Categories
Uncategorized

Stockhausen vs. Zorn

I thought this would be a matchup of dissonance, but it’s not feeling this way at all. It feels like classical versus jazz/rock, and it’s difficult to compare.

https://brackethq.com/b/82sib/

More on this later, when I figure out which is going to win this. Zorn has the edge.

This setup was just a bad idea. I just like Zorn more. He’s easier on my ears – and his stuff can be harsh. It’s reminiscent of rock, which I’m familiar with.

Stockhausen reminds me more of classical music.

Zorn for the win.

Categories
Uncategorized

Study Page for Feasibility and Strategy

I went down a rabbit hole after I needed to learn about feasibility; so this is a self-education page about that, organizing, and strategy. Since I don’t have expertise in this, I’m just listing some things I’ve found, or recalled.

I’m including business and community and political organizing resources. If you aren’t up for reading, videos are at the end.

Feasibility

I had to learn about feasibility, and thought I’d paraphrase:

From the article:

  • Does a company have enough resources (human, financial, material) to complete the project?
  • Will the delivered product/services be in demand on the market?
  • Is it possible to get the expected ROI given the existing constraints and possible risks?
  • Will the project outcome be aligned with a company’s business objectives?
https://www.epicflow.com/blog/to-start-or-not-to-start-overview-of-a-feasibility-study-in-project-management/

In organizer terms:

  • Capacity: do you have the people, money, skills to execute?
  • Effect: will this have the effect you want?
  • Environment: is this possible in the existing social condition?
  • Strategy: does this contribute to the end goal, and the middle stage goals, that are part of the strategy?

Strategy

Chartered Management Institute page on Strategy

Resident and Tenant Organizing, from NILC

9 Types of Political Strategies from iEduNote, a business education site.

Organization Development for Social Change: An Integrated Approach to Community Transformation, from the Movement Strategy Center

Video Education

Jane McAlevey videos about power and strategy. McAlevey operates in the labor movement.

Kim Bobo videos. Bobo wrote the popular Organizing for Social Change. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Categories
Politics

Racial Capitalism or Capitalism Creating Racism

I asked Bing Chat to tell me which was more popular today, “racial capitalism”, that capitalism is inherently racist, or that capitalism creates racism, to divide the working class. I don’t know enough about the variations in ideas by the listed writers, so I cannot evaluate if this article is accurate.

Here’s what the AI wrote:

That’s an interesting question. There is no definitive answer to what the current Marxian thought on race and capitalism is, as different schools of thought may have different perspectives and interpretations. However, some possible approaches are:

Racial Capitalism

This is the idea that capitalism is inherently racialized and that racism is a product and a tool of capitalist exploitation. According to this view, capitalism creates and maintains racial hierarchies and inequalities to divide and rule the working class, extract surplus value from racialized labor, and justify colonialism and imperialism. Some proponents of this approach are Cedric Robinson, Robin D.G. Kelley, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Angela Davis

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0735275120979822.

Capitalism Creates Racism

This is the idea that racism is not essential to capitalism, but rather a historical outcome of its development and expansion. According to this view, capitalism generates racism as a way of legitimizing the oppression and dispossession of certain groups of people, such as indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, immigrants, etc. Some proponents of this approach are Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, W.E.B. Du Bois, Eric Williams, and Oliver Cromwell Cox

https://socialistworker.org/2011/01/04/race-class-and-marxism

https://marxistsociology.org/2019/01/marxism-and-the-race-problem/

Intersectionality

This is the idea that race and class are not separate or mutually exclusive categories of analysis, but rather intersecting and mutually constitutive systems of oppression. According to this view, capitalism cannot be fully understood without taking into account how it interacts with other forms of domination, such as racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc. Some proponents of this approach are Kimberlé Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, Nancy Fraser, and David Harvey

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Marxism.

These are not the only possible ways to think about race and capitalism from a Marxian perspective, but they are some of the most influential and debated ones. I hope this helps you explore this topic further.