn't that be beautiful?

Tags: lotus, government, peace

Caucus Like It's Hot (for OBAMA)

http://Lel.gaia.com — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:19:09 GMT

If your state is up at bat tomorrow (like mine!), please do the future proud and BE A PART OF MAKING IT.

Lawrence Lessig gives a great presentation on why he's endorsing Obama here
(even if you don't know who Lessig is, it's a well thought-out appeal)

For pretty much any other information you could want on Obama, my friend (a Precinct Leader for his campaign in San Francisco) has put together a great primer here. (With-- bonus!-- a link to a great interview with Samantha Power, leader of the Save Darfur movement, who has been working on Obama's campaign for the last several years).

See you in the future!

Tags: obama, hope, future, vote