The demise of Lehman Brothers reminds me of the telecom meltdown in 2001, when I was a recruiter in the Dallas Telecom Corridor.

On Monday, shocked Lehman Brothers staff were told to "move on":

The mantra of Lehman Brothers was to pay its staff in stock – some 30 per cent of the bank’s equity was held by employees and many bonuses were paid in shares. Now those holdings are all but worthless.

It is always a pleasure to watch and study the professional, and dare I say statesmanly, way that both Congressman Dennis Kucinich and his wife Elizabeth conduct themselves in the rare moments they are granted mainstream media access.

I'm afraid I can't say the same about the Infotainment Jockeys of America's corporate media.

Last week's discussions on the Agonist about current events in Burma veered, not suprisingly, into discussions of non-violence.

So I was struck by how well the Lawrence Lessig interview on government corruption that I posted earlier illustrates one of Ghandi's key concept of non-violence: satyagraha.

In his Statement to Disorders Inquiry Committee January 5, 1920 (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi vol. 19, p. 206), Ghandi describes satyagraha this way:

Its root meaning is holding on to truth, hence truth-force. I have also called it love-force or soul-force. In the application of satyagraha, I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself.

The three characteristics of Satyagraha are:

1. Satyagraha is a weapon of the strong;
2. it admits of no violence under any circumstance whatever;
3. and it ever insists upon truth.

So what on earth does this have to do with Lawrence Lessig and non-violence in modern day America?

Shorter Lessig: we the people have to fix government before government can fix our problems.

Content here at the Agonist has been pretty bleak lately.

There are obvious reasons--the state of the USA, as well as international news coming out of countries like Burma; along with less obvious ones--some of our community members are dealing with traumatic events, we're burning Ian out with his valiant writing efforts, and as a group I think we can fairly lay claim to a certain level of burnout, too.

But burnout and despair don't get our problems solved, and alienating people from hope and reality-based optimism doesn't move a progressive agenda forward.

Now, I have to give a personal thanks to the community around the Agonist. I know that you are an incredibly intelligent, informed, and actively engaged group of people who, as individuals, are doing what you can to make a difference. (How do I know? Your comments here, my conversations with you in less public channels, and what Sean-Paul has shared with me about you.) You're an impressive group, and you've reaffirmed my faith in "regular people" on many occasions.

Today, as I post for the third fourth time a list of "three things to do today" I originally wrote on September 11, 2004, I have finally understood what the article is about: exceeding yourself.

So much advice about "appropriate" observances for today boil down to: be small. Close ranks. Disconnect from larger things. never forget -- to fear and hate. Be the least that you can be.

Instead, I'd like to suggest that we mark the day by exceeding ourselves, surpassing the boundaries of our fear and small thinking and tribalism.

My original list follows below the break, without edits. The shorter version might read:

1. Think for yourself.
2. Reach out and connect with your community.
3. Reach beyond your own community to those who may have cause to be more fearful than you are.
4. Challenge your assumptions.

Just got home from a quick swing by Stony Point Fashion Park mall here in Richmond Virginia (driven by necessity, not a bargain shopping spree!) and despite all the media hype about crazy sale shoppers on Black Friday...parking was easy to find, there were no waits in the stores, and the place was comfortably empty.

Were shoppers scared away by the hype, and will they trickle in over the next few days or week?

Are more people shopping online instead of in brick-and-mortar retail outlets?

Do locals find the warm Virginia November weather (we were up in the high 60's today) means no one is thinking thoughts of Christmas just yet?

Or are debt-loaded American consumers tightening their belts?

Maybe my experience isn't representative. Who braved the malls today, and what did you find?

After the gradual descent in gas prices in recent (i.e., pre-election) weeks, what are the chances are that prices will escalate on Wednesday?

We save money every election year by making sure our gas tank is full before the polls close.

Let's have a show of hands: who else is tanking up today?

In response to my article on why robocalls are a necessary evil, several readers made the comment that, campaign realities be damned, they hate robocalls and they’ll withhold their votes to make a point about it.* Even Seth Godin weighed in against robocalls this week

[*I hope to find time to write about the consequences of, and alternatives to, making a protest non-vote (short version: you’re voting for BushCo when you do).]

You're right. Robocalls are damn annoying. But that's not the point:

Complaining about robocalls isn’t going to change how campaigns work. Neither is telling campaigns “just be better” or “just work harder.” (If you’ve never been in a campaign office on GOTV weekend, you imagination can not fathom the crazy work campaign staffers are putting in right now.)

Democracy is a particpatory sport. If you’re prepared to put your money where your mouth is, you CAN make robocalls go away.

More on what you can do to stop annoying robocalls below the fold

Let's recap: robocalls are those annoying, pre-recorded campaign phone calls in campaigns. I've previously discussed why robocalls can be a necessary evil.

The trick is to use robocalls sparingly and well.

1. Use a reliable phone vendor.
2. Use a well-targetted list.
3. Time your calls strategically. Make sure you are not calling too early, too late, or during the big football game.
4. Make sure your staff and volunteers are not entering cell numbers into your voter file, so you don't accidentally send a robocall to a cell phone number.
5. Make the highest-quality call you can. Your own volunteers phone banks are more effective than paid calls (if they are run well, volunteers are well-trained and supervised, and you give them good scripts). Live calls are more effective than robocalls. Interactive calls are more effective than passive calls.
6. Celebrity endorsements are NOT effective in any other field of advertising (if you don't believe me ask David Ogilvy), yet the campaign world is obsessed with Big Name Robocalls. If you're going to get a Big Wheel to record a call for you, make dead certain that the association is going to help you more than hurt you. And make sure that the hassle of coordinating with the Big Wheel's schedule and staff is worthwhile to create a call that in most cases would be more effective coming from the candidate or a candidate's family member.
7. Coordinate with other campaigns in the area. If every race on the ticket is sending calls to the same voters, people will start tearing their phones out of the wall. (Yes, I have horror stories.)
8. Use GREAT call scripts. If you can't write them, get your phone firm to do it. If your phone people can't write them...get outside help and also reconsider your choice of phone firm.

For more on robocalls, see also Why Robocalls Are Here To Stay.

Want to know why Democrats talk like that? Because so many of them are lawyers.

Stephanie West Allen examines James Boyd White's book The Legal Imagination on the relationship between the lawyer's language and the lawyer's mind:

[West Allen] As a part of looking at that relationship, he discusses what is said about an event and what is not.

[White] The description of an event can go on forever and still be incomplete. ... The new lawyer sees this as soon as he finds he must tell a real story and discovers that it can never be done, that there is always more to say ... .

More on the cause and cure of Demspeak below the fold

Robocalls (pre-recorded, automated phone calls) are spam, plain and simple. I hate them as much as I hate direct mail (=snail mail spam) or yard signs (=public space spam).

But here's the first problem: effective direct voter contact is a trade-off between effectiveness and coverage, or your ability to persuade people vs your ability to reach people. Put in other words, the critical resources in any campaign are time, people, and money. Sometimes that equation makes robocalls your best option.

More on why campaigns insist on sending you those annoying phone calls below the fold

The Republicans stole Florida in 2000 by packing courthouses, city halls, and the Secretary of State's office (and all surrounding areas) with tens of thousands of volunteers. We cannot let them steal Virginia using the same tactics. Senator-Elect Jim Webb beat George Allen, and that will not change, as long as we roll up our sleeves and make a difference.

What can you do?

1. Keep the money coming in!
Send your recount contribution right now to Senator-Elect Jim Webb

2. Volunteers needed for Webb VA Recount
[Update 2006/11/08 11:41 am]

Senator-Elect Jim Webb's office needs volunteers for this important post-Election period! Please call their headquarters, tell them you want to help, and give them your information: 703-778-4080

3.Legal Help Needed for Webb VA Recount
[Update 2006/11/08 10:21 am]

Attorneys needed throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, especially Northern Virginia, in connection to the planned recount in Senator-Elect Jim Webb's defeat of George Allen.

ANY Attorney, law student, paralegal, etc., regardless of bar status, should send an e-mail that includes your name, phone number and e-mail address to: ritacaguilar[at]yahoo[dot]com

Want to know more? Senator-Elect Jim Webb Victory Speech Video and Chapter and Verse on Virginia Recount Laws below the fold

Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company, and Fast Company senior editor Polly LaBarre just published a ChangeThis article that describes the changing state of business leadership and asserts that the only companies and leaders that matter are those with the guts to be distinctive and disruptive.

Their advice applies just as equally to politics -- and presents a strong prescription for the Democratic Party, as well as for individual Democratic candidates.

Their main message is: you can't do big things (in any field) if you're content with doing things a little better than your rivals (or in the case of Democrats, a little worse).

More on Taylor and LaBarre's 10 Question Maverick Challenge after the jump.

Creating Passionate Users reports on a new social media campaign from Greenpeace::

Greenpeace takes a novel, inspiring approach to a campaign to make Apple 'green'. Rather than attacking the company, it encourages Apple fans to get involved creatively as a way to "help" Apple design a "new, cool product." The first words on the main page of the campaign are, We love Apple.

• The campaign gives Apple inbound links / positive search results:
• The campaign taps into the passion of Apple's fan base rather than antagonizing Apple supporters -- leveraging that base to influence Apple;
• The page is designed enough like part of the Apple website to elicit a positive submlinial reaction from Apple fans; the visual branding elements are about Apple, not Greenpeace;
• The campaign is built on CGC - Consumer Generated Content;
• CGC campaign have great viral potential;
• The campaign is SOCIAL: it builds allies rather than burning bridges; it turns a foe into a friend; and it gives Apple and Greenpeace a way to win TOGETHER and save face.

Just imagine, running an activist campaign that draws in rather than offends and alienates your target community...

Working to make positive change? Here's a great model on how to do it right.

My experience working in state and congressional campaign politics has been that most Democrats think in 6 month, or even 3 month increments. (Some readers may find that statement harsh, but if you look at the condition of Democratic politics across the country, I see very little evidence to the contrary.)

This is skirmish thinking: it may (or more likely may not) win the battle, but it doesn't win the war.

I'd like to offer one point as a supplement to Ian's article Movement and Parties: Plan for Long Term Victory

The Stanford Prison Experiment
+ The Milgram Experiment
= Abu Ghraib etc.

The Stanford Prison Experiment: a landmark 1971 psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life, conducted by a team of researchers led by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. Volunteers played the roles of guard and prisoner, and lived in a mock prison. However, the experiment quickly got out of hand, and was ended after only 6 days.

The Milgram Experiment: a famous scientific experiment of social psychology, conducted circa 1963 by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, to measure the willingness of a participant to obey an authority who instructs the participant to do something that may conflict with the participant's personal conscience. 65% of participants demonstrated sadistic behaviour, a percentage that remains remarkably constant when the experiment has been replicated by other researchers.

[Herr van der Rohe was correct that God is in the details. If you are not familiar with the studies, I encourage you to follow the links to learn more.]

The Toronto Star reports that MBA students are likelier to cheat.

According to the study “Academic Dishonesty in Graduate Business Programs: The Prevalence, Causes, and Proposed Actions:”

"56 per cent of graduate business students admitted to cheating in the last year, compared with 47 per cent of non-business students."

The study, which included 5,000 MBA students from 11 graduate business schools in Canada and 21 schools in the U.S., was conducted by management professors at Rutgers, Washington State and Pennsylvania State universities, and due to appear in the next issue of the Academy of Management Learning & Education journal. Researcher Donald McCabe also noted "Those numbers are probably under-reported."

This study points towards a trend of "business-as-usual" lying, cheating and corruption where Enron (and Watergate) are the norm and not the exception. In our increasingly post-modern, post-reality, straussian-influenced culture, is it any surprised if our children emulate the attitudes and strategies we explicitly and implicitly teach them that society rewards?

Today, as I post for the third time a list of "three things to do today" I originally wrote on September 11, 2004, I have finally understood what the article is about: exceeding yourself.

So much advice about "appropriate" observances for today boil down to: be small. close ranks. disconnect from larger things. never forget -- to fear and hate. be the least that you can be.

Instead, I'd like to suggest that we mark the day by exceeding ourselves, surpassing the boundaries of our fear and small thinking and tribalism.

My original list follows below the break, without edits. The shorter version might read:

1. Think for yourself.
2. Reach out and connect with your community.
3. Reach beyond your own community to those who may have cause to be more fearful than you are.
4. Challenge your assumptions.

In this incredibly antagonistic and hostile interview on A Current Affair, Karl Stefanovic pillories Germaine Greer for her public sentiments about television personality and animal wrangler Steve Irwin's recent accidental death. The clip illustrates the costs of holding a position outside an "official" narrative -- particularly official hagiographies:

Fortunately, on the fifth aniversay of the 9/11 attacks, there's so much more to look forward to than just

• Disney-sponsored hardcore rightwing propaganda,
• blaming Bill Clinton for George Bush's screw-ups,
• and the much-anticipated, popular-demand reprise of Bush's spectacular 2001 spoken-word performance of My Pet Goat.

South Carolina Republican candidate Karen Floyd wanted to do something more original, a little bolder, a whole lot tougher and ballsier than the Republican flag-wrapping, turd-gilding, war-mongering, reality-fabricating, history-rewriting, terror-porn, same-old same-old. Karen Floyd decided that the best way to observe the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 2,973 American civilians on American soil was to kill innocent things in cold blood herself.

Republican candidate Floyd is spending the day hunting. For doves. In fact, it's a campaign event. And, if you want to go and fire rifles at the international symbol of peace with Floyd and her Republican friends on the anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, it will only cost you $1000 for the priviledge.

Blood, gunpowder, grave-dancing and money-grubbing: Republican values in action.

Praise god and pass the ammunition.

[Yes, that's the actual invitation. Hat tip to BoingBoing for it. Go ahead and click on the image for a larger, easier-to-read version.]

PS Republicans are the folks who revile the memorial celebrations of the lives and accomplishments of Paul Wellstone and Coretta Scott King as "indecent". Just keep that in mind for perspective.

Oliver at MobileCrunch has published a great write-up entitled One Call Reaches All with Pheeder -- a company that lets you run public, opt-in lists to receive broadcast phone messages (or alternatively, your own private lists).

The service is free.

My first reaction? -- drop your campaign robocall spam, and replace it with tailored, opt-in GOTV reminder calls through Pheeder.

(My second reaction? -- brilliant opt-in tool to broadcast campaign volunteer opportunity updates.)

Heather Green at Business Week Online's Blogspotting asks today what do college kids care about besides consumer tech trends and gadgets? (She's not pointing fingers at students so much as pointing out that corporate media envision students as consumers, not agents.)

If you're a student activist and have a story to share, go fill Heather in about the state of student activism these days.

Part 3 of my discussion with business guru David Maister about the future of book publishing, which orginally appeared as a comment on David's blog. Part 1 of may be found here and Part 2 here. And yes, I have written Part 3 all by myself. [Full disclosure: David Maister is a client of my employer, stresslimitdesign.]

David Maister's post Writers and Peformers is right on the money—but I’m still disturbed by the cynical postmodern fatalism here.

The growing trend towards trained monkeys and dancing bears worries me (cf Kaavya Viswanathan, the plagiarizing Harvard undergraduate novelist and the Spice Girl-ification of the publishing industry), and I don’t want to go gently into that slick, infomercial-populated night. I don’t know if this generation would recognize a Shakespeare unless he got a hair piece, received a thorough Queer-Eye treatment, and was willing to shake his booty on Americon Idol. Surely the end results is we wind up with more pap culture (sic) idols, and less qualified content producers. Quel dommage. How many Shakespeares, Momma Casses, even Peter Druckers might we be losing in the current system? I’ll take talent and ability over photogenics any day.

Part 2 of my discussion with business guru David Maister about the future of book publishing, reproduced with his permission. Part 1 of this exchange may be found here. [Full disclosure: David Maister is a client of my employer, stresslimitdesign.]

The following article by David Maister, entitled Writers and Performers, originally appeared on his blog on July 18, 2006.

Shaula Evans, part of my tech team, spotted an interesting discussion with John Updike, which raised some concerns about the future of publishing. Since we discussed the future of writing books in this blog back in February, she thought we all might be interested.

Apologizing for her rephrasing [of Heather Greene's recap at Business Week Online’s Blogspotting], Shaula says:

In short, much of the advice to (published and aspiring) authors in the digital age boils down to: "Don't worry about monitizing books. Give books away, and make money through collateral revenue streams."

To which Updike responds that authors are writers, not performers, and not likely to succeed as entertainers.

More after the jump