tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post8695549256017404837..comments2023-11-03T14:08:43.854-04:00Comments on Broken Turtle: Is Change Impossible (Part 3)Phillip Bannowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635421147908549692noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-38491614653089091362021-02-17T14:08:20.353-05:002021-02-17T14:08:20.353-05:00Experts Communication is the leading Call Centers ...Experts Communication is the leading <a href="https://expertscommunication.net/jobapplication/" rel="nofollow">Call Centers in Karachi</a>.Experts Communicationshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08636356514588751587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-18903758617119085562010-07-29T20:15:01.103-04:002010-07-29T20:15:01.103-04:00Phillip...obviously your solution works, for which...Phillip...obviously your solution works, for which many thanks. <br /><br />LorenLoren Blissnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-31555703767960697252010-07-29T20:13:38.666-04:002010-07-29T20:13:38.666-04:00Good afternoon, Franetta. Certain especially evoca...Good afternoon, Franetta. Certain especially evocative parts of your letter inspired a response which I began this morning -- you have me focusing on matters long avoided (not necessarily a pleasant process but surely a productive one) -- and it has since turned into another essay I hope to have up late tonight, though with more editorial care than the first one. <br /><br />Meanwhile -- especially since I truly was abandoning as pointless (and ultimately just too damn depressing) the OAN purpose of commenting on Fourth Reich politics -- this dialogue seems to be moving OAN in a new direction (perhaps, appropriately, into the Unknown that interests both of us), which is a change of content I had desired for some time but which you should take full credit for bringing (mothering) into form (or more appropriately, though there was no such word until now, formfulness). <br /><br />More soon...<br /><br />LorenLoren Blissnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-8383185696186467522010-07-29T09:21:21.068-04:002010-07-29T09:21:21.068-04:00Loren,
I did another test where under "Commen...Loren,<br />I did another test where under "Comment as: Select porofile..." I selected from the drop-down menu "Name/URL." I got a dialogue box with 2 fields, one for my name and another for a URL. I wrote in my name and left the URL box blank. Then I was prompted to copy a distorted security code and it worked as the above test indicates (and here, too, I hope).Phillip Bannowskynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-47325777563468317652010-07-29T09:17:14.546-04:002010-07-29T09:17:14.546-04:00TestTestPhillip Bannowskynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-10533290933149991372010-07-28T16:32:25.501-04:002010-07-28T16:32:25.501-04:00Phillip...Thank you. Apparently the problem is tha...Phillip...Thank you. Apparently the problem is that Blogspot does not recognize Typepad documentation. Nothing I tried (including your suggestion) seems to overcome this obstruction. <br /><br />LorenAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-39193912920915625012010-07-28T16:29:50.144-04:002010-07-28T16:29:50.144-04:00Franetta...
Thank you for the poem; please see my...Franetta...<br /><br />Thank you for the poem; please see my comments on OAN. Meanwhile I've done some further editing of my blog post, chiefly mastering the emotional smoke enough to produce a more properly focused account of the fire, including the hitherto-omitted element that made it so devastating -- and such an eternally embittering teachable moment. <br /><br />LorenAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-86482896616582620102010-07-28T09:26:12.060-04:002010-07-28T09:26:12.060-04:00Technical note regarding problems in signing other...Technical note regarding problems in signing other than anonymous. I tested our system. I made a short comment ("test") and then opened the drop-down menu below the comment dialogue box that says "Comment as: Select profile..." I got a menu that included Google Account, LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad, AIOM, and OpenID. I selected Google Account and then Post Comment and the comment was published as "Phillip Banowsky said...." It may make you sign in to your respective account first. I must admit, after trying this several times, there was a glitch, but all things equal, it should work.Phillip Bannowskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15635421147908549692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-35998519318375670672010-07-27T23:57:30.845-04:002010-07-27T23:57:30.845-04:00Hello again, Franetta...before you respond, please...Hello again, Franetta...before you respond, please note I made several revisions to "Back/Responding" and also introduced some visual relief in its typography. These changes were all for clarity -- no alterations in meaning -- but I should have made them before I posted. Alas I had been playing keyboard-catchup for nearly 16 hours and did not realize until today (and that with some embarrassment), my Inner Editor had fallen asleep long before I hit the "publish" button.<br /><br />That said, I'm looking forward to your response.<br /><br />Loren<br /><br />By the way, I'm intrigued by the title of one of your poems, "The Klanman's Daughter." Is there any place I could find its text? Nobody local (Tacoma WA) seems to have a copy of Gargoyle, though there's one very good neighborhood bookstore here I haven't yet been able to reach.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-10021258196428743052010-07-27T04:34:26.994-04:002010-07-27T04:34:26.994-04:00Hello, Ms. McMillan, Loren Bliss again. Your respo...Hello, Ms. McMillan, Loren Bliss again. Your response inspired an entire essay in reply, too long for this space but posted here: http://lorenbliss.typepad.com/loren-bliss-outside-agitators-notebook/2010/07/back-from-the-virtual-grave-and-responding-to-franetta-mcmillan.html I hope you find it useful and therefore worthy of answering, not the least because I'm beginning to enjoy our dialogue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-56338487583518407082010-07-26T14:24:28.652-04:002010-07-26T14:24:28.652-04:00Greetings Mr. Bliss,
I'm glad to see you back...Greetings Mr. Bliss,<br /><br />I'm glad to see you back among the virtual living. I am the author of Is Change Impossible? (Parts 1—3) and I was hoping that one day we'd cross paths in cyberspace.<br /><br />First of all, I'd like to let you know I'm not a man, not that it matters to me one way or another, but I'd thought you might like to know.<br /><br />I do appreciate the level of powerlessness of the left, which is one reason your essay affected me so deeply. If I were a totally rational person, I would have given up a long time ago. <br /><br />But to use your 12 step analogy...An alcoholic might be powerless over drink itself, but she/he has the power to decide not to drink. This is not as easy to do as it is to type, since by the time most addicts seek help, their entire lives are built around abusing their substance of choice. Most of their friends are addicts and most of their social lives center around using. Plus, physically, they need their particular substance just to feel normal. To truly recover (which many addicts never do, by the way; they merely replace one addiction with another, attending meetings with the same obsessiveness they once used) the addict essentially has to start from scratch. How many people do you know who are really willing to do that? And if the world is as broken as we know it is, isn't that what we really have to do?<br /><br />As for continuing to identify with the oppressor, that's a tough one. Capitalism is essentially a partial reinforcement system, which any undergraduate who's had to chase pigeons around a psych lab will tell you, is the hardest type of behavioral conditioning to break. Say you have three elevators: one that never works, one that works consistently and one that only works when it feels like it. If all three were available, you'd choose the elevator that works consistently, avoid like the plague the one that never works and use the finicky one only when the first elevator is out of order.<br /><br />But capitalism, the elevator that only works when it feels like it, is the only game in town. Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who's soared from humble beginnings, so the word is when this elevator works, it really works. So people are willing to wait on this elevator forever, thinking if they do the right things, they might one day get lucky. No one even thinks of taking the stairs (are there stairs?) because what if that's the one day the elevator's working and they miss out because they've decided to hoof it?<br /><br />So, yeah, like I said, it's tough. But I never said it wasn't. What we have to do is be willing to step into the unknown. I'm crazy enough to try. Are you?<br /><br />Peace — and maybe we'll cross paths again soon.Franetta McMillianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16827358013628018462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-49437451667323718592010-07-25T15:20:53.388-04:002010-07-25T15:20:53.388-04:00PLEASE NOTE: I am LOREN BLISS -- not "anonymo...PLEASE NOTE: I am LOREN BLISS -- not "anonymous" (and in fact I scorn "anonymous" posters as insufferable cowards) -- but after two hours of frustrating effort, it seems this is the only way Blogspot will allow me to post; despite the fact I am a writer/photographer with a career spanning half a century and have a well-established Typepad blog, it seems I am officially banned here. (I've no idea why; perhaps Blogspot is merely complying with the Ruling Class policy of methodically suppressing all genuine advocates of socialism.) Nevertheless... <br /><br />Hello, Mr. Bannowsky; my apology for my belated response, but I had been offline due to computer failure since 26 June (though until 12 July I still had email), and I returned to the sturm und drang only last night. Then it took me until noon today to find a path around the aforementioned Blogspot obstructions. <br /><br />In response to your gracious invitation, yes I am certainly willing to cross-post, but not in any length until tomorrow at the very earliest, as I have an enormity of catching-up to do. <br /><br />Meanwhile though I have read the relevant Brokenturtleblog essays and appreciate both their logic and the eloquence with which it is expressed, though I would respectfully suggest their author reacquaint himself with the Sartre/Camus (and yes -- gasp! -- 12-step-group) principle that we cannot begin to gain power over our oppressors until we have acknowledged the deepest and most painful truths of our powerlessness -- the vital first step the U.S. Left refuses like some spoiled brat to even consider: no doubt a symptom of the extent it continues to identify with the oppressor.<br /><br />Which should not only give you a sense of where this conversation might go but of the enthusiasm I will bring to it. Until then, thank you.<br /><br />Loren BlissAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-71193866489821658682010-07-21T23:43:54.970-04:002010-07-21T23:43:54.970-04:00Here's some more impossible things to imagine:...Here's some more impossible things to imagine: that art can surprise the audience with reality, that it can overcome fear and hatred, that it can inspire solidarity and action.Phillip Bannowskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15635421147908549692noreply@blogger.com