Lakoff, Democracy Conversations and Dave Winer Podcast

Our March series on "Democracy Conversations" here in Seattle is focusing on George Lakoff's new book Thinking Points. Each week we get together to discuss two chapters -- we call it a "slow reading" group! Last night we also listened to a riveting podcast, an interview between blogging legend Dave Winer and Lakoff. For anyone seeking to understand exactly how Lakoff's philosophy of framing applies to real-life scenarios, the podcast, put together the day after the Texas-Ohio primaries, really nails it. It's one of the few podcasts I can think of where listening two or three times is worth it. Lakoff's concepts make so much sense that at first you think, "Oh yeah, I get that." But then, as you mull over his words, you find yourself understanding his subtlety and depth in new and exciting ways. Dave is a skillful interviewer, having a sixth sense about prompting Lakoff to explain more, or introduce a related topic that will give meaning to Lakoff's theories. (Dave has posted a full rundown on the podcast and response.)

Here's an example: It was interesting, reading Hillary-lover Paul Krugman's analysis this morning, where Krugman said Dems should focus on the economy instead of the war. Lakoff brilliantly notes in the podcast that Dems should be using the term "the Iraq recession." Two birds, one stone, and a memorable "sound bite" as well.

In his book, Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision, Lakoff says that we need to articulate our progressive vision in "grassroots groups all over America. Not just for the next election but indefinitely-- election or no election."

And that's what we're doing in our Democracy Conversations group here in Seattle. As part of our effort to build community and civic engagement in our neighborhood Phinney Ecovillage, we're coming together each Thursday night in the local library trying to learn from Lakoff how we can talk about the issues confronting us. Progressives need to take back the discussion about security, the economy, and patriotism and link these to a vision of America that says "we're all in this together" that the "important American values are empathy and responsibility," as Lakoff says.

Saint-Exupery, the author of Little Prince, said that "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."

We have to inspire in people a vision of a country committed to the common good.
And we need to learn to do it in our face to face conversations as we go through our day. Our assignment in our group: Talk to at least two people a day about these issues! As John Dewey said, "Democracy is born in conversation."

Kids Need Play, Not Commercialization

We're beginning to realize that playing is important for kids. It develops their imagination, their creativity, and now, something they call "self-regulation." A story on NPR's Morning Edition reports that something momentous happened in 1955 that no one really noticed: Companies started massive advertising for kids' toys. Since then, kids' play has become more and more involved with "things" instead of imagination.

Further, because of parents concern about safety, kids have less chance to roam freely. And finally, with our concern about achievement, both parents and teachers spend time trying to build cognitive skills so the kids can go to top colleges. Even the schools have cut back on recess to have time to prepare for all the tests.

To put it simply, psychologists have discovered that when kids don't play and build "self-regulation" -- the ability to learn from and control their emotions -- they have less self-discipline, less ability to pursue their goals.

The moral of the story is "Bring play back." This seems to be very important. But how will we adults react? "OK, you kids, I want you to spend the next hour playing, or you'll never get into Stanford." And if the kids are playing, the grownups can catch up on their work!

Obviously, unless adults learn to play, or experience leisure, the kids are not going to learn it. Kids learn from what their parents are doing. Leisure often looks like you're doing nothing in particular. Can adults still do that?

Can Starbucks Learn Local Is Beautiful?

The New York Times has a story about a local Kansas City coffeehouse forcing a neighboring Starbucks to pack it in.

"Next door, the Broadway Cafe was bustling. 'You win because of the coffee,' said Jon Cates, one of the owners..."

While coffee quality may be in the Broadway Cafe's favor, it's hardly the only reason coffeehouse lovers prefer the Broadway. This phenomenon is going on around Seattle, too, as places like Herkimer and Zoka and Louisa's gather in the caffeinated set while Starbucks scratches its head about what to do.

As the espresso version of a gas station, Starbucks may have enjoyed popularity for fuel 'n run types during the fast-lane boom of the '90s and early turn of the century. Starbucks outlets may get you on your way with a minimum of waiting -- there's even an Apple project to iPhone your order in so you don't have to do all that dreary standing in line -- but as such they don't really want customers tarrying over their double latte talls.

As we enter a new Slow Era, however, with a slowing economy and less insane lifestyle, coffee is returning to its roots as a linger-and-talk beverage. The coffeehouses that have lots of places to sit, a down-home atmosphere and plenty of people around will win over a Starbucks any time.

The irony in Seattle, of course, is that Starbucks actually is a "local" company. We can only hope Howard Schultz and his merry band of coffee purveyors get clued about changing times and demographics. Bigger stores, more lounging, a softer pace...will it work? Or is the "chain" reputation of Starbucks too entrenched to bring people back?

It's possible there are just too many coffeehouses, too, as my husband's "End of the Universe" (Lewis Black routine) video below shows:

"Slow Is Beautiful" Makes 'Notable Titles' List

Elliott Bay Book Co.'s Karen Maeda Allman sent along wonderful news today: Slow Is Beautiful has made the American Booksellers Association's "Shop Local Notable Titles" list. The list honors "informative titles on the importance of building and strengthening a vibrant local economy" and includes Bill McKibben's Deep Economy and Robert Putnam's Better Together, as well as my friend David Korten's The Great Turning. Thank you ABA!

The full list is available from BookWeb here. Note other titles from New Society Publishers, who published my book:

The New Village Green: Living Light, Living Local, Living Large, by Stephen Morris.

The Better World Handbook: Small Changes that Make a Big Difference, by Ellis Jones.

Great Neighborhood Book: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Placemaking, by Jay Walljasper.

Snow Means Slow

Have you noticed how much slower life becomes when snow hits in Seattle? Particularly striking is the lack of car traffic. It's as though three-fourths of car trips are entirely discretionary. Somehow even though all these people aren't driving around, the world doesn't come to a stop.

We need to treat more days as "snow days," where we focus on things that don't require getting into a car and driving around. It would help us slow down, but also would help save the planet.



My husband loves to ride his bike in the snow!

Social networking no substitute for in the flesh

New York Times ("Friending, Ancient or Otherwise") talks about the new “oral” culture in discussing on line social networks, quoting academics saying that this kind of communication is similar to tribal communication of the past. That we’re basically talking when we blog and text message. After running on like this for several lines, the author finally asks whether there is any credence to this, quoting another academic saying that the more time we spend online “talking,” the less time we spend really talking.

Yes, people may be communicating online, but let’s face it. Nothing is a substitute for the REAL THING! One of the themes in my book is about learning to tell the difference between real and counterfeit community. Television and malls comprise counterfeit community! Is social networking counterfeit community? Well, it’s not as bad as TV and malls, but it should be being used to get people to talk face to face.

In a time of disasters, gap needs shrinking

The “Slow” culture — one in which we have time to enjoy the things that matter –- requires a small gap between the rich and the poor. Yes, we can all live a little more simply and slow our pace, but to really live the “good” life , we need equality. A fresh example: In the Nov 17th issue of the Nation Naomi Klein (Shock Doctrine) writes about private companies like Blackwater who will provide services to the rich in times of emergency, like fires or terrorist attacks. She tells about how a private company sprayed fire retardant on some of the houses in the San Diego fire and she goes on to tell about other companies who will provide escape in private jets for disasters like Katrina. Of course it’s all very expensive. Obviously, when the rich get tax breaks, they can afford things like this, while the rest of us have to make do with reduced services of the government who have cut back because the rich aren’t paying their share of the taxes.

The invidious daisy chain of exploitation is currently on display in Lewis County here in Washington State. Record floods have devastated homes and businesses, but the average Joe and Jill is being hit far harder than Wal-Mart and Home Depot, and the logging companies that caused the destruction. In fact, logging companies not only get government subsidies but walk away from devastation without paying a nickel.

Perhaps the rich should be levied a "disaster tax" that would help pay for the public's recovery after the ruination of other people's lives that greed and arrogance cause.

When Traffic Is Too Slow to be Beautiful

Some slow things are not beautiful:

Drivers waste nearly an entire work week each year sitting in traffic on the way to and from their jobs according to the Texas Transportation Institute's 2007 Urban Mobility Report. The study concludes that drivers wasted 2.9 billion gallons of fuel while sitting in traffic. Together with the lost time, traffic delays cost the nation $78.2 billion, the study estimates.

The only way we’ll fix a problem in this country is to put it into the form of dollars. Maybe nobody considers our lost time important, but Americans do understand losing money.

Try to spread these figures around as you talk to people. Maybe someday the facts will wake us up!

To Understand Spying, The Film "Lives of Others"

A foreign film, "The Lives of Others," offers us a different kind of hero. In WWII's battle against Nazi fascism, a distinguished hero was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man put to death for being part of a plot to assassinate Hitler. Few of us feel that we could be that kind of hero. But maybe we could be the kind of hero depicted in this East German film, where a government agent chooses to "spy" without incriminating a popular writer, ultimately protecting the writer from being blacklisted and having his career destroyed.

The hero, the government spy, bears the consequences of his actions. And that seemed to be how the East German Police (Stasi) controlled people — by threatening to ruin their careers. In my book Slow Is Beautiful I discuss how this was also true during Hitler’s reign. Roger Gottlieb, in A Spirituality of Resistance, tells the stories of the "little men" in the Gestapo who obeyed orders for the sake of furthering their careers. Yes, he says, there were Jew haters, but most of the people just went along because they didn’t want to threaten their careers by not supporting the Nazis.

How many of us compromise for the sake of our careers? We may not be spying on others for the Bush administration, but we go along with things every day that are leading us to a nation with hollow freedoms and eroded well-being. How many times do we do questionable things because it would be good for our careers? Like working for corporations that support Bush or ruin the environment or pay low wages or cut people’s benefits. We’re not really bad people. We’re just not doing what we know is right.

Few of us can be Bonhoeffers, but maybe more of us can be a “little” hero, by finding small ways to be true to ourselves. The spy’s career in the East German civil service was ruined by his resistance, but in the end his life was redeemed.

Farmers Markets: Social Groceries

It’s clear that we must create a vibrant sustainable culture that resists the lethal corporate consumer culture. One of the most exciting things happening in this arena is the food revolution. As Michael Pollen writes about farmers markets, it’s not just that you get good food, but you also participate in community:

“We like what happens socially at the farmer’s market, which is quickly emerging as the new public square in this country. If you compare what happens in the aisles at the grocery store with the farmer’s market, think about what a world of difference that is. At the farmer’s market country meets city. Children are introduced to where their food comes from. People politic. They have petitions. They schmooze. It’s an incredibly vibrant space.”

Farmers markets reduce the use of energy from shipping food thousands of miles as well as contribute to people’s health with their fresh and organic food. I value the farmers markets for the lesson they teach Americans: How to hang out with each other for the sheer joy of it.

Enjoy Your Life, and Others Will Too

We’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves. People on the right are often filled with hate, but those of us on the left are angry or self-righteous a lot of the time. The best way to draw people into our movement is to welcome people and help them enjoy themselves. One of our longtime progressives, Barbara Ehrenreich, reminds us of that in her new book, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy.

She shows how essential collective joy is to us, as human beings, and how dancing always threatens those in power. Where are our liberal dances! Bring back rock and roll parties. Let’s scare the people in charge!

Catch Barbara's message in a New York Times piece.

Re-Localization: How It Comes Together

I just returned from our every-Sunday Ballard Farmers' Market where we got some salmon that was swimming yesterday (which makes you a little sad, really. I understand vegetarians!). We got some lettuce, carrots, and potatoes which were in the ground yesterday, and some eggs that were under chickens early this morning.

Then I came back home and settled down to a cup of tea from our local, independent herb/tea shop to read the current issue of Bob Banner’s wonderful publication, HopeDance. HopeDance is a newspaper, published every other month in San Luis Obispo, CA, that explores all things progressive and sustainable. This month’s issue is on the new localization movement.

(Or relocalization. Which is better, localization or relocalization? In some ways we’re returning to the past, but in other ways we’re creating something new.)

It’s an incredibly exciting issue, talking about all the things people are doing to revive our neighborhoods and local regions, everything from farmers' markets to shopping local.

It’s always nice to know you’re part of a larger movement, and localization is what we’re trying to do in Phinney Ecovillage. While some communities start with “issues,” like peak oil or shopping locally, we started with the “social” factor first. Our principal efforts are to bring people together to enjoy convivial conversation and to get to know their neighbors. Of course we focus on issues like global warming, peak oil, and shopping local, but our emphasis is always on community and congeniality. We like to call our little ecovillage "an oasis of conviviality."

In a way, these goals are harder in our neighborhood because it’s a very progressive area and people tend to see more value in coming out to hear an anti-war lecture than just getting together to talk with their neighbors.

But maybe getting to know your neighbors is the most radical step we can take, if “radical” means getting back to the roots. Maybe if we learn to care about our own species, we’ll learn to care about other species. If we learn community with each other, we can learn community with the Earth.

Of course global warming and peak oil will force us to return to the local because we cannot go on shipping things around the globe, using all that oil. But how much better if we create some models that work while we have a chance! The wonderful thing is that we’re not talking about bitter medicine here, but a leisurely, joyful way of life.

In any case, check our the May/June issue of HopeDance on (re)localization!

Time to Declare E-Mail Bankruptcy?

When I give talks on my book, Slow is Beautiful, I ask people what their time issues are. More and more people say it’s email. Finally, a way to deal with it has emerged: Send out a message telling everyone that you’re declaring e-mail bankruptcy and that you’re starting over anew.

I’ve also thought of leaving on my “out of office” message all the time. That way, no one expects an answer very soon, and as time passes, they’ll forget they ever sent you a message.

The polite thing might be to have an auto-response that says, “ I’m overwhelmed with email. Please accept my apology for not replying in a timely fashion.”

As a Washington Post article indicates, really important people are starting to get out of email altogether. Maybe not having email will be the new status indicator and everyone will follow suit and the problem will be solved!

Hi, I'm Joan and I'm a Workaholic

What do we do about our extreme working hours? Everything suffers: our health, our relationships, our civic engagement, our creativity, and even, eventually, the workplace. Americans have much worse health that Europeans and that brings absenteeism, turnover, and more mistakes to our workplaces. And what happens to kids?

How can Americans learn to think in terms of the long run instead of short term results?
Some of the people working 16 hour days claim they love it. But how long can they keep it up before they fall apart?

We need policies that give people shorter work hours, but this won’t happen until people demand it. Americans still don’t realize how important it is to have balance in life. We need a movement for a healthier work place. The Take Back Your Time movement is working for this.

Some people are starting to understand and have joined “workaholics anonymous.” Maybe the only way we can change is to join with others and tell our stories and to begin to gain strength from each other.

Keep On Talking to Change the World

On his 90th birthday, American philosopher, John Dewey said: “Democracy is born in conversation.” Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, said that the culture in which people talk to each other over the back fence is the culture in which people vote. Sociologist Etzioni said that social change is accomplished through a national conversation, where everyone is talking about something and a groundswell for change emerges.

Our goal, then, is to keep talking about climate change, declining happiness, long work hours, and all the other problems facing us. Try introducing these topics into the casual conversations you have throughout the day with people you talk to while you’re standing in a line or in some business interaction. I had a wonderful conversation the other day with a taxi driver about the environment. I mentioned global warming and then he talked about the honey bees dying off and I told him I’d read it wasn’t happening to the organic bees, but mainly the bees maintained by corporate agriculture where they pump them with antibiotics to make them grow larger, and nature’s way is thrown off.

It sure makes your day more interesting!

Working Too Many Hours: Flexibility Needed

The root of the problem of our time crisis is the workplace. We work too many hours. In the past, we got people’s attention when we told them that we work nine weeks more than the average European. But now that example isn’t going to work as well. Even though there is much evidence that the French 35-hour work week is successful by many criteria, the French have a new leader who opposes it. Maybe we should talk about “flexibility” in the workplace. A story posted on Tom Paine makes such a suggestion and presents a good argument.

"Workplace flexibility is about innovations in how work gets done. It includes flexibility in the scheduling of full-time hours, flexibility in the number of hours worked and the location of work, career flexibility with multiple points for exit and re-entry into the work force and the flexibility to address unexpected and ongoing personal and family needs.

"The implementation of flexible workplaces can be achieved without sacrificing employers' strategic business and organizational objectives. It does not have to mean businesses suffer. In fact, groups from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to Corporate Voices for Working Families maintain that flexible workplace arrangements can help businesses recruit and retain employees."

Many professionals already have some flexibility, although not often in the length of working weeks. But so many people think we can’t have laws that give us a longer vacation or a shorter work day, that talking about flexibility might be the foot in the door.

Kurt Vonnegut, the Archetypal Scamp, Dies

Kurt Vonnegut died last night, about the same time we were discussing him in our book group, Santoro's Subversive Salon (a name he surely would have liked).

Vonnegut had a moral clarity that separated the true meaning of life from the horrific noise of marketing, overwork and racing around. In my book I call him the ultimate scamp, ending Slow Is Beautiful with an anecdote about his leisurely approach (loafing) to his day:

"...how he still works on an old typewriter and then calls up a woman who types a fresh copy and then goes out to the stationery store and then to the post office, talking and visiting with people as he goes along. His wife (Jill Krementz) tells him that he's being silly for not getting a computer — he could just type his story up and send it off and save himself a lot of trouble. No, he retorts: 'And I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different'."

Words to live by, and afterward. Thank you Kurt, wherever you are.

Finland: Small Wealth Gap Equals Better Schools

US News & World Report in its March 26-April 2 issue focused on what we can learn from the rest of the world. One short article talked about how Finland has some of the best schools on the planet. Finnish 15-year-olds score at the top in reading and math and science in international rankings. They’re also top in literacy. The US, on the other hand, is way down the list about 18th, 22nd, and 28th, respectively. Finland also has the smallest gap between the best and weakest students, and is number two in gaps between between schools.

The article talks about what Finnish schools have done to bring this about. For one, teaching has high prestige, up there with doctors and lawyers. Classes are small. And one of the most interesting facts is that there are no “honors” classes or “college prep” classes. Finland got rid of the class system differentiating vocational and college-bound schools and created comprehensive schools where even the learning-disabled are in the same classes as all the rest.

What this article fails to note is that it isn’t just what the schools are doing, but what the society as a whole is doing. Finland has the smallest gap between rich and poor of any nation, and its social safety net is one of the most generous. Finns have an average of 30 days of paid vacation, and of course national health care. Finland has also been ranked by the World Economic Forum as the most competitive nation in terms of economics. In other words, they’re doing well.

The performance of the schools shows that equality works best. The schools aren’t just doing well because there are small classes, but because of the small wealth gap. Teaching has prestige because it isn’t at the bottom of the pay scale in the professions.

As I say in my book, the gap between the rich and the poor is the biggest predictor of the health of a nation, and now we can see it is also one of the biggest predictors of educational achievement.

Bichons Against Bush! Slow Protests against the War

My husband Paul took some video at our Seattle peace march Saturday, focusing on our bichon Maggie and her new friend Whistler! along with our friends in the Phinney Neighbors for Peace and Justice.

It was a "Slow March!" Central to the Slow life are community, leisure, and joie de vivre. Most people don't expect that you can experience these things at a protest march, but this video shows that that's exactly what you can do. It was not a grim affair, notice all the poochies for peace and smiling faces. There was a lot of hope, even in the face of an unyielding administration.

To my mind this video captures the event better than any of the news stories, with their disinterested (and uninteresting) focus on police control and headcounts. In their efforts to be unbiased or objective or whatever term they want to apply, mainstream journalists also become dessicated stenographers of meaningless factoids, "reporting" but not thinking or actively writing. If they're as bored with their jobs as their dispatches make them appear, they should find a line of work that inspires and invigorates them — and leave real journalism to people who care about the truth, humanity and justice.




Slow Life Slow Food voluntary simplicity Cecile Andrews Take Back Your Time green lifestyle Slow Is Beautiful simple living ecovillage phinney ecovillage

Limo'd Schoolkids and the Damage Done

In a recent New York Times article we learned a little more about how our growing gap between the rich and the rest of us is affecting our way of life. The story told of the children being dropped of at the prestigious 92nd St. Y Nursery school. It’s the same school we heard of a few years ago where “in 2002, a government investigation found that Jack B. Grubman, then an analyst with Citigroup, had bragged in an e-mail message that his boss, Sanford I. Weill, had helped get his twins into the Y’s nursery school after Mr. Grubman upgraded his rating on a stock as a favor to Mr. Weill. Meanwhile, Mr. Weill arranged for Citigroup to donate $1 million to the 92nd Street Y.”

In the current story, kids are dropped off at the school by “hired drivers” (otherwise known as chauffeurs). Apparently this “driver” experience has become a real game about who is more important and who has more money.

The letters to the editor the next few days, had some astute comments. As one said: “These parents scramble to give their kids the best opportunities and the most protected environment, yet with one-upmanship, they teach their children the value of image, class consciousness and materialism. These are not the traits necessary to get us through the challenges of the 21st century. What about compassion, honesty, humility, selflessness and curiosity about th world around them?”

It’s interesting to realize again that children learn from their parents. When they see their parents so concerned about success and status, they learn that these are the things to pursue. Happiness research shows that when people pursue status, they become more narcississtic which, in turn, undermines their social abilities. And it is social abilitities, the talent for making friends and connecting with others that brings people the most well being in life.

Slow Life Slow Food voluntary simplicity Cecile Andrews Take Back Your Time green lifestyle Slow Is Beautiful simple living ecovillage phinney ecovillage