The World We Want

Lohmann's World We Want

More from Inspector Lohmann on "Building Invisible Comic Community," a Dumpster Tong, hidden in plain sight, a gift network, from peer to peer, not from the top down. The good Inspector has found a voice that carries, may it carry far and wide:

We live in a perverse socially constructed religious utopia called "economics" where only money has the right to be free. The role of people in this religion is to serve the institutions that guarantee its freedom. These institutions divide society between those who own the means of wealth creation, those who serve them, and those who are abandoned by these institutions. This religion serves the wealthy very well, which is why enormous efforts are made to both spread the word of this religion through evangelical missions (eg: from the World Bank and IMF, to armed forces exporting "freedom and democracy"), and to compel mindless obedience to it through the very structure of our consumer society with its institutionalized systems of enforcement and propaganda.

Peter, could we get him on the agenda, do you think, at Council on Foundations?  Is this The World We Want, or should we send the police, or Homeland Security?  Lohmann hates our money for its freedom. Can you imagine, Peter, a discussion site where those who contributed to your volume would read and comment on Lohmann and vice versa? That would be part of the world I want. Where ideas, not just money, are free, and voices too, up from the street, knocking on the locked door of the "safe spaces" where the wealthy meet to discuss the public good. "Go away, Lohmann. The World We Want is by invitation only. Or, are you with the wait staff?"

Antithetical Community Hidden in Plain Sight

The most recent installment of Lohmann's vision of a world we might want has been posted. Giving figures large in his vision; philanthropy not at all. The Peter Karoff of Sleepwalkers might resonate with Lohmann's vision of an antithetical community, or "Dumpster Tong," that exists "off the record," since on the record, things are going just fine inside the Free Market System some call Wealth Bondage. Whether democracy and justice are prospering is a question hard to hear with loudspeakers blaring speeches, martial music, and advertising. If we are to reason with one another thoughtfully, about the fate of a liberal democracy, it had better be in some kind of Speakeasy, like some smoky Weimar Cabaret, where the Jew at the piano tells melancholy jokes that the brownshirts among the patrons don't get, at least not yet. There is a world we want where all are equals, and sincerity and authenticity are the prevailing mode, and there is the world we have of poisoned air, fear, and lies backed by scarcely veiled threats. In such a situation candor is the mark of knave or a fool. Those who know speak only in parables that pass from blog to blog or hand to hand among trusted peers who have intentionally made themselves equally vulnerable. I count Peter in that gang, that Dumpster Tong - but then again Uncle Tom and Uncle Remus were always the same guy. (He shows me into the Big House, and he shows me out.) We Tricksters live on the edge and by our wits, praising famous men and those who fleece them too. Like Peachum, the thief catcher and fencer of stolen goods, in Gay's "The Beggar's Opera," we play a double role, "both for Rogues and against them."

****

Scene, PEACHUM's House.

PEACHUM sitting at a Table with a large Book of Accounts before him.

                 Air I.--An old Woman clothed in Gray, &c.

                 Through all the Employments of Life
                   Each Neighbour abuses his Brother;
                 Whore and Rogue they call Husband and Wife:
                   All Professions be-rogue one another:
                 The Priest calls the Lawyer a Cheat,
                   The Lawyer be-knaves the Divine:
                 And the Statesman, because he's so great,
                   Thinks his Trade as honest as mine.

A Lawyer is an honest Employment, so is mine. Like me too he acts in a
double Capacity, both against Rogues and for 'em; for 'tis but fitting that
we should protect and encourage Cheats, since we live by them.

*****

I put the poetry in here for Peter and to insure that this post goes largely unread by those who have no business perusing, much less grasping it: "Hidden in plain sight," there you will find the world we want, among the losers, the broken ones, the beggars whose "opera" or work or labor it is.

Open Source Constitutional Communities

Apropos of Open Source Philanthropy, or of Democracy, or The World We Want, here are two links via Jonathan Edmonds:

http://oi.oshon.org/
http://qnet.cc/

Open Source and open spaces - How do we create the World We Want as a network or hierarchy of local democratically constituted communities?

Inspector Lohmann's World We Want

A human comedy. A beggars opera. A dumpster tong. Philanthropists are welcome, but only if they come in masquerade as paupers not a prince, a peddler of pots and pans, an insurance salesman, a teller of tales, a poet. Despite the very different "provenance," I believe what Lohmann is articulating is very much in the spirit of Peter's work: gifts and gifted givers for a vital and creative community. If The World We Want were a play, it would end with as comedies do, with difficulties overcome, enemies reconciled, a marriage, songs, a feast and a dance where peasants and king all clasp hands and dance in a ring, a celebration of human life, and natural fertility. I like that thought better than "the end of history," the Rapture, or the collapse of the ecosystem.

Imagine the Stillness at Kykuit broken by the sounds of boisterous citizens in masquerade, not Halloween, not revolution, but a reassertion of love and fidelity that binds us as a human family, rich and poor. I believe Peter would be of that company. Come dawn, and the onset of sobriety, we all return to our serried ranks, by status and role. But don't we ache, all of us, or very many, for our common humanity?

A Mole's World We Want

Dude.  This is all so simple.  When someone says "Cut the shit."  And the other don't.  It's over.  Or should be.  In the world *I* want.

 

a.mole  @  My Favorite Mistake

 

"The World We Want," a Martian Perspective

As if from a visiting UFO comes this video, "The World We Want." The video raises the question as to whether those with wealth and those who advise the wealthy will make real change. Is philanthropy just the oil in the engine of capitalism that keeps it from seizing up? Or can giving be the expression of a gift culture in which we are all equal as human beings, as citizens, and as spiritual beings, however diverse our worldly raiment? Is the world we want like heaven, that in the light of which we resign ourselves to our subordinate lot in life here on earth; is it a battle cry from the disenfranchised shaking the very frame of the culture; or it is a nice upbeat phrase which which to separate the philanthropist from piddly gifts in defense of the established order? All of this, clearly, and more. That is what is so lovely about philanthropy and giving as topics and as modes of intervention in the public square.

Citizen Et Alia's "The World Who Wants?"

With a little help from Deputy Editor on loan from our generous patron, Candidia Cruikshanks, I have had to silence those who are unwilling to post their comments here in propria persona. I figure if they are not willing to be accountable for their words they should remain in their cubicles. My intent has been to create a safe space for potential funders of The World We Want. My instincts have proven correct. A certain "et. alia," cast from these premises, along with his disreputable Castro-loving friends, has seen fit to create and post an impudent video entitled, "The World Who Wants?" I take his (or her) work to be satirical. But it gets much worse. Et has not only violated the rules of propiety, but also the rules of proprietors, shamelessly expropriating several pieces of very valuable intellectual property. He (or she) has even shown disrespect to me and to The Happy Tutor himself. Never have I been more certain that cubicle trash have no place in our utopia. Strategic Philanthropy, in conjunction with the Forces of Freedom, will expunge et. alia from the earth, as I have exiled him from The World We Want.  Good riddance! And stay out. You malcontents are not wanted here. This is the world we want and you have nothing to say about it. You are a nonperson. You don't exist.  Beat it! Amscray! Gutless wonders ambushing The World We Want like a bunch masked bandits. And you wonder why Deputy Editor hunts you down like rabid dogs? The world will be a better place when you hang from the nearest tree. What are you trying to do? Start a class war inside The World We Want? This is a safe place for wealthy donors. Disruptive influences will not be tolerated.

Hopelessly Bound

Et alia:

As Turbulent Velvet said some time ago, there are layers to giving up hope. I've found that past a certain point, I've actually become more sanguine. Partly it's from being less emotionally involved in the current political process, but it's also from feeling freer to imagine what a humane, decent society would be like—not ‘the world we want,’ of those helplessly bound to structures and institutions that are part of the infrastructure of immorality, but the products of reflection undisturbed by hostile assholes with an insider mentality.

Turbulent Velvet (T.V.) would probably admit to having given up hope, long ago, as one might give up fatty foods. He would find a phrase like "The World We Want" cause for a wracking cough, yet what he has done is leave academics for med school. Et, along with Mr. Scruggs who co-authors UFOBreakfast with T.V., are running their own Think Tank. The citation above is a pretty good indication of the depth to which they sink, through despair and futility towards the foundations of a world worth having. Maybe it is because at an impressionable age I read all of Samuel Beckett's work, back to back, over 3 months, but I find a passage like that above more inspirational than anything written to ennoble and uplift. I am trying to stay in role here, as "real person," but it is hard not to snort and chortle. Score one for the masked figures in and around the Dumpster:

"'The World We Want of those hopelessly bound' - is that man talking about Wealth Bondage, Mommy? Shhh, mind your mouth. We are talking about philanthropy, Jane. Wealth Bondage! Where did you ever hear of such a thing. This is the Free Market, honey. And see that nice man over there with the ice cream? He's a philanthropist. He owns all the ice cream in the world. If you curtsy, he might give you a lick. So mind your manners. Otherwise he won't give you a lick. Look at that nasty Et alia, honey. You don't want to end up like him. Come along show the nice man  you admire him. Ask him about the world we want. That will show him what a good little girl you are. 'Mister, Mister, please, Mister, what is the world we want? And can I have lick, Sir?'"

The World We Want - It's All Good!

Can the World We Want come together as a cross-class conversation among gifted citizens with and without financial resources? I am optimistic that it can, here and there, and that the effort is mission-critical for a real democracy. A friend (who cannot post in the comment section here because he is not in a position to use is own name on-line) writes that he doubts the feasibility of an honest conversation about the role of wealth in a just society when one side holds all the cards. The "power differential is too  big an obstacle."  While all are wearing masks, as in a masked ball or Carnival, ideas may prevail regardless of source, but when some participants are important people and some are unknowns, the "little people" who express strong opinions may be vulnerable to bullying, shunning, or reprisal from unforeseen directions. "Moreover," he writes, "the accountability factor of publishing  under your own name is vastly overrated. There's no end to the number  of cretins perfectly happy to put their name to the most egregious  stupidities." Finally, my friend gently flags the issue of trust. Shouldn't I trust those who contribute in the comment section to do so honestly and fairly, whether or not a pseudonym is chosen?

All of these are good points and weigh with me. Here is the issue, though: We need a space on-line and off where significant funders are themselves willing to participate. Everything I know of that world goes to the conclusion that funders will want a "safe space" as it is called. Masked interlocutors operating beyond the reach of a counter-check will mark the space as "unsafe." (Much as a Press Conference would be unsafe for our President and his story-of-the-week had the reporters not been vetted, neutered, and managed.) Do I like this? No, I detest it. I am tired of the decorous vacuity of so much philanthropic conversation, and the veiled violence of an exclusivity that casts those it throws out of the conversation as somehow a threat to the safety of the country's most powerful interests. Come on. A democracy, no less than a market, is about the collision of competing elements through on-going "creative destruction." The only safe spaces are ringed with centurions, spears in ranked rows, or surrounded by flacks and flunkies, and that is not how a democracy works. (We have Freedom Pens to create a safe space for democracy - protecting our powers that be from criticism by the people they represent.)

Still, we can't have a worthwhile collision of ideals and worldviews unless some of the powerful and wealthy people show up to articulate their World We Want. Peter can make that happen, but why would he, if it costs him relationship capital, or leads to unhappy big-shots? This game is played by few players and the pyramid narrows as it reaches the top. The players talk to one another. It takes a lifetime to build a reputation for staging safe spaces. It takes only one incident to lose that reputation and become persona non grata.

OK, so the game is rigged from top to bottom; what do you want me to do about it? I am not The Happy Tutor disciplining the powerful. I am just an earnest financial executive buffing the client's morals as a value-added service in the highly competitive market for Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals (UHNWIs). You don't send a wealthy woman to a dog-groomer to get her nails clipped. Nor do you expose her philanthropy to critical comment by a bunch of losers. Hey, it's The World We Want. It's all good! You don't like it? Tough, you can't comment here. I am running a Safe Space. Now beat it before I call Security.

Organized Labor in The World We Want

A friend, active in organized labor, writes me privately, "The World We Want is broken." That's it. No note, just the message header. Interpret it as you will.