[Xmca-l] Re: AERA Session: Being/Becoming an Activist Scholar: Lessons From Cultural-Historical Activity Research

Sun Apr 1 08:14:45 PDT 2018

Henry,
I find your description of your dream to be delightful. Seems like
important gap-filling work going on here.
I like the terms poeisis and resonance.

And on that note, check out this Ted Talk (and the name of the link gives a
hint to what it is about...):
https://www.ted.com/talks/rives_on_4_a_m

(and I should add, the last time I shared this with a colleague, I sent it
around midnight and he just happened to get it at 3:56 am when he woke up
and couldn't sleep - eerie indeed!).

-greg

On Sun, Apr 1, 2018 at 5:28 AM, HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com> wrote:

> Greg, David, and All,
> Let’s keep on eerie for a moment: I just had a recurrent dream, I awoke at
> 4 in the morning and, as is often the case, I won’t be getting back to
> sleep for another half hour. The dream is that I am on a public mode of
> transportation, this time a bus, and I am feverishly headed somewhere, not
> knowing exactly where, but in this case it’s west (I’m pretty sure) on
> Central, yes Central, the name of the main east/west thoroughfare here in
> Albuquerque, but not Albuquerque in my dream. I have just made a mad
> scramble to get on this bus. Suddenly it turns south, which is not the
> direction I want to go. I scoot forward and ask the driver if this is where
> we will stay headed and he assures me we’ll be back going west in a minute.
> Suddenly the bus gets an unobstructed view from a cliff that overlooks a
> beautiful panaorama. Then just as suddenly we are edging over the edge of
> the cliff. Drivers change, the danger is averted, we’re on our way again,
> and I wake up. This is a recurrent dream, though it takes place in various
> places. This one reminds me (now that I am awake) of a small city in Spain
> I visited with my wife and son in 2009 famous for bullfighting, on the way
> west from Seville to Lisbon, In my waking life we had a destination, in my
> dream I did not.
>
> This gets us back to the subject line with Berzemenov. David juxtaposes
> motives and outcomes. Is life, either individually or collectively, about
> the journey or the destination? Do we have to know AND agree, either
> individually or collectively, with the destination?
>
> I’m headed back to bed. I’m debating whether to send this post. If I do, I
> will probably regret it. But I promise, either way, that I am not making up
> the dream. It really happened. And it is a recurrent dream: headed
> somewhere, don’t know where and never find out before I wake up (in this
> case) or go to another dream or back into a different stage of sleep.
> What’s different about this version of the dream is how beautiful a moment
> I had at that overlook. The same sort of the beautiful moment at our march
> in Albuquerque last weekend, a waking moment we were sharing as young
> people, motivated by the recurrent, senseless slaughter in schools here in
> the U.S., were trying to wake up the adults. When will we wake up?
>
> Henry
>
>
> > On Mar 31, 2018, at 10:31 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I'm still not quite sure I understand what the pointer to Bezmenov was
> all
> > about, but I do notice some eerie connections between Bezmenov's little
> > speech and Ted Nugent's recent rant about the March for our Lives kids
> (and
> > esp. the Parkland students):
> > http://13wham.com/news/nation-world/ted-nugent-parkland-
> survivors-mushy-brained-children-who-have-no-soul
> > Just noticing.
> > -greg
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 9:51 PM, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Francine:
> >>
> >> First of all, we are all useful idiots. Just for example, Bezemenov was
> a
> >> "useful idiot" for the John Birchers. And John Birch himself was a
> "useful
> >> idiot".
> >>
> >> Secondly, the Larry Kohlberg studies were rightly criticized at book
> length
> >> by Carol Gilligan (and at somewhat shorter length by Yongho Kim and
> myself
> >> in "Rocks and a Hard Place", in Language and Education in 2015.
> >>
> >> Thirdly, one of the things that makes people activists, as opposed to
> >> amateur news therapists, is that we focus on the desirability of
> outcomes
> >> and not just motives. If the study of morality over history tells us
> >> anything, it is that only bad outcomes ever come from pure
> >> motives. Progress, like development, is always complexly motivated.
> >>
> >> David Kellogg
> >> Sangmyung University
> >>
> >> Recent Article in *Early Years*
> >>
> >> The question of questions: Hasan’s critiques, Vygotsky’s crises, and the
> >> child’s first interrogatives
> >> <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09575146.2018.1431874>
> >>
> >> Free e-print available at:
> >> https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/6EeWMigjFARavQjDJjcW/full
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Apr 1, 2018 at 12:29 PM, Larry Smolucha <lsmolucha@hotmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> message from Francine:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Here are some points for activist/scholars to consider regarding the
> 1984
> >>> interview with Soviet KGB defector Yuri Berzmenov.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Here's the link (again):
> >>>
> >>> https://youtu.be/K4kHiUAjTvQ
> >>>
> >>> [https://i.ytimg.com/vi/K4kHiUAjTvQ/hqdefault.jpg]<htt
> >>> ps://youtu.be/K4kHiUAjTvQ>
> >>>
> >>> Yuri Bezmenov - KGB Defector on "Useful Idiots" and the True Face of
> >>> Communism<https://youtu.be/K4kHiUAjTvQ>
> >>> youtu.be
> >>> The USA is at this moment a destabilized nation on the way to crisis.
> In
> >>> this interview from 1984, Yuri Bezmenov articulates the method.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Just for starters,
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>  1.  Yuir Bezmenov provides a working model for destabilizing a nation
> >>> involving processes such as demoralization, abandonment of rational
> >>> discourse, instigating crises, and normalization under the new social
> >> order.
> >>>  2.   This interview is from 1984 so it is also old news of Russian
> >>> "interference."
> >>>  3.   Apparently, there is no actual citation from Lenin of his having
> >>> used the term "useful idiots' to describe the manipulation of unwitting
> >>> traumatized people by someone with ulterior motives. The recently
> >>> traumatized high school student March for Life activists are vulnerable
> >> to
> >>> such manipulation.  No one knows whether the movement will fizzle out
> out
> >>> or even produce voters on election day. Certainly a few student
> activists
> >>> might have found their calling.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> The nerve of me posting something like this that interrupts what could
> >>> have been a seamless narrative on XMCA.  But as scholars, this is an
> >>> interesting opportunity to study this (and learn) from this social
> >>> phenomenon (March for Lives). I remember (years ago) Dr. Jack Getzels
> at
> >>> the University of Chicago talking about a study of student activists in
> >> the
> >>> 1960's that found some of the most committed student leaders scored at
> >> the
> >>> highest level of Kohlberg's stages of moral development but just as
> many
> >>> were anarchists at the lowest level. Are activist/ scholars or
> >>> activist/teachers all of one type?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ________________________________
> >>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
> >
> >>> on behalf of mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu>
> >>> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 6:45 PM
> >>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> >>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: AERA Session: Being/Becoming an Activist Scholar:
> >>> Lessons From Cultural-Historical Activity Research
> >>>
> >>> Hi Francine-
> >>>
> >>> What sort of lesson would you like us to take from Mr. Bezmenov's
> >>> interviews?
> >>>
> >>> mike
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 10:21 AM, Larry Smolucha <
> lsmolucha@hotmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Message from Francine Smolucha:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> This link has an interview that would be of interest to
> >>> activist./scholars
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> https://youtu.be/K4kHiUAjTvQ
> >>> [https://i.ytimg.com/vi/K4kHiUAjTvQ/hqdefault.jpg]<htt
> >>> ps://youtu.be/K4kHiUAjTvQ>
> >>>
> >>> Yuri Bezmenov - KGB Defector on "Useful Idiots" and the True Face of
> >>> Communism<https://youtu.be/K4kHiUAjTvQ>
> >>> youtu.be
> >>> The USA is at this moment a destabilized nation on the way to crisis.
> In
> >>> this interview from 1984, Yuri Bezmenov articulates the method.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> [https://i.ytimg.com/vi/K4kHiUAjTvQ/hqdefault.jpg]<htt
> >>>> ps://youtu.be/K4kHiUAjTvQ>
> >>>>
> >>>> Yuri Bezmenov - KGB Defector on "Useful Idiots" and the True Face of
> >>>> Communism<https://youtu.be/K4kHiUAjTvQ>
> >>>> youtu.be
> >>>> The USA is at this moment a destabilized nation on the way to crisis.
> >> In
> >>>> this interview from 1984, Yuri Bezmenov articulates the method.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> ________________________________
> >>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.
> edu
> >>>
> >>>> on behalf of Carrie Lobman <carrie.lobman@gse.rutgers.edu>
> >>>> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 9:33 AM
> >>>> To: xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
> >>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] AERA Session: Being/Becoming an Activist Scholar:
> >>>> Lessons From Cultural-Historical Activity Research
> >>>>
> >>>> Hello XMCAers,
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> I am very pleased to be chairing this timely and important session at
> >>> AERA
> >>>> in a few weeks (Monday April 16). The idea for Being/Becoming an
> >>>> Activist-Scholar <http://tinyurl.com/ybdkh6kw> was born at last years
> >>>> conference in San Antonio where I felt a shift as more and more
> people,
> >>>> particularly graduate students, were identifying as activist scholars
> >> or
> >>>> were seeking to engage in activism. I believe as socio-cultural and
> >>>> activitists we have much to offer this conversation and a
> >> responsibility
> >>> to
> >>>> lead and teach.
> >>>> What Is a 21st-Century Activist Scholar to Do?<http://tinyurl.com/
> >>> ybdkh6kw
> >>>>>
> >>>> tinyurl.com
> >>>> To the naïve mind revolution and history seem incompatible. It
> believes
> >>>> that historical development continues as long as it follows a straight
> >>>> line. When a change comes, a break in the historical fabric, a
> >> leap—then
> >>>> this naïve mind sees only catastrophe, a fall, a rupture; for the
> naïve
> >>>> mind history ends until back again straight and narrow. The scientific
> >>> mind
> >>>> on the contrary, views revolution as the locomotive of history,
> forging
> >>>> ahead at full speed; it regards the revolutionary epoch as the
> >> tangible,
> >>>> living embodiment of history. A revolution solves only those tasks
> >> which
> >>>> have been raised by history; this proposition holds equally true for
> >>>> revolution in general and for aspects of social and cultural life.
> >>>> (Vygotsky as quoted in Leviathan, 1982). Socio-cultural theory was
> born
> >>> of
> >>>> activism. It emerged in the early, most improvisational moments of the
> >>>> Russian Revolution, and one of its continuing provocations is that it
> >>> does
> >>>> not claim to be objective or apolitical. Vygotsky and his followers
> >>> located
> >>>> thei
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> I was thrilled that Kris Guitierrez, Lois Holzman, and Anna Stetsenko
> >>>> agreed to be our featured speakers as they each bring a long history
> of
> >>>> rigorous scholarship and activism but from with different frameworks,
> >>>> activities and communities. These three presentations will jumpstart a
> >>>> conversation with an invited panel of emerging and established scholar
> >>>> activists who will collectively interview and respond to the
> >>> presentations
> >>>> and lead a discussion with the audience.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Please get the word out as widely as possible.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> http://tinyurl.com/y7zguva7
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Carrie
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Carrie Lobman, Ed.D.
> >>>>
> >>>> Chair, Department of Learning and Teaching
> >>>>
> >>>> Graduate School of Education
> >>>>
> >>>> Rutgers University
> >>>>
> >>>> www.gse.rutgers.edu<http://www.gse.rutgers.edu>
> >>>>
> >>>> www.eastsideinstitute.org<http://www.eastsideinstitute.org<h<
> >> http://www.
> >>> eastsideinstitute.org<http://www.eastsideinstitute.org<h>
> >>>> ttp://www.eastsideinstitute.org<http://www.eastsideinstitute.org>>
> >>>>
> >>>> www.performingtheworld.org<http://www.performingtheworld.org<
> >> http://www<
> >>> http://www.performingtheworld.org<http://www.performingtheworld.org
> <htt
> >>> p://www>.
> >>>> performingtheworld.org<http://www.performingtheworld.org>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor
> > Department of Anthropology
> > 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> > Brigham Young University
> > Provo, UT 84602
> > WEBSITE: greg.a.thompson.byu.edu
> > http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>
>
>

-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: greg.a.thompson.byu.edu
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson