The following was posted on the LinkedIn Cisco group. Yet it may just as readily apply for any company around the world. Those that grow unsustainably and then rapidly collapse, readily purging employees to survive. Please feel free to share your thoughts.
Me and 10,000 of my closest friends were "given the package" in 2001. Then the entire world economy was shocked by the 9/11 disasters. Since then, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the loss of control of the economy have made sure that the stock prices of 2000 have never returned to Cisco.
Yet even before all those crises, Cisco had the layoff.
Cisco is not alone. Corporation after corporation grows beyond its bounds and lays off 10%, like Yahoo last week, or sheds 50% or more of their employees. Or implodes entirely and goes belly-up. Enron anyone?
What causes corporate bulemia? The gorging of 1,000 employees in a merger, only to vomit out 800 of them as needless "overhead." The binge/purge cycle of employees as "food" or "fuel" of companies.
Leviathan swallows all, like Jonah and the Whale. Are the lucky ones those who stay swallowed, remaining inside the corporation after such traumatic layoffs, stressed out to try to make up for the empty chairs and cubicles of entire teams no-longer extant, or those who are vomited forth, left bereft and shipwrecked on the shores of unemployment? "Should I stay or should I go now?" asked the Clash. Thus I ask you as well.
What causes corporate bulemia in the first place? What exacerbates it? Specifically focus on Cisco as a case study, or compare it to other employment experiences you have had. What can be done to make corporate growth and long-term employment more stable and wholesome?
HR theories, business school pablum, clever cybernetic diagrams, and ideal states may be readily tossed out the window. What really works? What is sane and rational. Really.
I'd be interested in your replies. If you would prefer to reply privately, my contact information is below.
-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Uncertainty of the Ocean
Roz "You cannot NOT know it once you know it" (Quote re ocean wisdom from rower Mick Bird, after several glasses of wine on Friday night). via Twitter - 3 Comments
Once we know any thing, it alters and changes, as do all things. As does our memories and knowledge over time. Divide by Delta-t for change over time, factor in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. We may claim to know things, past, present, or predicate future. Yet mystery remains.
Also we are mere humans. We forget. So very easily at times. Many people learn truths and then go back to bed. Only those who are 100% robotic will remember everything perfectly. Others will drift back to the dreaming. For them it never was, or never really mattered.
That is why the ocean always surprises. It is as it has been for billions of years. Yet it is never the same.
As Clio knows, history is a magical, miraculous thing. We may have a great knowledge of the present and the past. Yet certain events may come along to alter facts or profundity of the past. Perhaps that's the value of the "cannot NOT know it." Realizations. New data. Mm!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Phase of the Moon
Ever have that expression about uncertainty? Tonight is the New Moon. A time for changes in life. By the time you read this, I am uncertain what phase the moon will be.
Let's do a little experiment. Tell me what phase the moon is in when you look at it.
It tells me this:
The new, 28.7 day old moon, 0.8% lit:Then it has some facts about the upcoming Full Moons and New Moons.
| Full Moon (GMT) | |
|---|---|
| Last: | Oct 14 at 8:04 PM |
| Next: | Nov 13 at 6:19 AM |
| Dec 12 at 4:38 PM | |
| Jan 11 at 3:27 AM | |
| New Moon (GMT) | |
|---|---|
| Last: | Sep 29 at 8:13 AM |
| Next: | in 21 hrs and 14 mins |
| Nov 27 at 4:55 PM | |
| Dec 27 at 12:23 PM | |
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
How I Met John Chambers
This letter was a reply to Jim Morris, Dean of Carnegie Mellon West’s campus.
John Chambers is a good guy.
I've known him for a long while. We painted Costaño School in East Palo Alto long before it's modern renovation. Back in 1994, that's how I met him. We were painting the school - Betsy, John and myself.
Over a Tom Sawyeresque litany of brushstrokes, I said something to Betsy about my ongoing work with the Federal government and the special processes they require. She had taken over Canada from me, and I was informing her about DPAS-rated orders, DD250s and GSA schedules.
That's when John started to giggle. I wasn't sure why he was giggling. So I emphasized again how the Feds have a lot of extra paperwork other people are spared from filling out. Not quite sure why he was smiling so broadly, I asked, "Ever done business with the Federal government?"
And with that kid-like grin, in his unmistakable West Virginian accent -- almost-but-not-quite like the Pittsburgh accent -- he said, "Why yes I have."
We shared a smile, and there was an understanding between the two of us. That's when I remembered my manners, begged an apology we hadn't introduced ourselves yet, took time to exhange names and shook his hand.
He's sneaky like that. Doing good deeds. Giggling about things he overhears. Only then introducing himself.
:)
-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134
John Chambers is a good guy.
I've known him for a long while. We painted Costaño School in East Palo Alto long before it's modern renovation. Back in 1994, that's how I met him. We were painting the school - Betsy, John and myself.
Over a Tom Sawyeresque litany of brushstrokes, I said something to Betsy about my ongoing work with the Federal government and the special processes they require. She had taken over Canada from me, and I was informing her about DPAS-rated orders, DD250s and GSA schedules.
That's when John started to giggle. I wasn't sure why he was giggling. So I emphasized again how the Feds have a lot of extra paperwork other people are spared from filling out. Not quite sure why he was smiling so broadly, I asked, "Ever done business with the Federal government?"
And with that kid-like grin, in his unmistakable West Virginian accent -- almost-but-not-quite like the Pittsburgh accent -- he said, "Why yes I have."
We shared a smile, and there was an understanding between the two of us. That's when I remembered my manners, begged an apology we hadn't introduced ourselves yet, took time to exhange names and shook his hand.
He's sneaky like that. Doing good deeds. Giggling about things he overhears. Only then introducing himself.
:)
-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Electoral Vote in 2008
I love, love, love, love Electoral-Vote.com.
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
Watch this site.
Know this site.
Election after election, this site has the best aggregate analysis for the US Presidential Elections process.
The news may be tough at times to watch. Yet this is the place I have found the best state-by-state and national coverage.
The fate of the planet rests in this next election. 305,465,225 million Americans.
They will vote on many issues, including the fate of their neighbors. Because only those with the right to vote can cast their ballot on behalf of the disenfranchised. Right now, in the United States, the “land of the free,” we are growing the rate of disenfranchised people. Those unable-to-vote within the borders of the United States are somewhere north of 23-39.5 million people. This includes:
Thus the range of undocumented Americans is very difficult to establish. It wasn’t so long ago that we thought the number was far lower. The undocumented immigrant population was thought to be only 5-6 million as recently as the year 2000.
The 2000 Census totally shattered that perception. The number was revised rapidly to 8.5 million. The US population count of 281.4 million was surprisingly off by 5-7 million people. That’s the equivalent of misplacing the entire Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Or everyone in the region of Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington.
The more the numbers are analyzed, the more we realize how complex the problem is, and the less sure we are of exactly how many people there are in the country. Or what we should do about it.
Yet, if we consider 23-39.5 million people living in the United States are unable to vote, consider your own enfranchisement. That’s anywhere between 7.5% - 13% of the population in the United States unable to vote. Your vote will count for yourself, and for these people also.
I always recall that rallying cry, “No taxation without representation.” This was what sparked our own American Revolution. The basic right to vote, and the value that vote has, and the ramification your vote results in — all of these are important, urgent issues. They can each easily become a major crisis in the coming century.
So this year, make sure to get out to vote. Consider what democracy is, and what it means to you, and to your neighbors, and to the world, here and now in the 21st Century.
Thank you.
-Pete.
p.s. Remember to check out Electoral-Vote.com!
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
Watch this site.
Know this site.
Election after election, this site has the best aggregate analysis for the US Presidential Elections process.
The news may be tough at times to watch. Yet this is the place I have found the best state-by-state and national coverage.
The fate of the planet rests in this next election. 305,465,225 million Americans.
They will vote on many issues, including the fate of their neighbors. Because only those with the right to vote can cast their ballot on behalf of the disenfranchised. Right now, in the United States, the “land of the free,” we are growing the rate of disenfranchised people. Those unable-to-vote within the borders of the United States are somewhere north of 23-39.5 million people. This includes:
- ±3.9 million convicted felons
- 12.1 million legal permanent resident (LPR) aliens
- 7-20 million illegal immigrants, as well as…
- 123,000 - 3.5 million homeless and disaffected citizens.
Thus the range of undocumented Americans is very difficult to establish. It wasn’t so long ago that we thought the number was far lower. The undocumented immigrant population was thought to be only 5-6 million as recently as the year 2000.
The 2000 Census totally shattered that perception. The number was revised rapidly to 8.5 million. The US population count of 281.4 million was surprisingly off by 5-7 million people. That’s the equivalent of misplacing the entire Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Or everyone in the region of Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington.
The more the numbers are analyzed, the more we realize how complex the problem is, and the less sure we are of exactly how many people there are in the country. Or what we should do about it.
Yet, if we consider 23-39.5 million people living in the United States are unable to vote, consider your own enfranchisement. That’s anywhere between 7.5% - 13% of the population in the United States unable to vote. Your vote will count for yourself, and for these people also.
I always recall that rallying cry, “No taxation without representation.” This was what sparked our own American Revolution. The basic right to vote, and the value that vote has, and the ramification your vote results in — all of these are important, urgent issues. They can each easily become a major crisis in the coming century.
So this year, make sure to get out to vote. Consider what democracy is, and what it means to you, and to your neighbors, and to the world, here and now in the 21st Century.
Thank you.
-Pete.
p.s. Remember to check out Electoral-Vote.com!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Ads By Google Irony
I posted my letter to Joe Biden. What came up?
Ads by Google Anti Terrorism. US Terrorism. Why Terrorism. Terrorism Acts.Joe Biden —> Terrorism
The invocation of the US Democratic Vice Presidential candidate results in the word “terrorism” according to Google.
Guilt by association?
What an utterly useless piece of technology. Or a tremendously devious, clever bit of propaganda.
My Letter to Joe Biden, 16 October 2008
On Oct 16, 2008, at 11:07 AM, Joe Biden wrote:
Who knows? He’s a regular guy. He could have read my blog, or gotten my email from one of the articles I wrote for Global Understanding. Never know. Right?
But as I read it, I realized this was a form letter written on his behalf. Maybe he did write it. But I doubt he went to his email address list and pulled my name out specifically and sent it to me personally. It wasn’t really a reality check. It was a virtuality check.
The virtual Joe was ending up my real email box. Spam? Or an opportunity to pontificate?
When given a choice, since I was named after the first pope, I took the chance to proselytize. Here’s my letter to Joe Biden:
Peter --Hrm. Reality check? At first, I thought Joe Biden himself really did write to me. I mean, really.
Anyone who tells you this election is already decided is dead wrong. Let's not forget the 2000 election, when Al Gore was up by double digits in October.
The surest way to lose a race is to slow down with the finish line in sight.
We're taking no chances. We've planned the biggest get out the vote operation in history, and we need to make sure that every voter has their voice heard.
That's why we've set the goal of bringing in 100,000 new donors by Friday at midnight.
Your donation today will match that of a fellow supporter, encouraging them to step up and own a piece of this campaign.
Will you make a donation of $250 or more today and double your impact?
This campaign has fought for every inch, and now is not the time to take anything for granted.
To get out the vote, we need to knock on hundreds of thousands of doors and make even more phone calls.
This campaign has built the largest field operation in history, and we need to mobilize it in these remaining days to get every single voter to the polls on Election Day.
Because that's what it comes down to -- counting every last vote.
Make a matching donation today to make certain that when everything is on the line, we are stronger than ever:
https://donate.barackobama.com/promise
We've come too far to hold back now.
Thank you for everything you're doing,
Joe
Paid for by Obama for America
This email was sent to: petercorless@mac.com
To unsubscribe, go to: http://my.barackobama.com/unsubscribe
Who knows? He’s a regular guy. He could have read my blog, or gotten my email from one of the articles I wrote for Global Understanding. Never know. Right?
But as I read it, I realized this was a form letter written on his behalf. Maybe he did write it. But I doubt he went to his email address list and pulled my name out specifically and sent it to me personally. It wasn’t really a reality check. It was a virtuality check.
The virtual Joe was ending up my real email box. Spam? Or an opportunity to pontificate?
When given a choice, since I was named after the first pope, I took the chance to proselytize. Here’s my letter to Joe Biden:
Joe,
Dude, here's your own reality check.
I just gave $100 yesterday. By debit card.
I gave some sort of similar amount already before. I also gave money to the DNC when they called.
So far, I am a "three-fer." There is such a thing as "donor fatigue" though. Perhaps you might want to stop going back to the well?
As me for my TIME. Not just my money.
You see, Joe (and Barack), I am self-employed, while drawing no salary. AT ALL. From ANYONE.
It has been this way since 2001 when I got laid off from Cisco Systems, Inc. I had plenty of savings and stocks at the time. Over the past seven years of the Bush Administration, I have had my own "Great Depression." My own startup businesses failed repeatedly. My own relationships ended not-so-happy as I would have hoped. I still have no children of my own. I still have no wife. I had a bit of struggling income, so I could put "self-employed" down and mean it for a few months in 2006.
Other than that? Not much.
Fortunately after leaving Cisco, I had some of my own money to fall back on. I did "alright" even as others have suffered even worse than me. I sold my house in 2001 after being laid off. I just slowly wound down my businesses and liquidated my inventory.
I have been waiting for the times to change ever since George W. Bush got into office. Times began to change earlier this year. When I saw Barack Obama campaign, I started doing a lot of new things. I am fired up. I am ready to go. I am already going.
However, I am STILL functionally "occupied but drawing no salary." Which means, I have business cards but no customers. I have expenses but no income. I am professionally busy but economically unemployed.
• No unemployment checks
• No disability
• No financial assistance
• No family or friends to bail me out
I am still putting the plans on a few different business operations. Tossing out ideas to see which ones I can get funded.
Where is the money in 2008?
Rapidly leaving my pocket.
To keep friends from going homeless. To help get a new administration into office. To pay for gas to go see friends who have lost their loved ones to cancer, or to help see those suffering from illness, or to sit on the board of a non-profit that is trying to get information to cancer sufferers and those who support them.
I have put my time and money into different causes, Joe. The environment. Suicide prevention. Clean technology. Public radio. My local church, where I sing in the choir and work with the teens.
Right now, I want to make a difference in the world. A change.
Is giving you $250 going to have an ROI for me? Really, Joe. Shouldn't I save that for my own rent? Food? Perhaps the salaries of a new part-time employee?
Do you NEED my money right now Joe?
What do you want it for? How would it be disbursed?
Why not I just keep it and spend $250, or the equivalent thereof, helping out the campaign?
That would be the equivalent of 12.5 hours of my time @ $20 per hour. I used to be worth $40, or, for other jobs, $100.
12.5 hours you can have. Freely! The $250 of capital? That's asking a lot now. At least until I get some better financial security behind me. Otherwise you are driving me towards homelessness just to get elected.
So, my suggestion is:
• Have these email spam-o-grams get personalized to recognize the up-to-the-minute contributions of voters, so you...
• Don't piss them off with form letters.
• Don't even send them if you have already been hitting them up in the past week
• If you have a reasonable feeling they are hurting really badly economically, or...
• Ask them for their time and energy if they feel, for whatever reason, cannot give money, or *more* money right now.
Meanwhile, Joe, my best hope for my new enterprises is the Global Understanding Institute. You should come and check it out.
http://GlobalUnderstandingInstitute.org
Last night after everyone else was asleep, I did an analysis of Barack Obama and John McCain's performance in their final debate. Interesting results. Not typical for debate analysis.
Joe, I am not asking for a handout. I am willing to work my butt off till all hours of the night to get work done.
But STOP hitting people up for more money when they are going flat broke. You need their votes now, Joe. Not their money. Votes are based on the voluntary garnering of FREE WILL, not burdening people with FINANCIAL COST.
Especially after I've given you three times already.
When we are in an economic hole right now, we need to be FRUGAL. Not keep throwing more money at the problem. Use brains. Email is free. Use it WISELY.
Engage people in social discourse. Take time to LISTEN to them. Not just ask for money.
You'll see me down at the campaign office, Joe. I did a lot of research last night on how the McCain campaign differs from the Obama campaign. Updated and added footnotes for Jeffery so he can fact check. Apparently they don't take my word for it. Hunh. Go figure. Apparently they trust my money "In God We Trust," but they can't trust that I'd do a good job doing fact-checking on McCain policy.
So far, they haven't paid me a red cent, either. So I'm not sure where the money is going anyway.
People are so wrapped up about the money of politics that they are sort of losing sight of the politics of politics. It's about votes. Not dollars. And hitting people up for too many dollars, makes their wallets close. Makes their smiles turn to frowns. Makes them feel like they are just being used.
Joe, don't just use me as your banker.
Tell me some facts. Tell me some figures. If I think you're doing a great job, if I know something specific I can help with, maybe then I'll take out my wallet.
However, I did get a good meal out of it last night. And the debate? Priceless! Best political experience I have ever had in my life.
I guess that was worth a $100 ticket. It was the show of a lifetime.
But please, try to find a way to not just "cold call" all your supporters Joe. Technologically recognize the contributions I made already. INCLUDING JUST YESTERDAY FOR $100.
Otherwise you'll come off like a spoiled kid asking daddy for money for more toys you don't need, while he's realizing the mortgage is going belly-up. And he looks around at all the toys you just opened and aren't playing with.
Penny wise, pound foolish.
Help me out, Joe. Really. Read this reality check in reply.
If you actually do. If this ACTUALLY gets to Joe Biden himself and he reads it?
Maybe then, Joe, I'd open that wallet and give $250. Because I want you to care, PERSONALLY, about what I am going through. And have gone through, and others like me in Silicon Valley ever since 2001. And across the country. Or, maybe, Joe, you'd read this letter, and you'd say, "No need, Pete. Put your wallet away. We'll find a way to do this on the cheap. Frugally. We don't REALLY need $250. Just show up to vote, and bring a few friends."
Until I hear back, Joe, you may find me now and then up at the Palo Alto office. Yesterday was my first day there. Finally found it. It's in a hole-in-the-wall. Drove past it a lot. If you come out here, please call me and I'll clear my day to chat to you or Barack.
Best wishes, Joe. Hope to hear back. Call me!
-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)
p.s. When you do take donations over the phone, please, PLEASE, have the courtesy to send a bumper sticker or a button or something substantial if someone requests it. Drove me nuts that they kept wanting my Visa card number, but they couldn't even get me a bumper sticker. The office took care of it yesterday. Very good people!
2008 US Presidential Debate Analysis
In the most recent posting to the Global Understanding Institute’s web site, I did my best to put aside partisan politicking to analyze the speaking styles of Barack Obama and John McCain from a more pure, mechanical processing and study of their English language use.
I got this idea first for the Clinton candidacies. I would just run the static analysis of Microsoft Word over speeches made by candidates. The results were often rather illuminating.
This year, I thought it would make for a good tool to study the linguistic styles of the two main front-runners.
Enjoy!
-Pete.
I got this idea first for the Clinton candidacies. I would just run the static analysis of Microsoft Word over speeches made by candidates. The results were often rather illuminating.
This year, I thought it would make for a good tool to study the linguistic styles of the two main front-runners.
Enjoy!
-Pete.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
My Causes
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) - Walked the Overnight in San Francisco 2006, Walked Out of the Darkness 27 September 2008. Even after these walks to raise awareness and funds, I lost a friend to suicide in early 2008. And even now, suicide-homicide remains a key tactical obsession of the Taliban and Al Qaida fighters of Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Pakistan. If we cannot change the mind of people to stay alive, they will pull the temple down upon all our heads, like the outraged Biblical character Sampson.
• San Jose Firefighters Burn Foundation - Silver commitment to purchase of 20 tickets @ $10 ea = $200; helps purchase new equipment for Valley Medical Center Burn Unit, plus a Campership program to allow children burn victims to spend time in the outdoors to recover from their injuries through natural activities.
• KQED San Francisco 88.5 FM - I pay for free public radio.
• KALW 91.7 Local Public Radio - I pay for even more free public radio.
• Greenpeace - Classified as a “terrorist” organization in some countries. Also has a seat on the United Nations General Assembly. Therefore, the only “terrorist” organization officially supported by the U.N. I have a brand-new blog there too, yet as a placeholder mostly to just pull people back to my existing blogs. Yet, apparently, I am now a Greenpeace Personal Activist, with a potential Network. I’d love to strike up a long and productive partnership with this organization.
• Clean Water Action - No human can live more than a week without this substance. Shy of “air,” and “a surface area to reside on safely,” both of which you can’t really live without for more than a few mere minutes, there is no more precious commodity for our collective survival than water.
• Environment California (part of CALPIRG, supported by Fund for the Public Interest) - Because California has a lot of environment, and I love to enjoy it.
• Equal Rights Campaign (part of CALPIRG, supported by Fund for the Public Interest) - Because we are all humans and should be treated as such.
• GAIA (Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance) - Dedicated to saving lives in Africa, these people are trying to stem the tide of human casualties caused by the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. In some countries, AIDS has only decreased because large swaths of the population have died off from chronic illness and eventual breakdown of their bodies due to the disease. The infection rate only went down because an entire generation of carriers of the virus finally died. Yet some are doing all they can to combat the virus through ABC programs: Abstinence, Be Faithful, and use Condoms. Others have tried to say “AB,” but when you leave out the “C,” AIDS has tended to come back strong. Ipso facto, condoms, though uncomfortable to address and politically touchy, actually work to save lives. GAIA needs help to keep policies and programs effective for the communities they serve. They need assistance to make sure they can do their jobs. Read more about the scope of the problem. Also know that this is not just an “over there” issue. AIDS is a worldwide program. So help them keep it from getting any worse.
• Mama Maria Kenya - A clinic opened on the shores of Lake Victoria to help the people of Kenya survive and grow and learn. I sang in the U2Charist for the benefit of Peter Kithene’s clinic, and I call him my brother. I sang the songs of U2 in a form of mass. I was the only male cantor in the group of performers. Not that I am particularly very good. Yet it was very good that I sang. Peter is the survivor of deadly disease and deprivation which nearly wiped out his whole family. He, as a boy, survived and became the head of his household at the age of 12. He saw how education was the way to escape from his condition. It was the key to unlock the chains of poverty over all his family and his village and the people of his nation. Now, he runs a clinic, to help keep alive other children and other mothers and fathers. So that others do not need to suffer the same crisis of life-and-death he had to face himself. I am glad that Peter calls me his brother. I wish some days I took him up on his offer to come to see him in Africa. If you go to visit him in Kenya, give him my best.
• Education Project for Sudanese Refugees in Northern Kenya - Peter Nyok is my Sudanese brother. He is working to afford school for orphans and very poor children in Sudan and Kenya. Peter is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. A Christian from the southern part of the country, he is very kind and yet very quiet. His English is not polished, yet his kindness very true. He is from Bor, four hours outside of Juba, downstream (north) of it on the Nile. The problems of Sudan as myriad. Many people know of the crisis and conflict of Darfur, in the west. Yet the southern, predominantly black ethnic and Christian spiritual south has come repeatedly into direct conflict with the Arabic/Muslim culture Khartoum government and community. Over 4 million southern Sudanese have been displaced, either internally or forced into exile. Peter is one of these people. The recent pirated Ukranian ship held in Somalia has a shipment of dozens of tanks bound for southern Sudanese rebel groups seeking to strengthen themselves against the Muslim Sudanese government of Omar Al-Bashir. Yet Peter is not involved with fighting anything or anyone but children’s poverty and lack of education. I bought a mobile sculpture of painted wooden birds. Look for his handcrafts. Invite him to visit. If we are to win anything, it should be the survival of a new way of life for these children, lived in peace, learning and wisdom.
• The Translation Project - Niloufar Talebi is my Iranian sister. Ever since seeing the play on words implicit in her volume of translations of Iranian poetry from around the world — BELONGING — I have been longing to better understand the psyche and spirit of the Iranian diaspora community. Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and even before that, when I first became aware of the SAVAK by way of a 1976 60 Minutes exposé on the problems in the nation of Iran, I have worried about U.S. and Iranian relations. Before the 1973 OPEC Oil Crisis, the United States had hoped to be Iran’s ally in opposition to a Soviet-backed hegemony over the Middle East. Egypt, Syria, Iraq — Nasser’s almost-potent bloc — fell apart and never formed a lasting United Arab Republic. Israel set aside differences with Jordan. I remember the SPI game Oil War as a boy. Iran and the United States were supposed to be allies. That is what that game taught me. We were supposed to all be allies. Yet disasters heaped on disasters. Lebanon imploded and then turned into a black hole, a carcass fought over between Syria and Israel. The U.S.-sponsored Islamic Middle East states, from Saudi Arabia to Iran, could not set aside their own differences. Internally each of these nations was trying to dictatorially form modern nation-states out of tribal organizations dating back centuries if not millennia. Iran and Iraq then went into a tooth-and-nail war as miserable and nearly as pointless and just as bloody as World War I. Poison gas was employed. Trench warfare. Yet also modern weapons far more terrible than what were known to the soldiers of the Marne, Verdun and the Somme. For some reason, the plight of Iran has always plagued me. While others provocate for war with Iran, I have always thought the greatest tragedy was that we understand them so very little. We treat them as aliens. The same in return. It is far too easy to misconstrue the Farsi. It is far too easy to brand us the Great Shatan. We are far more than mere caricatures. There is a deeper possibility for love between our cultures and our peoples. There is far more to be gained from cooperation in the 21st Century than from any horrific conflict. So when I heard Niloufar was to speak in Mountain View, at Books, Inc. on Castro Street, I knew she, and her work, were important. I showed up to listen to her. I went to hear her and the other performers of Icarus/Rise in San Francisco. I hope to meet with her again in the future. She is a refugee. She represents the voices and sensibilities of an international, cosmopolitan, modern community which is still also grounded in very ancient, tribal, and primal forces and beliefs. I believe she, as a poetess, and a translator of poets, has far more to tell us about the Iranian mindset than any politician. Listen to her, and you may come to understand what I mean.
• Obama/Biden - Barack is intelligent, sober, and thoughtful. Which is apparently why so many people dislike him. He acts civilized, and so people want to mock him for his speech patterns, his gestures, his very mode of being. For me, two smart cookies in Barack and Joe is the way to go. However, I wish they got me a bumper sticker. Really. They called up asking for a second round of money, after I had already given. “Where’s my bumper sticker?” How can you ask me for another $100 if you can’t even give me a bumper sticker? Somehow, Clinton/Gore knew how to do this well. I had that bumper sticker on my Toyota Corolla for years. My Saturn still is lacking the proper political branding for the season. Has been for months. Barack, call me to apologize if you can get me a bumper sticker. I won’t even ask for a refund for my donation.
• Al Franken - He’s not in my state. Yet I feel it is important to donate to him so he can win in his own state. He’s tooth-and-nail in his battle. I think Al is a genuinely decent guy, even if he comes off a bit smart-alecky and even smarmy at times. His books were the first blow from the left to really get intellectual and factual in the counteroffensive against the radical right-wing. Hence, I believe he is a good spokesperson for what I would call the “pragmatic liberal” agenda. The Jon Stewart Democrats. The Colbert Report demographic. The “nationalization of state politics” in this particular election race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman was cited all the way back in January 2008, when it was seen that 63% of donations for the candidates were coming from out-of-state. Yes, I am one of them.
• Democratic National Committee (DNC) - I gave, yet I’d have been really happy if they got me an Obama bumper sticker. I also want them to consider opening the party so it is non-exclusive. Allow people to vote in the Democratic primary and also the Green party primary. Exclusivity seems really passe, especially with smaller single-issue, or specific-portfolio-of-issues parties in the world. I prefer the Greens on a few specific issues. I even like Libertarians on specific issues. I might even be willing to say I admire a few Republican issues. Yet none of these parties can really say they “represent” my specific interests. The Democrats are just “close,” as in scoring at horseshoes. No ringers. And, sadly, still no bumper sticker.
• Global Understanding Institute - I am pouring a lot of money into my own cause. It is not filed as a 501(c)(3) yet, so I can’t in good conscience ask you for the same commitment as I have. Unless you really want to get involved. If so, then call me and I can work with you on how you can help out. The projects I am working on now are myriad and growing. Some of these are already known. Others are just now getting organized. Others we have not yet inked the project plans or budgets for.
What are your favorite causes? What causes do you think I am supporting you would wish to get involved in? Which causes am I not supporting you wish I did get more actively involved in? What causes do I support that just drive you batty? Why in particular? How can we agree to disagree?
-Pete.
p.s. I will add more links over time. I just have to get some other work done. The time is 2:29 AM. Sleep well, folks.
• San Jose Firefighters Burn Foundation - Silver commitment to purchase of 20 tickets @ $10 ea = $200; helps purchase new equipment for Valley Medical Center Burn Unit, plus a Campership program to allow children burn victims to spend time in the outdoors to recover from their injuries through natural activities.
• KQED San Francisco 88.5 FM - I pay for free public radio.
• KALW 91.7 Local Public Radio - I pay for even more free public radio.
• Greenpeace - Classified as a “terrorist” organization in some countries. Also has a seat on the United Nations General Assembly. Therefore, the only “terrorist” organization officially supported by the U.N. I have a brand-new blog there too, yet as a placeholder mostly to just pull people back to my existing blogs. Yet, apparently, I am now a Greenpeace Personal Activist, with a potential Network. I’d love to strike up a long and productive partnership with this organization.
• Clean Water Action - No human can live more than a week without this substance. Shy of “air,” and “a surface area to reside on safely,” both of which you can’t really live without for more than a few mere minutes, there is no more precious commodity for our collective survival than water.
• Environment California (part of CALPIRG, supported by Fund for the Public Interest) - Because California has a lot of environment, and I love to enjoy it.
• Equal Rights Campaign (part of CALPIRG, supported by Fund for the Public Interest) - Because we are all humans and should be treated as such.
• GAIA (Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance) - Dedicated to saving lives in Africa, these people are trying to stem the tide of human casualties caused by the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. In some countries, AIDS has only decreased because large swaths of the population have died off from chronic illness and eventual breakdown of their bodies due to the disease. The infection rate only went down because an entire generation of carriers of the virus finally died. Yet some are doing all they can to combat the virus through ABC programs: Abstinence, Be Faithful, and use Condoms. Others have tried to say “AB,” but when you leave out the “C,” AIDS has tended to come back strong. Ipso facto, condoms, though uncomfortable to address and politically touchy, actually work to save lives. GAIA needs help to keep policies and programs effective for the communities they serve. They need assistance to make sure they can do their jobs. Read more about the scope of the problem. Also know that this is not just an “over there” issue. AIDS is a worldwide program. So help them keep it from getting any worse.
• Mama Maria Kenya - A clinic opened on the shores of Lake Victoria to help the people of Kenya survive and grow and learn. I sang in the U2Charist for the benefit of Peter Kithene’s clinic, and I call him my brother. I sang the songs of U2 in a form of mass. I was the only male cantor in the group of performers. Not that I am particularly very good. Yet it was very good that I sang. Peter is the survivor of deadly disease and deprivation which nearly wiped out his whole family. He, as a boy, survived and became the head of his household at the age of 12. He saw how education was the way to escape from his condition. It was the key to unlock the chains of poverty over all his family and his village and the people of his nation. Now, he runs a clinic, to help keep alive other children and other mothers and fathers. So that others do not need to suffer the same crisis of life-and-death he had to face himself. I am glad that Peter calls me his brother. I wish some days I took him up on his offer to come to see him in Africa. If you go to visit him in Kenya, give him my best.
• Education Project for Sudanese Refugees in Northern Kenya - Peter Nyok is my Sudanese brother. He is working to afford school for orphans and very poor children in Sudan and Kenya. Peter is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. A Christian from the southern part of the country, he is very kind and yet very quiet. His English is not polished, yet his kindness very true. He is from Bor, four hours outside of Juba, downstream (north) of it on the Nile. The problems of Sudan as myriad. Many people know of the crisis and conflict of Darfur, in the west. Yet the southern, predominantly black ethnic and Christian spiritual south has come repeatedly into direct conflict with the Arabic/Muslim culture Khartoum government and community. Over 4 million southern Sudanese have been displaced, either internally or forced into exile. Peter is one of these people. The recent pirated Ukranian ship held in Somalia has a shipment of dozens of tanks bound for southern Sudanese rebel groups seeking to strengthen themselves against the Muslim Sudanese government of Omar Al-Bashir. Yet Peter is not involved with fighting anything or anyone but children’s poverty and lack of education. I bought a mobile sculpture of painted wooden birds. Look for his handcrafts. Invite him to visit. If we are to win anything, it should be the survival of a new way of life for these children, lived in peace, learning and wisdom.
• The Translation Project - Niloufar Talebi is my Iranian sister. Ever since seeing the play on words implicit in her volume of translations of Iranian poetry from around the world — BELONGING — I have been longing to better understand the psyche and spirit of the Iranian diaspora community. Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and even before that, when I first became aware of the SAVAK by way of a 1976 60 Minutes exposé on the problems in the nation of Iran, I have worried about U.S. and Iranian relations. Before the 1973 OPEC Oil Crisis, the United States had hoped to be Iran’s ally in opposition to a Soviet-backed hegemony over the Middle East. Egypt, Syria, Iraq — Nasser’s almost-potent bloc — fell apart and never formed a lasting United Arab Republic. Israel set aside differences with Jordan. I remember the SPI game Oil War as a boy. Iran and the United States were supposed to be allies. That is what that game taught me. We were supposed to all be allies. Yet disasters heaped on disasters. Lebanon imploded and then turned into a black hole, a carcass fought over between Syria and Israel. The U.S.-sponsored Islamic Middle East states, from Saudi Arabia to Iran, could not set aside their own differences. Internally each of these nations was trying to dictatorially form modern nation-states out of tribal organizations dating back centuries if not millennia. Iran and Iraq then went into a tooth-and-nail war as miserable and nearly as pointless and just as bloody as World War I. Poison gas was employed. Trench warfare. Yet also modern weapons far more terrible than what were known to the soldiers of the Marne, Verdun and the Somme. For some reason, the plight of Iran has always plagued me. While others provocate for war with Iran, I have always thought the greatest tragedy was that we understand them so very little. We treat them as aliens. The same in return. It is far too easy to misconstrue the Farsi. It is far too easy to brand us the Great Shatan. We are far more than mere caricatures. There is a deeper possibility for love between our cultures and our peoples. There is far more to be gained from cooperation in the 21st Century than from any horrific conflict. So when I heard Niloufar was to speak in Mountain View, at Books, Inc. on Castro Street, I knew she, and her work, were important. I showed up to listen to her. I went to hear her and the other performers of Icarus/Rise in San Francisco. I hope to meet with her again in the future. She is a refugee. She represents the voices and sensibilities of an international, cosmopolitan, modern community which is still also grounded in very ancient, tribal, and primal forces and beliefs. I believe she, as a poetess, and a translator of poets, has far more to tell us about the Iranian mindset than any politician. Listen to her, and you may come to understand what I mean.
• Obama/Biden - Barack is intelligent, sober, and thoughtful. Which is apparently why so many people dislike him. He acts civilized, and so people want to mock him for his speech patterns, his gestures, his very mode of being. For me, two smart cookies in Barack and Joe is the way to go. However, I wish they got me a bumper sticker. Really. They called up asking for a second round of money, after I had already given. “Where’s my bumper sticker?” How can you ask me for another $100 if you can’t even give me a bumper sticker? Somehow, Clinton/Gore knew how to do this well. I had that bumper sticker on my Toyota Corolla for years. My Saturn still is lacking the proper political branding for the season. Has been for months. Barack, call me to apologize if you can get me a bumper sticker. I won’t even ask for a refund for my donation.
• Al Franken - He’s not in my state. Yet I feel it is important to donate to him so he can win in his own state. He’s tooth-and-nail in his battle. I think Al is a genuinely decent guy, even if he comes off a bit smart-alecky and even smarmy at times. His books were the first blow from the left to really get intellectual and factual in the counteroffensive against the radical right-wing. Hence, I believe he is a good spokesperson for what I would call the “pragmatic liberal” agenda. The Jon Stewart Democrats. The Colbert Report demographic. The “nationalization of state politics” in this particular election race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman was cited all the way back in January 2008, when it was seen that 63% of donations for the candidates were coming from out-of-state. Yes, I am one of them.
• Democratic National Committee (DNC) - I gave, yet I’d have been really happy if they got me an Obama bumper sticker. I also want them to consider opening the party so it is non-exclusive. Allow people to vote in the Democratic primary and also the Green party primary. Exclusivity seems really passe, especially with smaller single-issue, or specific-portfolio-of-issues parties in the world. I prefer the Greens on a few specific issues. I even like Libertarians on specific issues. I might even be willing to say I admire a few Republican issues. Yet none of these parties can really say they “represent” my specific interests. The Democrats are just “close,” as in scoring at horseshoes. No ringers. And, sadly, still no bumper sticker.
• Global Understanding Institute - I am pouring a lot of money into my own cause. It is not filed as a 501(c)(3) yet, so I can’t in good conscience ask you for the same commitment as I have. Unless you really want to get involved. If so, then call me and I can work with you on how you can help out. The projects I am working on now are myriad and growing. Some of these are already known. Others are just now getting organized. Others we have not yet inked the project plans or budgets for.
- Razumijen — Understanding the Dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Wars of Independence of the Western Balkans, and the Problems of Modern Irredentism. A peacemaking game project to posit how one can solve for the best possible resolution for the masses given a civil war grounded in intolerence, xenophobia, racism, sectarian and religious prejudice, social injustice, as well as an environment of global political and economic instability.
- 9/11 to 11/11, From Tragedy to Truce — Transitioning the mindset of the 21st Century from one of fear of terrorism and the victimization of 9/11, to one seeking Peace in Our Time, and the fulfillment of the legacy of the Great War, the “War to End All Wars.” This 9/11 will be the 90th Anniversary of the Armistice. Yet we, as humanity, are still involved in terrible and horrific wars claiming the lives of countless souls. This project seeks to change mindsets from accepting war as the optimal way to solve problems to mark it as an inefficient, insufficient way to redress grievances. If we are to avoid “9/11” in the future, whatever the disaster may be—a radical group with an atomic weapon, a cult which unleashes a gas attack in a crowded subway, a fouling of the nest of humanity—we must find a better way to listen to those howling in pain, ready to lash out, and to find a way to diffuse that anger and answer the implicit crisis they wish us to heed. The only way to prevent these crimes and disaster scenarios is to make other options — choosing life, direct conversation and engagement with one’s opponents, negociations — these must remain more attractive than apocalypse and armageddon. We must find a way to move from violence to armistice. Hence, to return to the original intent of 11/11, at 11:00 AM, when the report came back to Berlin: all quiet on the Western front. The peace following conflict. The resumption of civil life. This is the meaning of Armistice. This is the only way to win a war against terrorism: for understanding, tolerance, and peace to break out. We must work for that vision. So that by the centennial, the 100th Anniversary of Armistice, we can say “Mission Accomplished” and have it mean a whole order of magnitude more provident possibilities for humanity for the remainder of the 21st Century. Elsewise, we may face a World War III, IV, and possibly even V during this coming century to make World War I and II seem like small brush fires. The fate of humanity before us now is vital and the choice is ours.
- Global Understanding Audio — This series of audio interviews present unique perspectives and reflects the views of various individuals in our society. Fame is not a requirement to be interviewed. Neither is achievement. Nor wealth. However, each person is challenged to present their lives in such a way so that their achievements to humanity and the world are seen as valuable. The good they do is the measure of their wealth. The old axiom about getting only 15 minutes of fame is dashed, because we will give at least a half hour up to an hour. So twice or four times the fame as others would give you credit for! Anyone can be interviewed for Global Understanding, yet when one considers their own life in the context of humanity at large, they must be able to answer a few questions: Who are they? What do they do? Why should anyone care? What are they interested in? What do they care about? How can others who are interested and care get involved too? Global Understanding does not leave global problems at the doorstep. It invites the listener to step through the portal, to engage with another human to better understand the world around us, and to begin the path to solving these crises and conflicts.
- The American Dream — This film project is going to be released in different cuts and lengths over time. The first phased release from it is The Rehearsal, a Canaan Project Social Experiment, directed by Franklin Pham. This five minute film is dedicated to processing the losses of 9/11, and positing a new future for the United States and the world. This short film is, in a way, the first indirect artistic “child” of the Global Understanding movement. It shows the power of Global Understanding as a social, political and artistic movement. It was recognized at the Campus MovieFest 2008 as one of the top 16 entries of 128 submitted to the competition from teams at San Jose State University (SJSU).
- 20/20 by 2020 — This project is going to be rolled into Global Understanding. The proposition is to push for a 40% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) by the year 2020, comprised of (ideally) 20% solar and 20% wind energy production. California has already raised its 2020 RPS target to 33%, so to raise it to 40% as a stretch goal is not entirely out-of-the-question. 20/20 can also be viewed another way. Specifically for the transportation sector. 20/20 by 2020 thus further calls for an overall reduction of 20% greenhouse gas and carbon emissions, and a +20% Miles Per Gallon increase in fuel economy standards for vehicles. Right now, the US has wrung a 4.5% annual increase in vehicle fuel efficiency from 2011 to 2015. However, this does not raise overall cars-on-the-road efficiency by 20%, since many vehicles operating in 2020 may be decades old, conforming to far lower standards. Therefore, to achieve a +20% increase in MPG would require a radical overhaul of the auto industry to get older, lower-MPG vehicles replaced as soon as possible.
What are your favorite causes? What causes do you think I am supporting you would wish to get involved in? Which causes am I not supporting you wish I did get more actively involved in? What causes do I support that just drive you batty? Why in particular? How can we agree to disagree?
-Pete.
p.s. I will add more links over time. I just have to get some other work done. The time is 2:29 AM. Sleep well, folks.
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Rehearsal
Franklin Pham’s new short film, a 5-minute version of The American Dream, was selected by the Campus MovieFest (CMF) as one of the top 16 entries out of 128 films made by teams at San Jose State University (SJSU).
The Rehearsal from $kull C@ndy on Vimeo.
It was an awesome feeling sitting in the audience and watching our work show up on the screen. My own face amongst the dozens of others who made the picture possible. Garbage bag after garbage bag. Dozens of people. Voices. Faces. Stories. Lives.
For my own part, I was Bag 098: Peter Corless.
All of us working for a common goal and vision for a more positive future for the planet.
We are presently waiting to hear whether the movie will be selected to be put onto the AT&T mobile phone network. If it is selected, it will be downloadable to 60 million subscribers!
Write in the comments how this movie makes you feel. How it changes how you have thought about the past seven years. How it shapes your vision for the next seven years before us.
In the meanwhile, we all have more work to do.
Rock on, Franklin! Rock on!
-Pete.
p.s. If you want to get involved with the Global Understanding movement, or The American Dream movie project, and are willing to wear a garbage bag for an artistic statement and social purpose, contact me at 650-906-3134 or email petercorless@mac.com.
The Rehearsal from $kull C@ndy on Vimeo.
It was an awesome feeling sitting in the audience and watching our work show up on the screen. My own face amongst the dozens of others who made the picture possible. Garbage bag after garbage bag. Dozens of people. Voices. Faces. Stories. Lives.
For my own part, I was Bag 098: Peter Corless.
All of us working for a common goal and vision for a more positive future for the planet.
We are presently waiting to hear whether the movie will be selected to be put onto the AT&T mobile phone network. If it is selected, it will be downloadable to 60 million subscribers!
Write in the comments how this movie makes you feel. How it changes how you have thought about the past seven years. How it shapes your vision for the next seven years before us.
In the meanwhile, we all have more work to do.
Rock on, Franklin! Rock on!
-Pete.
p.s. If you want to get involved with the Global Understanding movement, or The American Dream movie project, and are willing to wear a garbage bag for an artistic statement and social purpose, contact me at 650-906-3134 or email petercorless@mac.com.
A Letter to the Cousteaus
I saw photographs of Philippe Cousteau, Jr. standing beside Roz Savage at a recent event for Ocean Champions.
It led me to read up about what Philippe has been doing in recent years. Which led me to the fate of Calypso, and Alexandra's quest to help see the ship restored.
It also made it clear that the Cousteau Society web site is down.
It was like another 9/11 to me. A silent world, having another disaster. A fierce fight, which led to the downfall of a monumental human achievement.
The World Trade Center was a symbol to me of human civilzation. As was the Concorde, that bird of the sky that flew over my High School in Rockaway Beach, Queens. Now retired. As is the Statue of Liberty which stood in New York harbor. Still there. France and the United States. Intertwined. The Oceans. The World. The Calypso is similarly a symbol of my life. Ever since before I was born. World Without Sun won the 1964 Academy Award, the same year as I was born. I was only almost 3 months old when it was released, 22 December 1964. I'd like to see the Cousteau family to settle their disputes, so that children around the world can dream again about the oceans. Like I did.
• http://www.earthecho.org
It led me to read up about what Philippe has been doing in recent years. Which led me to the fate of Calypso, and Alexandra's quest to help see the ship restored.
It also made it clear that the Cousteau Society web site is down.
It was like another 9/11 to me. A silent world, having another disaster. A fierce fight, which led to the downfall of a monumental human achievement.
The World Trade Center was a symbol to me of human civilzation. As was the Concorde, that bird of the sky that flew over my High School in Rockaway Beach, Queens. Now retired. As is the Statue of Liberty which stood in New York harbor. Still there. France and the United States. Intertwined. The Oceans. The World. The Calypso is similarly a symbol of my life. Ever since before I was born. World Without Sun won the 1964 Academy Award, the same year as I was born. I was only almost 3 months old when it was released, 22 December 1964. I'd like to see the Cousteau family to settle their disputes, so that children around the world can dream again about the oceans. Like I did.
• http://www.earthecho.org
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
My Conundrum of Gaming
For the better part of the last decade, I spent time playing various games, from Skotos’ Castle Marrach, to Max Barry’s NationStates to Electronic Arts’ The Sims 2, to Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, to understand how and why people live in domestic peace and harmony, or what compels them to compete and kill each other.
“Conflict is good,” was the mantra of many people who ran Castle Marrach. Yet the conflict was also so uncompelling, tedious and wretched it drove away tens of thousands of people over the years.
Analogies flood my mind: if you pee in the Cheerios, very few people want to eat out of that bowl. You can only survive in a mosh pit for so long. Too many rats in too small a cage will kill and devour each other.
Why, I wonder, in a game which could otherwise be about a peaceful co-existence, humans seem unmistakably compelled to create dissonance and conflict. As if screwing it up is a biological, ideological imperative. And once they don’t like how the game is going, just destroy it all and start over. Apparently, such computer and Internet games teach us, if the glass is half-empty, drain it. Once it is empty, shatter it. Heaven is so boring. Let’s start a riot.
While dramatic conflict is necessary for the plot of a fictional work, in real life, we prefer challenges over conflicts, generally. You can challenge me in a test to see if I have paid attention in class. That I like. Yet I prefer not to hear arguments over what questions I may have gotten wrong, or how I could have done better, or how stupid I am. That I don’t like.
Not that I am not stupid. I am human. All humans do stupid things at least once in their life. Ipso facto, I am responsible for doing stupid things. To paraphrase Descartes via Mel Blanc, “I think. Therefore I think I am stupid.” At times we are.
Many computer games could be qualified as “stupid time-wasting distractions.” They often are. Other times they can be sublime teaching tools and methods for social bonding and recreation unparalled by any other human activity. Quite often they are both stupid and sublime at the same time. The Romans coined the term ludos, which is what they called a game. And they gifted us a word, ludicrous, which expresses a state like a game. Silly. Frivilous. Oddball. Weird. Playful. Fun.
I don’t believe games are an utter waste of time. Even if you feel they wasted your time, there are still many intangibles. Much personal value does depend on what one gets out of it. Fun, enjoyment, learning, social bonds, appreciation of the art, design and production of the game itself. The process of playing. The reflection on the final outcome and one’s participation.
Yet the game itself has an objective. It wants to be played. It wants you to play it. Playing a game is a sort of Darwinian imperative of the game itself. If no one plays it, the game is dead. Thus it seeks to propagate itself using human hosts possessed by belief in the value of the game.
Some games are not played any more. For various reasons. Most often, because they are just no fun any more. They do not provide sufficient rewards, or the rewards are not valued the way they once were, or the cost or input required to play them is felt to be too much to sustain.
Yet I come back to the basic issue: why do people create conflicts where none naturally exist? What drives people to disagree even on “easy” topics? Why do people pick and peck and poke and knock? How do we promote tolerance?
Much of the game theory I am considering for Razumijen as well as other games, is based in cooperative game play, or “coopertition” where players cooperate while they simultaneously compete in other ways. Pure head-to-head win-lose scenarios are less interesting to me than win-win, or, really, winner1-winner2-winner3-winnerN games, where at least everyone is advancing to some level, or is regarded as a winner in a different way. Everyone has to be able to have some fun, for instance. And the game should try to avoid making people feel bad about their play level. Not all humans are equal in skill or experience, yet we should cater to their emotions fairly, since they were, ideally, created equally.
Yet how can I create compelling games to elevate the experience, so people don’t just find it boring and go back to their first person shooters and their drone-like whack-a-mole slaughter-fests in their MMORGs?
Is happiness “boring?” What percentage of people will snort and cynically leave a game because it is not dystopic and cut-throat enough? There’s insufficient craziness, dissonance and darkness to make them “happy.”
The conundrum is that, because it is a game, one can do all sorts of things to make the game interesting. In the short term. Yet certain games, if one is exposed to them over longer-term play, begin to create chronic social disorders if the game and social theory behind the community is not healthy and sustainable.
So, staring me in the face is the prospect of creating board games and computer games with the long-term social health and well-being of the players in mind primarily, their happiness next, a fair bit of informal education tucked inside neatly so they don’t feel they’re being lectured to, and then... All the rest of the game.
Quite a conundrum, and I haven’t even had brunch yet.
“Conflict is good,” was the mantra of many people who ran Castle Marrach. Yet the conflict was also so uncompelling, tedious and wretched it drove away tens of thousands of people over the years.
Analogies flood my mind: if you pee in the Cheerios, very few people want to eat out of that bowl. You can only survive in a mosh pit for so long. Too many rats in too small a cage will kill and devour each other.
Why, I wonder, in a game which could otherwise be about a peaceful co-existence, humans seem unmistakably compelled to create dissonance and conflict. As if screwing it up is a biological, ideological imperative. And once they don’t like how the game is going, just destroy it all and start over. Apparently, such computer and Internet games teach us, if the glass is half-empty, drain it. Once it is empty, shatter it. Heaven is so boring. Let’s start a riot.
While dramatic conflict is necessary for the plot of a fictional work, in real life, we prefer challenges over conflicts, generally. You can challenge me in a test to see if I have paid attention in class. That I like. Yet I prefer not to hear arguments over what questions I may have gotten wrong, or how I could have done better, or how stupid I am. That I don’t like.
Not that I am not stupid. I am human. All humans do stupid things at least once in their life. Ipso facto, I am responsible for doing stupid things. To paraphrase Descartes via Mel Blanc, “I think. Therefore I think I am stupid.” At times we are.
Many computer games could be qualified as “stupid time-wasting distractions.” They often are. Other times they can be sublime teaching tools and methods for social bonding and recreation unparalled by any other human activity. Quite often they are both stupid and sublime at the same time. The Romans coined the term ludos, which is what they called a game. And they gifted us a word, ludicrous, which expresses a state like a game. Silly. Frivilous. Oddball. Weird. Playful. Fun.
I don’t believe games are an utter waste of time. Even if you feel they wasted your time, there are still many intangibles. Much personal value does depend on what one gets out of it. Fun, enjoyment, learning, social bonds, appreciation of the art, design and production of the game itself. The process of playing. The reflection on the final outcome and one’s participation.
Yet the game itself has an objective. It wants to be played. It wants you to play it. Playing a game is a sort of Darwinian imperative of the game itself. If no one plays it, the game is dead. Thus it seeks to propagate itself using human hosts possessed by belief in the value of the game.
Some games are not played any more. For various reasons. Most often, because they are just no fun any more. They do not provide sufficient rewards, or the rewards are not valued the way they once were, or the cost or input required to play them is felt to be too much to sustain.
Yet I come back to the basic issue: why do people create conflicts where none naturally exist? What drives people to disagree even on “easy” topics? Why do people pick and peck and poke and knock? How do we promote tolerance?
Much of the game theory I am considering for Razumijen as well as other games, is based in cooperative game play, or “coopertition” where players cooperate while they simultaneously compete in other ways. Pure head-to-head win-lose scenarios are less interesting to me than win-win, or, really, winner1-winner2-winner3-winnerN games, where at least everyone is advancing to some level, or is regarded as a winner in a different way. Everyone has to be able to have some fun, for instance. And the game should try to avoid making people feel bad about their play level. Not all humans are equal in skill or experience, yet we should cater to their emotions fairly, since they were, ideally, created equally.
Yet how can I create compelling games to elevate the experience, so people don’t just find it boring and go back to their first person shooters and their drone-like whack-a-mole slaughter-fests in their MMORGs?
Is happiness “boring?” What percentage of people will snort and cynically leave a game because it is not dystopic and cut-throat enough? There’s insufficient craziness, dissonance and darkness to make them “happy.”
The conundrum is that, because it is a game, one can do all sorts of things to make the game interesting. In the short term. Yet certain games, if one is exposed to them over longer-term play, begin to create chronic social disorders if the game and social theory behind the community is not healthy and sustainable.
So, staring me in the face is the prospect of creating board games and computer games with the long-term social health and well-being of the players in mind primarily, their happiness next, a fair bit of informal education tucked inside neatly so they don’t feel they’re being lectured to, and then... All the rest of the game.
Quite a conundrum, and I haven’t even had brunch yet.
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