[Xmca-l] Re: Fwd: Verizon's greed

Mon Apr 25 04:30:37 PDT 2016

Val opened this line of the intertwining  thread with her passion for requisite variety as the quality of permeable membranes and interface as necessary for general systems theory unfolding as human projects.
This occurs at all levels (cell, self, families, teams, communities, nations).
Two nations that Val offers as exemplary are Japan and Germany. 
Implicit is the realization that these two nations *tend* towards equilibrium having *requisite variety*
This post lead to Andy exploring the notion of having a *reason* for getting up in the morning. Helen then contributed and elaborated on this quality of life.

Then Wagner, taking his turn,pointed to a deep contrast with how he saw the *reality* of  Japanese culture and it’s focus on the ideal  of not being a nail that sticks out as *actually* being more like a *linear* dynamic system that is generally closed and nonpermeable.
This type of system  which displays qualities which *express*  what seems to have the quality of  mechanical systems having the  opposite system characteristic  of cells which  have *organic permeable boundaries* .

My question is how Japan can be conceptualized as both exemplary (living experience as if organically permeable) following the theory of general biological systems theory) and also be perceived as a dead and lifeless place which images a general mechanical systems theory with external moving *parts* only mechanically related and therefore forming a sense of lifeless *repetition*.
It seems that within japanese culture we can be participating in both organic général systems (permeable membrane image) and at the same time participating in mechanical general systems (closed impermeable dead membranes)
Both  forms of recognition in Nancy Frasers understanding of culture but it seems to hinge on the difference between mechanical and organic metaphors of system boundaries. Are system boundaries closed *walls*  (Trump) or permeable *membranes*.
Dead/mechanical or living/breathing systems.
Is this the difference between *linear* and *nonlinear* notions of systems?

My turn is to reflect on the relation between *eco* system as a concept and the aboriginal image of *mother earth* as a similar concept.
These symbols both sharing notions of open  membranes but they do have a diiferent feel and sense of being organic life.

Sent from my Windows 10 phone

From: Wilkinson
Sent: April 24, 2016 9:04 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Fwd: Verizon's greed

Note (a continuation):
I was in such a hurry that I couldn't remember "the project as unit of 
analysis." (thanks Andy)  We do progress!  It's not just survival of the 
fittest, but also mutual aid is a factor.  And like we used to say in 
Medieval Lit,
"when Adam dug and Eve spun,
who was then a "gentleman"?
V

On 2016/04/25 12:13, Wilkinson wrote:
> Life in the present mode of existence, being.
> Hello, dear Xmca-er colleagues.
>
> I'm checking in as a woman scholar voice doing research in General
> Systems Theory.  Once I was just at the beginning and now nearly the end
> of my institutional career.  In Japan.  A National University.
> I live in an educational world where the children have been taught that
> the nail that sticks out gets beaten down.
>
> As a systems theorist, at the level of self, group, community - living
> systems naturally seek equilibrium.  So why would I vote or not vote for
> Sanders?  Why would I vote or not vote for Hilary?
>
> 40 years of teaching languages, Latin, Greek, English, has been to make
> my living.  What I love and want to talk about is how to create a great
> team, produce a film, coordinate a satisfactory project, with the young
> ones who are enacting the managerial roles having the full support of
> the community of adults, both in and out of the academy.  Moreover,
> peer-learning, which appears essential, and has so appeared to me since
> I was seven, "teaching" my one year younger brother how to read my first
> English primer.
>
> Time and again Andy, Larry, and Mike have responded lucidly and kindly
> to my flashing dives into the stream.  I feel that Andy's "project" as
> mode/method/focus for the self, the team, and the community is coherent,
> articulate, manageable.  So if I fear and dread recursions of 30s
> horrors, world depression, anti-union, the ghastly shape of Nazism
> appearing, the shape of Joseph McCarthy's witch-hunts, it's not going to
> help much with my projects of today, this week, etc.
>
> But coming back again and again to the present, the projects I am doing
> now, this week, this month, working out how to stay in contact with the
> players, get announcements out to the community, well, that is quite
> enough for me to do.  Since the kids are grown up and don't need me so
> much, I have to encourage young students to join clubs, have meetings,
> plan events.  Just have to stay busy ...
>
> But always coming back to General Systems Theory, and moving with the
> present, as a woman/mother/lover/teacher/faculty
> member/participant-observer, I value the exquisite mind of Ross Ashby
> and "requisite variety," which is what a viable system needs to survive,
> an environment which draws out the creative, which satisfies the hunger.
>   Permeable membranes and interface is how I see the interaction of
> nations and communities and teams and people and families and the cells
> in the body maintaining health.
>
> It is hard for me to check in or dive in with a word, but XMCA continues
> to be the best forum for my serendipities and synchronicities and
> reading of the news.  I'm still a GST person and keep my eye on Ervin
> Laszlow and the Budapest Club for international cooperative ventures in
> sustainable business, a benign transition to an age of ultra-technology,
> in which human communities can create harmonious dwellings,
> environmentally friendly renewable energy and so on.  I live in Japan
> and my brother's family members live in Germany.  Living in the present
> does not mean just today.  I see that it means progressing toward better
> education, better health, better food supply.  I still want to pay
> attention to Japan and Germany - and where ever people have learned that
> wholesome, calm work places, educational opportunities and intrinsic
> development, taking it easy and taking it slow, are altogether so much
> better than war, war, bombs, and military/industrial complex money blah,
> messing up the academy, truncating creativity, killing joyful work
> places. (But now I see that I am standing on a box in a park instead of
> getting on with my projects for today).
> Vandy
>
>
> 2016/04/25 9:29, mike cole wrote:
>> This is how Sanders represents himself in a way that appeals to a good
>> many
>> Americans. They do not
>> know what to call it and neither does he. I offer it as evidence about an
>> unusual phenomenon in American political life that feels to this dated
>> person a LOT like what I understand of the 1930's in this country. I come
>> from a line of premature anti-fascists and anti-racists (terrible
>> sexists)
>> who were firm believers in the first ammendment to the constitution of
>> the
>> US. What I see in this election is very disturbingly like what those
>> years
>> around my birth were all about.
>>
>> The result in that case was a massive world war and the beginning of the
>> atomic age.
>>
>> The result in this case?
>>
>> Who was  it you were asking me to vote for?
>>
>> mike
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: BernieSanders.com <info@berniesanders.com>
>> Date: Sat, Apr 23, 2016 at 4:14 PM
>> Subject: Verizon's greed
>> To: Michael Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>
>>
>>
>> [image: Bernie Sanders for President]
>>
>> When the CEO of a company makes almost $20 million a year but then
>> tries to
>> outsource jobs, reduce wages, and cut health benefits -- that's the
>> kind of
>> corporate greed we need to get rid of in America. *And that's exactly
>> what
>> Verizon is doing right now.*
>>
>> Verizon's employees are fighting back. They're out on strike for a
>> contract. *Stand with them against their CEO and add your name to
>> Bernie's
>> to say you support Verizon employees.
>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>*
>>
>>
>> Bernie's email to you about this very important issue about this is
>> below.
>> Thank you for standing in solidarity.
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Sisters and Brothers,
>>
>> The CEO of Verizon makes almost $20 million a year in compensation. He
>> leads one of the most profitable companies in the country.
>>
>> *Yet Verizon wants to take away employees' health benefits. Verizon wants
>> to outsource decent-paying jobs. Verizon wants to avoid paying federal
>> income tax. And right now, Verizon is refusing to sit down and
>> negotiate a
>> fair contract with its employees.*
>>
>> In other words, Verizon is just another major American corporation trying
>> to destroy the lives of working Americans. *But this time, Verizon's
>> employees are fighting back.*
>>
>> Thousands of very brave employees of Verizon and Verizon Wireless are on
>> strike until they can get a fair contract. They made a *very* difficult
>> decision that puts their families at risk -- but it's a choice they
>> made to
>> stand up for justice against corporate greed.
>>
>> *I'm asking you today to stand up and tell the CEO of Verizon that you
>> think Verizon employees deserve a fair contract that protects health
>> benefits, guarantees fair pay, and stops outsourcing. Click here to add
>> your name in support of Verizon employees.
>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>*
>>
>>
>> *Add Your Name »
>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>*
>>
>>
>> Twice last week in New York City I stood with Verizon workers in the
>> streets. I did so because they're doing something very brave: they're
>> standing up not just for themselves, but for the millions of Americans
>> who
>> don't have a union.
>>
>> The working class of this country deserves to earn decent wages, decent
>> benefits, and not see their jobs go to low-wage countries.
>>
>> Verizon's CEO doesn't think that. He called me "contemptible" for saying
>> that his employees need a fair contract, and that Verizon should pay its
>> fair share in federal income taxes.
>>
>> What I think is contemptible is CEOs with multi-million dollar
>> compensation
>> packages, presiding over extremely profitable companies, and still
>> refusing
>> to give their employees fair contracts.
>>
>> Corporate greed is a scourge on this country, and it will take all of us
>> standing up for justice in order to rein it in. *One significant way you
>> can stand up to corporate greed is by standing with Verizon employees who
>> are out on strike.*
>>
>> *Add your name and say you support Verizon employees who are standing
>> up to
>> the CEO in order to get a fair contract with health benefits, fair
>> pay, and
>> job protections.
>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>*
>>
>>
>> Corporate America is slowly beginning to realize that they cannot have it
>> all. Thanks for helping them know it.
>>
>> In solidarity,
>>
>> Bernie Sanders
>>
>> *Contribute
>> <https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/lets_go_bernie?refcode=em160423-verizon>*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Paid for by Bernie 2016
>>
>> [image: (not the billionaires)]
>>
>> PO Box 905 - Burlington VT 05402 United States - (855) 4-BERNIE
>>
>> This email was sent to lchcmike@gmail.com. If you need to update or
>> change
>> your information or email address, click here to update your info
>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/change-your-information?source=email_footer>.
>>
>> Email is one of the most important tools we have to reach supporters like
>> you, but you can let us know if you'd like to receive fewer emails
>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/fewer-emails?source=email_footer&email=lchcmike@gmail.com&zip=92075>.
>>
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>>
>> .
>>
>>
>>
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