[Xmca-l] Re: The manologue

[Annalisa Aguilar]

Hello,

This has been a very great thread with various and meaningful contributions. 

First, I'd like to say that actually it wasn't me who brought up the gendered speech topic, it was Henry, I just thought to start a new thread "The manologue" so that it did not impinge upon the "collaboration" thread. 

Henry strikes me as genuinely concerned with the lack of women's voices and I appreciated that he ignited the spark, with his own flint and stone!

It feels like there is a nice an comforting campfire crackling now, and I hope the glow is inviting enough to attract more travelers from afar to sit by the fire and talk.

Personally, in reference to this thread's topic, my feelings at the moment about the trump phenomenon is sort of a wait and see attitude. I am concerned about it, but I also feel there are people doing their utmost in the Republican party to make it difficult for him to succeed. I think far more than people who are trying to prevent Clinton to succeed, for example.

There is also his mistake with securing delegates. Which is what happens when one has a man-handling thug running one's campaign and one chooses not to follow the long establish convention of courting delegates during the primary season. The belief seems to be that all that is necessary to win the nomination was to win the primary popular vote. I don't know if anyone knows this, but trump may loose the nomination for that reason alone. See:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/12/donald-trump-delegates-republican-nomination-us-election-2016

What seems to have been a consequence is emotional blackmail by the trump campaign:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/17/donald-trump-rigged-election-complaints-new-york-primary

So oddly, we are going to have to hope that the establishment Republican party sticks to its rules about delegates. The delegates are going to the thing to watch, and it's all too difficult to tell what will happen at this point. See also:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/19/republican-rotten-boroughs-primary-election-delegates

I'd heard an interview by that shining neoliberal Larry Summers about a month ago, and even he says that if trump were to get elected, it would be a economic disaster. So I feel those with influence, even if I don't like them, are sitting up and paying attention to the trump phenomenon.

For me, the key to preventing trump to invade my consciousness is to work toward inclusiveness. And that means in the everyday experience of our lives. Like here. 

Tying this back to the manologue, and how to build bridges for collaboration, cooperation, and understanding among people with differences, I feel that we are watching a public version of the powers of dominating speech patterns, one that include interruption, drama, blackmail, dismissiveness, and a simple understanding if not right out denial of the facts. I do not mean to make a ham-fisted comparison of gendered discourse on this list to trump-like dynamics, just that in these worse manifestations it is easier to see what is distressing about unequal and non-inclusive forums of discourse and the anguish that arises from them. There is a spectrum.

It means to refrain from even registering upon such a spectrum, active and conscious efforts must be made to be inclusive, it's not something that happens by accident. It's a muscle that requires daily exercise. 

I am doing a slow read of an article by Marshal Sahlins ("On the Cultural of Material Value and the Cosmography of Riches"), kindly sent to me by Greg Thompson, and in it Sahlins mentions the exchange of a Triobran islander who will give half his yam harvest to his sister's husband only to receive half his wife's brother's yams, there is no significant gain economically, but in their matrilineal society sister's sons succeed their mother's brothers and so the exchange not only honors that convention, but it occurred to me that it gives reasons to talk to one another and make sure everyone is doing OK, like, "Do you have enough food?"

I wonder if what we lack on xmca is a similar social convention? What yams might we exchange with each other so to those who haven't felt freely enough to speak we can ask, "Do you have enough food?"

I'm not certain that I've quite fleshed out this thought, but I would be happy if anyone else would like to expand or elaborate, if I'm making any sense to you? It's about creating a safety net of connections, maybe...

Kind regards,

Annalisa