Hearing More than Words

The restaurant/bar was in north central Minnesota up in the lake country.  At the table just behind me there were four men who were evidently from the area - probably regulars at this establishment.

One of the men said, "Danny ain't dumb. He just kinda looks it." 

It dawned on me that this was not a put down. He was speaking of someone that they all knew. The man doing the speaking was no fashion plate or cultured icon. He was a guy speaking about another guy. This Danny was friend who is not any more perfect than the men around that table.

Man talk. Well, yes, men are given to blunt evaluation of each other. We do sometimes give the impression of just coming out of the cave of primitive existence. We usually aren't dumb but we often kinda look like it.

Females wonder about us and our frequently primitive ways. Actually we are not all that far from the Cave but do have some redeeming social value.

Social Network Positive Challenge

http://www.sparked.com/home appeared when researching a suggestion made by Jane McGonigal in "Reality is Broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world" published in 2011. I noted her reference to The Extraordinaries game which is intended to harness people who do internet gaming to positive social change across the globe.

Upon signing up at Sparked for The Extraordinaries the process led choosing a category, in this instance "religion", the choice came to decide on support of a specific non profit venture benefiting people somewhere in the world.  The choice for me was The African Child Foundation in Kenya, Africa. The commitment I made was to call attention to this Foundation on this web site in order to encourage more gaming people to know about and perhaps respond to this social effort.

The "Reality is Broken" is quite a challenge to American cultural notions of how a person spends time and what "work" actually means. It does raise serious questions as to what makes for fun and whether a person should put with a boring life. Apparently the number of people who are into doing games on various devices is considerable. McGonigal makes the case for using gaming for the good of society and to offer personal satisfaction while people learn how have fun and as a side effect discover how to solve life problems.  Time will tell how this works out.

Racism versus Racial Resentment

Research is apparently revealing that American racial relationships have shifted from traditional racism to something called "racial resentment". 

Tension between black and white persons is a long term American experience. As the 150th anniversary of the American Civil began earlier in April of 2011 and will continue for another four years, the issues of Civil War days will be analyzed and played out once more on the national stage.

Slavery of blacks (and others) was and is a cruel and inhuman commercializing of human beings. The economic side of race relationships is a continuing and harsh struggle. Apparently this is where racial resentment is crowding out the traditional nature of racism. Racial resentment is more difficult to recognize and yet has observable impacts. 

The March 2011 edition of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science is focused on "Race, Racial Attitudes, and Stratification Beliefs".  Scholarly essays examine various aspects of the Evolving Directions of racial issues in America. David Wilson and Darren Davis in an article entitled "Reexamining Racial Resentment: Conceptualization and Content" propose that the measuring of racial attitudes using the "Explicit Racial Resentment" measure shows underling racial resentment.


Just why does this make any difference?  I believe that as long as we American pretend that racism does not influence decisions and behaviors we have little chance of moving ahead on a just and fair society. Racism means that powerful sectors of society demean and stereotype other less powerful groups of people as inferior and inadequate, perhaps even less human.  

Marco Polo or Genghis Kahn

This is an exercise in deciding on role models. Such decisions are never ending because age takes its toll and role models disappear.

Out of the infinite choices two historical role models of the past come to mind. How did people of the time choose?  Good question.

Number 1 in time is Genghis Kahn (1162-1227). As the founder of arguably the greatest empire ever - the Mongol Empire - the first of Kahns was a conqueror of no equal in his time.  In the process of gathering most or Eurasia into the Empire the powers of force and communication  were used without boundary or mercy. Those hesitant to become vassals were simply obliterated. This was enabled by the communication across the landmass of Eurasia using horses, horsemen, and regular stations for changing horses.  Genghis Kahn was tolerant of religions so long as the people were cooperative. He himself was not a follower of any particular religion.

Number 2 is Marco Polo (1254-1324).  Father Maffeo and uncle Nicclo were merchants. Son Marco was an Italian explorer from Venice who traveled the fabled Silk Road and went all the way to Beijing in 1226 - the then capital of the Mongol Empire with the Great Kahn in charge - Kublai Kahn. Marco Polo made some 24 journeys across Eurasia and became a confidant of Kublai Kahn. We do know that he carried Christian identity and influence.

The Mongol Empire made travel possible by assuring safe routes and ready access to the far flung tribal constituencies of Eurasia. Europe had economic interests all across the vast spaces to the East. The Mongol Empire had penetrated northern Europe as far as Silesia located adjacent to Prussia in what is now Poland. Genghis Kahn made travel possible. Marco Polo used travel to extend influence and cultural identity.

As I ponder these role models hard choices come to mind. Should a person be dedicated to power and domination in whatever form is possible? Should a person be merchant minded and use whatever is provided by society to extend influence, make commerce possible and gather resources?

Actually both perspectives are alive and well in the Internet Globalized society of the 21st Century. I am working on it.