Seeking Common Sense in a World Gone Mad
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6 June 2005
Philosopher breaks
down management self-
help books
by Puripnon
Applied Rhizomatics, as it is a business,
will require a great amount of economic,
managerial, etc. knowledge to run
properly. With that in mind, I stumbled
across this list while skimming the self-
improvement regions of the blogsphere.
It seemed like a pretty good selection of
texts on just about every subject covered
in an MBA program. I decided to look
for these books at the library last night
and found that most of them were
checked out (good sign). A couple of the
"Productivity" books were in, so I
decided to speed read them to see if they
were worthy of a perusal.
They weren't.
The first book I tried to read was The 7
Habits of Highly Effective People.
Half way through the book, I picked up
Mr. Covey's formula:
- translate a piece of common
sense into buzzwords
(proactive! synergize!!!), - back up your buzz-wisdom
with largely fictional anecdotes, - sprinkle the text with highbrow
quotes from some book of
quotes and pretend like you've
actually read the work (like this
guy has really read any Goethe), - make millions off of the dopes
who buy the book.
The core of the book, that we should
center our lives around principles rather
than image and organize our lives from
the inside out according to these
principles, is decent, if not downright
important. However, this only took me
one run-on sentence to say, rather than
300+ pages. The rest of the book is fluff
and Mr. Covey's often sly attempts (and
sometimes outright attempts) to convert
his readers to Christianity.
If anyone is thinking about reading this
book, don't. If you're interested in
guidance and wisdom, turn to the book
that contains all of Mr. Covey's
important points and a whole lot more,
The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Of course, Aurelius didn't write at a 5th
grade reading level.
The second piece of crap I read was The
80/20 Principle. It follows the EXACT
SAME FORMULA AS ALL OF
THESE OTHER SHITTY SELF-HELP
BOOKS. This is just infinitely more
annoying. The premise of this book is
that 20% of something leads to 80% of
something else. Yep, that's it. At first,
this seems plausible. Common sense
tells us that only a fraction of what we
do is really important and that by
focusing on this fraction, we can be more
productive. Unfortunately, the author
doesn't stop there. He tries to tie
EVERYTHING IN THE GOD
DAMNED WORLD into the 80/20
principle, as if it's a magical formula that
explains everything, from crime, to our
personal lives, to the unequal
distribution of wealth. It insists that
everything obeys this principle, and
sites only evidence that proves this.
This books fails to provide anything
more than the aforementioned common
sense in the way of advice.
I have developed the 99/1 Principle.
This principle is the following: 1% of
a self-help book contains 99% of the
book's value. Most of these books can
be condensed into 2 pages of bullets,
AT MOST. The other 99% is bullshit.
Universal Health Care Rising
by babblemur
The concept of Universal Health Care is getting a lot of talk and attention lately given the
economic health care crisis that no one seems to want to acknowledge. I could babble
about this, but I would rather leave that to others with more finely tuned arguments.
Below are article summaries, follow the headline link to go to the full text. Note that
California and Vermont are both considering state level versions of a Universal Health Care
system.
Why the nation will embrace Universal Health Care
by Lance Dickie, Seattle Times
If the engine of change in most democracies is a disgruntled middle class, then I am
emboldened to make a prediction. The U.S. is headed toward a single-payer system of
universal health care.
Everyone keeps his or her doctor and, more to the point, everyone will have one. The
medical-delivery system — physicians, hospitals and pharmaceuticals — stays private, but
the paperwork and bills are routed through and paid by the federal government.
A Republican Argument for Universal Health Care: Part 1
by Ben Brothers (BadgerBlues)
Democrats often take it as an article of faith that universal health care would be a good thing. We see it as an
issue of moral justice. Freedom from want and freedom from fear are fundamental Democratic values, and
making sure that every American has the right to adequate medical care has been a Democratic goal ever
since Franklin Roosevelt proposed a Second Bill of Rights in 1944.
We don't need to be convinced, but we're only half of the country. The other half of the country are
Republicans, and many of them do need to be convinced.
A Republican Argument for Universal Health Care: Part 2
by Ben Brothers (BadgerBlues)
Yesterday I wrote about good American companies that provide good benefits for their workers and are
penalized under the United States' uniquely self-defeating business model.
The converse is that bad companies that do not play by the rules should not be rewarded for doing so. Wal-
Mart employees are the largest group of Wisconsinites enrolled in BadgerCare. Wisconsin's taxpayers,
including those who own businesses that compete with Wal-Mart, are subsidizing their competitor because
Wal-Mart is not doing the right thing.
Troubled Corporations Need Single Payer
by Dave Zweifel, Capital Times (Madison)
Anita Weier of our staff reported several weeks ago that a significant number of Wal-Mart employees in
Wisconsin wind up having to rely on the state-paid BadgerCare program for their health insurance at a
significant cost to the state's taxpayers.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week repeated that information and added that while Wal-Mart by far
leads the list of big corporations whose workers need to take advantage of taxpayer-paid poverty programs,
there are several other big firms whose workers need to do so too.
Also, see:
There is a Solution to the Health Care Disaster
By John Kolstad/President, Mill City Music
California Senate advances universal health care plan (AP)
reprinted with permission
by Steven Stwalley
Wisconsin Legislature retaliates
against the University of Wisconsin for
being too damn liberal
by babblemur
The Joint Finance Committee of the Republican held Wisconsin
State Legislature has voted 12-4 on party lines to slash the UW
budget even beyond Democrat Gov. Doyle's cuts.
There is great coverage of this at Lake Winneblogo and other
places, so allow me to just state my opinion.
Conservative legislators are lashing out at the University of
Wisconsin for a number of reasons, none of which are related to
the budget crisis. Among these are:
- Ward Churchill's 2004 UW-Whitewater visit;
- UW-Stout's ROTC ban based on gay discrimination
(although it was recinded); - UW System's desire to be fair to gays and lesbian couples
and provide them with the same benefits married couples
get; - University attacks on the Grantsburg, WI school board for
suggesting 'creationism' be taught along side 'evolution'; - University student health departments providing 'day after'
birth control pills to students prior to spring break; - UW stem-cell research progress and advancement;
- etc, etc, etc,
In other words, the University of Wisconsin has found itself
opposite the Republican activists in the state legislature and in the
middle of the culture war that is being fought in Wisconsin,
whether the University knows it or not. To the Far Right,
Academia is a 'left wing brain washing machine', and the faculty
are all communists, socialists, and worst of all - liberals. So how
can the Right Wing take on this Billion Dollar Behemoth? Starve it
out. How can they reduce the influence of the Heathen Faculty?
Shift the teaching burden on to 'non-tenure track' academic staff
and freeze faculty hiring. And how can the state legislature help to
'protect' the youth of Wisconsin from being 'brain washed' by this
education system? Raise tuitions and slash student aid so that only
a select number of students can even attend the University for
'brain-warshin'.
Its just a theory of mine, kind of like Evolution.
| MEET THE GREENS! |
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| Could YOUR neighbor be... |
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| Green??? Meet Elaine Fleming, Mayor of Cass Lake, MN! "She is the first woman and the first Native American to hold the office. Until last year, Cass Lake had always had a white mayor, though nearly three-quarters of its population is Native American—mostly Ojibwe. Fleming also became the first Native American woman ever elected to the position of mayor in the state of Minnesota, and she is the only Green Party mayor in the state. Fleming is also a mother, a teacher, a writer (several of her plays have been produced, and she’s working on a novel) and an environmental activist. The mayor’s political success was something of a surprise—even to her. In an August interview with Winona LaDuke [MWP Aug. 27-Sept. 9], Fleming said, “I hated politics because my dad was in politics. I always figured there was another way to get things done.” But a politically minded friend helped change Fleming’s mind and convinced her to run for office." (Entire text from an article by Kelly Westhoff, Minnesota Women's Press, December 31, 2003) |
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