Things I Want To Write (More) About When I Get Off The Plane

Interesting that it is now literature, especially a subversive work, that inspires you. When we first met, at the Open Space for Giving Conference, three or so years ago, you had an enormous range of books you talked about but they are almost all management books. You mentioned that you wished you have read more literature, but it was like a side thought. The “operating system” of your discourse was the literature on management.
“Wired” is so far from Vonegut. As, candidly, “The World We Want” is so far from Wealth Bondage. When we rejoin the serious people, and take our part in the world of business affairs, it is not just the lying, but the decorum, the enforced decencies, that makes everything we say dead and false.
Wirearchy could evolve into “farming social networks,” and getting the most out of unpaid labor on the net, or getting more effectiveness and efficiency out of cultural creatives on staff, but underneath it all Jon what you are trying to do, I think, is to advance something like solidarity, or communal life, or the living traditions of democracy, of a “people,” not a company.
You can take your gifts back into corporate life and you will have much to offer there, and can readily make a living, a reputation, and a positive difference inside the frame of wealth bondage.
If only, if only, we could build from the dumpster, rather than the bordello. From inside whatever corporate firewall, I hope you find the means to pantomime the truths you (or I), in decency, must not speak.

Don’t really know what to say, Phil, other than “of course”
I am in Montreal at the moment, working with the author of Constellation W and playing the role of human connector, bnotably between the generations .. and working at bridging the gap(s) between activists, advocates and those of course who want to exploiut what’s going on for “gain”.

I used to read lots of literature, and philosophy. i always took your previous comments to me about my mgt. book lexicon as a criticism (unfair in my mind, but on reflection I was using that like a scared little bunny, trying to find ways to find paying work by somehow showing that I was not unknowing) .. and so I will admit to a bit of schadenfreude when you ran into the walls occasioned by clamping down on the bordello. I would have predicted it, but my Canadian politeness held me back
But we are both (and in the company of many who in one way or another recognize that the “sell by” dates on existing models are in the past) working at advancing solidarity, real democracy, community, humanism .. no ?

It’s such a shame that we are seemingly in the grip, the maw, of a mass hallucination as to the purpose of life, living and what it means to be human. Vonnegut is antidotal, I find, and I do hope you read “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater”. The danger to you is that you may never be the same as you were prior to reading it.

I get sidetracked all too often by my concerns about paying for lodging and food, mixed in with ego … but so far I seem to end up always back on what look like the same set of (interconnected) tracks.

I’m wrestling with similar issues, because making a living is a critcal concern for me, with three other people to support. I wonder if there are opportunities amongst NGO’s or non-profits, where the profit motive is not so strong? Of course, the hierarchies in these organisations may be more difficult to deal with than in the corporate sector.

In some ways it’s comforting to know that someone whose views I respect and consider a thought leader is not finding it easy to connect with the cash. Makes my own financial roller coaster ride seem more natural. Anyway, the least I can do is keep my eyes and ears open for opportunities

Thanks, Harold. I recently gave your name to some conference organizers here in Montreal re: a francophone Web conference, referrring to you as a highly knowledgeable and aware practitioner. I am not sure anything will come of it, but even small steps / gestures like mentioning a name may lead somewhere at some point in time.