I’m taking business courses right now, which sometimes seems to mean memorizing a lot of pop-psychology mnemonics for different personality and management models and theories. One of the models of behavior we have learned is called “Influence Without Authority” and it begins with treating your opponents as potential allies. This seems hopelessly naive sometimes but I’ve tried to apply it to my daily life anyway.
For example, the Somerville Ward 3 Democrats mailing list lit up this week about a project to turn a former function hall into apartments. Neighbors were concerned about parking and about the addition of rental units, because they felt that renters don’t stick around and create a stable community. I managed to gently guide the discussion toward the far less controversial topics of immigration policy and classism by pointing out that if our town wants to be welcoming to immigrants and people with modest means, it need to begin by making it possible for them to find a moderately priced apartment. It kind of worked, in that it led to a non-furious internet disagreement. Which, I guess, is a small miracle in its own way.
Links
Injustice: That prison is literally made of poison. Obviously they told nearby citizens about the danger of drinking local water, but not the prisoners.
Note also that in a sad echo of the three-fifths compromise, prisoners are counted in the census as residents of their prisons, but not permitted to vote, distorting representation, voting power, and funding distributions.
Sarcasm: A modest proposal on what else we could replace with Amazon services.
Policy: A brief history of public housing in Vienna. In stark contrast with American public housing, it doesn’t suck.
Iatrogenic medicine: Sasha Frere-Jones on the harms of benzodiazepenes.
Win/Fail via Twitter
Yak fail.
Dog win.
Dog fail.
Chart fail.
Secretly Ironic 