Kombinat!

Cuckootrain Manifesto

Markets are Conversations where you and I produce Noise so the Market can Profit from our "Conversations"

When blogging in 2004 we are not "writing ourselves into existence" any more as David Weinberger says. We have progressed beyond that, we are now dismantling our existence and selves we sell as spare parts for Conversations machine. Kombinat! Profits Machine Conversation Waste Disposal is.

King's Jester, where art thou?

I am a Jester seeking refuge as a Village Idiot for my King has turned a Tyrant and now he is seeking entertainments of a Clown.

Half Peekaboo! Not Made by Disney

In a book "A Necessary Fantasy?: The Heroic Figure in Children's Popular Culture" Nina Mikkelsen writes:

"American children would have little knowldge of any artist through their chidlren's books except the cartoonist's world of Disney"

As part of Kombinat! Kids initiative we present to you a painting "Double Portrait with a wineglass" unofficially called "Half Peekaboo!" by the staff of Kombinat! (click the pic for a larger version)

It was made by a Russian born painter Marc Chagall in 1917-18, a terrible time in the history of Europe. I saw it in Paris twice in my life. Once in 1989 and in 2004 at The Pompidou Center. I just stood there looking at it for a long long time and I was falling in love with the world.

Lovely, isn't it? So much life and joy. No Noise is found in this painting. It doesn't stand for anything except for the pure joy of life itself. Paintings like these are not being talked about a lot. You will probably never see them discussed on TV. They don't make news because they are not controversial. They don't attack.

As an expression of love they simply are. And so are you. And so am I. Peekaboo! Half back at you!

Shirley, Do you own a Ferrari?

Listening to soundrack from "La Passione" by Chris Rea and this song "Shirley, do you own a Ferrari?" reminds me of Candidia before she became the CEO of WealthBondage.

Yes, I own a Ferrari
Yes, my Life is your Dream
and I live in a wonderful Place
and the smile on my Face
is not sycophantic
I'm just a true Romantic
How about you ?

WealthBondage makes grey skies turn to blue.
Thank you Candidia.

Iraq and Poland

I grew up in a tradition of pacifism. I grew up in Poland, a country where two world wars stole many bedtime stories away from children who never heard the voices of their fathers. Millions died because reason turned to madness, people turned to ashes and disappeared and were heard from no more. I decided I was never going to be in a business of stealing stories from children to whom they were to be told by their fathers. Perhaps pacifism chose me because as a 10 year old boy I overheard a story an old woman whom I used to visit with my mother told how she survived Nazi concentration camp running away from Treblinka in the dead of winter, a teenage girl sleeping high up in the branches of a tree so the wolves would not attack her.

I grew up in a "NO MORE WAR" tradition that rejected violence as a solution. It is that tradition that adopted me. I chose it to sustain me. It is something that gives me hope. It's always there to breathe life into my daily existence. It is I believe my Polish Nation's shared commitment to living in peace, our social remembrance of a once charted course and our willingness to continue the work. It's a tradition I can not run away from. It is a tradition we can not run away from.

It is in the spirit of this tradition that I ask you my Polish Nation: What the fuck are you doing in IRAQ?

The Kleptones present Hip-Hopera. Green Goose Theater presents Sniff

"Without Free communication you don't have Free Society. Democracy is based on it."

"A Night At The Hip-Hopera" by The Kleptones gets my vote for the best album of the year. It's Queen meets Hip Hop and more. 23 tracks. The first and last named with a noun, all the rest having a verb for a title. Each track twists Queen's creation and makes a new batch to experience old as new but it is the last track titled "Question" which renders me speechless. One must hear this piece alone to know the entire album is a work of creative genius. A complex sound collage. On top of a disgusting vomiting background sounds a symphony of social commentary on Copyright, All Rights Reserved culture, freedom and democracy. A commitment to the future not only of music but of freedom of expression, freedom to explore other people's artistic creations by mixing, reusing, bending, twisting, questiong, playing, toying with, ridiculing and being inspired by them. I will say nothing else about this last track. No words can describe it. Hear it and experience it for yourself. And you can because this album is free and only available on the internet as an mp3 download,(all info here) it seems like by that alone The Kleptones offer the best commentary on Copyright and freedom of creative process. These guys are breaking up the entire music creation tradition. They are doing to music what James Joyce and George Orwell did to the English language. They are dissolving it. This album is a delicious creativity in the dark times of second coming of Dubya.

The opening of the album is pure Carnival Audio Collage, like a parade of car crashes, it's so beautiful. A glimpse into a noise freak show, a guy screaming "Let's have some life. You can't have a good time sitting on your ass" and then as the Queen's opening guitar chords are about to rock the whole track starts slowing down to a crawl, a crawwwllll.... - vibrant music gives to impotence, simply disappears within itself, disolves, folds onto itself introducing "Vision" which begins with what I think is Matthew Broderick from Ferris Bueller saying "The question isn't what are we going to do, the question is what aren't we going to do" and The Kleptones do some amazing things on this album. Hearing Brian May's guitar in the background of "My Milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, and they're like it's better than yours, Damn right, it's better thank yours" is so fucking good and as I heard it ends with a phrase "fried chicken". if it does then how more DADA can you get with Queens Vision? (Update: My ignorance was exposed by Spudulike in his comment. I am sorry. "Fried Chiecken" has always been there"

Track 10 Play, another car crash of "I want to take you to the gay bar" with "Play the game", lyrics mixing "Play the game, let's start a war, play the game, let's start a nuclear war at the gay bar, it's a free world, you're superstar, at the gay bar". If that wasn't enough the next track 11 Ride mixes Eminen's "Slim Shady" with "I want to ride my bicycle". "All I want do is. My name is. Bicycle. My name is. Bicylce, Slim Shady" with "Beuller, Beuler, Beuller, Beuller" thrown in there in the middle. Track 14 Plan is too fast for me to understand. A Plan. A Manifesto. I need to get lyrics for this piece. Fucking funny social commentary on track 17 Work "Machines should work. People should think". And I think that's Missy Elliot rapping there with "she's a bitch". And could track 19 Expose be a commentary on Narcissism? "Cause I am gorgeous"?

Track 12 Sniff just floored me with it's hypnotic "I want some more! I want some more! More than you know it" on top of the powerful musical odyssey "Under Pressure" so I became inspired to write my own commentary in a form of play in one act. It definitely helps to hear the album before reading this.

Green Goose Theater Presents "Sniff". A Play in One Act.

Actors:

Citizen
President
Chorus of Citizens

Act One.

Curtain opens. In the middle of the stage a small table with two chairs at opposite ends. In the middle of a table a white powdery substance. Citizen and President walk to the table and sit facing each other. Chorus of Citizens gathers around.

(Citizen points to the substance on the table)

Citizen: Mister President? Put your nose right here. Now. Sniff.

(President sniffs as instructed and looks likes he really likes it)

Citizen: That's power. Sniff Again Mister President. Go ahead. Sniff?

(President sniffs vigorously until all white substance is gone form the table. Music begins to play in the background. We hear the opening of "Under Pressure" by Queen with David Bowie)

President: I want some more! I want some more!

Citizen: Stop!

President: I want some more! I want some more! I want some more!

(Citizen begins shouting at President)

Citizen: Stop! Stop! Stop!

President: I want some more! Your Votes. I want some more! Tonight I have the power. I want some more! I want some more! God Bless Amerika. I want some more!

Chorus: We the people in the streets. We the people in the streets on the edge of night. We urge you to start caring about US!

President: Need to get up up up higher again! I want some more! Your Money! I want some more! Your Fears! I want some more! Your Children in Black Body Bags. I want some more! More than you know it! Let's Roll!

(Chorus of Citizens remains Silent. Curtain Falls)

Play Ends

And as The Kleptones write about their own music "Constructed as always with love and respect to those who deserve it." I remain grateful for the gift of Art.

Misunderstanding Gonzo Marketing in 2 points

A new post instead of an answer to Gaspar's comment on Rise and Fall of Blogging since I think it shines a new light but from a different angle. I titled this "Misunderstanding Gonzo Marketing" since it distinguishes "Broadcasting" and "Audience". As I bonus I dare to say that mostly no one gives a shit about Para-Olympic Games.

Here we go.

Two points drawn from Gaspar's comment: 1) Not only popular large readership blogs risk becoming online publishing and 2) I don't think broadcasting is a bad methodology for dealing with physical limit of conversations one can engages in.

Point 2 first: One's blogging can have large readership. One does not have to "Broadcast" necessary even if one doesn't have enough time to engage in all those small converstions with a large readership body, an 'audience'.

The distinction of "Broadcasting" and "Audience" is that of Ontology and not of Methodology. One can use broadcasting as a methodology and not be a "Broadcasting" entity. One can build an audience one engages with without it being an 'Audience' to 'Broadcast' to.

A 'Conversational' business uses broadcast as a methodology in a conversation with the market, with its readership, with its audience, with its customers. This in fact I think was one of misunderstandings of Cluetrain and especially Gonzo Marketing. On a Cluetrain mailing list someone once wrote 'How could it ever by physically possible for a corporation to engage in all those conversations with all those customers" and one of my thoughts at that moment was "They don't have to. We don't mean 'Conversations' as a physical activity - as in a person opening their mouth and talking to another person, that's just a sound exchange between two nodes, a physical activity. At some point, because of scalability, a corporation as a node engaged in a conversation with customers as equal nodes can't accept equal time back from all the millions of nodes wanting to talk back so a corporation turns to broadcasting.

The question is then. - Does a conversation disappear? Well, it depends, broadcasting as a method, a physical solution, can definitely be a conversation as an ontological distinction. You can have a conversation by broadcasting to millions. It's not a question of physical ability and scalability capacity, it's a question of a commitment to a market which the corporation is building with its customers.

As to point 1). I think that most people coming to blogging today are seeing it as publishing and not as conversations... I don't think they see the distinction between being engaged as a "Conversational" node in the network of conversations and being busy producing content for publishing, a node broadcasting to as many places as possible to gain audience share. Without that distinction I think the new bloggers may find themselves in a world fighting for link (a survival of the fittest or the quickest) without ever finding another world to be engaged in as an equal participant in a conversation.... well on the other hand; fuck them, let them fucking broadcast their shitty content.

And finally as to your comment about "small conversations": Yes, Billions of Websites, let the noise begin! Small conversations everywhere. A perfect example: A Neighbornode. The extensible neighborhood network. What a great project. Blogging could be about acting locally rather than being on a quest to gain a worldwide audience (Hi Will Wheaton). On the other hand the many people's local neighborhood life sucks and they would rather live in a dreamworld of worldwide audience.

It's sort of why no one really gives a shit about Para-Olympics. (I say that because I saw this article snippet of news from NPR."Despite being the biggest athletic event in the disability community, the Para-Olympics gets no live coverage in the United States". Well, what would be so interesting in seeing a cripple beat up another cripple in a 100 meter race? Here is the solution. Take a famous american athlete and cut off one of his legs. Then have an american corporation create a fantastic prosthetic leg for him, then have him compete as a pseudo-cripple - Now that would win many endorsments and Para-Olymipc Games will get live coverage.)

It also brings to mind people who would rather give one hour of their life to Oprah's TV show every day rather than to their teenage child. Oprah is brilliant, teenager's an idiot. So I guess those with propensity for publishing would try to be like Oprah and build audiences, those with propensity towards having teenager idiots would in this case probably try to find other parents who deal with their teenage idiots and perhaps discover their children are in fact brilliant - well, more like the retards in Para-Olympic Games who against all odds in life are working things out for themselves. Good for them. I think I will officially now declare myself a Para-Blogger in hopes of one day to compete with other retards, bloggers who are just not smart enough to monetize their skills. Good for us.

The Rise and Fall of Blogging or how to gain audience

Abstract Disclosure:
I present to you an unintended analysis of how weblogs started as a new medium for construction of conversations thus birthing new social spaces and became the latest phenomenon of online publishing in search of an audience. The short of it could be named "The Rise and Fall of Blogging"

How did it all start?

Well, Martin Röll, a well known German Das E-business blogger who is stationed in Dresden and who runs around Europe educating corporations how to engage in 'conversations' with customers in the Age of the Second Coming of the Giant Web Thing has written a 'white paper' (co-written with Magdalena Böttger) entitled "Weblog Publishing as a support for exploratory learning on the world wide web". (PDF file)

Well I thought I would suck up to him since I am in Germany at the moment and in dire need (nay, let us say extanding a helpful friendly hand) of finding some bloggers in Bremen for fun and profit, and mostly for talking business and learning German. And since I love 'Exploratory Learing' and I am currently using "Exploratory Learnig" for my German study I thought this was a good topic to explore and well, what a better way to suck up then to actually read Martin's paper and more even dare to review and add some comments. So I labored on this for 10 minutes then explored it for 10 more and here is what I wrote to Martin. (Hold on the synthesis is at the end of this long writing. You do have to endure some of my explorations first. Thank you.)

So,

My 'Exploratory Learning' of German language is not that great but I would rather do it this way than go a traditional route, to a traditional language school; these are not 'Exploratory' enough for me and seem very 'Right' and 'proper' in their teaching. So I want to remain with my 'Exploratory Learning' but could use a good guide. All this seemingly nonsense talk about my learning German is quite relevant to Martin's Paper and my unintended analysis that follow.

I love 'Exploratory Learning' however, as I see it "Exploratory Learning" lacks two very important things for me as a learner: 1) systematic-synthesis-context-construction-blueprint (Yes, I know this is a long made up noun. Let's say that this is 'the what' to learn now and what later and then what later after that) and 2) a committed teacher with an intention that I learn by constructing the context for myself (the guide, teacher, coach who is my partner in helping me master the topic).

You can have both if you are willing to enroll in a school with great courses and great teachers and if you have enough money and time to afford such a thing. Fo an Exploratory Learner this is quite boring, among other things. Let's interject here that in the so called 'Information Age' where an established knowledge becomes quickly irrelevant and new knowledge becomes the established knowledge 'Exploratory Learning' seems one of the methods of succeeding (or maybe only coping) with the onslaught of stuff to know now to know to know now to know now now now to know now now..... Yes, It can drive you crazy.

If then Exploratory Leaning is my preferred method in this jungle of pieces to construct a collage as a map of the world, a model to create, then the question is how to add those two missing pieces I mentioned, the context-blueprint-thing and the context-blueprint-maker. OK. let's do some thinking on this topic.

This sentence from Martin's paper caught my attention:

"Where “true” knowledge is sought, exploring the World Wide Web can prove ineffective and inefficient."

I thought this to be a very important point. Many people at this point could come to the conclusion that this is utter nonsense - saying, "The Web is THE place for KNOWLEDGE and the MOST Efficient and MOST Effective you Idiot".

Yes. And No. There is plenty of knowledge on the web but it is not the lack of content but the lack of a guiding context, a learning context. A learner can not possibly comprehend content relevancy to the topic being explored and he is in constant need of having the context constructed. A context for learning can only by provided by a committed teacher (someone has to leave a map of how they got there you Idiot).

A committed teacher is an increasingly rare occurrence these days it seems. Perhaps it's why the Exploratory Learning is so 'popular'. The Context for Learning must be constructed and since there are not enough teachers (Committed To Learning Teachers) the learners find themselves frustrated and are constructing the context by themselves without a guide. This however may prove ineffective and inefficient in 'true' search for knowledge. - (note: I have no idea what I am trying to synthesize here, well I am just drawing a map of my thinking, arriving at points of context construction so bear with me.)

In 'Exploratory Learning' there does not seem to be any finality to learning. No arriving at any conclusions, nor synthesis. Exploring keeps on going and going with never ending considerations and re-considerations of the explored knowledge until one gets stuck, usually finding out one is missing something to continue the explorations but not having a clue as to what that might be, the answer to which might be some more exploring, a bit of indecisive limbo land (Sort of like this paragraph you are reading).

In exploratory learning there is no one who can point me to what knowledge to master, to build a base, a foundation for further construction. Every piece of knowledge appears as equally important as every other one. (just like links on the web sometimes) There is no guide in helping me along the way of my context construction and no blueprint. (Are you starting to see the point?)

This begs a question (finally some conclusion making to this exploring, aren't you glad?) Can weblogs help me with this context and this guide thing? I think Weblogs introduce a 'committed teacher' back into the world of learning and a committed teacher's systematic context construction activity. A weblog can only provide a 'committed teacher' when the weblog's author is himself a learner and not a teacher, when an author exposes his blueprint of arriving at synthesis, when weblog posts are a systematic context construction blueprint, where we learn of an author's road leading to the point of synthesis. (This is an important point so read this again.)

Weblog's author does not teach but sees himself as a committed learner, In a context of readers peeking at his weblog they are the ones who see him as a committed teacher. The context of weblog interaction introduces this distincion. In being a committed learner with an intention of 'sharing one's context construction journey' he is therefore a guide for an 'Exploratory Learner' who can use an author's journey as a guide, a map. I, as a Learner, can now travel an author's road and do check ups on my own context construction activity against the author's traces of context creation. By reading a weblog I recreate author's context for myself therefore making it mine. Bada Bing! A social construction.

What makes this valuable for me is that I live in a social construction of weblogging as a medium that people employ to build communication signifiers as road signs, as holders of attention on the things they 'are working out for themselves', so to speak. I am then given an 'inside the mind view' of someone who is thinking through the pieces and analyzing one's findings. You can see one's journey of context building which can then become a template for the reader to see conclusions the author comes up with. In 'Weblogging' we follow author's internal monologue, from this monologue we construct our own monologue, a sort of a dialog of monologues, a conversational space of weblogs. Bada Bing! A social construction.

And now Danger! Weblogs are now being related to as a "Publishing". They used to be called "Weblogging", a new social construction and not a new method for the existing social dynamics. So slowly "Weblogging" has gained a distinction as a new method of "Publishing" and not as a new social construction by itself that happens to look like "Publishing" but is really not.

So what has happened to "Weblogging"? Because it is now looked upon as "Publising" webloggers now produce content and sell the beautiful fabric they produce but don't want to share the messy labors of arriving at the delicate fabric production learning. Instead they want an audience. KaBoom! No more context construction sharing and context reconstruction learning. The End.

Thus I conclude my unintended analysis of how weblogs started as a new medium for construction of conversations and new social spaces and became the latest phenomenon of online publishing in search of an audience.

I thank you for your attention.

An Amerikan In Germany. Thoughts

Where I explain why we are getting it up the ass from the new elite bloggers today and I come to the conclusion that Democracy is not worth dying for. Also a bit about Business, Hitler and Immigrants.

I am in Germany. It's been two weeks since I am here. I am having feelings that some might say what it might be like for a baby to be having its first moments of comprehension about the world it lives in.

I speak no German whatsoever. I moved to Germany. First, I got rid of almost all my wordly possessions in Amerika. Second I packed light, I took a backpack serving as my office, contents include 1 iBook laptop, digital camera, some pens, a hat, dental floss, chewing gum, all kinds of computer cables, charger for batteries, some blank CDs, earplugs, earphones, a wallet with some cash and credit cards...Thirdly I took 2 bags. One for clothes, one for books. I was allowed two 70 pounds bags with me. Clothes came at 50 lbs, books at 65 lbs. I think one should have this kind of balance in life. To have at least more books than clothes.

Thus I arrived in Europe and the feeling began, these first impressions of the world clouded by memory of being a European at birth, yet firmly arriving here as a stranger from Amerika. Thus being an Amerikan discovering Europe, and being a European who ran away to Amerkia and who now is coming back. It switches on me like that where I have moments of crying for the world I never knew since I ran away as a young man, moments of regrets of what my life could have been had I stayed and then moments of being an Amerikan who at any moment can get back on the plane to Texas or Michigan or New York. As I write this something happens with my body, my heart quakes in a strange fashion, eyes fill with tears and I do not know that it is all about. Like this I have been now for almost two weeks. I arrived yet at no answers. I DO NOT KNOW and the echo answers I DO KNOT KNOW. And this is the answer I get to keep for now.

So here I am in Deutschland, A country whose people are constantly reminded after 60 years how horrible life can be when you have a psycho running the country, worse is that they still can't seem to have shaken off the guilt that such a thing could have ever happened here. It seems Germans are really angry. Angry at the past, angry at the present but perhaps angry at having to live with the memory what could have been had they stopped the madness when it still wasn't too late. I have a feeling some people in Amerkia have these same feelings, about stopping the madness lest the next generations live with the memory and guilt. Well, maybe it's too late. Whites have won the west but Mexicans are increasing the production of babies so Amerika still has a chance to be about real problems like 'how to feed those fuckers?', 'how to have affordable housing and education', and not the imagined problems of 'how to rule the world?' and 'why don't they like us?'.

Germany is angry. I have seen people react strangly. When everything goes great like clockwork all is well, but today the train was late 20 minutes and finally did not arrive. It was announced that the next train will also be late so I saw many people on the platform just being very very angry and yet they seemed to have worked very hard at making sure noone should notice. I asked someone about how come Germans work so hard at hiding their anger, work so hard that it really shows. It seems Germans can't show their anger for fear of immediately being labelled Nazi. But the anger builds up and Neo Nazi movements begin. This is similar in Amerika, the land of happy-clappy-would-you-life-fries-with-that attitude. In Amerkia you have gangs because there you can be angry and pissed off, you can just get unhinged. I imagine there is a lot of anger in Amerikan Coporations. Perhaps anger now gave way to complete depression since people don't go crazy shooting up the coworkers and kids don't shoot their schoomates.

Back back to these feelings of first impressions. On business front it's totally fucked up for Germans. It's the Turks, Palestinians and other Arabs who are basically running this place. A business example: I went to a German internet cafe, a young blue eyed blond hair german youngster told me that internet is 3 Euro per hour but if I bring my laptop it's 2 Euro extra, for a total of 5 Euro per hour. I decided to have a business conversation - "Look" I said (All business conversations begin with 'look', no?) so "Look, if I bring my laptop you actually have one free machine for another customer, I only need the bandwidth and not your computer so isn't it better for you that I bring my laptop? I think you should give me a discount for not using your machinery" but he only answered "my boss said that's the price" and I asked "is your boss here so I can tell him what a fucking stupid business proposition this is?" and he said 'No, he is not here". 200 meters there was another internet cafe, run by a Pakistani or an Afghan, it's 2 Euro per hour no matter if you use their machines or have your own and yet another 100 meters a place for 1 Euro per hour, no you can't hook up your laptop, but the machines are not as great either.

So I thought about this German's business proposition and then I had an insight into the matter.

The German people are taking it up the ass from their German Business.

The boss says this is the rate and this is the rate for all Germans. But the immigrants have their own world, fuck German Business they say and off they go rounting around obstacles. But the German Business reminds me of something I saw this summer in Poland. I was on the road to Warsaw and wanted to stop by and get some coffee and there was a nice, beautiful motel with a nice restaurant and it was in the middle of nowhere. Seemed strange. The parking lot was empty. I went in. The entire restaurant was set beautifully, each table with fresh linen, clean plates, glasses, cups, but no people. There was nobody there and I wondered why there is this great restaurant for 200 people in the middle of nowhere. I ordered coffee. It was more than Starbucks in Manhattan and - I understood. This is how money gets laundered in Poland. I started looking around to hope to glance a man with a suitcase full of cash to arrive at any moment, cash from the hundreds of travellers who ordered coffee in the register but were never there to drink it.

So, I thought of German Business and who are the people with suitcases of cash who don't mind the citizens are taking it up the ass. And then I thought of Amerikan Business Proposition and I was glad for so many immigrants in Amerika who are routing around obstacles. Amerkia is fucked without immigrants. Immigrants have a different business proposition and they don't carry suitcases, they carry backpacks, this is how you know you can do business with an immigrant and not get it up the ass. But be careful, don't do business with Polaks, they are paranoid because they think everybody is out to get them. They are like Jews in search of their own Hitler who can immortalize their delusions of grandeur.

So this thing of identity and business keeps coming up I see. Another example: I needed to exchange dollar bills for euro bills. I went to a bank. I asked the exchange rate, it was $1.319 to 1Euro plus Euro 4.5 bank fee. I asked why the charge? The answer "there is no charge if you have an account in German Bank" to which I was perplexed. A German Bank? is there such a thing? Aren't most of them international mainly? but the teller said "Deutsch Bank" and I was in a bank named "Deutsch Bank" and I finally got it. He wanted to know if I was a customer of their bank. If I was the fee would be waved. If I wasn't I had to fork out Euro 4.50 fee. I was ready to start having a philosophical conversation with the fucker - "well, here I am a customer, I guess I could open an account here with this money I give you which you can exchange into Euro and deposit into my account and then I could withdraw the money and close the account and thus I would avoid the Euro 4.50 charge for this transaction, yes?", but then I didn't think it was worth my time to stand here and talk to teller who is for sure getting it up the ass from somebody, we are in Germany after all, yes?

Routing arround the obstacles, Gonzo Marketing. Deutsch Bank could underwrite me there and then and not charge this silly fee but why not. I need to take it up the ass sometimes too. What suprised me that a friend to whom I explained this whole business scenario with the bank told me "of course there is a fee, there is always a fee" and I couldn't help laughing at the visions of her getting it up the ass from the German Business in her daily living.

By now you are probably tired of my writing because I wanted to share one more thing about German Goethe Institute which charges 875 Euro for a 4 week intensive study German as a Foreign language course while there is another place that does a similar course for Euro 250. Of course Goethe Fucks Better. I really did want to take the course but could not explain to myself why I should pay this much. I think I will just pay some homeless young punk on a street to correct my pronounciations instead.

Anyway, this whole Immigrants Routing Around Obstacles obliterating transaction costs for peasant brethren and German Business with their fees you must pay for solid business reminds me so much of what Ziggy Bauman (yes, that guy) said in his Europe of Strangers paper and from which I concluded that "The Web Is Not A World" in my other post here. Ziggy's words "Cyberspace, securely anchored in the ethereal websites of the Internet, is the contemporary equivalent of mediaeval Latin - the space which the learned elite of today inhabit; and there is little which the residents of cyberspace could talk about with those still hopelessly mired in the all-too-real physical space. Even less can they gainfrom that dialogue". Mind you "The Web Is Not A World" points to the colonization of internet by business, not so new non-reality that business likes to dress up with in high hopes of finding new suitors for its wares. If you ever called an 800 number with a real problem to talk to a real person to resolve it for real you know how unreal this experience can get. The Web is Not a World though it appears to be since every company has an internet site.

But Ziggy's words point to someting deeper. The new elite of today. The elite bloggers. All this talk of bloggers at conventions, bloggers covering elections, bloggers writing for major news organizations. All these engaged in NON REAL dialog they don't want to have anyway, they just pretend the want to talk, pretend the dialog like the restaurant in the middle of nowhere in Poland with tables set for dinner noone ever comes to. Who is getting it up the ass from the new elite bloggers today? Who started carrying suitcases?

This point about bloggers just came. I didn't intend it really, I was just writing and KaBoom! There it is. I guess this is what bothered me about what is happening with Blogging. Too many "Germans" blogging. We need more immigrants blogging. They are there. They are there. Maybe they can stop the madness.

But one more point about Germany and anger. I have found out for first time in my life having alwasy been told to hate Nazis that there are a lot of old, very old women in Germany who were in love once with young and handsome boys who were then taken by the mandman Hitler and thrown into battles for madness. I cried for the first time in my life for German Soldiers dying for Hitler because I hoped that in the last moments of their life they probably thought of the young women they fell in love with and they were never going to see them again. I think those old, old now German Women are angry that madness killed their young love. I also imagine that there will be many old old women in Amerika some day angry at the madness going on now; except now they are getting high on God and Patriotism, but when they are old and the drugs were off they will miss the young men they loved before another madmen sent them to die for Democracy.

I don't think Democracy is something worth dying for. I think it's someting worth living for. That and young love too.

Episodic skill acquisition

Quoting from from postmodern theory of adult learning community

"(...) learners come to adult education classrooms with an inferiority complex perpetuated by the continuous effort to cope with new-skill ignorance and keep pace on the instrumental-learning treadmill. In today’s knowledge economy learners need to understand that knowledge is for now and its facts and how to descriptions are carefully controlled. The learning experience is reduced to episodic skill acquisition (Bauman, 1992). It is a partial and transitional encounter in a cycle of learning for the moment.

This scenario is normalized by the contemporary melding of the social and the economic and by "the increasing importance of the knowledge economy and its associated productivity-increasing technologies in the areas of electronics, computers, communications and robotics". The intensity and rapidity of knowledge production too often make citizen workers and learners easy prey to educational forms serving government and corporate techno-economic agendas that devalue people"

We are interested here in Bauman and this sentence "learning experience is reduced to episodic skill acquisition"... from his "Survival as a social construct" article