Much More Exciting High Tech News Than the iPhone

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Thursday June 28, 2007 · 1:50 AM PDT

2007/06/28 · 01:50

Forget about the iPhone - the news that Google is opening its first office in sub-Saharan Africa is truly thrilling. My foster kids are from South Sudan, and I have many other personal and professional connections to the region: I have opined many times that the information revolution is going to spur a vast amount of economic and political progress there in a very short time, and now the dream seems on the verge of coming true...

lifelongactivist

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Sunday May 27, 2007 · 6:48 AM PDT

2007/05/27 · 06:48

The Right just keeps getting nuttier and nuttier. I could list a dozen examples, easily, but will settle for the fact that three of the ten Republican presidential candidates publicly disavowed evolution during their recent debate. Soon, the Right will be taking stands for and against heliocentrism. Oh wait…

This delusional thinking is, I believe, an artifact of desperation – desperation to hold onto power and prerogatives that are quickly fading. But the levels of the Right’s delusion and its desperation are so extreme that you have to wonder what’s going on. Well, I think I know, and it’s this:

lifelongactivist

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Saturday May 12, 2007 · 1:36 PM PDT

2007/05/12 · 13:36

I’m about to tell you something extremely subversive: a lot people do too much housework.

Yup: the idea that it’s possible to do too much housework is subversive. I know this because, when I teach my time management classes, it’s always the discussion on “perfectionist housekeeping” that elicits the biggest response from my students. When I start talking about how a lot of the housework people do does not really need to be done and should, in fact, be avoided by anyone with an ambitious goal, the whole room starts whooping and hollering. That's because many people have been brainwashed by the media into what I call in The Lifelong Activist the Average American Consumerist Lifestyle (AACL), which amounts to...

More beneath the fold...

lifelongactivist

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Wednesday May 02, 2007 · 7:35 PM PDT

2007/05/02 · 19:35

Note - I'm posting this for my friend Richard Stallman, founder of the free software movement and GNU project (and MacArthur "genius"), because he says this can't wait until his DK account is activated and he can post his own diaries! - Hillary

The war funds bill that Bush just vetoed had certain conditions for continuing the funding -- such as, that the "Iraqi" government finish handing over Iraq's oil to non-Iraqi oil companies.

Wait a minute! Isn't that backwards? We all know that Bush hijacked the US army to steal Iraq's oil for his cronies. Why should Democrats demand satisfaction of Bush's war aims?

Maybe they should do just the opposite.

(continued below the fold...)

lifelongactivist

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Sunday April 15, 2007 · 7:14 AM PDT

2007/04/15 · 07:14

Lectured at a college, recently, and the students had a hard time grasping the difference between (a) not thinking about yourself and your accomplishments in a negative way, and (b) thinking in an overpositive, egomaniacal, Pollyannish way. They couldn't see (or I wasn't conveying well) the middle ground - an objective viewpoint that pays proper respect to one's talents and achievements.

Negativity is one of the three main fear-derived behaviors which, when combined with panic, causes procrastination. It is thus a serious problem which all activists, artists and other ambitious dreamers must work to overcome.

More below the fold...

lifelongactivist

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Sunday April 01, 2007 · 8:33 PM PDT

2007/04/01 · 20:33

Tackle's diary sums up how many liberals feel about Bushco apostate Matthew Dowd and the 11th hour moral awakening that has led him to conclude that Bush's policies and behavior are harmful, and that Bush himself is "not the person I thought.” It’s particularly galling to us how Dowd had his awakening only after enduring significant personal misfortune, including having his son deployed to Iraq.

As Digby pointed out in January, one of the hallmarks of modern conservativism is an empathy deficit. He wrote:

lifelongactivist

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Tuesday February 27, 2007 · 10:03 PM PST

2007/02/27 · 22:03

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a survey of how top Wall Street executives spend their multimillion dollar annual bonuses. The February 23 article, "What, Me Save? Wall Streeters Put Bonuses In Homes, Art, Not Banks; Not a 'Generous' Group" (paid subscription - no link), is chockablock with references to things like $31,000 watches, $345,000 cases of wine, and hobbies including flying, horses and "mistresses."

One Morgan Stanley banker and, I'm sure, all-around delightful fellow, is quoted as follows: "I work 18-hour days, six days a week. I'm sitting on planes for 20 hours straight and I'm dealing with high-pressure decisions...I deserve rewards."

(continued beneath the fold...)

lifelongactivist

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Saturday January 27, 2007 · 7:51 PM PST

2007/01/27 · 19:51

This is the second in a two part series on the fundamentals of effective activism, adapted from my book The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way, and written in response to a posting by Kos about how people who whine about how their candidate isn’t given fair exposure on Daily Kos, “[do] neither you, nor your favorite guy any favors. It does the opposite -- it turns people off from your guy.” UPDATE: Granny Doc just posted a powerful diary along the same theme here.

In the previous diary, I discussed the fundamentals of persuasion, focusing on two “bitter truths:” (1) “The success of your venture depends much less on the quality of whatever it is you are selling (including political candidates and social causes) than on the quality of the marketing and sales you use to sell it; and (2) "People buy a product (or candidate or cause) not because of its intrinsic qualities or characteristics, but because they believe it will either solve a problem or meet a need that they have."

This diary is about Bitter Truth #3.

lifelongactivist

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Thursday January 18, 2007 · 8:23 PM PST

2007/01/18 · 20:23

In a posting today, Kos wrote:

“There will always be a number of people who aren't happy that I don't worship at the altar of their favorite candidate. Anything but blind worship is considered disrespect….Every election there's a crew that screams about biases and the like….Really, all the whining does neither you, nor your favorite guy any favors. It does the opposite -- it turns people off from your guy.”

I discuss this phenomenon of "activists influencing people AWAY from their cause" at length in my new book The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way (graciously reviewed on DK by both SusanG and OrangeClouds115). I write:

"You also have to be attractive, not in the fashion sense but in the pleasant/personable/good company sense. At the very least, you shouldn’t be a person who repels others…Many activists, in fact, manifest a repellent—again, in the literal sense—personality: unhappy, sour, judgmental, bitter, alienated or angry. And then they wonder why they have such a hard time selling their viewpoint! "

More below the fold...

lifelongactivist

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Sunday December 31, 2006 · 5:43 PM PST

2006/12/31 · 17:43

Even for those of us who scorn convention, New Year's is often a time of reflection. Aside from the turning over of the calendar, there is a tendency, after the bustle and glitter of the holidays, and as the world settles into its winter slumber, to pause and take stock of our actions over the past year, and to make plans for the next.

For many of us, however, the ritual can feel painful. Looking back, we see mainly, or only, failure and disappointment: goals that weren't reached, promises (our own or others’) that weren't kept, and relationships that deteriorated. And so, our hopes for the upcoming year are tinged with defeatism, if not despair.

It doesn't have to be that way – and won’t, if you set just one resolution for 2007...

From Hillary Rettig, the author of The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way (Lantern Books, 2006).

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Much More Exciting High Tech News Than the iPhone

The Meaning of Kos: Meditations on the 5th Birthday of a Prodigy

For Mother's Day: Avoiding the Evils of Perfectionist Housekeeping

Congress: How to Call Bush's Bluff

Defeating Negative Thinking

Matthew Dowd's Heroic Act - Let's Support Him

Say It Loud - I'm Rich And (Not So) Proud

Hurting Your Favorite Candidate: The Third Bitter Truth

Hurting Your Favorite Candidate II: The Importance of Not Pissing People Off

The Only New Year's Resolution You Need