Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Teaching Children to Hate

Of all the things that a culture can do, the most self-destructive is to teach children to hate. I was reminded of this when I reread an essay I wrote several years ago.

Teaching children to hate is almost the ultimate evil. It spreads the sickness of racial and cultural bigotry by replacing a child's natural curiosity with fear. 

There is a song by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young which contains these prophetic words:

Teach your children well...
And feed them on your dreams,
The one they picks, the one you'll know by.

In 2000, nine years ago, Palestinian kids were being taught to hate and kill Jews through 'Sesame Street'-type TV shows. I understand that this practice is still going on.

When I first read about this, I felt the Palestinians were setting themselves up for disaster. It is like raising a nation of "Jack the Rippers" and thinking they will be loyal and obedient citizens who will create a bright future.  The events of the last nine years have not showed this to be a successful activity.

Hitler did it in a nation stunned and apathetic after WWI. He also created the SS, one of the most despised organizations in the world at the time. Like Ozymandias, only rubble remains of Hitler's dreams.

Teaching hate is not unique to any nation. There are too many examples in the good old USA for us to point fingers at any other country. What we can do as a vast community of bloggers is to cast light into the dark corners where this despicable practice is being performed.

In today's world of weblogs, such evil deeds are impossible to hide for very long. Exposing them to public view is a first step toward bringing sanity to troubled areas that are self-destructing.

If you are in doubt about the destructiveness of teaching children to hate, take a good look at the cultures where this is being done and see whether the culture is succeeding or declining.

On the home front, you might give your kids a hug and teach them how to recognize good people.

It's a start anyway.

Teach your children well...
And feed them on your dreams,
The one they picks, the one you'll know by.

The Tea Party Phenomenon

The Tea Party I attended had folks from every walk of life but it seemed that they had a lot more in common than they expected. They all had experienced frustration in trying to communicate about their concerns and they hadn't expected to find so many people who were in the same situation.

Most people found out about the Rocky Mount event on the Internet, others through emails. I was not planning to attend because I am not much of a joiner, but I felt that there was something here that I needed to know about and experience directly.

I found a lot of people very much like myself. They seemed to be self-motivated, concerned about their families, and willing to work hard to achieve a better life. Many were self-employed although a large number were old enough to be on Social Security.

This was not a networking event with people looking for contacts and swapping business cards. The people were cautiously friendly as most had never been to this kind of protest event before.

There was no shouting and reckless behavior, more of a continuing surprise as we all discovered that we were a community of like-minded souls who wanted positive change that we could believe in, not empty promises and double-talk.

Tea Parties are self-structuring social organizations of indeterminate lifespan and relatively incoherent purposes. I believe that this is about to change and the Tea Parties will evolve into a serious effort to wrest back control of government from those in both parties who are abusing public trust. They have already morphed from generalized protest meetings toward more specifically targeted activities.

They have already stepped up their self-organizing to deal with attempts by Progressives to disrupt things. The attacks by left-leaning media have helped shape and toughen up the Tea Party efforts. Read any of the Tea Party websites and you will see warnings about signing petitions and how to deal with disruptive activities and biased reporters.

When people attend one of these Tea Parties and then see what the media has reported about the event, the media spin becomes evident and people are turning to the Internet for news they can use.

I think we will see various individuals and groups attempt to get out in front of the Tea Parties and claim that they are leading them. I do not think that will fly. Anyone who hopes to contribute to the Tea Party movement is going to have to participate in events and really learn what people are upset about and what can be done to improve conditions.

Tea Party leadership will grow out of successful actions by charismatic figures who can lead. I do not see this movement giving much credence to high level political figures who hope to hop on the Tea Party train as it picks up speed.

The birth of the Tea Party movement may have been triggered by CNBC's Rick Santelli calling for a "Chicago Tea Party" back in February, but the movement's continued existence is due to the recognition by many people that serious mistakes are being made by elected officials who are not being responsive to the voters who elected them.

People who thought they were the only ones noticing the insane behavior of elected officials suddenly found out that they were not alone. They gathered with hundreds of other citizens in their own area and found reassurance that others recognized corrupt and incomprehensible actions in the Federal Government.

They shared experiences and found that many others agreeing that our leftward lurch toward Socialism is not good for children or businesses or our future existence.

When you think that you are the only one refusing to drink the poisoned Kool-Aid, life becomes pretty hopeless. When you find out that others have avoided the Kool-Aid too, you find that there is a real hope that things just might get better.

I think we are just in the beginning of a change in political activity at the grassroots level. As people get used to using emails and Twitter to communicate about Tea Parties, the pace will pick up and the Tea Party movement will really begin to have an impact on our elected officials.

The first step was to recognize that we are a group with some common interests. The next step will be to align our interests in a way that maximizes our chances of impinging on society and our elected officials.

There will be a lot more steps following these and resistance from elected officials and opposition groups will only solidify the resolve of the Tea Party patriots. Efforts to dismiss or radicalize Tea Party protests will backfire and may cost incumbents seats in the next election. I do not feel that the Tea Party movement will go away. It has already gone viral.

The term "smart mob" is a good description of the Tea Party phenomenon.

According to Wikipedia: A smart mob is a form of self-structuring social organization through technology-mediated, intelligent emergent behavior. The concept was introduced by Howard Rheingold in his book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. According to Rheingold, smart mobs are an indication of the evolving communication technologies that will empower the people.

Tax Day Tea Party - Rocky Mount Virginia

I knew I had to find out for myself what these Tax Day Tea Parties were about once I saw MSM pundits and left leaning bloggers making snide comments about them.

The Liberal contingent seems to be sure that some vast conspiracy lies behind these grassroots events. Well there is sure a lot of agreement in these tea parties that the government is on the wrong path, but the spontaneity is unmistakable.

I attended the Rocky Mount, Virginia, Tax Day Tea Party this noon and came away with a feeling that other people acting independently have reached conclusions that agree with my own observations.

The crowd of more than 150 people (identified by headcount in photos) filled the area in front of the Franklin County Courthouse and were cheerfully determined to make their concerns known. They brought their dogs and their kids and everyone seemed to be having a good time exercising their right to assemble.

Perhaps that is what the MSM fears most. If ordinary people can see through the spin that old media is performing, there will be a vanishing audience for their opinions disguised as news.

I was inspired by the people who attended this tea party. They were friendly and they had come from all over to show that traditional values still exist in this part of Virginia. Most of the attitudes and signs I saw expressed conservative points of view and a feeling that both political parties are on the wrong track.

The tea party was  against big government but was not significantly oriented for or against any political party. There was one Goode supporter in the crowd and there were a few anti-Obama signs, but the message on most of the signs indicated that government is becoming Socialistic and spending is way out of control.

A major point of agreement was that government is taking over responsibilities that belong to the states, is interfering with businesses at all levels and is failing in its biggest responsibility of keeping the country safe.

The pace of the event never flagged. There were several speakers who spoke briefly and to the point and the keynote speaker was Delegate Charles D. Poindexter, of the 9th district, who spoke for only a few minutes but the issues he covered resonated strongly with those attending.

Here are a few points that got extremely strong positive responses from the crowd:

• There is too much government
• Spending is out of control
• Every generation should pay its own  debt
• The government is wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of taking care of them
• "Investment" is a new term for government spending to hide what they are doing
• This administration said "no" to drilling. We say drill, baby. drill.
• "Progressive" means an ex-liberal, perhaps a socialist
• The administration is undermining the constitution
• Defense is the number one job of the Federal Government,
• but this administration is going to gut our military

Here are some of the signs that people carried:

A well-documented election

Barack Obama's management of his campaign and the mobilization of a 501c 3 organization as a campaign arm was incredibly brilliant. His oratorical ability and his sense of theater struck a resounding chord with a great number of voting citizens. He won a well-deserved victory in the sense that he did the necessary things that resulted in his being elected. He convinced enough people that he was the solution to their problems to gain enough votes to win.

He was helped in this campaign by avidly partisan Main Stream Media figures, but this has happened in almost every Presidential election. In this election, the majority of MSM outlets did a fantastic job publicizing Barack Obama as the obvious choice while suppressing those challengers like Hillary Clinton, John McCain, etc., etc.

The MSM know they played a major role in electing Barack Obama and they are certainly savoring their victory. Charlie Gibson's fawning interview with the President-elect was right in line with his earlier interviews of Barack Obama. It was a marked contrast to his demeanor in interviews with the other candidates. But this was not unexpected.

The MSM has never been non-partisan, except in their own eyes.

The major difference in this election was that hundreds of thousands of individuals got to see the seamy underside of the political process on the Internet. Blogs and YouTube videos revealed embarrassing details about every candidate and highlighted the unfortunate bias and misinformation emanating from the MSM.

The dirty deeds and unfortunate relationships that were swept under the table as being "unimportant" will not go away as they might have in the distant pre-Internet past. The details of who did what and who benefited are still out there and will be digested and discussed for years to come.

Will these uncovered misdeeds and crimes affect the political fortunes of our elected officials, hard to say. Probably not, as Congress, the Senate, and the President-Elect will have most of their attention on creating alliances that will carry them through the coming year.

On the other hand, bloggers of the Left and of the Right and every position on the political spectrum will have ample time to uncover information and connect the dots so that a coherent picture will evolve of every incident worth discussing. The shifting positions of the candidates will be laid out on a time track for all to see and analyze. These analyzes will probably be used in an effort to predict future behavior and to anticipate weaknesses.

Efforts to obfuscate and hide data rarely work and there will be a cost to those who attempt it. Who does not know for example, that the LA Times has been sitting on a video of Barack Obama. A news organization suppressing news? How noble of them! What will that do to their bottom line? Probably more layoffs.

By the end of the first 100 days of the new presidency, there could be more well-informed citizens of every political persuasion than ever before in history. The scrutiny that will result from this access to information will cast light in more dark places than you might imagine.

Scrutiny by bloggers will continue to force MSM outlets to cover issues at the risk of being discredited. Bloggers are no more intelligent than the media types they compete with, but bloggers are resourceful and often highly motivated to expose injustices. Their alliances are clearly labeled and you can quickly see where they stand on most issues.

We will see whether the new Administration handles this challenge with style and grace or by repression of dissident voices.

We live in interesting times.

The plight of your local telephone company

Personal communications have shifted to VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and to cell phones from the plain old telephone service. This is not a temporary change, it is a permanent shift in buying patterns and it is spreading rapidly.

A telephone company has to make the difficult choice of whether they are willing to cannibalize their land line customer base or lose it to some other company. There is no other choice at this point.

This quote from a local telephone company executive tells it all:

Long distance revenue peaked in 2001, dial up revenue peaked in 2002, and basic telephone service revenue peaked in 2003.

The difference between where we were then and now is a difference of $1.6 million dollars.

Unfortunately, the situation will steadily worsen for them unless they can develop revenue from alternate sources.

In 2003, we lived in Lake Monticello, VA, and we were introduced to the Vonage VOIP service by a local handyman. He was not computer literate, but he knew that he could afford unlimited long distance and local calls for $24.95 a month.

We thought that was a financial lifesaver and did the same. We dropped our telephone bill by more then $150 by making a shift to Vonage. We kept our local land line as a backup in case of emergencies.

When we moved to Floyd, we continued the Vonage service and kept a land line out of loyalty to the local phone company, since we were dependent on their DSL service.

We use VOIP for personal and business communications and we use cell phones for backup. We require DSL, but the plain old telephone land line is an expensive luxury. The primary value of a telephone land line is to give you a listing in the phone book and not everyone wants to be listed.

If you were unsure of what a paradigm shift is, take a good look. You are in the midst of one that will have profound effects on a lot of jobs.

Like outsourcing, this is almost impossible to resist. When comparable services are available at much lower cost elsewhere, loyalty to local providers is put to the test.

Children of the Internet

I wrote this three years ago and I think it is worth revisiting in view of efforts being made by totalitarian regimes to control internet access. I think it will backfire and will actually accelerate the meltdown of any regime that seeks to do this.

The Children of the Internet will introduce change into our society in ways we cannot easily predict because they are bypassing traditional sources of information.

A culture controls change if it can restrict the flow of information. As long as a child only learns skills, attitudes, and fears from its extended family, that child is protected from the corrupting (and civilizing) effect of "outside ideas".

The child of such a culture can be raised to regard all outside the group as inferior or as enemies to be slain or subjugated. By the time the child is old enough to see that these "inferiors" have superior technology and lifestyles, it can be so warped that its only recourse is to destroy that which it cannot emulate.

The internet, with its overwhelming abundance of information, incredible beauty, and skillfully delivered lies, presents a challenge to any culture, even an advanced and open-minded one. The internet, even in its present limited form, presents the ultimate threat to closed cultures. The open flow of information exposes many lies that these cultures use to keep their citizens under control.