Politics
Entries related to things political.
Reading list
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 04/18/2006 - 21:55My horoscope today says, “When's the last time you read a really good book, hmm? Why not email a few friends whose taste you trust and ask for a recommendation or two.” This means that 8% of people reading horoscopes should get the same suggestion, so I’ll provide my recommendations and if people have some recommendations of their own, please add them.
A lot of people have been asking me about blogging, and so I would like to recommend a few books that I think are crucial to being a good blogger. This may not be the typical list you’ll find from other bloggers.
I’ll start off my list with Bruce Sterling’s Zeitgeist. Publisher’s weekly describes it as “Rife with profound ruminations on the ‘master narrative’ of life”. Good blogging needs to be the master narrative.
E.B. White’s One Man’s Meat provides an example of what I think good blogging should be. He talks about daily life on his farm and ties it to the political ‘master narrative’.
There are two important themes to me in the master narrative of blogging are role of ‘online influentials’ and the ‘collapse and revival of American Community’. Blogging folks often talk about the Roper report about influentials online. Yet again, I like to go back to some older books. In 1955, Elihu Katz, Paul Lazarsfeld wrote a book, Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications. This site sums it up with “Essentially what Lazarsfeld discovered is that many voters regard family members and close personal friends, and not the mass media, as major influences in the decision making process”.
Perhaps this ties together nicely with Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Over the past forty years, politics has become much more focused on the mass media, and we have seen a decline in political involvement. Blogs can provide a shift in the media where we bring family members and close personal friends back into the political decision making process.
So, read Sterling, White, Katz, Lazarsfeld, and Putnam. Think about how you can use the internet to tell personal stories that reflect on the master narrative of twenty-first century politics. Think about how you can help revive American community through re-engaging family members and close personal friends in the political decision making process. Oh, and let me know what you’re reading.
Money in the bank and fire in the belly
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 04/15/2006 - 10:32Years ago, I was treasurer for a vibrant young church. Every year, we would have our pledge drive and afterwards, we would sit down and try to work out the budget. It was always tight. There was never enough money to do all the programs we wanted. Some worried that the church had no endowment, but lived year to year on the donations of the members and by faith. The priest often quipped that the church’s endowment was it members. The church grew and thrived, not because of an endowment or money for programs, but because the members of the church felt passionate about the church and its message and spoke to friends and neighbors about all that was going on.
These memories come back to me as everyone is pouring over the first quarter fundraising numbers for various political races around the country. The amount of money that a candidate raises and the number of donors can reflect the passion supporters have for a candidate or it can reflect an interest in staying in the good graces of the status quo. The money on hand can be used to communicate the candidate’s message, which may or may not be inspiring.
What matters is that people feel passionate about their candidates. This requires candidates that speak truth to power and have fire in their bellies. This is what will get people to spend time passionately talking with their friends, neighbors and relatives about why they support their candidate, and this person to person contact is what we need for a strong vibrant democracy. So, money in the bank is important, but fire in the belly is what really counts.
For Paul
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 04/12/2006 - 18:19
Four Freedoms
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 04/09/2006 - 17:36On January 6th, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his famous, ‘Four Freedoms’ speech.
“In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms... freedom of speech and expression... freedom of every person to worship God in his own way... freedom from want... [and] freedom from fear.”
Norman Rockwell produced a series of paintings representing these four freedoms, and this weekend, one of them has become well known on the Internet.
The politics of cancer
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 04/05/2006 - 21:11When I first met Kim, I didn’t know that it would only be six weeks until her mother died from cancer. Kim and her family did everything they could to fight the cancer and give her mother a few extra quality years. It was a time of big changes for me and from that, battles with cancer have taken a special place in my life.
I read about Brinn, a student of Gina Coggio’s. Gina is a teacher in New Haven who writes wonderful accounts of her experiences reaching out to students. Brinn’s mother died of cancer in the fall.
