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Thomas Keneally’s 2020s vision: We must abandon the language of the market to reclaim our humanity

Identity - it might not be what you think it is … this week’s People First Newsletter considers the full meaning of ‘Identity’.

Identity

Always revealing differences. Often adding new facets. 
To know the reflection is to understand the subject.

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We must abandon the language of the market to reclaim our humanity

”In the last 30 years we have been transmuted from pilgrims, patients and students to become, as our primary identification, consumers and clients.”

HumanIT, the people’s OS.

Language. A People First Pillar.

Measure the economy by the Dow? Buttigieg says ‘no’.

What a concept! Must invite him to ‘#PeopleFirst

Not yet watched it - but I know I will - and if the book is any indicator - should be VERY good.

Shoshana Zuboff

Politics In Business

The New York Times : Yellow or Blue? In Hong Kong, Businesses Choose Political Sides on the 19th January contains this quote ...

Families and businesses have cleaved, sometimes forcefully, between those who believe Beijing must be compelled to carry out promised reforms and those who worry that the democracy crusade is destroying Hong Kong’s reputation as a stable financial capital.

I thought of the UK and the US ... and made two modifications

For The USA

Families and businesses have cleaved, sometimes forcefully, between those who believe Washington must be compelled to carry out promised reforms and those who worry that the democracy crusade is destroying The USA's reputation as a stable financial capital.

For The UK

Families and businesses have cleaved, sometimes forcefully, between those who believe London must be compelled to carry out promised reforms and those who worry that the democracy crusade is destroying The UK's reputation as a stable financial capital.

People: Sylvester

“They come for three months - they stay for four years - and I welcome that. That’s how we learn. They see us up close and personal and we see them. A lot of countries that they come from have very different governments, with different rules. We get to learn about each without the filter of what they are told. I wouldn’t say that when they leave we fully understand each other’s cultures, but we are surely better off than we would have been if we hadn't.”

“We bring people in from all over the world, staff and customers. So, why would we treat anyone differently? Them, Us, Staff, Customers, Family 
 each one of us is part of another’s world. And I mean all of us.”

“I don’t know much about those large companies you hear about in the news. You could fit our entire community into one of their office blocks. They have their ways. We have ours. So we’re different. Except we’re not. None of us are. They just haven’t worked that out yet.”

“Turns out, we have more in common with ‘foreigners’ - like you” (he smiles and points his finger at me) “than some of the people from our own country. Turns out that the ones that are just here to 'party' are the odd ones out. That’s why we came up with the 'Silly Bugger' rule.”

“It goes like this. When you come here, you can work and you can party. But that’s on your time. If you play 'silly bugger', there is no second chance. You are out on the next boat. That’s how we build and strengthen our community. Everybody is welcome until they make themselves unwelcome.”

“Maybe that’s something else those big companies could learn from us. If they did, we wouldn’t charge. That’s another thing - we don’t charge to learn - learning makes us all better.”

“There is no harm in our criticizing foreigners, if only we would also criticize ourselves. In other words, the world might need even less of its new charity, if it had a little more of the old humility.”

G.K. Chesterton

Thinking Allowed

This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.

Edmund Burke 200 years ago:

”The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

”The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.”

”Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”

.. and many more.

What a better way to celebrate data privacy day than reading the latest newsletter from People First where I connect the dots between Climate Change, Supertramp, Big Tobacco, Technology, Sun Tzu and The Red Hot Chili Peppers .. and not always tenuously !!!

Postscript : Ad Tracking

Are we winning? Well a whole lot more than we might have been pre-internet. 

Ad blockers are used by some 25% of internet users in 2019. In real terms, this means that 25% of internet advertising that uses trackers will not reach their intended audience. (It’s quite a bit more complicated than that, but the point is that somehow the word got out that people were being tracked and it was those pesky Ads doing all the tracking - enter Adblocking and so an industry was born and an ‘arms race’ ensued.)

The peak of the internet searching for the term ‘Ad blocker’ was September 2015. 

Me - I call it ‘tracker blocking’. There are sites that allow advertising and do not track. Ad blockers don’t work there - because there is no tracking to be blocked.

But there is no escape that at one point people were increasingly aware of ad blocking - what it was doing and most importantly - what it was doing to them. They got interested. And then it all fell away.

That's the mistake - we need to keep piling on. Keep reminding people what is going on.

A new design on the home page of my newsletter allows you to more quickly access and assess more of the stories before signing up.

I wonder if Douglas Rushkoff knows about this

”Find the others”

I’m trying Douglas. Early days … but it’s accelerating. When I do find them … they tend to sign up here.

”I don’t share because I have not yet found an identity and privacy respecting social media platform that matches my particular brand of gregarious reclusivity.”