The Death of Grey Wolf

I was over at James Altucher's blog and wanted to comment on his most recent post, "How to Self-Publish a Bestseller: Publishing 3.0," and Disqus insisted on using my Google profile of "Grey Wolf", while I wanted to post as myself (so as to let Altucher know who I was, to build another string in my "network.") Even after deleting my old Disqus account, and making sure that I was myself in Google, Disqus still insisted on using "Grey Wolf"

So I deleted Grey Wolf. And it saddened me. I understand that my Grey Wolf avatar was decades old, and it was from a time when we skulked around the Internet "anonymously," while now we, of necessity, must publicize ourselves, our brand, to the world. Call me sentimental.

Anyway, I have a great interest in writing, and possibly publishing a book, so I found Altucher's recent article very interesting. I guess that is the real reason I started this blog--to build my "brand". So, out of the closet comes Mike and into the dustbin of history goes Grey Wolf. I shed a tear.

But, while we are on the subject of self-publishing, I should also mention two other sites that I found useful information at. One was "Adventures In Digital Writing, Publishing & Marketing" and another was an article called "Nathan Barry Explains How His Very 1st Book Sold $12k on Day One". Both offered free guides and both required that you enter an email address, and then confirm by replying to an email, before you could get their self-publishing guide, or tips.

Apparently, I need to whip up some little pamphlet to offer readers and to build a huge base so that I can sell $12k worth of books on day one. Also, I have to have multiple blogs and websites (you remember me mentioning EquitablePrinciples.com, don't you? ;-) and I have to cross-post articles on more popular websites (such as Grey Wolf ranting about "Creating a Community-Sustaining Economy" over at my.firedoglake.com … at least I am still the "anonymous" Grey Wolf over at MyFireDogLake!)

I feel like such a shill. I remember a friend once saying, "In Europe people have friends, here everyone is a business associate." That is so damn true. Here in the US we are all becoming "brands" and have to "sell" ourselves and network and … Well, you get the idea.

And you probably are getting the idea that I am starting to despise myself, or at least despise what I apparently have to do to survive here in the US. And I just recently graduated from law school and can already envision myself doing one of those damn TV commercials, that I despise, claiming that I can help you out of a legal jam, or that I can increase you business profits.

Altucher has sold a lot of copies of his recent self-published book, "Choose Yourself," but I really am not sure if I like myself. I liked Grey Wolf, and I liked being Grey Wolf, even if it was a flimsy facade that was easily pierced. Altucher, and others, have commented on thinking about your dreams, and what you dreamed of doing when you grew to be an adult, and maybe even chasing that dream. I remember I had read Jack London's "Call of the Wild" as a child and my biggest dream was always to run off to the Yukon and to leave civilization behind. I never dreamed of being a lawyer, or networking.

And I have to stop typing now because I can't stop crying.

RIP, Grey Wolf, I loved you.

Wow

I just read one of the most amazing "articles" concerning human actions and psychology.

Quora had an option to post to your blog [my blog] but it just created a page there at Quora.

So, here's a direct link, and a bit of an excerpt, to Diane Meriwether's answer to: The Big Philosophical Questions: Why do certain people derive pleasure from doing cruel things to their fellow human beings?

 Diane Meriwether, Kinder than necessary

Evil is suffering passed to someone else. 

When I was two, my mother broke my arm because I couldn't stop crying.

Part One -- suffering in 

In the early 1960s childhood beatings were called accidents. My mother had dreamed of having children, but she struggled with rage.  Looking back now, I know she was horrified and ashamed by what she had done. 

To my mother, evil was something that made her feel bad, after my broken arm that something was me.  It eased her discomfort to believe that she was only responding to my true nature.  She was a victim, if you will, of her child's darkness.  She was able to convince each or her four children, including me, of this "truth" and disastrous consequences curse my family to this day. 

And yet, I am quite lucky.  

Part Two -- suffering out 

When I was about four, my father found me in the backyard killing insects.  He told me later that he saw some joy in my body language, some delight in my eyes that frightened him and he tried to imagine what his father would have done.   He sat down near me and saying nothing, he started looking at one of the bugs I'd smashed.  Soon I came over to see what he was doing.   

"Look," he said, "Where do you think he was going?"

I squatted beside him and looked.  

"His mommy is very busy with the other little bugs at home," he said.  He told me a story about a little bug who was always getting in trouble, but this morning his mommy trusted him to go to the store for her.  She gave him a quarter and told him to bring home a loaf of bread.  

"Is she waiting for him?"  I wanted to know.   

"I imagine she is," he said. 

I started to cry.  I sat in his lap and sobbed and hiccupped and cried again. I covered his shirt in tears. ...

Read the full "article":  Kinder than necessary

Writing and reading

I went to a MeetUp.com event I found yesterday, a group called the "Casual Critique Group" which meets every Monday at a local chain restaurant. They were a small group, three women and one guy, that I almost didn't find. I saw the bald/shaven head of Matt, the organizer, and approached and said, of course, "Are you Matt?" They were all younger than me and they still have dreams and aspirations, so that was refreshing.

So today I am trying to think about some of the things we talked about after the critique of a short-story ended. I had mentioned self-publishing, and blogs, and the relationship between them, and today I read James Altucher's blog, which was the normal "just believe in yourself and follow your dreams and you'll become fabulously successful" pablum, which is getting rather monotonous and has gone beyond sickly-sweet, but I still read because it gets me rolling, and he can occasionally just be a good writer.

Anyway, I still have my old avatar, Grey Wolf, here, (which I contemplate changing but it reminds me of the "old" days, so I leave the avatar for sentimental reasons,) and I noticed that interests and location were actual links, and I clicked on "Rabbits". That took me to a page that listed others who had "Rabbits" as an interest. Those two people actually love rabbits, whereas I had put rabbits as a joke, implying that I am a wolf and eat rabbits.

Well, from there I had to click on the "Charleston" link and viewed the thousands of other bloggers who had their location as Charleston. And now I've decided to at least list a few of those that seem interesting in a new sidebar.

I found "WHAT I GET FOR A BUCK 75" somewhat amusing. A girl, who I think might be named Rachel, has been writing a blog giving summaries of crap she experiences riding the local bus. First off, I love her photo, where she has this grimace-type smile, and then here no-nonsense writing sealed the deal. She hasn't posted since April so I may leave a comment just to rouse her and see what she if she is still around …

Another blog I noticed was a painter … I was a decent artist twenty years ago and, based on the prices on his website, I should have stayed the course there, rather than going to law school …

So, just following up on my interests (writing and art, not rabbits, you silly goose) I have expanded my horizons. Obviously I  should "just believe in myself and follow my dreams and I'll become fabulously successful." Yeah, and I'll be eating rabbit tonight for dinner.

Making headway

I just posted over at Equitable Principles, and, just for today, I am going to paste my post from there to here:

Making headway

I thought I’d just pop in to say hello. As you can see we have been doing some housekeeping around here. The site layout has changed to WordPress and I’m slowly populating the pages. I just tested that I could make a comment and the approval process, so that is out of the way. Things are actually starting to look better around here. 

I need to add a few more static pages other than the “About” page. Off the top of my head I think I should add static pages for the three main types of structure of equitable corporations: profit-sharing, ESOPs, and Co-ops. Other than that I need to add links for supportive organizations and existing equitable corporations. 

This is going to be a long road and these things will get done, I’m just glad to get the majority of the website setup out of the way and have the framework in place to build upon. Right now I need to figure out how to get this page into my Google Analytics …

Moving Forward, My Way

I just graduated law school and am, of course, searching for a job and studying for the bar exam. The job hunt is frustrating and I have decided to add a new angle. I've heard advice that you need to be "out there" and, following this advice in the digital world meant to me starting a website. So I've basically decided that this blog will deal with all the loose ends, and that I would start a new website where I can concentrate on my obsession.

And, so, EquitablePrinciples.com was born. I've got the website basically up and running, but will be working at it daily to get it acceptable. I must admit that I was influenced some by James Altucher and his latest book, Choose Yourself. I am obsessed by employee-ownership and equitable capitalism, and everybody always advises to follow your heart, chase your dream, do what you love, etc, etc.

So, for me, to be "out there" and for me to "choose myself" involves me becoming an advocate for equitable principles. This is who I am. I respect Nucor and Publix and Raycom Media and want to advocate for these companies, and for their equitable principles.

There are plenty of companies I could denigrate, but I will not. I would rather praise the good than damn the bad. So that is my "day job" now --- praise the good rather than damn the bad.

I don't know how, but I believe this path will create opportunity and allow me to also be happy. I will only work for an organization that has ethics and follows equitable principles. Of course, it is possible that I will fail, or get hit by a bus tomorrow, but at least I can say I did it my way.

Economic justice

So I'm not fond of blogs but yet am writing a blog.

Obviously we often have to do things in life that we aren't fond of in order to get where we want to go. I am fond of the Internet, and I do cherish the fact that the information of the world lays before us, and I do read a number of blogs. Perhaps I was just expressing that I'm just not fond of the chaos that is life.

For instance, I try to form thoughts that are related to my previous thoughts, but that is not required with blogs. I could be writing about any topic, and probably should move to another topic so as not to be pigeon-holed. And, since the first few posts are just to establish this blog, I should briefly introduce topics that I will be discussing.

I am intensely concerned with justice, though not the type you might imagine. I am intensely concerned with economic justice. Economics professors and pundits have said that capitalism is a partnership between labor and capital, but that is just untrue. That's like saying slavery was a partnership between slaves and slave owners.

Humans require an incentive to perform labor. Whether it is a whip or a wage, an incentive is required to transform a human into labor. So a wage is just the barest incentive to make a human into a laborer. So, from the majority of capitalist institution's point-of-view, in this partnership between capital and labor, capital is entitled to all of the profits and labor is entitled to no reward other than being allowed to continue to exist, same as any other slave.

Basically, justice would require an equitable distribution of the profits of a corporation to be divided between capital and labor.  Rather than discussing the vast majority of companies that primarily profit from the exploitation of labor, I prefer to focus on the points of light.

Nucor is one such point-of-light, because Nucor has a profit-sharing structure written into the company's corporate papers of organization. Nucor is an example of equitable capitalism. Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and co-ops sidestep the issue of equitable distribution by having the workers actually be the owners and therefor the workers reap the profits of the enterprise.

While I admire ESOPs and co-ops, I still can not understand how most companies get away with raping their employees. Equitable distribution is a phrase often used in divorce proceedings. A marriage is a partnership, and if one partner provides capital, earns a wage in other words, and the other partner provides labor, like shopping for food and cooking it, both partners are entitled to equal shares of the capital and the fruits of the labor.

When the partners divorce, the partner who provided labor is entitled to half of the capital. Imagine one was to say, "No, you have eaten your meals and have slept in our bed, so you have consumed your benefits already so you should just leave with the clothes on your back." Such a position would be unjust and create outrage, yet that is the exact position that corporations take regarding employees. The employees have eaten their meals and were allowed to exist, why should they be entitled to half of the profits they created? Because human justice requires equitable distribution, and a civilized society requires equitable capitalism.

That is what I work for, equitable capitalism, so that one day I may say that I live in a civilized society.

I Hate Blogs

Sonny Boy Williamson

Call me a luddite, but this isn't "progress".

I was watching a few music videos the other day with my friend, Ken. One video was "Sonny Boy Williamson:Your Funeral and my trial", and another was "Canned Heat - Going up the country".

The Sonny Boy performance was recorded live and was tight. The Canned Heat video was recorded as part of a network television production and the band lip-synched and mimed their performance, the flute player mocking the entire charade.

Ken was commenting on the performances as recorded. The musicians in the Sonny Boy performance were very skilled and professional. The musicians in the Canned Heat video were being smart-asses and were displaying disdain for having to lip-synch and mime their performance.

"And people call this progress," Ken said.

We then got into a bit of our normal word-play, with me saying I didn't believe anybody was calling that progress, though people may call it modernization, or commercialization, or consumerization, or marketing, or whatever, but not progress. Ken replied that we were dickering about semantics, and I accused him of being anti-Semetic, and we drank another beer.

Ken was pointing out that in the span of twenty or thirty years, the actual performances had regressed in quality. I pointed out that the use of lip-synching was because of the network standards and government oversight to prevent broadcasting obscenities. That it would have been possible to record quality performances, but, to satisfy the quest for money, going through the networks garnered the largest audience and reaped the greatest monetary return, but definitely defeated the quest for quality.

The current migration from print to digital content is much the same. Instead of going to the library and having a selection of a few hundred quality books to choose from, we now go to the Internet and have the ability to choose from millions and millions of really shitty blogs.

"And people call this progress."