Just Say, "No" to Greed

Harvard M.B.A.'s sign anti-greed oath.

Download the pdf of the oath here.

Yes.

As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can build alone. Therefore I will seek a course that enhances the value my enterprise can create for society over the long term. I recognize my decisions can have far-reaching consequences that affect the well-being of individuals inside and outside my enterprise, today and in the future. As I reconcile the interests of different constituencies, I will face difficult choices.

Therefore, I promise:

* I will act with utmost integrity and pursue my work in an ethical manner.
* I will safeguard the interests of my shareholders, co-workers, customers, and the society in which we operate.
* I will manage my enterprise in good faith, guarding against decisions and behavior that advance my own narrow ambitions but harm the enterprise and the societies it serves.
* I will understand and uphold, both in letter and in spirit, the laws and contracts governing my own conduct and that of my enterprise.
* I will take responsibility for my actions, and I will represent the performance and risks of my enterprise accurately and honestly.
* I will develop both myself and other managers under my supervision so that the profession continues to grow and contribute to the well-being of society.
* I will strive to create sustainable economic, social, and environmental prosperity worldwide.
* I will be accountable to my peers and they will be accountable to me for living by this oath.

This oath I make freely, and upon my honor.

Tags: Faux Press Art Metaphrasty

Dealing with Control Freaks

Everybody's got at least one. Wishing us all luck @ the holidays.

Control Freak Coping Strategies:

• Stay as calm as you can. Control freaks tend to generate a lot of tension in those around them. Try to maintain a comfortable distance so that you can remain centered while you speak with them. Try to focus on your breathing. As they get more agitated and demanding, just breath slowly and deeply. If you stay calm and focused, this often has the effect of relaxing them as well. If you get agitated you have joined the battle on their terms.

• Speak very slowly. Again the normal tendency is to gear up and speak rapidly when dealing with a control freak. This will only draw you into the emotional turmoil and you will quickly be personalizing what is occurring.

• Be very patient. Control freaks need to feel heard. In fact, they do not have that much to say. They have a lot to say if you engage them in a power struggle. If you just listen carefully and ask good questions that indicate that you have heard them, then they will quickly resolve whatever the issue is and calmly move on.

• Pay attention to your induced reactions. What is this person trying to emotionally induce in you? Notice how you feel when speaking with them. It will give you important clues as to how to deal with them more effectively and appropriately.

• Initially, let them control the agenda. But you control the pacing. If you stay calm and speak slowly, you will be in command of the pacing of the conversation.

• Treat them with kindness. Within most control freaks is a good measure of paranoia. They are ready to get angry and defend against what they perceive is a controlling hostile world. If you treat them with respect and kindness, their paranoia cannot take root. You will jam them up.

• Make demands on them-- especially when dealing with the type 2 control freak. Ask them to send you something or do something for you. By asking something of them, you will be indicating that you are not intimidated or diminished by their behavior patterns.

• Remember an old but poignant Maxim: “Those who demand the most often give the least.”

[source]



Tags: Faux Press Art Metaphrasty

Villanelle For Our Time – Leonard Cohen

Not 'commerce' but rather, 'commonwealth'.

Oh.

Yeah.

I get it now.

Testing Blip.FM blog publication. Already integrated into Twitter, I like being able to embed a song in the blog. Let's see...



Tags: Faux Press Art Metaphrasty

About Fuckin' Time... Greed Sux

From the NY Times:

"After years of looking the other way, Congress seems finally poised to rein in the predatory practices that have become all too common in the credit card business. Several bills now pending would outlaw unfair billing practices, like the one known as universal default, under which a late payment on an unrelated bill — a utility bill, for example — allows credit card companies to raise their interest rates through the roof."

See also previous post: USURY.


Tags: Faux Press Art Metaphrasty

Advertising Campaign...

Don't understand greed. Never have. Never will.

Tags: Faux Press artcast

Apple's Ceast & Desist :: Pod Anyone?

Greed ain't cool any more.

Walled gardens aren't cool either.

Boycott both.

This is Matthew Wayne Selznick's photo essay on the subject of greed and thanks, Matthew, for turning me on to the Church Sign Generator. That made my day.

Nothing like authority to make your case.


Tags: Faux Press Movlog

Pollution and Poverty

As reported in today's New York Times, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Michael O. Leavitt, said,

"There is no environmental progress without economic prosperity. Once our competitiveness erodes, our capacity to make environmental gains is gone. There is nothing that promotes pollution like poverty."

The poor live and breathe pollution more than anyone. They should know. The Chinese know.

The poor are easy targets.

Fear and desperation make good workers and criminals.

We solve that problem of crime by declaring war on it. Prisons are a growth industry.

Under certain models, the strong hold dominion over the weak with the blessing of God.

That's the way it always has been.

Watched Lars Van Triers' "Dogville". You should too.

Nothing promotes poverty more than greed.

In other news, watch Berkeley CA as it votes in November on Proposition Q that would decriminalize prostitution.

GREED SUX

This is an ad I placed in 11211 Magazine.

It has a smarmy kind of elegance.

NEWS FLASH

They cracked down on illegal posters in Berkeley and in Newark. In Newark, you can't hand our fliers either. Well you can, but there's a $500 fine plus cost of cleanup and ninety days in jail.

"Cleaning things up."

Images did show an ocean of fliers in the gutters around the city center. Lots of people handing out fliers.

Suspect it's a first amendment thing and that an artist, not selling anything, but giving away poems, would be the test case.

This kind of crackdown definitely puts a chill on artists who typically don't advertise in the local print or television media.

I do, but that's not the point.

Advertising hasn't got me shit yet. Naw, that's not true. Advertising got me a bunch of art shows.

It's gotten me more exposure than I might have otherwise have. Stats show the spikes and they are often marvelous.

SPEAKING OF ADVERTISING

Lets talk about key words and search engines.

I allowed my desire for visitors to affect content.

Content was responsive to the search engine results rather than the other way around.

Wound up owning one of the most popular ball busting fetish sites.

Totally inadvertently.

But for the pretty good forum, it's totally static since I built it as a portal.

Guys getting vulnerable.

Terrifying and interesting.

See, I told you there would be some sex.

There's also Blow Me University - another successful college student portal.

TACKY

Write regularly for a magazine that gives me the occasional ad in return.

In that sense, I am paid very well.

The publisher lets me write what I want. This time, a bit of a rant on the history of banking titled "Banking is Sexy".

Similarly, I advertise what I want to advertise.

Advertised my new web site - Urban Art Adventures - and decided the ad would be about GREED.

GREED IS TACKY.

I'm not greedy, but do think I should be able to make a living from art.

Sex, God, & Government - What's Wrong With This Equation?

"Still, the rate of teenage pregnancy in this country remains much higher than in most other developed countries. It is double the rates in England, Wales and Canada; about four times the rates in Sweden and France; and eight times the rate in Japan."

By JANE E. BRODY
Published: June 1, 2004 in The New York Times

Brody reports that all schools that receive Federal money have been teaching abstinence only since 1998. Under the terms of their agreement, they only mention contraception in terms of failure rates.

The unanswered question is: what percentage of middle and high schools receive Federal money?

Under the abstinence agreement, five years of statistics show that kids these days tend to wait an additional 18 months before having inevitable sex. Ah. A year and a half increase in virginity. The problem is that when these virgins do have sex, they tend not to use any protection at all. STD's up. Unplanned pregnancy: up.

This dilemma will not be solved until we stop treating symptoms and look at the disease: the cultural fetishization of sexuality.

God has a place in sexuality, but not as hall monitor.

Government has no place in the bedroom at all.

The United States is supposed to be a secular government but the U.S. is in fact as fundamentally religious as any government organized under the Taliban. At least the Taliban admit their radical fundamentalism.

Stop the lies. They will only stop lying when we tell them to stop. Until then, it is assumed we believe them. They are not wrong.

Where on earth is our critical thinking? Where the philosophers? And the poets?

Declare war on greed.

- Watson, out