Crossroads

 One person who has influenced my thinking and living across the board is the Jewish philosopher and theologian Martin Buber (1878-1965), whose work was cited by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail (which was itself first published and widely distributed by the American Friends Service Committee).

I first came across Buber in an intro philosophy class at Marshall University, although that was only from secondary sources. The basic idea of his most famous book, I and  Thou, is that the world is twofold to people depending on whether we relate to other beings in an I/Thou or I/it mode. The latter is instrumental and transactional, while the former involves real meeting and dialogue. 

(He also acknowledged that in real life you can't stay in I/thou mode all the time with everybody you meet, say at a drive through window or toll both or in a serious struggle...but you could remember it.)

I started thinking more and more about Buber in my first year of working for AFSC on economic justice issues in WV. It struck me at the time--and still--that the line between organizers and exploiters could be very thin and often crossed in that both try to get other people to do what they want them to. 

At one point, when I was driving down to Logan County in the midst of the Pittston Coal Strike (1989-1990), I had an intense experience that was almost visual. An image of a crossroads passed through my mind, probably when I was crossing a railroad track on Route 10. 

The takeaway was that there were two roads to choose from. In one, people were seen as ends in themselves. In the other, they were things to be manipulated and one had to decide which way to go. I had the sense that the choice was fundamental, but one was free to change directions at any time. 

Eventually, I went to the source and read I and Thou. It took three readings and a commentary by Maurice Friedman for much of it to sink in, but it felt like a shock of recognition, as in yeah, this is what I've been clumsily trying to realize.

I read further and came  across another very practical idea that stuck with me in an essay called "Education" that I often try to apply when writing, speaking, or choosing or evaluating social action. The idea was "inclusion," which he described as "experiencing the other side."

As he put it, "Its elements are, first, a relation, of no matter what kind, between two persons, second, an event experienced by them in common, in which at least one of them actively participates, and, third, the fact that this one person, without forfeiting anything of the felt reality of his activity, at the same time lives through the common event from the standpoint of the other."

My takeaway there is the idea that one should try to experience or anticipate how something we say or do would be experienced by others. He didn't go there in the essay, but I think it's a very important practice and even a needed strategy for people interested in social change. Too often, groups do their thing  or drop their cargo without thinking through how that would land in the experience of others, including especially those whom they want to influence. Like one way radios. This could wind up alienating people rather than moving things along.

The great radical Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1921-1997), best known for his Pedagogy of the Oppressed, was also influenced by Buber. He spoke about the vast difference between issuing directives or communiques versus engaging in dialogue and relation. 

I think it goes back to the crossroads.

Proof of great prudence

 

Don't quote me on this, but sometimes I think the world might be a better place if more people studied Machiavelli. 

OK, not so much the advice about how a prince who came to power by unusual means might need to seem to be good while doing nasty things. Or the whole means/ends thing.  But there was a lot more to him than that. 

I don't know of any other author who wrote so clearly about the role of fortune in human life and the need to be ready when the floods come, the difficulty in enacting major reforms, and much more.

He was also a supporter of small-r republican government in his home city of Florence and was even tortured for it. The 18th century Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said of him that "Whilst pretending to teach lessons to kings, he taught great lessons to the people."

The particular nugget of his that's on my mind these days has showed up here before, but it seems particularly timely advice these days to some major struggles in progress:

"I hold it to be proof of great prudence for men [sic] to abstain from threats and insulting words towards anyone, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you."

Interesting times, again

 I never thought it would come down to this. Who would have ever dreamed that the economic fate of millions of low income and working Americans, the climate and--oh yeah--the future of democracy would come down to one vote in the US Senate. And that vote happens to be from a certain West Virginian at a time when West Virginia is at its political nadir (please God don't let us sink any lower!).

I guess it's proof that God, the gods, Lady Fortuna, and/or world history has a sense of humor.

In fairness, as the senator in question has pointed out, if an election or two somewhere else had gone just a little differently, we wouldn't be in this situation. And, believe it or not, the situation could be worse. A lot worse.

In the last year, it seems that many groups and individuals around the country have discovered West Virginia again. I was hoping those days would pass since the torrent of journalistic "Trump country safaris" tapered off. 

In my experience, and taking a long view of history, it's almost never a good thing when the larger world discovers West Virginia.

Apparently, some from out of state think this senator sprang into existence out of nowhere sometime around last February and have tried to inform us of that fact. Some have even suggested we might consider contacting the senator in question...like it never would have occurred to us and as if we had no knowledge or experience of this person. 

What I do know is that a lot of people here are working hard to get the best possible Build Back Better through and to do all we can to push for voting rights--and that no fight before or after will ever be as important as this one. Some are focused mostly on climate, others on voting, others on economic issues, and many care deeply about all the above.

As you can probably imagine, this kind of pressure raises lots of interesting questions and tensions about tactics and strategies. As in soft or hard, inside and/or outside, calling in versus calling out, how hard to push without crossing a line, what works and what backfires, and more. And the situation changes every day.

All this would be an interesting intellectual exercise if there wasn't so much at stake. 

Good advice, often unheeded

 

In the infernal depths of the Reagan era, I started working in the reference department of the main Cabell County Library in Huntington. Before that, I'd spent several relatively happy if ill paid years working at the branch in my hometown of Milton. It was a different world.

Huntington was and is one of WV's larger cities and was an industrial powerhouse at one time. All of which went to hell around then. It was a perfect storm of greed, deindustrialization, deinstitutionalization of  people with mental health issues without adequate community services or resources, rising homelessness in the process of become normalized, and slashes to the safety net.

All of this meant that lots of people were under extreme stress without a lot of safe places to go, the library being one. Part of the job was making sure it was a welcoming but safe place for all and occasionally defusing situations with people having a bad day or evening or year.

At the time, I was given the following advice from someone who had been at it a while about dealing with people in challenging situations: "never back somebody into a corner." 

I think it was originally meant literally as some of the library stacks involved dead end rows of shelves, but that advice has served me well over the years. As a point of general strategy, violence prevention or even self defense, it's not usually a good idea to put a potential opponent or person of concern in a position where their only way out is through you. As the saying goes, back a mouse into a corner and it will fight like hell.

Whenever possible, and it isn't always, I think it's a good idea to give opponents and people we meet in challenging situations a graceful way out. It's basic de-escalation.

I found this idea beautifully expressed in Rabelais'  hilarious and occasionally scatological 16th century novel Gargantua and Pantagruel, where the genial giant Gargantua puts it thus:

"For according to true military practice you must never drive your enemy into the straits of despair, because such a plight multiplies his strength and increases his courage; which was cast down and failing before. There is no better aid to safety for men who are beaten and dismayed than to have no hope of safety whatever. How many victories have the conquered wrested from the hands of the victors when the latter have not been satisfied with moderation, but have attempted to make a complete massacre and totally destroy their enemy, without leaving so much as one alive to convey the news! Always leave every door and road open to your enemies. Make them a bridge of silver in fact, to help them get away."

I think about Gargantua's advice today in the context of trying to influence certain politicians...let's say a US senator for example...to support policies you want them to take, such as, hypothetically speaking, to extend the Child Tax Credit. 

I don't think it's a good idea to demonize such an person and place them in a position where doing what you want seems like a defeat and humiliation, since this can often just stiffen their resistance. It's even worse to attempt a show of force when you don't have any.

To have a chance of actually getting things like that done, we need to make a bridge of silver not burn one.

It's not just elections: how policy change happens.

 Although it’s hard not to think about such things right now, it’s not all about elections. Those of us who want to make the world more just also need to think about and advocate for specific policies to move things in that direction in real time at the national, state, and local level when opportunities arise.

I’d like to share a simple nonideological model for thinking about how policy change happens—or doesn’t. The model was developed by political scientist John Kingdon’s 1984 book “Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies.”

I’d been doing policy work for years before a friend mentioned the book. I checked it out and had to admit that, yeah, this is pretty much how it happens. I’m going to share a ridiculously simplified version.

First, let me state the obvious, policy change doesn’t happen just because it’s rational, because it’s the right thing to do, and/or it would help thousands of people. It happens when certain things come together.

In Kingdon’s model, a window for effecting change opens when three “streams” come together: the policy, problem, and political stream. 

The policy stream

The policy stream consists of ideas that trickle up from the “primeval soup” of advocacy groups, “policy entrepreneurs” (more popularly known as wonks), attorneys, staffers, and such. Ideally, policy ideas should be specific and well thought out, which usually means getting in the weeds.

For example, “health care for all” isn’t a policy, although I’m all for it. It’s a goal that could be achieved by several different policies, such as a national system on the British model, single payer as in Canada, or a hybrid. The same is true of calls to abolish this or that institution. I’m down, but actually moving in that direction would require enacting or repealing several specific policies.

However, even the best idea won’t go anywhere unless somebody—more like a lot of somebodies—care about it.

The problem stream

This is where the problem stream comes in. Some of the most important social change work consists of getting people to think of the issues we care about as problems that can and must be solved. Kingdon distinguishes between problems and conditions: 

“There is a difference between a condition and a problem. We put up with all manner of conditions every day: bad weather, unavoidable and untreatable illnesses, pestilence, poverty, fanaticism. ... Conditions become defined as problems when we come to believe that we should do something about them.”

It can take weeks, months, years, decades, or centuries to get people to think of things as problems that must be solved rather than unavoidable conditions. A great example is the battered women’s movement. When I was a child, comedians on television actually joked about domestic violence; that doesn’t happen anymore because of years of public education and advocacy—which led to major policy changes.

Given the extremely divided state of U.S. public opinion, clearly much work needs to happen here in terms of coalition building, communications, popular education, and messaging—which means reaching out beyond bubbles and comfort zones.

An example

For a longer view, think that for millennia many people believed that systems of forced labor such as slavery or serfdom were inevitable conditions of civilization rather than problems that needed to be solved and ended. A classic example of people who made progress in getting an issue into the problem stream are the Garrisonian abolitionists. 

They weren’t policy wonks: Immediate abolition of slavery based on moral suasion wasn’t a doable policy. They weren’t revolutionaries like John Brown and his biracial band, who pushed the issue past the breaking point with their raid in what is now my home state of West Virginia. They weren’t practical political actors, like Frederick Douglass or Abraham Lincoln. Nor were they the pure force of the Union army or the thousands of slaves who flocked to Union lines in what W.E.B. DuBois aptly called “a general strike.” 

Still, they got the anti-slavery issue out there for decades, without which some of the other work may not have happened. As Garrison summarized this approach, "I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. … I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD."

The political stream

Once an issue is in the problem stream, it’s possible to link policy issues as solutions, which leads us to the foulest and most polluted stream: the political.

Lots of things influence and shape the political stream. The most obvious is on all our minds lately: election results. But it doesn’t have to be that dramatic. The death or retirement of a key politician or Supreme Court Justice, a change of leadership, or even a quarrel between influential politicians can directly impact this stream.

The political stream can also be influenced—and opened or closed—based on social movements, which unfortunately can’t be manufactured at will; galvanizing events, such as natural or social disasters; or changes in the public mood. With any of these changes, what might have been possible becomes impossible and vice versa. And the situation changes all the time. 

We can’t always—or usually—anticipate or control such changes. But we can prepare for them and move when openings occur.

Case studies

Maybe some examples could help. Let’s start with health care, a key concern of mine these days. The first “mainstream” politician in the U.S. who advocated for something like national health care was Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, when he ran as an independent Progressive Republican.

He lost. In the 1930s and '40s, his distant cousin Franklin and successor, Harry Truman, advocated for it but were blocked by racist Southern politicians and powerful lobby groups. The political stream was blocked.

For a while the problem stream was blocked. Health care wasn’t terribly expensive. Many expensive procedures hadn’t been developed. And many Americans could access health care through their employers.

That changed. More and more jobs provided no health benefits. By the late 2000s, around 50 million Americans, many of them working, had no health care. And their lack of coverage drove up costs for everyone.

Thanks to the efforts of advocates and experiences of impacted people, this became a problem.

In the aftermath of the 2008 elections, Democrats, for good or ill, controlled the presidency, the House of Representatives and a veto-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate. The window for reform was open. For a few weeks.

In 2009, the majorities of both houses of Congress worked on a health reform plan, eventually coming up with a hybrid version that included expanding Medicaid for low income working families, establishing a mandate for some individuals and employers to provide health care, and creating a market or exchange where people could purchase more or less subsidized health care.

Neither version was perfect, but with the loss of the supermajority, the lesser version became the only option. No further improvements could be made immediately. Then it was time for defense. That’s where we are now.

Or consider the Iraq war. In the 1990s, neo-conservative activists proposed the policy of invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam Hussein’s regime to supposedly bring peace and stability to the Middle East (and we all know how that worked out). They gained no traction until the political and problem streams changed with the 2000 election and the 9/11 attacks. Then they linked their policy (war) to a problem (fear of terrorism) in a changed political stream (new president). 

A negative example

Here’s a case, one of many for me, of one that got away. Around the same time as passage of the ACA, a window opened for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would have been a true game changer in terms of rebuilding a middle class. It would have made it easier for workers to join unions, which could in turn negotiate for better wages, benefits, and conditions while also educating workers about policy issues.

The U.S. House passed EFCA around 2007. With the supermajority in 2009, a window was open in the Senate to make it the law of the land. That didn’t happen. People dithered. The supermajority was lost. The window closed.

When that happens, one can waste time, energy, and often money on beating one’s metaphorical head against a wall—or, without giving up hope, focus on things that could help the situation right now.

There are lots of negative examples like this one. Windows for major policy change can be opened or closed, but the latter is the most frequent option. Still, by tracking changes, we have a chance to distinguish between the possible and impossible.

So what does this all mean?

I’m convinced the model can help us figure where we are and where we need to go in our pursuit of more human and liberating policies. The stream metaphor can point the way.

First, are we really clear about the specific (and probably imperfect) policy we want? Is it doable and specific about implementation?

Second, does anyone who can help make it happen care? If not, that signifies more work that must be done in the short and long term.

Third, what needs to happen politically to make this happen? How can we engage and influence it, even if that involves waiting for opportunities? 

Fourth, what do we do if it’s not going to happen? (Solution: without abandoning one’s goals, move on to the next thing and deal with the threats and/or opportunities that emerge, while circling back when things change.)

Working it backwards

Then there’s the other side of the coin. This model can also be useful in trying to “kill” bad policy ideas that might roll down. Specifically, we can attempt to show that the proposed policy idea wouldn’t solve the problem suggested and could indeed make things worse, as is often the case. And we could offer realistic alternatives.

We could also argue that the issue at hand isn’t the real problem or could make the problem worse. Or we could direct our attention to figuring out what we can do to influence or close the political stream or at least redirect it a bit.

This overall approach is more a compass than a road map. But then, as many before us have tried to say, the map is not the territory.

But it can help us move in the directions we want to go.

(Note: this essay first appeared in a blog post on the American Friends Service Committee's website. There's also a link to a Facebook live discussion on the topic there.)

The north wind and the sun

It's long been noticed in the art of strategy and of life that sometimes the more we try to push something, the more others want to resist it. And that overly aggressive actions tend to backfire and/or have unintended consequences.Several of the "soft" martial arts are based on that understanding.

Last night as I was driving home at the end of a long day I started listening to Aesop's Fables courtesy of my local library. One that stuck in my mind was the fable of the north wind and the sun.

Here's an older translation:

THE WIND and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveler coming down the road, and the Sun said: “I see a way to decide our dispute. Whichever of us can cause that traveler to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger You begin.” So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveler. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveler wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveler, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on.

         “KINDNESS EFFECTS MORE THAN SEVERITY.”

You could also say the moral was that persuasion works better than compulsion.Or that unskillful actions and arguments can make others cling even harder to problematic behaviors and beliefs. 

The Tao Te Ching, the ancient Chinese classic of philosophical Taoism advocates wu wei or non-action as opposed to aggressive action. It doesn't mean doing nothing but it does mean acting in ways that are timely and appropriate rather than forced. Think sun versus wind.

“Tao abides in non-action.  Yet nothing is left undone” 

“He who acts defeats his own purpose;  He who grasps loses.  The sage does not act, and so is not defeated.  He does not grasp and therefore does not lose” 

Take it from Aesop or from Lao Tzu, any way you look at it, that one has a lot of applications.

Cultivating serendipity

I spent about five hours on the road today with a friend of mine. Our conversation ranged from the elevated and philosophical to the somewhat canine, us being guys and all. But a phrase my friend shared, which I may or may not capture exactly here, sums up what I think to be the most effective way of working for social justice:

The intentional cultivation of serendipity.

Serendipity means something like a pleasant surprise. Basically, it means that good things we cannot anticipate perfectly now are likely to emerge and we should help those along.

Conversely, bad things we can't anticipate now are likely to emerge that we have to fight.

As Hamlet said, "The readiness is all."

And that, Gentle Reader, is worth more than all the energy squandered in so-called "strategic plans."

The best plan in a radically uncertain world is to have a strategy, preferably a robust one that gives you options for best-, worst-, and medium- case scenarios. Anything else is garbage.

Annals of bad tactics

Lots of people in West Virginia are understandably enraged over the Freedom Industries chemical spill and the way it's been handled by everyone from the water company and the governor's office. And this surely has not been Governor Tomblin's finest hour.

Still, when a friend told me that a small group was planning on marching on his office and demanding his resignation, my initial reaction, which still holds, was that this approaches the level of the Platonic Form of Bad Tactics.

One, what do you reckon would really happen? Would the governor say "OK, you're right. I'm outta here"?

Two, nothing is more pathetic than a show of force where there isn't any.

Three, issuing demands is generally useless unless one has the power to enforce them, in which case it isn't necessary.

Four, as my beloved Niccolo Machiavelli observed nearly 500 years ago, insulting or threatening someone doesn't actually do them any harm but it puts them on guard against you and makes it harder if not impossible to deal productively with the person in the future.

He said it much better:

"I hold it to be proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards anyone, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you."

I think people who want to influence public policy would do well to memorize that verse. While it's not necessarily true that people who are insulted or threatened will hate or try to injure us, it's a sure bet they will be less likely to cooperate at some future point. And in places like WV, people tend to stick around for a good while and they have long memories. It's hard to unburn a bridge.

Of the 99% spring, nonviolence, civil disobedience, Plutarch and the Spartans

I've been reflecting lately on the 99% Spring campaign lately, which aims to train 100,000 people in nonviolent direct action in April. Earlier posts are here and here.

One good decision on the part of the campaign was to try to convey the range of possibilities for nonviolent action without really getting into civil disobedience. That is a topic of its own and requires a great deal of planning and preparation to be successful in the best case scenario.

While it can at times be a very powerful thing, in my opinion, civil disobedience is an option that is greatly and grossly overused. Some people apparently think that you get points for getting arrested. You don't. As I see it, you get points for winning. Some people use civil disobedience not as a last resort but as a first resort when they haven't even come close to exhausting alternative strategies. Sometimes it seems to me that it's the refuge of the politically inept.

This is the martial artist in me talking, but the value of a technique generally diminishes with its repetition. Habituation happens. If you overuse one technique you become predictable and your opponents can easily counter and/or dismiss it. The last reaction a group working for social change wants is for people to say, with a sigh of boredom, "there they go again."

Random classical digression....This train of thought was inspired yesterday as I was re-reading Plutarch's Lives. I'm on the life of Lycurgus, the ancient lawgiver of Sparta. The author states that the Spartans made it a policy that

"they should not make war often, or long, with the same enemy, lest that they should train and instruct them in war, by habituating them to defend themselves."

(Random historical digression...Eventually the Spartans failed to follow this advice, which resulted in them getting their butts kicked by the Thebans.)

Thought for the day

El Cabrero has no enemies, of course. Euphemisms, maybe. Still, I find this quotation amusing...and possibly useful:

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

BIG BUSTS, ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING. Here's a book review on past and present economic crises.

MORE CLIMATE CHANGE STUFF TO DENY here.

PROTECTING THE POOR. A number of national organizations urge leaders to support an approach to deficit reduction that won't increase poverty.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Fits and starts

I was at a conference recently when someone was talking about what it takes to make a difference in the movement towards social and environmental justice. They quoted someone who said something like it takes "constant pressure, constantly applied."

I appreciate the sentiment but don't quite agree with the formulation. It seems to imply that these kinds of things take place at a steady pace. It seems to me that life, history and evolution move sporadically in fits and starts--and so do struggles for social justice. A lot of them in my experience involve a lot of waiting and then sudden focused action.

Respectfully, I'd put it this way. It takes constant alertness and punctuated focused action when conditions are right.

Speaking of which, conditions are right for El Cabrero to take a few days off. Goat Rope will continue to appear most days, although without the links and comments. I have a road trip planned, not to mention an attempted rendezvous with certain four legged antlered creatures up on the hill.

Arrogance and opportunity

The goddess Nemesis. Don't mess with this one.

It is a fact of life that sometimes the wealthy and powerful tend to overreach. So do the rest of us in different departments of life.

That is often but not always a theme of Greek tragedy. Some characters are undone by their excessive pride, outrageous actions, or desire for knowledge. One lesson that such dramas were intended to teach is to beware of this danger.

But there's another way of looking at this that may be relevant to people interested in social justice. When you're struggling against more powerful forces, often it's their very overreach that creates an opening for action.

I can't say it any better than a friend did in a conversation earlier this week in talking about a real situation folks are working on here. He said:

Arrogance creates the opportunity for social change.

And, for the underdogs of the world, that isn't so tragic after all.

WHEN LESS IS NOT MORE. Many working families that still have jobs are dealing with pay cuts.

CHICKEN LITTLE REVISITED. It looks like the sky is falling again. This time, it's about health care reform.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, here's Don Perdue, one of the best members of the WV House of Delegates, on the same topic.

A REAL STIMULUS. This snapshot by the Economic Policy Institute makes the case that increases in the minimum wage boost consumer spending.

IN PRAISE OF ANIMALS. You don't have to travel around the world to be amazed and entertained by them, according to this author. His enthusiasm for the subject indicates to El Cabrero that he doesn't have goats.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Fudoshin

This pyramid at Teotihuacan has some fudoshin going on. It would be kind of hard to turn it over.

Today is the final day of Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. Each day has looked at a word or concept from the martial arts and/or Zen tradition that may be of interest to people who want to make the world less nasty. You'll also find news and links about current events.

Today's word is...fudoshin (rhymes with judo shin), which means "immovable mind."

As you might expect by now, the idea needs some unpacking. It does not mean dogmatism, rigid thinking or fixed ideas. Instead it implies a rooted mental state or level of determination as well as equanimity. Fudoshin in that sense is a necessity for anyone committed to working to improve things over the long haul.

In karate there is a posture called fudo dachi or immovable stance. It looks like a cross between a horse stance and a forward stance and has a low center of gravity. Things and/or people with high centers of gravity are easy to trip, throw or turn over.

Think of the song "We Shall Not be Moved."

I had a fudoshin moment a few years ago when I got summoned to the office of a high state official who was upset about things I'd written in newspaper columns about the shabby way poor people had been treated at the time. I'm not sure what the intent was, other than to "get my mind right" a la Cool Hand Luke. When I got the call, I agreed to go and was very polite, but all the while I was thinking, "Fudoshin, dudes. Deal with it."

In looking around to see what others have written about fudoshin, I found a pretty good summary in wikipedia. I'm not sure whether it's a quotation from another source or one written for the entry, but it works for me:

A spirit of unshakable calm and determination,
courage without recklessness,
rooted stability in both mental and physical realms.
Like a willow tree,
powerful roots deep in the ground
and a soft, yielding resistance against
the winds that blow through it.

WHAT PASSED. Here are some key ingredients of the economic recovery package agreed to by the conference committee. A vote in the House is likely today, with the Senate to follow possibly this weekend. While the bill isn't perfect, as Paul Krugman points out here, there are lots of good things in there and some bad things are taken out.

Some wheeling and dealing continued after the agreement had been reached. Final votes in both houses may occur today.

THE SHOCKING TRUTH. Here's an account of a revisitation of Milgram's famous experiment on obedience to authority.

TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO REMEMBER. Science finds a strong link between sleep and memory.

URGENT NEANDERTHAL UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Mushin

Seamus McGoogle spends most of his time in a state of mushin.

Welcome to Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. Each day looks at a word or concept from the martial arts and/or Zen tradition that may be of interest to people who want to make the world less nasty. You'll also find news and links about current events.

As I mentioned Monday, most of the words have to do with paying attention. Kamae, the subject of Tuesday's post is all about readiness before taking action. Zanshin, see yesterday's post, was about the state of mind on completing an action.

Today's word is mushin, with the mu being like a cow sounds and the shin being what it looks like.

Here's a paradox. Mushin represents the highest mental state, but it literally means "no-mindedness." Far from being stupid, it means responding spontaneously and appropriately to a situation without having to stop and think about it.

As esoteric as it sounds, most of us have probably had this experience at some point. A good basketball player probably doesn't have to think about a lay up--he or she just does it.

In the martial arts, sometimes if you're lucky you do something without thought and then think "that was cool." As the late great Bruce Lee put it,

...when an opportunity occurs, I don't hit. It hits all by itself.

In the context of Japanese swordsmanship, the Zen master Takuan wrote of that state:

The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind. In the case of the swordsman, it means death. When the swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the opponent, nor of himself, nor of his enemy's sword movements. He just stands there with his sword which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictates of the subconscious. The man has effaced himself as the wielder of the sword. When he strikes, it is not the man but the sword in the hand of the man's subconscious that strikes.

The use of the term flow by Takuan fits in well with modern psychology. The researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote an excellent book some years back titled Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience about just that kind of thing.

People in a state of flow, which can be experienced in lots of ways, are so absorbed in what they're doing that they may lack self-consciousness altogether. I think the slang term being "in the zone" refers to the same kind of thing.

Here's another paradox, in martial arts and other traditional disciplines, the way to get to mushin is through drill, drill, drill. You train so you don't have to think.

People who want to work to make the world a better place can approach mushin by getting so competent at pulling things together that you can do it without having to start from scratch every time. That may involve good alliances, media and communications competency, an understanding of strategy, and ready access to good information.

Mushin is a nice place to be, although you usually only become aware of it after it happens.

STIMULUS DEAL. The House and Senate conference committee reached a tentative deal on a scaled-back recovery package which many economists believe is too small to jolt the economy. It now goes back to each house.

CONTRACTING OUT federal jobs to the private sector leaves one out of five such workers in poverty, according to the latest Economic Policy Institute snapshot.

ONE TO WATCH. The US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments March 3 in a case that will determine the propriety of WV Justice Brent Benjamin hearing cases regarding Massey Energy. Benjamin, a political unknown, was elected in 2004 with the help of millions of dollars from Massey CEO Don Blankenship.

DARWIN AT 200. Here's another look.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Zanshin

Master Wu demonstrates zanshin after doing his laundry.

Welcome to Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. This series looks at interesting (to me anyhow) concepts from the martial arts and related Zen traditions that might be useful to people interesting in making the world less nasty.

Yesterday's word, kamae, was about a state or readiness before going into action. Today's word, zanshin, is about the state that follows the completion of action. Literally, it means something like remaining mind, but it is really hard to unpack.

Imagine the silence that follows immediately from a powerful live performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that just stands there and is as strong in its way as the music itself.

In karate, zanshin is the state that should follow the completion of a kata or a real application of techniques. Katas are solo exercises of pre-arranged series of fighting movements that have been passed down from generation to generation. They can be beautiful to watch when properly performed and contain a multitude of practical applications.

Each one is different but they follow a similar pattern. They begin and end with a bow, illustrating the maxim that "karate begins and ends with courtesy." They commence with a state of kamae or readiness. The first move is generally defensive, reflecting the moral maxim that "in karate there is no first attack."

After a series of explosive movements that also contains the contrasting elements of speed and slowness, hardness and softness, and expansion and contraction, the sequence ends in perfect stillness. But somehow the awareness and intensity continues silently after all motion has ceased.

I told you it was hard to translate. But here's an example.

C.W. Nicol relates how a senior sensei explained zanshin in his book Moving Zen: Karate as a Way to Gentleness:

...Zanshin is comprised of two characters. The first one, 'zan,' means to remain, to continue. The second one, 'shin,' means heart or mind. When the movements of a kata are finished, do not think that the kata is finished, do not relax your attention and spirit. You must come to the closing position, keep your eyes ahead, your body and spirit ready for anything. You must be aware of all that is around you. Kata is not just a practice of movements, and neither is it a way of retreating into your own self. When you practice kata you must be acutely aware. You must have a mind like still water, reflecting all things. Finish your kata with zanshin, otherwise, no matter how brilliantly you perform it, it will be considered a failure.

It's easier to see than describe. Nicol reports that

From then on, I watched the teachers and high ranking black belts much more closely when they finished their kata. Their performance of kata flowed, and the flow of the kata did not end with the cessation of bodily movement. How difficult to catch this feeling, to explain it!...

With lower-ranking belts, even with most brown belts, the flow was cut off when the kata movements were completed, like a clockwork doll that had suddenly been switched off. Without good "kamae" or readiness at the beginning of the kata, and without zanshin at the end, the kata was only a physical exercise, and not a moving practice of Zen.

Some lines from the Tao Te Ching may help to explain the practical importance of zanshin:

People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.
So give as much care to the end as to the beginning.
Then there will be no failure.

RECOVERY. The Senate passed its version of economic recovery legislation yesterday, which will now go to conference with the House. This would be the time to push for getting it right. Here's a simple action you can take today.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, we lost nearly 600,000 jobs in January and there's no end in sight. The Economic Policy Institute reports that there are now 4.1 job seekers for each available job.

OBJECTS OR EXPERIENCES. Which of the two are more likely to make people happy?

URGENT ANTARCTIC WORM UPDATE here. It makes its own antifreeze and goes into suspended animation when it dries up. How cool is that?

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Kamae

Kendo practioners in upper and lower kamae positions. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Welcome to Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. Each day will include a discussion of a useful but hard to translate concept from the Japanese martial art and Zen tradition, which are kind of intertwined. It is El Cabrero's belief that some of these ideas can be helpful in making the world less violent and more just.

Today's word is kamae, which is sometimes translated as stance, posture or ready position, although there's a lot more to it. In a deeper sense, it refers to a state of calm alertness before action. It doesn't imply a fixed position or attitude or a pre-conceived rigid plan but rather a focused awareness prepared to respond to the moment.

C. W. Nicol, a British martial artist who studied karate in Japan in the early 1960s came close to it with these words describing the katas or forms of advanced students:

In perfect stillness, they exuded strength. I saw it, and I thought of herons, poised above a pool, ready to spear a fish; of high-soaring falcons ready to stoop; of a cat, sitting patiently by a mouse hole...

My own favorite description of it comes from Erich Fromm's discussion of hope:

It is neither passive waiting nor is it unrealistic forcing of circumstances that cannot occur. It is like the crouched tiger, which will jump only when the moment for jumping has come...

Without good kamae, one can miss opportunities for action (and in some cases, get clobbered in the bargain). As Hamlet said, "the readiness is all."

RECOVERING THE RECOVERY? The economic recovery bill cleared a major hurdle in the Senate yesterday, with a final vote expected for today. After that, the bill goes to conference where differences between the House and Senate versions will be reconciled.

The Senate version weakened some key provisions of the House bill that would affect those hardest hit by the recession. For more details of the differences, click here. Some of these defects may be improved in the final version, but that will depend in part on how much noise people make.

The American Friends Service Committee is still making a toll-free number to the Capitol switchboard available for those who want to support the bill. AFSC recommends a passage without delay and without reducing aid to families and states. It also opposes the flawed “E-Verify” measure and the $1 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The number is 1-800-473-6711.

THE S WORD is discussed here.

A NOD TO CHUCKIE D. Darwin, that is.

POSSIBLE ALZHEIMER'S BREAKTHROUGH? New research suggests that a naturally occuring protein can stop or reverse cognitive impairment in animals.

NOTE. It's been a long day on the road, so I'm scheduling this post to be published a few hours from this writing. Here's hoping nothing really bad happens between now and then.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Misunderestimation

Beware of blue.

I started out the week at Goat Rope by suggesting that people who want to make the world a better place could do worse than take up martial arts, especially the ones that involve some kind of serious sparring, as a hobby. There are plenty of lessons there.

All week, I've been remembering various episodes from my long and inglorious career in the martial arts. It's funny, but I have a much better memory of the fights I lost than the fights I won. For one thing, there were way more of the former than the latter. For another, when you're really in the zone, there's no self-awareness and you may not even remember what you did. When I've asked my daughter specific questions about how she won tournament fights, she didn't know how to answer.

But you always remember the ones that went really bad.

I think my worst thumping came about due to the universe's sense of humor and the fatal flaw of underestimating an opponent. Years back, I was coaching kids at a tournament and told the main instructor not to give me an entry card under any circumstances, no matter what I said or did. I hadn't trained seriously in ages.

But after a while I started looking at the talent. I kept thinking "I can take these people!" There was one guy there in a blue gi (karate uniform) who I really wanted to fight. I'm a traditionalist and there was something vaguely offensive about a blue gi. I took it as axiomatic that I could, by definition, beat anyone in a blue gi.

I asked for the entry card...

When the black belts lined up, I asked God to please give the Mr. Blue Gi. Alas for me, God was taking calls that day and I got what I asked for.

I don't think I've ever been kicked or hit harder by anything before or since. He plated a solid front kick so deep in my solar plexus that I felt like I was picking his toenails out of my back for the next week or so. I went down. Then he did it again with the same result.

Breathing isn't all that interesting until you can't do it. Then it becomes fascinating. I think Dylan said it best: the moral of this story/the moral of this song/is simply that one should never be where one does not belong.

Any struggle or campaign is unpredictable. One should never assume it's going to be a cakewalk. Even if it wears a blue gi.

Experiences like that have taught me a lesson in gratitude. I've known some activists who get angry or frustrated when they don't get everything they want or only make small progress towards a goal. I always want to ask such people the following question: haven't you ever gotten your ass totally kicked? I'm happy any time that doesn't happen.

A LITTLE GOOD NEWS. President Obama signed a bill expanding access to the Children's Health Insurance Program to around four million new children. The bill also covers legal immigrants and allows states to offer dental health care to some eligible children who don't receive their main insurance through CHIP. Some of us have been working for this for a long time.

RECOVERY NOW. Here's an analysis of the job impact in every state of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

NOT THE BEST WEEK for coal. On the flip side, several groups filed amicus briefs on behalf of Massey Energy in the pending US Supreme Court case.

AMERICAN HUNGER. Food insecurity affects 1 in 8 Americans, according to this item.

URGENT FOSSIL WHALE UPDATE. Early ones apparently hunted in the water but gave birth on land.

URGENT GIANT CROCODILE-EATING FOSSIL SNAKE UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: LONG AS A GIANT SNAKE

Reversion to mean

Don't try this at home. Or anywhere else. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Sometime back in the 1990s, Jim Carrey was in a Saturday Night Live skit where he played an office worker who once got cheers from co-workers for telling someone "I'll see you in hell!" Because that worked so well one time, he said it over and over for the rest of his life in the most inappropriate situations.

It was a funny skit but that kind of thing happens a lot in real life. Sometimes we keep trying the same thing because it worked once or because it's the only thing we know how to do.

This was another life/strategy lesson that was drummed into my head and other body parts by sparring in the martial arts, which is kind of a theme this week. Here's how...

Senior students in a fighting dojo are a source of inspiration and terror. They provide encouragement and example, but they also routinely and without malice thrash junior students. This is regarded as something like a Christian duty, the theory being that they do it so other people won't be able to.

When I was a lowly green belt or so, one of the terrors of our dojo was a guy named Brooks. He was a nice guy but a fighting demon. Once when we were sparring I got really lucky and managed to throw a fast spinning back kick to his face. I'm not sure which one of us was more surprised. Luckily for me, he was mostly amused.

(It's a totally impractical kick that could get you killed in some situations, but it looks really cool if you can get away with it.)

After that, for a while I was just like the guy in the SNL skit if you substitute spinning back kick to the head for "I'll see you in hell."

As it happened, there was a tournament coming up. I thought I'd breeze through it with the kick. It worked once, right? You can probably predict the outcome. Let's just say that no trophies followed me home that day.

It never worked on Brooks again either...

Lighting does not often strike twice in the same place. And just because you get lucky once, it does not follow that you will again if you do the same thing. In statistics they call this reversion to the mean. A basketball player who routinely scores 20 points a game may sometimes go on a streak of high or low scores, but over time it averages out.

Enjoy life's spinning back kicks when you can get away with them--but don't count on them. It's better to stick to basics anyway.

DESPITE WHAT YOU MAY HAVE HEARD there's strong public support for an economic stimulus package.

REALITY CHECK. With all the noise about economic policy emanating from and about Washington these days, I highly recommend regularly visiting the site of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. I admit to being a policy wonk, but you don't have to be one to go there and look at the impact of existing and proposed legislation on ordinary people.

HEALTH CARE. Many struggling small businesses are cutting health insurance benefits as the economy sours.

ANOTHER CASUALTY OF THE RECESSION is green energy.

THIS SHOULD HAVE GONE IN YESTERDAY. WV Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin has decided to recuse himself from cases involving Massey Energy until the US Supreme Court rules on the situation. Benjamin was elected in 2004 with over $3 million from Massey CEO Don Blankenship. On more than one occasion, he was the deciding vote in cases favorable to Massey.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Sparring as a spiritual practice

As I mentioned yesterday, I think people who want to make the world a less nasty place could do worse things than study some martial arts, especially those that practice realistic sparring with skillful opponents.

After all, most efforts to change or preserve things involve some kind of struggle, however nonviolent, with powerful people and institutions who are not there to grant one's every wish.

One lesson I will always remember came early in my karate career. I had just found a new dojo after the one I started in closed. These people LOVED to spar, in class, in tournaments and elsewhere. While control was emphasized, it could get pretty rough as consenting adults moved up in rank and experience. And, although I didn't realize it at they time, their "rules" were pretty realistic.

This was the first time I did any serious sparring with a woman black belt. At the time, I was a green belt, which is to say someone who knows just enough to be a danger to himself.

I decided to dazzle her with high kicks, my speciality at the time. While my feet were flying around at head level, one of hers landed in my nether regions. This was the closest I ever came to qualifying for the Vienna Boy's Choir. I hit the ground like a ton of bricks, but must have gotten up at some point.

This is one of the invaluable lessons you learn by sparring with people who know how to fight: you learn to think defensively. Specifically, you make it a habit to always think what a good opponent could do to you if you did this or that technique.

That's one that carries over well into organizing. It is a good practice to always think what an intelligent opponent would be able to say or do in reaction to anything you say, do or write. I've often seen groups undertake actions that make it easy for opponents to attack or dismiss them.

I learned the hard way that if you present your opponent with an opening, you shouldn't be surprised if they take it. And I'm not above returning the favor.

THE BUTCHER'S BILL. Here's an estimate of the human cost of the Iraq war.

I MEANT TO BLOG THIS YESTERDAY. Here's Krugman on bailout blunders.

CULTURAL CHANGES accompany this recession, not all of which are bad.

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED. "American Pie" songwriter Don McLean discusses Buddy Holly here. So that's what the song really was about. Kind of.

TEARS AND SUCH. Here's an item on how early experience shapes our views of crying.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Planning to be spontaneous

Wu (right) did not plan on getting chased by Diego the turkey.

El Cabrero is kind of a policy wonk by day, with a special interest in how laws and such impact people with low and moderate incomes. Every so often, I have to take part in attempting to do strategic planning.

(Actually, my main plan is to try to have a strategy.)

I don't have anything against real or pretend planning as long as people understand that in real life one has to adapt and adjust on a moment by moment basis.

There are two military sayings that are worth keeping in mind even for peaceful folks. One is "No plan survives contact with the enemy." The other is "The enemy gets a vote." You can substitute the word enemy with any number of other words: future, unforeseen random events, reality, life, etc.

In planning to deal with something as intricate and complicated as public life and policy, it's important to keep two basic things in mind. If the Gentle Reader will forgive me for stating the obvious, here they are:

1. We can't predict the future with any degree of certainty; and

2. We don't control other people.

It's actually even worse than that. Not only can we not predict the future, but we also have an incomplete understanding of the past, even though we often use it to anticipate events.

History is in large measure story--and humans secrete stories the way the liver secretes bile. If you ask just about anybody why just about anything happened, he or she will probably come up with some kind of explanation which may or may not have any basis in fact.

There's an awful lot we don't know about the present, come to think of it. And not only do we not control other people (which is probably a good thing), but we are all imperfect in self control.

The take-home message is that no matter how well we plan, there's no getting away from randomness, unpredicted events, luck, chance or fortune. It's how we respond to such things that often makes the difference between success and failure.

WHAT ABOUT A BAILOUT for the rest of us?

ATLAS MESSED UP. Here's another take on the fallen idol of Ayn Rand. (By the way, anyone really into Greek mythology would have known that Atlas wasn't the brightest crayon in the box.)

WHERE THE RUBBER HITS THE ROAD. The coming winter means more hard times for people in economic difficulties. In nearby Ohio, the equivalent of one in ten households has received a gas or electricity termination notice in the last year.

IN OTHER CHEERY NEWS, the financial meltdown is also making the global food crisis worse.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED