| Number 65 | April 7, 2000 |
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This Week:
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Greetings, Another plea for help this week, this time computer-related: If anyone out there is a whiz at Netscape (I have version 4.08) and is willing to help me solve a few problems, please get in touch. I know just enough to do what I am doing, but I have some questions... A couple of weeks ago I talked about “legal reform,” and how our political leaders are mostly concerned with reforming the “tort” system for the purpose of making it harder for citizens to curb corporate abuses of power. Next week I will talk about what really needs reforming (or replacing!) in our legal system. The issues at the core of that discussion are race, class, drugs, and the Free Market. That should be interesting. Welcome to all the new readers this week! Nygaard |
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“If God wanted a progressive income tax system, he would have given us a progressive tithe.” -- Minnesota Representative Mark Olson, Republican of Big Lake, speaking against Democratic attempts to limit a Republican tax-cut plan to just the bottom and middle-income brackets, which would increase the progressivity of the state tax system. |
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All this week and continuing into next week activists of all sorts are converging on Washington D.C. to protest the activities of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which are sort of the “parents” of the World Trade Organization. The week of protests, actions, and educational events is being sponsored by an incredible variety of groups that I won’t even try to list here. The coordinating body is the Mobilization for Global Justice. Check out their site at: http://www.a16.org. For those without computers, Internet access is available at your public library. |
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I like lists. Top Ten lists, Best Movie Lists, All-Star Team lists, Top Ten Censored Stories lists, a list of the Least Toxic Seaborne Spongiforms - you make a list, I’ll read it. In that spirit, I started to make up a list of some of the things that I read on a regular basis. It turned out to be a long and fairly eclectic list, so I decided to share it with you. It might be fun to look at, and it should give you a clue about who I am and where I get my ideas. And it might give you an idea or two, as well. Perhaps some things on this list will be new to some of you. Or, alternatively, perhaps one or more of your favorite publications are not on the list. If so, send me a note telling me what I’m missing! (For example, at the moment my list does not include a good source for GLBT news and analysis; I don’t know why.) I am always looking to broaden my horizons! I’ll start with the things I read faithfully in paper form, then move on to a list of some of the things I read regularly in paper form but not faithfully. Printed on Actual Paper Standard daily fare includes the Star Tribune (Newspaper of the Twin Cities!) and the New York Times. Most days I look at the Wall Street Journal and often the Investors Business Daily. Sometimes I check out the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and when out of town I read the paper in whatever town I am in. (Headline in the March 13th Omaha World-Herald: “Beef is Back!”) I regularly read:
On a monthly basis I read:
Other publications that come out less frequently but that I also read regularly include:
Here are a few select magazines that I look at quite often and recommend:
Well, that’s about all the paper things I read regularly. I can recommend all of the above publications, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. If you want more information, send me a note and I’ll give you what contact information I have. Next week: Cyberspace. |
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In Nygaard Notes #48 I outlined a six-step process to use in analyzing the nature of a magazine. I claimed it would only take about one minute to do this analysis, then admitted that “to be honest, there is some self–knowledge assumed here that can take some time to acquire. For example, have you done the work necessary to be clear on your values and beliefs?” Many people have not done “the work,” because it is not easy to do. This week I will talk a little about this work and how it can help you think better. The Why, The How, and The What One of the things that I have done over the years that has helped me clarify my values is to participate in social change organizations. The process of working with others to set mission, strategy, and practice (the why, the how, and the what) for a group has really forced me to think about my own beliefs, and working with others forces me to back up my talk with action. It makes me a better person. Groups have to do certain things in order to be fully effective, and I think some of those things can be used in an individual’s life to help get our values to more closely match our morals. That is, to become more the type of people we want to be. I believe that any effective organization needs to first of all understand why it exists. This is often called the “mission” of the organization, or the “vision.” Once everyone understands why the organization is there - and this can take a while! - then there needs to be some agreement as to how to proceed toward living up to the purpose of the group. This is often called the organization’s “strategy.” Exactly what must be done to carry out that strategy is known as the “tactics,” or “practice,” of the group. All of these things require much thought and discussion in any democratic organization. Mission > strategy > tactics. How does this apply to individuals? Your “mission” is why you think you are here on the planet. This is where you ask: “What makes us human?” Why has our species been given these fantastic abilities to think, to empathize, to communicate with others? And what are the special skills or talents that you, yourself, have developed or come into the world with? I don’t have the answer to this question for anyone but myself, as these answers fall in the realm of morals, ethics, and beliefs. An individual person’s “strategy” for their life is how you have arranged to spend your time over the long haul. Here you ask: “What should a person like me be doing?” Maybe your focus is on earning as much money as possible. But maybe you have arranged your life to need less money so you have more time to do other things. Those other things might be raising children, or being an urban gardener, or being a community organizer, or publishing a weekly newsletter. Thinking about the “strategy” for your life should be more than career planning. Many people wait for a crisis to consciously consider their life’s strategy, but you don’t need to; you can simply decide to set aside time to get more clear on your values. Where an organization speaks of “tactics,” an individual can speak of “daily practice.” Here is where you ask: “What am I going to do today (this week, this month) to be more like the person I say I want to be?” This is where the rubber meets the road. For example, if you say you are a person who loves children, you have to do something to carry that out. There are many practices that will fulfill this. You could directly act on this value by working in day care, or by volunteering as a Big Brother or Big Sister. A little less direct action might be to donate money or time to children- focused political organizations like the Children’s Defense Fund. You could work to increase the wages for child-care workers or to increase funding for children’s health. If you find yourself incapable of narrowing your focus down to a single issue, your daily practice could be spent trying to open up possibilities and free the imagination of your fellow citizens, in the process encouraging them to work in their own ways to try to create a society in which we are all more free to act in accord with our moral and ethical beliefs. This is what Nygaard Notes is all about. Thinking and Values How do your moral beliefs and your values affect your thinking? When we see something on the television news, we all see the same thing. But, depending on our beliefs and values, we interpret it - that is, we “think” about it - differently. To use this example, if your belief is that people are basically “bad,” then your response to street crime may be to “lock ‘em up and throw away the key.” You may see a criminal and nothing but a criminal. But if you believe that people are basically “good,” then you may be able to think about restorative justice or rehabilitation. You may see the need for incarceration, but you will also be able to think about positive alternatives. That’s just one example. Every time you interpret something you are relying on your values and beliefs. Every time you direct your attention to one thing and ignore something else, you are making a choice, and that choice will reflect your values. This is not an “objective” process, nor should it be. This is why, if you want to be a clear thinker, it helps to become conscious of your values. And it is also why, if you act on your beliefs, your thinking will improve. Not only will you begin to see how the values and beliefs of the larger, dominant, culture have affected you spiritually and morally, but you will become aware of the biases and prejudices that you have internalized, and of how they shape your mental processes. Values affect everyone’s thinking, including writers and editors. To use a very concrete example, if a “white” reporter has not taken the time in her or his life to work on challenging their internalized racism, then they will often fail to understand how racism impacts the stories they are covering. Then, when they put together their journalistic puzzle - their “story” - a huge piece may be missing, and usually they won’t even know it. I call my type of writing “Values-Based Journalism.” Actually, until now I hadn’t called it anything; I just made this up since I thought I needed a catchy phrase. (How does it sound?) I think Values-Based Journalism is a more honest term for what every journalist does, and must do. We all make decisions to focus on one news item and not another, or to believe one person and not another, or to put one thing on the front page and one on the back, and we all base those decisions on our values; what else would we base them on? The difference is that I don’t go around saying that I am “objective” when I do it; I just I try to make my biases and my principles very obvious. Judging by the volume and thoughtfulness of the mail I get, I might be on to something here. I’m sure you’ll let me know if I’m wrong. |