Inner and Outer values, and Katrina

Had another conversation with yet another friend, who did the "what was wrong with those people in Louisiana?  They voluntarily stayed in the path of the hurricane, and then demanded that the government pay their way...THOSE people..."  this person is a somewhat self-loathing mixed blood African American, who borders on being a racist, spouts the most radical and unpleasant Right-Wing rhetoric (there is equally radical and unpleasant Left-Wing rhetoric, and there is more moderate rhetoric on both sides.  this person loves Michael Savage and his ilk.)  Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility.  And yet, in  his own life, my friend is in a loveless marriage, which is  his mate's fault.  He is trapped in an unrewarding job for the sake of security--forced to by external circumstances.  Is often paralyzed with unreasoning fears, which he is afraid to address.  Is chronically fatigued, and wants to find a doctor who will take total responsibility for the cure.  Changes definitions of terms to match whatever he wants them to be, so that he can win arguments.    In many ways, this is the most fear-filled person I know, who takes no real responsibility for his body, his relationships, or his career situation, who can make few life-affecting decisions because every fear and concern is snarled up with another one like a Gordian Knot.  Cannot meditate or exercise.  Is afraid to look within himself for the answers.  I am very, very worried for him.
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And this is where the political orientation is so troublesome.  the Right demands a high level of personal responsibility, the idea that we must be self-reliant, and are responsible for the results we get.  Fine.  But my friend blames everything outside himself for his life situation, and simply cannot look at his own programming, emotions, decisions and actions as prime motivators of his unhappiness.  But he simultaneously points the finger at poor people without a fraction of his resources, and blames them for freezing under pressure.  Blames them for demanding that the government lend aid, or take responsibility.  Can you see how this is, literally, the edge of dysfunction?
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If you demand more of others than you demand of yourself, if you say others are responsible for their own misery--while you yourself, of course, are a victim of your life--there is something askew in the internal machinery.  It would be virtually impossible to leverage your intelligence and energy with confused belief systems like this.  So I strongly suspect that my friend is terrified of his lack of internal responsibility, and projects this fear and loathing onto others.  If you're going to demand that others take responsibility, fine.  You'd better take it yourself, though, or else that incongruity will kick your butt.  It becomes a deep and profound disconnect between your inner and outer worlds.
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Of course, I have a bit of this myself--in the opposite direction.  I demand a higher level of personal responsibility from myself than I ever demand of others (although I'm delighted to see it when it's present!) Why?  Because I can see, and know personally, how difficult it is to keep things going on all three levels.  Because I know few people who really have a taste for taking personal responsibility in all three arenas.  Virtually everyone is "blown out" in one or more of them.  And about 90% of those will claim that someone or something other than themselves is responsible for their situation.
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So...someone who preaches a Right-Wing ideology, claiming that it is easy to take responsibility (or implying that they do, so so should everyone else!) had better show me something, dude.  They'd better have their crap together in life, and provide an example of possibility.  If not, they'd better not lie about it.  If they do, as far as I'm concerned, they are projecting their own Shadow-self onto the less advantaged, terrified that if they screw up as much as they do with the benifit of social advantages, that if those advantages were taken away they would spiral into the abyss.
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and what about my own incongruity?  Maybe I'm kidding myself, but I think that as we become more and more evolved, we look at the work it takes, and become more understandign and compassionate of those incapable of making that leap.  We thank our teachers, and mentors, for giving us the strength, and telling us the truth even when we didn't want to hear it.
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So when I say we are all ultimately responsible for where we are in life, I mean it.  I also know that this is a truth that is possibly the most difficult thing for people to hear.  And that those born to social disadvantage will, because of that natural, universal human tendency to deny responsibility, fall much further than one born with a silver spoon.  They are human beings with equal quality. But without a safety net, they crash upon the rocks, whereas those born to advantage have social safety net after safety net to catch them.
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THIS is why I think that it is love, and frustration, and rage against an uncaring society, and hope, that gets someone like Cosby to say the things he says.  It is like a coach at half-time, screaming at his team that they don't have the habits, the focus, the commitment, the discipline, displayed by the other team.  What difference does it make that the other team had advantages?  When you're in the game, you can't ask the other team to slow down or help out.  You either rise to the occassion, or you lose, period.  It's not about what is fair, or right, or good, or nice.  It's about what is.  The other team is there to win.  If you will win, you must rise to match them.  PERIOD. 
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Friends, if I could push a button and reverse the relative position of the races in America, or the world, I'd be happy to, and with the biggest grin you ever saw.  But I can't .  If I could open the hearts of all mankind and help them see the vast arenas in their own lives where they don't take responsibility, and therefore increase their compassion for how easy it is for those less advantaged to believe they cannot help themselves, I'd do that to.  But I can't.  What I CAN do is speak to young men or young women who, like me, had little support, could not wait for society to change, but wanted to know what they can do.  Wanted to know what, if they were willing to give it everything they have, to die in the attempt, to throw away all excuses and focus every bit of their life energy on the road to success...what, in the name of God, they can do other than ask for help.  And THIS I can do something about. 
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It is not that I don't care.  It is that I care too damned much to believe in miracles, or that human beings will suddenly, overnight, become vastly more enlightened.  That is a dream far far far less likely than the dream that an individual might open her eyes, see that terrible hard truth, and struggle like life and death to save herself and her family. 
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And you know what the most frustrating thing will be?  Every time one does, she will turn around and tell the others how she did it...and they won't believe her.  If middle-class people believe they cannot control their weight, their relationships, and their finances, it is a thousand times easier for poor people to fall into that trap.  Look into your own lives.  Own the lies you've told yourself about your failures. 
And for goodness sake, have a little compassion...while simultaneously being as merciless as that coach at half-time.  Or your team has no prayer at all.
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Game over.

The conscious mind

Had a chance to speak to an old friend of mine, who, just a couple of years ago, didn't believe that the subconscious mind really existed.  It was all conscious to her.  Now she believes it exists, but that the conscious is still the part that must be enlisted in order to make change. Not surprisingly, this friend (Call her Maddy) is a hundred pounds overweight, and has fluctuated wildly--from very skinny to very fat, with only the briefest stops in between.  She has a long-term relationship which seems loving and supportive--although they don't exactly live together.  Fine.  And she is knowledgeable and canny about career things.  Again, Fine.  But that weight thing...it is clear that she is dealing with major emoitonal issues there, issues that try to defend themselves by sending her down the wrong track. She can't meditate--will fall asleep if she tries.   This is a person with an extreme internal conflict, a set of unconscious values and beliefs that demand that she never find her physical balance--she can go to one extreme or the other, but that's it.
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the sad thing is that she's so smart, but doesn't grasp that we are all just exactly smart enough to screw ourselves over. 
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My view is that the best thing the conscious mind can do is put us where the subconscious can be properly accessed: meditation, yoga, therapy, hypnosis, etc.--and then get the hell out of the way.  The truth is that change happens all the time without conscious awareness, in both a positive and a negative sense.  We can have the best CONSCIOUS intentions in the world to stop smoking, cheating, to do our bills, to exercise, to diet, etc.  Notice how often our conscious intentions fall flat?  It is only when the "boys in the basement" are along for the ride that things start happening.  Then, one day we wake up and notice we've lost weight, or are in a relationship, or are making money, or have finished that book.  And sometimes we don't notice it until someone else tells us "wow!  You've lost weight!  You're sparring much better!  This story is much more honest!"  Sometimes we don't hear that for years.  Sometimes we never do.
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the conscious mind thinks its us. It is not. It is small, and relatively weak, and desperately wants to be in control.  When we try to put it in control, it veers all over the road like a 5-year old trying to drive a truck. This lady is always trying to help others, including help them in arenas where she herself is stuck!  That, my friends, is the blind leading the blind.  You can only help people get where you yourself have been, no matter how smart you are, or how positive your intentions.  If you're stuck, you'll always give them the advice that you yourself are ready to hear.  And you'll stay stuck together.

Cosby on Black America

Yeah, I know we've been over this and over this.  but I want my people--and that means ALL PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL, to win.  I know, or believe, that I have special insight into those who are impoverished, a visually identifiable ethnic minority, creative, lonely, or strive to be physically fit, because those have been, in the course of my life, my challenges.  So I speak to those things.  I'd bet we all fit into one of those categories!  I just got this e-mail, and it deals with the question of what the poor owe themselves.  I'll make it clear again: I wouldn't mind a society where each and every citizen was entitled to the level of food, shelter, medical care, and education that that is now available to inmates in state penetentiaries.  Why?  Because all they have to do to get it is rape or murder YOU.  So let's remove the lower level of Maslow's heirarchy from their motivations for violence, but at the same time keep the real goodies for those with higher levels of focus and commitment.  But that's just my attitude.  Until that world arrives, the best solution for each of us, as individuals, is to live our lives as we wish the entire world would operate.  And that means that, as did my own mother, we must each take responsibility for our families--even as we open our hearts to be charitable to our neighbors.  Yes, it's a careful balance.  But I see no other answer.  "The Man" simply will not rescue us.  But I have found that, if I take the lion's share of responsibility for my life, helping hands are available.
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 Jackson Invites Cosby 
 
  I had never seen the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson cry in public. And 
  he's seldom upstaged. Until, Bill Cosby came to town. 
 
  Last week Jackson invited Cosby to the annual Rainbow/PUSH conference 
  for a conversation about controversial remarks the entertainer offered 
  May 17 at an NAACP dinner in Washington,D.C.That's when America's 
  Jell-O Man shook things up by arguing that African Americans were 
  betraying the legacy of civil rights victories. 
 
  "The lower economic people," he said, "are not holding up their end in 
  this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for 
  their kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for "Hooked 
  on Phonics!" 
 
  Thursday morning, Cosby showed no signs of repenting as! he strode 
  across the stage at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom before a 
standing-room-only crowd. Sporting a natty gold sports coat and dark 
glasses, he proceeded to unload a laundry list of black America's 
self-imposed ills. 
 
The iconic actor and comedian kidded that he couldn't compete with the 
oratory of 
the Reverend but he preached circles around Jackson in their nearly 
hour-long conversation, delivering brutally frank one-liners and the 
toughest of love. The enemy, he argues, is us: 
 
  "There is a time, ladies and gentlemen, when we have to turn the mirror 
  around." Cosby acknowledged he wasn't critiquing all blacks-just "the 50 
  percent of African Americans in the lower economic neighborhood who 
  drop out of school," and the alarming proportions of black men in prison 
  and black teenage mothers. ! The mostly black crowd seconded him with 
  choruses of " Amens." 
 
  To critics who pose, it's unproductive to air our dirty laundry in 
  public, he responds, "Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 
  every day. It's cursing on the way home, on the bus, train, in the 
  candy store. 
 
  They are cursing and grabbing each other and going nowhere. And, the 
  book bag is very, very thin because there's nothing in it." 
 
  "Don't worry about the white man," he adds. "I could care less about 
  what white people think about me . . . let 'em talk. What are they 
  saying that is different from what their grandfathers said and did to 
  us? What is different is what we are doing to ourselves." 
 
  For those who say Cosby is just an elitist who's "got his" but doesn't 
  understand the plight of the black poor, he reminds us that, "We're
  going to turn that mirror around. It's not just the poor-everybody's 
  guilty." 
 
  Cosby and Jackson lamented that in the 50th year of Brown vs. Board of 
  Education, our failings betray our legacy. Jackson dabbed away tears as 
  he recalled the financial struggles at Fisk University, a historically 
  black college and Jackson's Alma mater. 
 
  When Cosby was done, the 1,000 people in the room all jumped to their 
  feet in ovation. Long after Cosby had departed, I could not find a 
  dissenter in the crowd. But in the hotel corridor I encountered a 
  vintage poster for sale that said volumes. The poster, which advertised 
  the Million Man March, was "discounted" to $5 Remember the Million Man 
  March? 
 
  In 1995 Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan exhorted "a millio! n 
  sober, disciplined, committed, dedicated, inspired b lack men to meet in 
  Washington on a day of atonement." In 2004, perhaps all that' s left of 
  that call is a $5 poster. We have shed tears too many times, at too many 
  watershed moments before. While the hopes they inspired have fallen by 
  the wayside. Not this time. Cosby's plea to parents: "Before you get to 
  the point where you say 'I can't do nothing with them'-do something 
  with them." 
 
  Like: 
 
  Teach our children to speak English. 
 
  When the teacher calls, show up at the school. 
 
  When the idiot box starts spewing profane rap videos, turn it off. 
 
  Refrain from cursing around the kids. 
 
  Teach our boys that women should be cherished, not raped and 
  demeaned. 
 
  Tell them that education is a prize we won with blood and tears, 
  not a dishonor. 
 
  Stop making excuses for the agents and abettors of black-on-black 
  crime. 
 
  It costs us nothing to do these things. But if we don't, it will 
  cost us infinitely more tears. 
 
  We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail without a second thought, 
  but when it comes to sending messages regarding life choices, people 
  think twice about sharing. The crude, vulgar, and sometimes the obscene 
  pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of decency is too 
  often suppressed in school and the workplace. 

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And to this I say, "amen."
 

More on the Poor...

The following was written in reply to another reader, not to my position.  However, with that caveat, I decided to address it as if it were...
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"The poor *ARE* doing what you keep preaching. They try to pull themselves up. It's insulting to treat them as if they were doing something wrong, and you have the magical ticket to get them out, if only they'd just listen."
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No, they're note.  Being born poor obviously has vastly harder challenges than being born middle class.  And yet, remember something:  "The poor are always with us." as Christ said.  Why?  At least partially because the definition of poverty can be very strange in America.  In some rural parts of America, and some of the most broken inner-city areas, there literally are no services, little clean water, and little hope in the REAL sense of poverty if you have ever traveled to Central America, Africa or Asia, or some war-torn zone of Europe.  But the official Federal Income Poverty levels ran  as such in 2000:

"
     •     One person, under 65 years On $8,959
     •     One person, 65 years and over On $8,259
     •     Two people, householder under 65 years, including one child under 18 years on $11,869
     •     Four people, including two children under 18 years on $17,463"

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And the thought of what happens to people WAY under these levels is horrific.   But to say they are struggling, trying, working hard, breaking themselves on the rack...whatever you want to say...is ONE thing.  To suggest that they are doing what I suggest is quite another.
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Remember, I started this life poor.  My mother crammed me with "Think and Grow Rich"-style books and tapes.  I did years of research, not studying how rich people thought, but HOW POOR PEOPLE WHO GOT RICH thought.  Do you grasp the specificity?  Blacks, whites, single mothers, whatever.  It obsessed me.  What the hell was it that allowed SOME people to escape poverty, while others remained behind?  Obviously, there is nothing that can guarantee you will make it out--any more than there is anything that will 100% guarantee you will lose weight, or get fit, or live happily ever after.  But success leaves clues. 
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If after reading hundreds of life stories, interviews and essays by the formerly poor, I cross-referenced it with what rich people said, and successful people said.  Cross-referencing that with books like "think and Grow Rich" and "Psycho-Cybernetics" I realized that the basic principles that worked for middle-class folks also worked for poor people, and had been refereed to in sacred texts around the world since the beginning of time.  Here are a bunch of different ways of saying the same thing:

1) As a man thinketh, so he is.
2) First Came the word.
3) Where attention goes, energy flows, and results show
4) What you can conceive and believe, you can achieve
5) You need two things to succeed: well defined written goals, and plans for their accomplishment, and a mind closed tightly to fear and doubt.
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Looking at the Hero's Journey, which I consider to be the world's combined wisdom about the course of life, you get the following (and this seems to be utterly pan-cultural):
1) Hero confronted with challenge.  "I am poor.  I wish to be rich."
2) Rejects the challenge.  (I cannot.  Everyone around me says its impossible.  I'm black.  I'm old.  I'm uneducated.  I am afraid."
3)  Accepts the challenge ("my pain is too great.   The goal is too sweet.  I must do something")
4) The road of trials.  (Education.  The Army.  Starting at the bottom of a job.  Starting a business. Failing over and over again.)
5) Allies and powers.  (Teachers.  Role models (other formerly poor people who have succeeded), sharpening my mind.  Learning the skills my parents couldn't teach me.  Developing the attitude: IF ONE OTHER PERSON COULD MAKE IT OUT OF THIS GHETTO/POVERTY/SLUM, I CAN TOO!  You have to model the behaviors and attitudes of those who have succeeded)
6)  Confront evil, and fail.  Falling flat on his face.  Losing everything.
7) Dark Night of the Soul.  ("I can't.  They were right.  It's hopeless.")
8) Leap of Faith (often a husband or wife gives one strength to  go on.  Or a church.  Or friends. Or a teacher. Or mentor.  Or simply summoning strength from within to pick yourself up, and try again.)
9) Confront evil, and succeed.  IF they have clear goals, IF they have modeled the behavior of those who have succeeded, IF they have the faith to pick themselves up, try over and over and over again despite the laughter and mocking and distractions, if they continually try new things to reach their goals, then they maximize their chance of winning.  But they must stay the course.)
10) The student becomes the teacher.  I have lost count of the number of formerly poor men and women who lecture and write and preach and teach and mentor.  There are countless thousands of them. 
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And do you know what each and every one of them hears?  "It's impossible.  I tried.  It's different for you.  The white man keeps us down. I'm too old.  I don't' have an education..."
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and they look out at the sea of faces, and once in a while they see a man or woman who locks eyes with them, and says, silently, "Yes.  I hear you.  I am tired of the pain.  I admit I have been, not foolish, but ignorant.  I will follow you."
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And that person begins their own journey.
Don't tell me that poor people do what I'm saying, because most MIDDLE CLASS people don't.  The most specific, consistent gaps in their behaviors are:
1) Well defined, written goals and plans for their accomplishment
2) Finding role models who have made it out of poverty (available on the Internet, in libraries, in used paperback bookstores, often on television)
3) The ability to take action despite the Drunken Monkey chattering to them, saying its not possible.
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And the #1 failure I've seen?  The lack of well-defined, written goals.  Yes, the government needs to reach down and help, by my way of thinking.  But as soon as the stomachs are full, the principles by which countless thousands of poor people have lifted themselves up should be taught.  The idea that "poor people can't help themselves" falls apart when you study those who have.  The only honest thing you can say is that "it is harder for poor people, or black people, or X people, to help themselves."  Yes.  It is.  Life is hard.  And  you can either rail against that, and protest it, and sink into a miasma of despair...or you can study the lives of those who started humbly and fought their way up, and resolve by all the strength in you that you will follow their example.
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That was my choice.  What's yours?

Let me be more direct

I'm going to have to state my premise as clearly as possible, and I can't care if I bruise some egos.  I don't care about your egos.  I care about your lives.
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Do you want a writing career?  Don't listen to failed writers.  Listen to successful ones, preferably three or more--and SIFT OUT WHAT THEY AGREE UPON.
Do you want to have a lean, healthy body?  Don't listen to fat people.  Listen to people who USED to be fat, and have been lean for five years or more.  SIFT OUT WHAT THEY AGREE UPON.
Do you want to have a healthy relationship?  Don't listen to single people. Listen to people who have been happily married (or otherwise connected) for ten years or more.  SIFT OUT WHAT THEY AGREE UPON.
Do you want to heal your finances?  Raise  yourself from poverty or economic distress?  Don't listen to poor or broke people.  Listen to people who WERE BORN POOR, and have been broke, and lifted themselves to wealth or at LEAST middle-class status.  SIFT OUT WHAT THEY AGREE UPON.
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Imagine that the secrets to success in life are in a safe.  There are ten people in a room.  Nine failed to open the safe, and only one opened it.  You can ask anyone in the room one question.  Who do you ask, and what do you ask?  For God's sake, you ask the one who opened it, and you ask him "what's the combination."  Everyone knows that. Apply that rule to your body, mind, and relatioinships.  Don't know anyone healthy in those categories, well, I could ask you to trust me (and in fact, that's jsut what I've been doing) but obviously some of you think I was born with a silver spoon, or I'm just lucky, or I'm lying, or I'm blind.  Fine.  Then take it upon yourselves to speak to MULTIPLE PEOPLE who are successful in these categories, and bootstrapped themselves.  If you can't find them, read the articles by and about them.  The books and tapes and seminars.  Sift out what they all agree upon.  Close your mind TIGHTLY to the negative voices that will steal your energy.  Begin moving forward in your life.  Fail successfully--in other words, when you fall on your face (and you will!) LEARN SOMETHING EACH TIME.  Keep trying new ways to get to your written goals.   And never, ever, ever give up. 

Are the rich born that way?

One of our readers, in a passionate letter, recently said:  "The rich are born that way."  While I have no idea of the background of this reader, this is a typical attitude of those born without money.  Before I make my case, let me explain why.  We love our parents, and every person, family, and social class tends to think the universe revolves around them.  If our parents worked hard, and are smart, then to what do we ascribe their lack of financial success?  We certainly would find it hard to say "they are lazy" , especially if we watched them work their fingers to the bone.  We can't say "they're dumb", especially if we KNOW that they have high levels of intelligence and sometimes education.  Well, then, we tend to absorb one of about three or four basic ideas:

1) The rich are born that way.
2) it takes money to make money
3) Rich people are greedy, selfish, and dishonest.
4) Rich people ar miserable--in other words, poor in the spiritual values.
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and so on.
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I certainly grew up with those attitudes (I think they are especially prevelent in the black community) and have spent a lifetime fighting against those poisonous voices.  ne of the first breakthroughs came when I actually looked up the statistics on wealth--which, at the time, meant anyone with a net worth above one million dollars.  In the 70's the average person with a net worth above one millin dollars was a real-estate broker/owner or dry cleaner who had worked at their job for about 25 years.  I double checked this, and ahave looked into it many times over the years, and although the occupations and numbers shift a bit, the basic truth is there, and remains.  I did a little snooping around the web, and came up with the following information.  NOTE: this doesn't apply to the "super rich"--in oother words, the top 1-5% of those with net worth above a million.  Yes, they have inherited wealth.  But better than 90% of those with a Net worth above a million  dollars tend to follow the basic principle:  Please do your own research, and post it here if you think you have evidence to the contrary.  My friends, it is true that the average person stays right in the social class in which they are born. But my contention is that, having known a LOT of both, poor people think about money very differently than rich people.  When they start thinking like rich people, they begin the process of clawing their way out of poverty. They might only make it to middle class--but then their kids have a chance of making it further.  AND IF YOU DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW RICH PEOPLE, don't trust what you have heard from friends, or seen in movies, or read in fictional books.  Go out and do your damned research--this is your life.  Don't get swamped in self-justifying illusions.  Don't talk to fat people about losing weight, or lonely people about healthy relationships, or broke people about money.  It is folly.
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The following information comes from two different sources, and matches what I have researched and studied all  my life.  Don't try to contradict it with anecdotal evidence or opinion.  Bring us FACTS.
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1)  "The majority of affluent consumers have worked hard for their money, as shown by many studies indicating that the majority of new millionaires came from middle-class backgrounds and created their own wealth and that only 10-20 per cent of wealthy households have benefited from an inheritance. Not surprisingly, the ultra-wealthy are more likely than the average affluent household to benefit from family legacies passed on from generation to generation. "
2) In ``The Millionaire Mind,'' Thomas J. Stanley studied even richer millionaires _ the top 1 percent of households. These people had an average net worth of $9.2 million and earned $749,000 a year. The average multimillionaire in Stanley's study is a 54-year-old man, married to the same woman for 28 years, with three children. Nearly half are business owners or senior corporate executives. And almost none of them credit their success to being smart. They say the keys to success are being honest and disciplined, getting along with people, having a supportive spouse and working hard.

The average millionaire made B's and C's in college, Stanley says. Their average SAT score was 1190 _ not good enough to get into many top-notch schools. In fact, most millionaires were told they were not intellectually gifted, not smart enough to succeed. ``I find no correlation between SAT scores, grade point averages and economic achievement. None,'' said Stanley. ``Admittedly, there are some very bright people in the data, but not many.''The average millionaire was likely to live in an upper middle class home, and drive a Ford F-150 pickup truck or Lexus ES 300 they bought used. They wear watches that cost less than $150 and they spend less than $300 per suit; if they have to wear one at all.

Most were married, self employed, and attribute their ability to save money and accumulate wealth to not feeling pressured to spend to “keep up with the Jones’s.” In other words, they work hard, save diligently, and live far below their means.
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  I could easily come up with more solid, footnoted data--but this isn't a master's thesis.  It is a plea that you dump the beliefs that hold you back.  Poor people are not lazy.  They work themselves to death, quite often.  They are not dumb.  Many of the least successful people I know have vast stores of useless information, or educations that have NOTHING to do with their chosen field of work.  But, again, having known both rich and poor people, I was STARTLED when I first (in my late 20's) actually began to associate with wealthy people, and discovered they were virtually nothing like what the poor people I'd grown up around thought they were.  On average, they were no better and no worse, as human beings, than poor people.  But they knew what they wanted, modeled the successes of other successful people, made plans, took action, and stayed the course despite their fears and doubts. 
THAT is what I've actually seen in the real world.

Liberals and Conservatives and Katrina

I am only willing to consider the motivations of those who are honorable, on both sides of the aisle.  True, there are liars and scoundrels and thieves on both sides, but the EASY thing to do is assume that, if someone has a different point of view, they must be wrong, or they must be bad.  But what if the "other guy" is seeing the same mountain, only from a different direction.  I am certain that to some, my point of view might seem Pollyannaish, but frankly I've met too many good folks--and too many assholes-- on either side to believe that one or the other has a corner on goodness, or intelligence...although both sides seem to believe that of themselves.
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In terms of Katrina, there is one important difference that comes out--a difference in the attitude about what will create the strongest America, and what is best for the poor.  The Left generally has the attitude that the poor must be helped from above.  The Right, that they must learn to help themselves, and that any help from above actually weakens them.  My attitude, obviously, is somewhere in the middle.  Why?  Because although I was raised in a single-parent inner-city home, my mother completely indoctrinated me with the belief (through psycho-cybernetics, Power of Positive Thinking, and Think and Grow Rich-type tapes played over and over and over and over...) that our minds make the difference.  "We become what we think about."  "What a man can conceive and believe, he can achieve."  Etc. etc. 
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Is it true?  Well, no plan, no education, no course of action can guarantee success, but there are certainly some that guarantee failure--for instance the belief that Mommy and Daddy will always be there to take care of you.  We all know people like this--black and white--and they are the flotsam and jetsom of life, let me tell you.  We all want to believe that someone will come to help us, all want to believe that someone will get us out of our jams, pay our bills, love us no matter what.  This is a belief that most of us must be levered away from with a crowbar, usually somewhere in our teens.  The longer it takes to learn the lesson that life meets NO ONE half-way, the better off we are.  So I honestly believe that without the emotional education my mother gave me, I would have accomplished virtually nothing.  If I had ever, for a moment, stopped and said "life is unfair!" and brooded about it, I would have been steamrollered.  Yes, you have all noted my occassional rants about certain aspects of racism or whatever, but that's just a rant, folks.  I have to vent somewhere.  I honestly believe that the single thing that would help poor people more than anything else is to change the way they think--and I've known enough poor people, and seen (what I perceived as) the drastic mis-match between their reality maps and reality, that I'll stand by this KNOWING that I can't be "right"--after all, what is ultimately "true" or "not-true" simply isn't available to us while we're still inside the system.  I CAN say that the beliefs most poor people I've spoken to (thousands) about money, power, "the system", etc., simply don't match any beliefs of any successful people, white or black, that I've ever met.  Needless to say, this attitude of mine is one of the reasons I get along with those on the Right.
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On the other hand...
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I find it also difficult to deny that those born in poverty, or the descendants of slaves, were handed a raw deal not their own making.  That the average white person, born poor and black, would perform no better.  That, moreover, even if the parents of a child are worthless, the child deserves a chance.  Further, that wealthy people get "bailed out" by the system all the time.  And here we come to another difference between the Right and the Left. I believe that Conservatives tend to think that the good in society flows from the Top down--the innovators, the leaders, the captains of industry create the wealth all enjoy, and are therefore entitled to more of the goodies, including more help from the government.  The Left tends to believe that good flows from the bottom up.  "Workers of the world unite--you create the goods, you till the fields, you produce the wealth that is then stolen by the bosses and the idle rich."  Tax the rich until they're dead.  Screw raising the minimum wage...how about a MAXIMUM wage?  In other words, each side is looking at the question "how shall we build a society" and "how is it that men and women make their way in the world" and comes up with different answers, based largely on the initial position in which they were born.  born to privilege?  YOu tend to believe that wealth is produced by effort, intelligence, and prudent investment.  Born poor?  You tend to believe that the wealthy are unethical and venomous.
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so to Katrina.  I believe that the majority of Americans, the VAST majority of Americans, were justly horrified by what they saw, and are seeing.  But in some cases, their perceptions of why it happened, or what should be done, were different.  Those on the Right tend to believe that we HAVE to be more self-reliant, that expecting government to help us is a recipe for disaster.  Those on the Left say that expecting poor individuals to help themselves is jsut blindness and cruelty.  The Right replies that if they don't learn to help themselves, they are dooming future generations to the same poverty.  The Left replies that the victims of Katrina were largely the descendants of slaves, robbed of EVERYTHING for hundreds of years and then turned loose in the culture without any resources, settling into poverty lifestyles and thwarted by racism from rising from their knees.
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What is the truth?  Hell if I know. I know what I believe--that the way out of poverty is to take different actions, and hold different emotions in our hearts, different plans in our minds.  But also that it is the obligation of the "haves" to reach out to the "have-nots" both for spiritual and social reasons.  I can sympathize with both points of view, but know that I, personally, know that there is a point of deprivation where the mind and heart just shut down, where the victim crouches in the corner and quivers, regardless of what might have been their initial potential.  I've known far too many intelligent white people crippled by negative emotions, spiritually damaged by their early experiences, not to believe this true.  Look around any science fiction convention, and you'll find "smart" folks by the hundreds who are dysfunctional physically, socially, and financially--but smarter than hell.  And on a social, systemic level, poverty and racism is like child abuse applied to an entire strata of society.  Yes, it is our obligation to save ourselves.  Yes, it is our obligation to help those who cannot help themselves.  HOW to help them?  Well, in the short term, food, water, shelter, jobs and money.  Long term?  Well, I'm disgusted that the simplest, most effective means of turning your life around--learning how to set and keep goals--has never been taught in any public school I've ever heard of.  As far as I'm concerned, public education misses the boat in this essential aspect almost 100%, leaving this crucial knowledge to be passed down in advantaged families only.   THAT'S what I'd do to help the poor.  To familiarize them from early childhood, with the thought patterns of the rich and successful.  And, of course, to provide them the basic amenities of life in emergencies, that they feel they are invested in our culture.  Otherwise, we are breeding our own barbarians, and Rome will fall from within.

The inner and outer man: Matching Character to Plot

One of the secrets to a happy life is the ability to perform, instinctively, as you would if you sat and thought about it for a month.  The only way you can do this is to have the inner and outer worlds in harmony--that you can present yourself honestly and openly as you are at all times.  This takes remarkable courage, and is something that only a few can do with consistency, and no one I've ever met can do 100% of the time.
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Nonetheless, it is another core concept of the entire Lifewriting system: the idea that the plot and character are two versions of the same thing.  A character is only revealed through his actions.  The plot mechanics demand proper choice of protagonist.  A mis -match will kill your book.  This may seem a little complicated, but in truth it is quite simple.  Once you begin to see the connection between the character and the plot--or your inner and outer worlds--it becomes possible to start with the most basic idea, and design a basic character to complement it.  A story, after all, must "empty out" our character, reveal everything important about him.  If you start with a character, then step back and ask what situation would best reveal the truth of this person's existence. 
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And how does this fit into our own lives?  Very well, I think.  If you view your outer life and circumstances as an externalization of your inner world, it may be uncomfortable, but it also opens the door to massive self-discovery...as well as giving you leverage handles on your soul.  Because if you change your external circumstances, you change the internal world.  Associating with more spiritual people will begin the process of personal evolution.  Associating with more physical people will get you started on the path of fitness: you'll absorb their attitudes like butter soaks up smells in a refrigerator.  Associate with wealthy people, and you will start to understand the differences between the way the wealthy think about money, and the way poor people think about it.  Having been around both groups, I PROMISE you that there are huge differences.  Furthermore, (in most cases) if you transplanted a poor man's money attitudes into a rich man, the rich man would immediately begin to fail in life.  Transplant a (self-made) rich man's attitudes into a poor man, and that poor man would stop looking for work--he would begin to search for ways to create wealth, to start a business, to provide services, to protect his money by  spending it on items that appreciate rather than depreciate...and on and on.  This is the way (self made) rich people think.  And those who inherited wealth?  Well, the ones I know were taught from the cradle the way to KEEP their money. How the heck do you think that money lasted to be passed from one generation to the next?
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Matching the plot to the character, and making the connection between the inner and outer worlds in your own life, combined, is the single most important building block in the Lifewriting system.

Jerry Pournelle article on Katrina

here is a sane and intelligent essay on Katrina from a responsible spokesman for the Right...



COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR

The User's Column September 2005

Column 302

Jerry Pournelle jerryp@jerrypournelle.com

www.jerrypournelle.com

Copyright 2005 Jerry E. Pournelle, Ph.D.


Caption: a collage of things that appear in this month’s column.

As I write this, the rescue efforts in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast are in full swing. One unsung effort was by the United States Navy. My son Lt. Commander Phillip Pournelle is Executive Officer of the HSV2 Swift, a ship which is herself worth a section in this column. Swift was about to set out from Texas to Virginia when she was ordered to take part in the rescue operations. For reports from the scene by Phil, see my web site at http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/view378.html#Phil2 .

There are many lessons to be learned from Katrina. One should be obvious, although it doesn’t appear to be: the primary responsibility for disaster management remains at the individual, local, and state levels. The Federal government can and should respond, and in some cases – see Phil’s reports about his crew – does so heroically. By the nature of our federal system, though, they can only assist and manage. Most of the effort will have to be made by local citizens working through local and state organizations – and that effort will be effective to the extent that those organizations have personnel, training, and equipment.

I have lived through several California earthquakes. In one of them I was an Assistant Scoutmaster and our Boy Scout troop of considerable assistance to local Civil Defense authorities. We still had Civil Defense in these United States in those days. We needed, and were grateful for, Federal assistance in the days that followed; but it was our problem first and foremost, and it was up to us to get the city functioning again. All our efforts were directed toward supporting people in their homes, not moving them to displaced persons camps. We thought of them as property owners and citizens who wanted to rebuild, not as nuisances.

Much of California is built in an earthquake zone. Much of New Orleans  and its suburbs are built on a flood plain. In both cases we can doubt the wisdom of locating cities in such danger spots. In both cases we, as individual citizens of the United States, and as citizens of our local cities, have chosen to stay here for reasons that seem best to us. That’s the nature of self government of a free people. And in both cases, I would think, we understand that while we may be grateful for any help from the people who have chosen not to live in such danger zones, we can hardly call on them to be the primary responders when the inevitable happens.

California has wisely chosen to build a network of volunteer and professional organizations, issue identification cards, pay some of their expenses, and provide them with equipment under the condition that they be part of a state organization with a clear chain of command and channels of communication. Those organizations are called up in times of fire, flood, storm, and earthquake. Most of the members are volunteers – not paid and often not even reimbursed for out of pocket expenses. This is not a perfect system, and in my judgment remains inferior to the old Civil Defense organizations that were superseded by FEMA in the 1970’s; but it’s a system that is a lot better than many states have, and clearly a lot better than anything in place in New Orleans in August, 2005.

The first lesson from Katrina should be that every state ought to build and train disaster response organizations at least as well as California has, and make certain that everyone understands that the primary responsibility for emergency preparedness and management is local and state, not federal. All the organizations should understand the chain of command, have the ability to communicate with their members, and designated persons within them should have the ability to communicate with other organizations including local professional services like Police and Fire Departments. The communications capabilities need to be tested at intervals, and designed to operate when the power grid is out. This is all elementary – but a majority of the states do not have even that much. They should look to it now. Hurricanes and earthquakes are not the only natural disasters. Tornados are more common some places than others but there is no place entirely free of them. Blizzards are rare in parts of the country, but I recall a late spring in Memphis, Tennessee when an ice storm destroyed all power lines and made the streets unusable for nearly a week; I ice skated to high school down Central Avenue. Every part of the country faces one or several potential disasters.

The second lesson, in my judgment, is that we ought to think seriously of returning to the old Civil Defense networks, organization, and name. Civil Defense is by its nature a paramilitary operation, and requires training and discipline. You need volunteers to build non-bureaucratic organizations. If you make use of volunteers, they ought to be rewarded, even if only with titles that bear no authority except in emergencies. It is easy to make fun of Kentucky and Tennessee Colonels, but when I was a lad those were honorable titles, often earned by dedicated public service. Leave that: my point is that Civil Defense implies something entirely different from “Federal Emergency Management Administration.” It implies that the local organizations are more important than a Federal bureaucracy which, since its main activity when there is no emergency is compliance with a host of regulations issued by dozens of government departments, will be shot through with lawyers and quite often headed by lawyers (as both FEMA and DHS were when Katrina struck).

There is much to be learned from Katrina. One is that our Armed Services are among the most efficient and dedicated organizations the world has ever seen. Another is that other nations do have some gratitude for the United States: Bangladesh, beset by its own woes and desperately poor, raised money for relief of Katrina victims. The effect was mostly symbolic, but it was significant to the donors; and we ought to be grateful for that, as well as to our neighbors Canada and Mexico. Mostly, though, we need to relearn lessons we seem to have forgotten: in a republic of free citizens, the primary responsibilities remain with citizens, local governments, and the states. In that order.

Maintaining Communications

The Internet as we know it consists largely of a number of Cisco routers interconnected in various nodes. Most of those are physically located in basements, largely because the rents are lower. One reaction to Katrina ought to be a quick study of just what parts of the Internet backbone are vulnerable to what kind of disaster, with a view to remedies.

Of course much of this was done in the original design. The Internet has great redundancy; it was, in original concept, designed to withstand at least a partial nuclear attack on the United States and still function as a means for military communications. Most Internet users aren’t aware of its origins in ARPA (later DARPA) and various Pentagon 3-star generals, but some of us can remember when that was the case. To this day we say “the Internet sees censorship as damage and routes around it,” but many saying that have no idea of what kind of damage it was designed to route around.

The backbone itself is fairly durable, but there are local nodes that are vulnerable to fire, flooding, and power outages; and finally, the last few hundred feet, from utility pole to homes and shops, is vulnerable. Some of those vulnerabilities are easily seen and remedied, and they ought to be.

Much of the local vulnerability is being overcome through widespread deployment of wireless nodes. Some cities are making wireless free within the city. In other places private competition is forcing many kinds of establishments – coffee shops, book stores, copy and printing shops, shipping centers, etc. – to provide low cost or even free wireless. Readers may remember that nearly a year ago we reviewed D-Link equipment (http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=402) that could take any broadband Internet connection and turn that into a wireless hot spot complete with ticket receipts and automatic control of timed access. It’s getting a lot easier to provide wireless, and as that grows, so will the robustness of the Internet.

Voice Over IP in New Orleans

Communications are arguably the single most important public service requirement in a disaster. Amateur radio has traditionally been helpful in disasters, but for actual control of emergency service workers like fire and police it is important that the crisis control center be able to reach the dispatchers, and that the usual emergency service communications networks continue to work.

In New Orleans both those communications broke down, largely due to lack of electric power. When the power grid shut down the City crisis control center communications depended on emergency generators, and those had insufficient fuel to run for more than a few hours. Within a day or so the city officials had no communications whatever. Their telephone systems were gone, and so were their radios.

An ingenious office worker discovered a working broadband Internet connection in the crisis center. He was able to connect to that, then use a Vonage VOIP system to connect to the rest of the world. For more than a day the only way the Mayor of New Orleans had for communicating (other than when CNN or Fox News teams with remotes could briefly reach him) was that Vonage VOIP. Moreover, not long after the VOIP system was set up, the telephone rang; it was the President of the United States calling from Air Force One.

The Internet was designed to be robust and durable. A bit of planning can make it more so – but finding and fixing elementary weaknesses has to be done in advance of the disaster.

I realize this is all trivial – but I also see that much of it was not done. The only way such identification and quick fixing will be accomplished is to appoint people to identify the weaknesses, and have them report to people with channels of communication to those with the authority to fix them. Once again this sounds trivial, but trivial or not, it has to be done, and there are very many places where it has not been done.

The usual reasons such disaster planning is not done is that it costs money to hire people, and most cities have managed to get into a situation in which they don’t have enough money to meet present crises, much less to plan for future problems. Having been Executive Assistant to the Mayor of Los Angeles I have my own ideas on how cities get into such a mess, but leave that: my point is that volunteers can make a first cut at identifying problems, and in most cities there are suitable volunteers eager to serve. All that’s needed is to give them commissions and titles, and appoint a city administrator to schedule an afternoon a month to meet with them. It is astonishing how much a team of retired teachers, engineers, and military people can accomplish in a few weeks, at trivial costs.

Using volunteers in local government has a long and honorable tradition in these United States, and for most of the life of this republic was part and parcel of the self government of a free people. What we have done, we can aspire to…

Some Random Observations

I asked my staff and associates for suggestions on what we might be doing to improve the survivability of communications in general and the Internet in particular. These were worth recording.

Dan Spisak: “A data center is a critical piece of infrastructure to maintain in a disaster and is also one of the few places most likely to survive a major disaster and have self sufficient power generation and stored supplies to ride out major events. They are also crucial in helping bring other telecommunications infrastructure up (think City Hall data lines for example). Email is an important conduit for communications.

    “When you need to keep your tech running, especially portable communication and data processing gear, i.e. cellphones and laptops, keep in mind the few places with backup power generation won't have an outlet available just because you need it. Alternative means for charging small batteries are a must. In such circumstance muscle and solar power become very valuable.

   “ Freeplay is good source for this kind of gear. We've talked to them at CES and I imagine current events are going to get them a lot of new business.
http://www.freeplayenergy.com/index.php?section=products&PHPSESSID=a15087f18ca404fa64dfb0c6c744526c”


Many major cities have data centers, although some, like New Orleans, haven’t thought through the problems of being without the power grid for several days. Some smaller cities haven’t any such centers at all. If your town doesn’t, this might be a useful topic to raise with public officials.

Coleman also makes hand-cranked flashlights and radios, and we have those easily available in the Chaos Manor earthquake readiness kits. If you don’t, you might think about them. Even if you can’t get your town or city officials interested in emergency preparedness, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be. Here endeth the lesson; long time readers will remember that I was once an editor of SURVIVE magazine and colonel of a survival company… 

Rubrics and Colonialism

Ah...we got some interesting replies to my observations about Asians-non-Asian dating in Hawaii, and speculations about similar pairings around the world.  One reader said she'd heard Asian females commenting about how they won't/don't date Asian males.
Thi is such a drastic mismatch with human behavior in general (exogamy notwithstanding) that it is hard not to file this under a perfect example of what I callthe Beauty/Power axis.
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1) We can look at white males being presented as the only sexual males in film and consider it a statistical fluke, or evidence that Asian or Black males don't want to sexualize themselves (hah!), or as white males exercising typical male ego and presenting themselves as the most desirable, both through film production and supporting those films with such imagery.
2) We can say that the countless images of white males in advertising, etc. as being the most sexually desirable have had the effect that advertising is said to have--namely, convince the viewers that they are correct.  Or we can say it has no effect.
3) We can say that females are, in general, attracted to whoever has the power.  this would be interesting to test: find a situation where two populations, A and B, have exchanged dominance over the centuries.  Start with a moment in which population A has cominated population B for a generation.  Did B's females begin to drift toward A's males?  Now look at a time when population B dominated A.  Did A's females drift toward B's males?  Inquiring minds want to know, and myu guess is that the answer is "yes."
4) There is noplace in the media where Asian males are regularly shown to exhibit power.  Kung fu movies?  Please.  How many Asian males do you see in actual combat sports?  The UFC?  boxing?  Not much.  Black males were prevented from competition with white males in sports for centuries.  When we finally broke through, those images of power made a HUGE impact on cultural perceptions of us.  In the 19th century, please remember, the mythology was that blacks were both mentally and PHYSICALLY inferior.  No more, eh?  Asian males have yet to find this breakthrough, despite admirable academic and economic performance.
5)  In every single television market in America, I see Asian newswomen on damned near every channel.  Five times more often than I see Asian males, and don't you dare think Asian males don't notice, or that this is their choice.  this is controlled by Arbitron ratings, and station managers. 
6)  Images in films are controlled by audience dollars.  More locally, they are controlled by studio executives (who will lose their jobs if they mispredict audience preferences too often).  All these executives, and 80% of the audience dollars, are white folks.  98% of the executives who greenlight movies are male.  You do the math.
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Remember--in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM am I suggesting that whites, or white males are behaving any differently than any other group would behave given the same power advantages.  I'm not looking for guilt or blame here.  Just notin gthe way advantages leverage to greater advantages historically, and the way it impacts groups.  Sure, I'm certain that Asian females have some legitimate gripes about the way Asian males behave--be every group has gripes about the way every member of every group behaves. When you're fallign out of love, suddenly all of your partner's quirks become irritating.  I'm saying these justifications are SECONDARY to the PRIMARY drive for females to find the most powerful males possible, and males to find the most beautiful females.  Asian females, with lighter skin tones and straight hair, can "cross over" and be "white" rather easily.  Black females with light skin are doing well inthe media--as long as they straighten their hair, thus reducing the subconscious race cues that trigger "other."   Black and Asian males are sexual competition.  My guess is that when Japan was on the rise economically, the percentage of white females who found them attractive rose, too.  If China becmes the economic powerhouse some predict, the same will happen again.  And that this is just hman nature.  If men were women, we'd behave like women.  If women were men, they'd behave like men.  Just the way it is...and until we grasp this, and get out of denial, the more disturbing aspects will continue to disturb us.  You can't get the elephant out of the living room until you admit he's there.

Steve

Nostrodomus Geographic

The following link must be followed. 

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

I would love a non-politicized view of what this means, considering that this is the third strong suggestion I've seen (and I haven't really been searching) that the consequences of Katrina should have been understood at the local, state, and Federal levels.  Because lives are at stake here, please keep the conversation polite.  A couple thoughts for those who lean strongly one way or another politically:

1)  For both Liberals and Conservatives: if Clinton had been in office under similar conditions, how would you feel, knowing that this information was running around?  Personally, I would have been DEEPLY disappointed, and feel that a vital ball had been dropped.  That vital resources had been diverted for a questionable war, and that cronyism had weakened our national vision. 
2)  Does ANYONE believe that it is possible to discuss this without defensiveness (for  the party in power who would like to remain in power) or an attack-dog mentality (for the "out" party who wants to get in.) There is no way in hell that, were the position reversed, Republicans would not SHRED Clinton for gross neglegence.  On vacation?  Jeeze, they implied that Clinton's sexual dalliances, which, in toto, could not possibly add up to more than 24 hours of his time, had distracted him from his duties.  What in the hell would be made of THIS?
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Conversely, it actually is possible that no one could reasonably expect better anticipation or response.  Despite the fact that I doubt this, I have to admit the possibility, or there is NO way I can honestly assess what happened here.  Just as conservative Republicans MUST accept the POSSIBILITY that their boy dropped the ball--otherwise there is no way THEY can honestly assess this.  It is so sad that electioneering will interfere in this process.  More will die because of politics.  It's probably always been this way.  Let's try not to let it get in the way here.

George

Just had my student George over for a Tai Chi class, and I think it went well.  George I've known for almost twenty years, and he's a hell of a good guy, with some body image and emotional issues, and if I can help him move to the next level of his life, it will be a real triumph.  We started by speaking of his general life issues, and there was (as always) some philisophical discussion, designed to place the physical work in the context of his life.
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Body, mind, spirit.  That's one triangle.  You have to have goals in each.  Fitness, career, emotions/relationship.  You should be able to visualize the goal, to feel it in your guts.  This is what creates motivation.
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Breath, motion, structure.  This is what composes a physical technique.  Another triangle.  Five times a day, you stop for at least 60 seconds and reconnect.  As you do, visualize your triangle of technique.  Then your triangle of goals.  Overlap them.  Feel them as powerfully as possible.
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We worked joint circles (basic Warrior Wellness--elementary motor components).  Then Tibetans, integrating Be Breathed.  Then Tai Chi.  He's got the first five or six movements, and we went over them five or six times. 
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Then I had him work on Eclipse, the series of movements Scott Sonnon created for me.  Call them Sophisticated Tibetans--in other words, they are designed to support the body in the same way the Tibetans do, be as easy for beginners or the physically challenged, but also:
1)  Be challenging enough for a pro athlete
2) continually sophisticate, so that the mind is engaged.
3) Be infinitely adjustable, so that exertion levels can be controlled even in the middle of the exercise.
4) Break emotional tension chains in the body, to release energy and remove fear.
5) Work flexibility, strength, balance, coordination, and endurance--the basic components of fitness, all in 20 minutes.
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I'm experimenting with it now with my self, my students, and my daughter Nicki.  When I am certain it performs as I hoped, I'll be sharing it more fully with you guys, but one of my cardinal rules is that I never want to hurt the people who have trusted me.
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to that end, I use some of Coach Sonnon's protocol, which would be useful to anyone practising Tai Chi, yoga, or any other progressive, evolutionary discipline.
1) concentrate on the exhalation.  Exhale on compression.  Let the inhalation happen naturally as you relax between compressions.
2) Keep your level of perceived pain  below a "3" on a scale of 1-10
3) Keep your perceived exertion level below a "7" on a scale of 1-10.
4) Keep your excellence of form above a "7" on a scale of 1-10.
5) Let the end of one motion be the beginning of another.
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Staying in the aerobic zone means being able to talk, but not sing.  Stay in this "zone" for about 20 minutes to trigger 2nd wind, which opens the door to the Fear Removal technique. 
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I had George work using a folding chair for support, and it seemed to work fine.  I stopped him a few times to have him check in on the exertion and pain.  And also to make certain that those darned Monkey Mind voices didn't give him a raft of crap.  He is a very good man, and a loyal friend.  I'm delighted to be training him again.

Steve

Lifewriting and Final Draft

Well, we let ourselves get derailed a bit due to lotsa travel, and then a little lady named Katrina.  Sigh.  I want this blog to be about the triumverate of body, mind, and spirit, specifically related to relationships, writing, and movement arts.  And will try to focus there a bit better. 
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At Maui, I lectured on the interaction of Character, Plot, and Poetics.  The three of these interact to create that invisible factor "Theme" or "Meaning".  A character is only revealed through action.  Or rather, primarily revealed through action.  There is another, interesting level--the gap between a character's words or thoughts, and their actions.  In other words, if I consider myself a "Good Husband" and then cheat on my wife, it says a lot about my capacity for self-deception, and the definitions I use to describe the world. 
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Plot is generally the way the universe reacts to the actions of characters as they struggle to find meaning, or to survive.  This reaction reveals the author's sense of the ethical structure of reality--are good deeds rewarded?  Is struggle meaningful?  Does love conquer?  Is truth stronger than lies?  Love stronger than hate?  These elements are reinforced and interwoven through strong character and plot, and the appropriate matching of character to plot.  No one wants to watch James Bond deal with a convenience store robbery.  And no one could keep a straight face watching Urkle in "Die Hard."  The characters and situations have to match, or you have comedy--or tragedy.
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Poetics involves the use of language and imagery.  I like to write my novels as scripts first, to control the level of visual imagery (as well as take advantage of terrific software like Final Draft, which has an index card outlining function that simply ROCKS).  After I've written a silent script (no dialogue--all meaning conveyed through visual and action) then I add the dialogue. When this is done, and it works, I convert it to a novel, adding description. 
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How do you develop poetic linguistics and imagery?  I would suggest that the easiest way is through reading poetry--a poem every day.  Me, personally, I read one scene of Shakespeare aloud every morning.  It acts to feed my head with the best quality wordplay to be found in the English language. 
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speaking of Shakespeare, while in Maui I met a couple of folks who believe, really believe, that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare.  Personally, while I found them charming and intelligent, I found their arguments incredibly unconvincing. About an hour in, I realized that they were seriously, seriously invested in the idea that no commoner could have written such profound and erudite work.  In essence, if I won the argument, I would literally be hurting them.  Sigh.  I backed off.
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If there is anything about the entire Shakespearian authorship argument that riles me, it is the idea that "only an insider" could have written his plays.  Historians love ripping Shakespeare apart.  His history, geography, and understanding of politics are considered pretty laughable, mostly based on other plays, and a single set of reference works.  There really seems only one occupation or social class that he really had "insider" knowledge of--the theater.  His work is loaded with references to the life of the actor, as it was actually lived at the time.  And his depictions of lower-class life seem to be far more believable than those of Royalty.  So if you're one of those folks who believe Edward DeVere wrote all this stuff, we can have fun and turn the question around: where did a nobleman gain such intimate knowledge of commoners?  And if the information channel ran so smoothly between the upper and lower classes, aren't you acknowledging a conduit that could run both ways?  Ah, well...it's a fun game, and entirely tangential to our discussion...

A colonized third World Country...

I remember someone saying this to me about Hawaii, and there are certainly ways that it is true.  The talk about "Sovereignty" recently involves the desire of Native Hawaiians to teach their children in their own language in certain schools--without non-Hawaiians present.  this isn't legal according to Federal law, and is a point o focus for the protestors and planners.  Fine. I have no idea what the truth is, and talkign to the natives, they seem far more laid-back about having "lost" their independence than most indiginous folks I've talked to...possibly because the vast inflow of tourist dollars makes life fairly easy.  Not sure.  but there was one thing that I saw that I just had to comment on...
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There were tons of mixed-race couples to be seen, and not one of them was a native Hawaiian male with a white or black female.  All of them were white males with Asian or Hawaiian women, with a sprinkling of Black males with the same.  I suspect that anywhere you go, anywhere in the world that a people have been colonized, you will find this phenomenon--women being attracted to the powerful males who dominate their culture.  It is interesting that iin the early days of American history, white males had sexual access to black females, and that even now, with statistics suggesting that the actual ratios go in the opposite direction, media images continue to present white male dominance in interracial relationships--in other words, the theater of the mind has replaced the political/sexual realities of the past.
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It makes me wish I was an Anthropology student.  It would be interesting to study colonized peoples around the world, and see what patterns repeat.  I KNOW that it has to irritate the males that their women are running with the white guys.  That has to result in increased violence, leading to police pressure on the locals, and jailing or killing the most aggressive.  Females will get preferential treatment in hiring and education, leading to additional pressure, leading to the death of the most aggressive native males.  Alcoholism, joblessness, and drug addiction would follow.  My guess is that any whe4re you go, in any colonized country, a disproportunate percentage of the colonized males are incarcerated, and tend to have shortened lives due to stress and violence.  And this would be true in, say, Ireland, where both colonized and colonizers are white--so it ain't a black-white thing, although it certainly suggests some answers about American culture, doesn't it?
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Just musing.  Thoughts?

Katrina Timeline

While certainly somewhat partisian, the following linked timeline is a useful addendum to the discussion of guilt and responsibility.  For the record, my current opinion is that the Governor of Louisiana, as intermediary between the local and Federal levels, might well bear the brunt of responsibility.  Time will tell exactly when she requested help, and what the Federal response was.  I also want to know what idiot approved a "drive-away" evacuation plan without asking what percentage of the population had no cars.  If heads don't roll over this tragedy, I want to know what they're saving the axe for.

http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Hurricane_Katrina_Chronology

Transporter 2 (2006)

Jason Stratham ("Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels") is one hell of an action star. In this sequel to the 2002 tale of a professional driver and "Transporter," Stratham plays Frank Martin, an ex-Special Forces badass who, this time around, takes an assignment as a chauffeur for a young boy who winds up kidnapped.  Well, the kidnappers made a huge mistake.  Martin is death on wheels, can damn near dodge bullets, beats up a room full of axe-weilding henchmen without batting an eye, and can make a car do everything but change a diaper.  They're saving that for Transporter 3, I'm sure.  No, it doesn't make  a lick of sense.  No, I didn't care.  It is great, shallow fun if you know what you're  in for.  Stratham is quite athletic, and well coordinated, and the martial arts choreography by Cory Yuen is spectacular, if unbelievable as hell.  What the hell.  I give it a B+ for action junk fans, a C+ for all others.

New Orleans

As blame flies back and forth about the disaster, I would like anyone with certain knowledge on the following subjects to comment:
1) What were the responsibilities of the city government, and to what degree were they fulfilled?  What was the greatest failure?
2) What were the responsibilities of the state government, and to what degree were they fulfilled?  What was the greatest failure?
3)  What were the responsibilities of the federal government, and to what degree were they fulfilled?  What was the greatest failure?
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Unfortunately, this whole thing will be grotesquely politicized, as the party out of power (Democrats) seek weaknesses inthe incumbancy (Republicans).  this is one of the games both sides play, and I find it loathsome, but inevitable.  I would like to clarify, in my own mind at least, as much of this as possible.  I'm not interested either in Bush-bashing, or in excusing what APPEARS to be a sluggish response.  Opinions, please?

The Cave (2005)

All right.  It's just a monster movie about a bunch of people trapped in a Carpathian cave getting munched on by winged critters.  But that doesn't absolve the film-makers from the responsibility of building characters you care about, so that aforementioned munching has some meaning.  Ah, well.  It was beautifully shot, so the art director deserves big props.  The technical detail seemed quite authentic, and better than the movie deserved.  There are enough PG-13 frights to make the climax tense, but in no way was this "good."  I'll give it a C+, because I have a softness for cheesy monster movies.

Four Brothers (2005)

A real oddity, a black exploitation movie with a white star.  Director John Singleton delivers a few genuinely exciting moments (including a dynamite car chase) in this tale of four foster brothers (two white and two black) whose foster mother is murdered.  Their search for justice is predictable but well done in a "Death Wish" sort of way, and Mark Wahlberg as the family badass is quite good.  But that racial dynamic was clearly to pull in an audience, and I think it works pretty well.  Overall certainly no classic, but I might even see it again...that car chase was great. A "B"

Exercise on Maui

Of course, Hawaii is a fantastic place for the active: lots of swimming, snorkling, horseback riding, and the like.  but that was my family.  I was limited to just a couple of physical things, and the rest of the time I was limited to my exercise program, and it was great to push it a bit.
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The second-level Eclipse program is a succession of mild gymnastic/calesthenic exercises linked with a "Trinity Breathing Squat" (similar to a Hindu Squat in cardio effect), all keeping the Body Flow protocol.  Grueling, let me tell you, to do this continuously for twenty-one minutes.  But the sweat was flowing freely by the end, so I can tell you in honesty that the exercises are doable.  Using them for Fear Removal protocol is another thing--I'll probably try that on Friday, 'cause tomorrow I'm dragging myself to yoga to wring the toxins from my body.
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On alternate days I worked Prasara, the yoga flow drill, and that felt great.  I've had to break my own commitment to a daily hour over the last month (al the travel!) but I'm back home now, and will be much stricter on myself.  I can do three of the five core Prasara drills (Forest, Tumbleweed, and Flock of Pigeons) and they are a perfect bridge between yoga and athleticism. 
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so what I'm experimenting with is the first twenty minutes of the Golden Hour.  What can be accomplished?  A heck of a lot.  YOu need to protect your joints, and then work overall strength and muscular endurance, as well as maintain a sense of structure (proper form).  You need to be able to dive deeply enough into this matrix that for the time you work, the rest of the world dissolves.  ECLIPSE needs to be mild enough for a beginner (I'll test that this Saturday, I think) and intense enough for the advanced.  It needs to re-pattern the relationship of the body to exertion, so that after that first twenty minutes, you can and should do just about anything you want, and it will accomplish the desired goal.  In general, you should probably perform your age in minutes of exercise, daily.  Three times a week as dead, dead minimum.  But it needs to be sequenced intelligently, to work all the basic physical systems.  I'd say that Scott's on the right track. What I have to do now is take responsibility for integrating this into the rest of my Golden Hour...

Maui Writers Wrapup

Well, we're back (and jet lagged as heck--WIERD jet lag, too.  I'm used to going east.  This was traveling West, and my body didn't know quite what to make of it...)
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At the conference there were about two thousand avid writers, people who wished, with varying amounts of desperation and commitment, to break into publishing.  I had some great students for my retreat group, and pushed them to write a story every day.  In that way, I was able to do a tremendous amount of work, to show them the real relationship of story to character.  My current model suggests that character, plot, and poetics (quality of language and imagery) combine to control theme, which sits, invisible, in the center of the triangle.  God knows that thematic interpretations are often out of the control of a writer's conscious mind...
But it is possible to create a creative space where your true beliefs and values poke through.  A lady recently asked about the thematic interpretation of "Woman in the Wall," a story about an American woman trapped in a disease-ridden refugee camp.  The story is coming back to me as I write this...and I believe that the theme had to do with the trap of seeing ourselves as different from those around us, yes.  Glad you understood that, Kathleen.
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So many earnest people, so much actual talent.  I met unpublished writers of real  promise, people who can actually craft careers if that is what they genuinely choose to do.  The resources necessary to get to Maui are considerable, so they tend to be better organized than average, and not a crazy in sight (something rare for a writing conference!)
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A new event was "Speed Editing" where writers can buy fifteen minutes of a professional's time for twenty-five bucks.  I had a great session (a nashville song writer who immediately grasped what I was saying) and a not-so-great (a lady who seemed a bit confused and defensive) but overall, it was fantastic, and draining, to interact with people as intensely as this.  While I was there I went snorkling, tandem Parasailing, and Nicki went horseback riding and did some exploring with poet John Timpane and his terrific family.  Great to make new friends.  But all of the fun in the sun was draining, and today has been a sleepy day...wrote sixteen hundred words of ad copy for my new writing course, and then went to see "The Cave."  Beautiful, mediocre movie.  More on that later.
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Maui is wonderful.  Can't wait til next year...

Liberal Media

I recently caused a mini-storm by commenting that recent media labels suggesting whites scavenging goods were "finding " them and lbacks performing the same actions wre "looting" were evidence against a "so-called liberal media."  I thought I'd explain.
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First of all, since there seems to be no commonly accepted definitions of what "conservative" and "liberal" mean, this is an extremely slippery area.  Actually, I think that what has happened is that there are several arenas: religious, Constitutional, economic, social, etc., and that every one of those has different agendas.  Those with a powerful tendency toward the Right in say, Constitutional interpretation (a strict Constitutional interpretation of laws, state's rights, etc.) will often find themselves allied with those who are, say, strictly conservative about religious issues, whether they personally hold such beliefs or not.  And the same thing is true on the Left, or Liberal side.  So there are groupings.
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Racially, it strikes me as unreasonable to suggest that racism, or eliteism based on skin color, is not affected by this Right-to-Left spectrum.  Certainly, the Left can be criticised for excessive, almost compulsive egalitarianism.  A person who wants open borders will almost certainly be found to have other beliefs from the Left.  A person patrolling our borders in his camper is probably also holding other beliefs from the right, and associates himself in that fashion.   Nothing wrong with this.
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Over the course of my 53 years, I've heard countless thousands of people discussing these issues, and there positions thereupon.  Personal conversations, radio lectures, books, etc.  I clearly remember the civil Rights era, and those who supported King (for instance) as opposed to those who called him a "Communist", a "Troublemaker" etc.  While there were certainly those who considered themselves conservative who supoorted King (for instance, Charlton Heston) that wasn't the way to bet.  and to this day, those who push for racially-charged issues like Affirmative Action, etc., are on the Left.  Most black Americans feel that the Democrats (and the Left) have more of their interests at heart, justas as you slide u the scale of social advantage, up to white Christian upper-class Male, you get larger and larger percentages of conservatives.  It is rediculous to suggest that these people simply don't know what is good for them--that in itself is condescending and racist, in my view.  It is that the different ends of the political spectrum hold differing beliefs about what is good and appropriate in human nature and in the political sphere.  anyone who knows me knows that in some arenas (gun control,   for instance) I hold Conservative views, and in others (social, personal freedoms) I tend to hold positions more often held by those on the Left.
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Racially, I often hear avowed Right-wingers complain about the "Liberal Media" presenting images and issues in a way that slants toward anti-Christian, pro-Affirmative Action, pro-Abortion, etc.  The fun thing is that Air America, which really IS liberal, complains about the media slanting the OTHER way.  In other words, if you are way to one side or the other, a relatively Moderate media will SEEM to slant against you.  Because one of the issues that affects me on a daily basis is race, I pay attention to this one.  I remember clearly when the race of a criminal perps was described only if the perp was non-white. I remember when there were no images on television, and few in film, that showed non-whites as anything but srevile and dispicable.  And I remember the people whose constant complaining, marching, meeting, letter-writing and protesting finally got the networks to change their presentation--even when those changes ran right into the realities of American racial politics, and the shows and movies flopped.  And guess what?  Almost every one of the people who did the complaining and marching was a Leftie.  And Right-Wing pundits were either silent on the issue, or called the complainers agitators. 
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During the civil rights era, and down to today, both sides have had their opportunities to stake out territory on issues.  On Race, the Right HAS been willing (reluctantly, it seems) to finally take the position that, yes, constituitional guarantees of equality must be applied to those of all races, and that, yes, this is more important than State's Rights when those states are unwilling to apply these promises equally.  Would anyone say that the states where there was the most trouble with racial issues were not also considered among the most Conservative states on other issues?  Am I supposed to believe this is mere coincidence?  And now that the mass of work was done by marchers and voting rights workers--some of whom died in the process--who were called "Communists" and "Socialists" by the right--conservatives are willing to take the position that we should all be color blind.  Of course, more vitriole seems to arise in connection with this concept when the discussion of Affirmative Action comes up than when there is any discussion of inequality between the racial groups, something which could be interpreted as a hidden means of attempting to protect white privilege.
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does anyone think that the average reader of the Bell Curve is not conservative?  Or that those who promoted and funded it were not from that side of the spectrum?  Please.
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On the other hand, I STRONGLY state, again and for the record, that I do NOT believe all, or even the majority of conservatives are racist, or that conservatism is a racist ideology.  I DO say that most racists are conservative.   That racism is a disease of the Right, as communism or blind eqalitarianism is a disease of the Left.  It does not infect all, but that's where you tend to find it.
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So when I laugh at the idea of a "Liberal" media, this is the framework in which I laugh.  A socially  "liberal" media would   specifically seek to undo four hundred years of negative stereotypes and racial abuse, to the point that non-whites would have a slight advantage, as a socially "conservative" media would adhere to the racial power distributions of the 40's and 50's, depicting non-whites as they were at that time: mostly childish subhumans worthy only of being sidekicks, servants, and cannon fodder.  and what I see in the media is actually about half-way between these two.  There are certainly liberal forces in Hollywood, but they are slapped back into place FAST by the market realities, and have been from the beginning.  The politics of Hollywood is money.  Anyone who doesn't understand this, in my mind, simply doesn't understand the industry.  and the money goes to those who reinforce what the public wants to see.
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They want to see white males presented as the only sexually powerful, successful males on the planet. they want to see non-white females drawn irresistably to those males, eschewing their own men.  They want to see only whites in positions of ultimate authority, no matter how far in the future you go.  they want to present racism as occuring only among Troglodytic, fat, cigar-chomping southerners, rather than the insidious, damn near Uninversal force in human nature that it is.
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And they want to see whites as "finding" food and supplies, while blacks "loot" them.  I've seen it all my life.  It has been pushed further into the shadows than ever before, but its's still there, people. And for all the legitimate criticism that can be directed at the Left, THAT particular problem can be most reliably found on the other side.  Like I said: don't believe me?  Next time you hear someone make a racist comment, subtly ask them about their other social and political attitudes.  Perform this experiment ten times, and tell me what you learn.

Steve

Racial Bias in the "Liberal" media

Check out these two links, where, apparently, the SAME behavior is given two completely different labels, depending on the race of the subject.  "Liberal" media my butt.

 

news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/480/ladm10208301530
news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/photos_ts_afp/050830071810_sh

www.fitnessaid.org

Coach Sonnon sent me this note.  Anyone who can contribute time, energy, money, or prayers is urged to do so.

 

Steve

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Jodie and I had been busting our heads about how to put our action where our beliefs are regarding the recent US tragedy in the wake of Katrina. We were and are appalled at the ineffective and inexpedite relief "efforts" of the Bush Adminstration, so we decided to take matters into our own hands. If 'they' will not do something, WE will! We decided we are not going to pick up the family and go down to help out in-person, since we can have a much more significant impact by working to organize a massive relief seminar.

We've named it FITNESS AID, because I want to redefine what it means to be fit. What are we 'fit' FOR? Fit-ness is our ability to take effective and expedient action. What more dire circumstances could EVER require our action? What more crucial could we be "fit" for???

I spoke with my contact at the Red Cross Nat'l HQ. The Red Cross is behind FITNESS AID 100% and 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the Katrina victims.

I and my co-director, the Athletic Director at Western Washington University (a friend and a quality JKD practitioner), have organized a day long schedule of fitness workshops at WWU on Saturday, October 15th. There are some red tape hurdles to jump, but he's working to have the facility rental fee waived (a few thousand dollars of a contribution alone) to host the seminar where 100% of the proceeds go to the Red Cross Katrina relief effort in NOLA. He believes based upon prior events of this kind that we can generate up to a 1,000 participants, but at least a few hundred at $25/each.

This rapidly spirals larger than we could have hoped. We're working to secure several major contributors to this now collaborative event between RMAX International, Western Washington University, Bellingham Athletic Club, Bellingham YMCA and Haggen Grocery. It appears that this will exceed the 1,000 participants we had anticipated. We have the opportunity to raise up to $25,000 for the Katrina NOLA relief of our compatriots. With the local companies and now local gov't getting involved, it's projected that we can raise up to $150,000. If you can't think of any other way to contribute, please let me know if you or any of the people in your organization would be available to come to Bellingham, Washington on October 15th.


We're working to have Ryan Styles (of the Drew Carry Show and a Night at the Improv) to present as well. We're also working to have national FOX News coverage.

We'll be moving to our future site at www.fitnessaid.org as soon as we get the code online.

More to come. There is no holiday that could happen during such a crisis. We'll be burning the phones and pounding the pavement to make this the biggest fund raiser the fitness community has EVER mustered.

Although I've dealt with this size group before, I'd like to put the call out to any Instructors or Athletes who would like to make arrangements to be present, help out, participate or merely show support. PLEASE spread this on every forum and bulletin board that you know of! Those who are also Crossfit, RKC, Chek, or any other organization, please ask them to contact their organizations and extend the invitation to attend. If there are any instructors from your organization interested in volunteering to present at FITNESS AID, please ask them to email me at Sonnon@RMAX.tv so we can block out a slot in the schedule (which is rapidly filling up!) They must supplement your own equipment above what the University has at its facility and/or provide alternative equipment ideas (like substituting dumbbells).

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Throwing your hat over the fence

Tananarive just finished giving the keynote address for the second half of the conference. She was, (of course) beautiful and brilliant and inspiring, but one of the things she stressed is the need to throw your intentions in front of you: "throwing your hat over the fence." What does this mean?  The ability to commit on the basis of faith alone, which is an ability that is rare and precious,although we are all forced to do it from time to time.  Marriage is like that.  Traveling to a strange place is like that. Taking a new job is like that. And beginning a career in the arts is very very much like that.

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How can you do this?  How is it possible to take such risk?  You must start with the ability to trust yourself, to believe that within you is the ability, the seed of the capacity to bring your dreams into existence.  YOU MUST BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.  Even if you don't know what your future will look like, or feel like, if you can imagine the first step in your process, you'll be way ahead of the game.  The world belongs to those who can take positive steps, and if you let fear freeze you, you just can't do it. Every great person you have ever known of had this capacity, and the cultivation of it can be a major step along the road.

1) visualize the end step of the goal process. What would success look and feel like?  How would you stand?  How would your voice sound?  What would the expression on your face be?

2)  Think back over your life, remembering all of the things you have learned up until this moment.  In many cases, that learning was surrounded by failures.  Remember that you did not let those failures stop you...and ask yourself what resources you used to move through the fear.

3) Study the lives of successful people, seeking the moments when failure threatened to cripple them.  How did they make it through?  What was the price they paid for their success?

 

There is a way to your dreams.  True, the path is littered with the bones of the fallen, but there is no reason why you can't be one of the success stories. Just make the declaration that you are going to become the person you were meant to be, in body, mind and spirit.  Ignore the negative voices in your mind. Just throw your hat over the fence.

 

Steve