The Way in Which we Negotiate

The way in which we negotiate says a lot about who we are and what niches we choose (or not do not choose) to fill throughout the courses of our lives. “Traditional negotiation” is, or, more precisely, tends to be those conversations that exist between individuals or groups of individuals that seek to achieve an amicable solution under a set given circumstances.  Police negotiate with hostage takers; the Israelis and Palestinians negotiate (sort of) over access to land and resources; citizens’ groups negotiate with the city concerning the placement of garbage dumps; and, many of us, find ourselves negotiating with colleagues at work over strategies and ways to complete projects, or with our bosses over our benefits.  Sometimes we find ourselves negotiating with friends on a Friday night about which restaurant or bar to which we will all go.

First let’s separate assumed definitions from textual or documented definition.  As I have said, the above are prime examples of the commonly assumed definitions of negotiation however, they do not get at the core of the message I am trying to relay.  The word negotiate is a verb that, according to a Dictionary.com, means (basically) “to conduct business.”  The act of conducting business is central to this blogpost hence, my current and future use of the word “negotiate.”

The other day I had a job interview, fine in and of itself.  In fact, the interview went swimmingly.

After the interview, I walked a few blocks and waited for my girlfriend to pick me up at one of those chains that sell coffee.  I had to wait awhile and while waiting I overheard several conversations.  My eavesdropping led to a couple of startling conclusions.

I’m looking at my journal–the one that I carry everywhere with me and use to take notes on things from business meetings to phone calls and personal entries–and written in more than one place is “think Masters of the Universe.”  If you have ever read Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, you’ll get where that came from.  If not, I lack a literary reference to share with you… Perhaps Scrooge McDuck.

One of these startling conclusions was this: All these Masters of the Universe and Scrooge McDucks negotiate their entire life with money.  Every emotion, sense, ethic and belief was hedged by the pursuit of money and monetary power.  To my left sat gentlemen (I mean WASP gentlemen).  One of them began to talk about saving money in his daughter’s college fund in order to essentially hide it from the IRS and SEC.  As I sat there, drinking the bottle of water I brought with me (I cannot afford to purchase coffee from those places, much as I’d like to sometimes) I began to realize that this guy, the one talking about using his daughter’s college fund as a tax shelter, didn’t care about any relationship further than its ability to make him and hide his money.

That conclusion and the events that led to it, by act of Boolean algebraic logic, exploded into an epiphany.  The reason why our domestic financial and social policies are so out of whack with the needs of people is because most of the people making those decisions or managing other people’s money do not care about anything other than their short term gains.

Do you really want the guy trying to shelter $30K in his daughters college fund running the bank in which you have MAYBE a couple thousand?  To me it’s a character and ethic issue.  If you do not care about anything other than the short term gains on your money, not even your daughter, what’s your incentive to keep me safe?  What is your obligation or sense of duty to provide the underpinnings for even rudimentary social safety nets?  My answer: You lack them completely.

President Obama was and is correct when he talks about the need to change Wall Street Culture.  The idea that everyone’s life; their welfare, their work, their needs does or should operate on the same quarter to quarter cycle as the wealthiest 5% of people around the globe is unsustainable and inhumane.

We need to re-foster the belief in this country that a “rising tide raises all boats.”  That it isn’t communistic or socialistic.  It’s capitalism at its best.  If I’m able to afford more of your product you make more money, but in order for me to buy more (provided I’m not one of the nearly 10% of the U.S. that is unemployed, which I am) one of two things needs to happen: 1) you need to pay me more or 2) the cost of health care, groceries and transportation needs to drop significantly.

I know you aren’t going to pay me more but, maybe if you weren’t too busy hiding money in your daughter’s college fund, we could negotiate an amicable solution to the cost of health care and transportation.  How about this for starters: You pay the taxes on the money you are trying to hide and I will continue to try and scrape by on food stamps and temp work.

Happiness is the Feeling that Weakness is Being Overcome!

Six goals… I think that is completely reasonable not to mention, achievable. I sense weakness being overcome already! Just by writing it down and making it public I already feel more motivated… Guess I’ll do the dishes later.

Unplugging the TV

Television.  It is probably the one thing in this world I hate more than anything else yet it’s as if I can’t enough.  It’s always on and I have a difficult time just turning it off.  More often than not, I lack control of what is even on the TV let alone whether it is on or not.  You go to the bar, TV; restaraunts, elevators, your doctors’ office, TV; home, work, some buses, and now the grocery store, TV.

To be completely fair, I don’t hat television.  There is a lot of it I watch and that is what I hate.

I, and I assume–perhaps incorrectly–millions of other people, feel that TV turns my brain “tapioca pudding” and wastes lots of my time, much like those hulu commercials suggest. Sure, I read and do other things.  But let me pose this question.  What could you accomplish using even half the time you spend in front to the television?

I don’t have any answers but maybe this upcoming documentary will.

Once Again

So, I’ve been unable to blog in a long time and it feels good to have enough down time to do it again. Unfortunately the old blog’s URL has been deactivated (and to be frank, I’m not totally sure why).

It will be difficult to pick up exactly where I left off because the old blog was a spattering of ideas and what really amounted to junk. Ginger is still around and has his own blog which to which I will soon set up links.

Over the coming weeks and months I am going to be writing a serial, in conjunction with folks across the country, on the exploitative and criminal activities of a handful of “progressive” organizations. Some of you may have heard of these organizations or know people that have worked for these organizations. These “progressive” groups, with names like Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. or PIRG or Green Corps or Grassroots Voter Outreach, have some high profile clients and major name recognition but utilize criminal labor practices and unethical business models.

It is the purpose of this serial to get the word out about these organizations (which are all operated by the same handful of people including a woman by the name of Naomi Roth) in the hopes of preventing young people from being baited and exploited by them. It is also the aim of this serial to change the way these organizations operate and return grassroots organizing to where it belongs, the grassroots.