On Privilege

I am steeped in a fair amount of privilege. Like many people in my situation, I try to keep aware of it, try to deal graciously with the times I fuck up (and we ALL fuck up), and generally go for the "don't be an asshole" rule of ethical engagement.

That said, I sometimes have trouble explaining the issue. I've seen some good primers, so let me throw a new one into the mix. From brown_betty, a primer on what it is and isn't.

As for dealing with it? I can't do much better than this quote from the above.

Be aware of the things you can do because you're privileged. Be aware of their impact. Be aware of the things other people can't do because they lack that privilege. Own your privilege.

That simple. (Not easy, mind you, but simple.)

To help further with the concept, Plan Toys and Playmobil offer a quick lesson in the neutral and the marked.

As an example of someone taking an interesting approach to the question of Should White Men Feel Guilty, listen to Tim Wise.

For another talk on some of the toxic effects of our current construction of masculinity (which is tied into some of the negative effects of privilege and maintaining it), I give you
Tony Porter. (Warning, he describes an ugly sexual assault in this talk.)

I think much of the abusive behaviour perpetrated by our financial elites ties into privilege and the ways it makes you blind to what is going on with others. I think the sense of unexamined privilege slipping away is also behind a lot of the "white male anger" tapped by the Tea Party. If you never examine your privilege, you internalize it as "the way the world works" and when that changes, it appears as deeply unfair to you. If you have no language to describe that, name it, and confront what it really means, it is all too easy to descend into reactive, desperate, and cruel behaviour to try and preserve it.

In some ways, it falls into the realm of a piece of wisdom given to me be K. Wiley on a Black Friday drive in search of a computer deal. Speaking of how many people bend over backwards to help s00j with her touring, he smiled quietly. "Of course, I think she deserves to be treated like a queen by everyone, everywhere she goes; but I know better than to think she's entitled to it."

Mistaking "entitled" for "deserves" is privilege.

Watching America

If you are ever interested in getting a feel for how the US is viewed by the rest of the world, you can always surf over to Watching America which translates news articles from around the globe.

What to read, Heinlein or Mein Kampf?

According to an old Michael Moorcock essay, "If I were sitting in a tube train and all the people opposite me were reading Mein Kampf with obvious enjoyment and approval it probably wouldn't disturb me much more than if they were reading Heinlein, Tolkein or Richard Adams."

I stumbled across the essay while glancing at the dust-up about steampunk Charlie Stross set off. (Personally, I always thought steampunk *did* deal with those issues, but maybe I'm thinking of early pieces in the genre or before the genre coalesced and now it is just gears and corsets and costumes.)

I did think the whole side discussion of Hobbits as an Arts and Crafts society was interesting, especially since it strikes me as exactly what a lot of StrowlerCon people wanted their Steampunk to be.

Taxonomy of logical fallacy

This is really quite a useful chart.

Silent all these years

I have never heard this story about Tori Amos before, but I do agree that I stopped listening to Tori after a while because her new stuff never seemed to grab me the same way.

I don’t know what I'm saying here. But I persist in thinking that this is an important story, for women who write. Anything, really; doesn't have to be music. If a boy starts moving into your territory and telling you what sort of woman you should be and how that woman should come across in your writing, you don’t say "thank you, Husband." You say, "here are your divorce papers, Husband, and you can sign them immediately if you are committed to behaving in this manner in the future."

I've certainly seen that dynamic, sadly.

Relatedly, Nick Cave makes me smack my forehead. (I'd like to think there is more context to that quote, though.

Psycho Fraggle

Does anyone else think that the opening to Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads sounds uncomfortably like the opening to the Fraggle Rock theme song?

Some interesting quotes

(Eastern Bank Corporation? Who the hell are they?)

"Men like to substitute words for reality and then argue about the words," - Edwin Armstrong, inventor of FM transmission

"The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know." - Harry Truman

"Dude, there's a difference between a metaphor and a Mad Lib." - Can't remember where I heard it.

"If I am not for myself, who will be? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?" - Hillel

"How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love." - Rilke

Photography-related things (Veruca$Holiday)

Yes, I want a D7000 (body only). No, I don't expect to get one from anyone.

Lights are always something I can use. Light stands, strobes, reflectors, things to hold lights, etc.

A good monopod will also be a great service. So would a trolley/converter/something to put under my duffel bag for when I'm lugging things around.