Barackface

Sunday, January 29, 2006

The Spectrum Concept: Wide Applications

The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power
The Spectrum On Gender

First I drew a spectrum on race because it is of personal importance to me. Race is the number one reality in my life. Sometimes I feel all thoughts I have in the fields of politics, business and technology emanate from that basic reality. It is possible for you to be progressive and offensive! You can be brown or black and be racist, as in internalized racist.

Budhanilkantha, Sadbhavana, Berea, DFA

Then I drew one on gender because these two issues are literally mirror images to each other. Also race and gender are potential members of a winning power coalition.

Now I would like to suggest the spectrum concept can be applied to literally all issues on the political map. You name it.

Race, Gender, Progressive, Conservative Divides

There are several steps involved.

(1) Mapping. Just getting people to talk so you can see where they stand is not easy.

(2) Nudging. You are trying to move people up the spectrum. How do you turn a 4 into a 5, a 5 into a 6? This is a war of words, and not necessarily fighting words.

(3) Building A Winning Coalition.This is the challenge. Do you have more votes than your opponent? This is where the dance comes in. Someone might be a 4 on race, a 3 on gender, a 6 on taxes, a 6 on war, and so on. People are all over the map. If someone is a 3 on abortion, and you offer them a 7 on abortion position, maybe you lose them on all other issues. The hot social issues - gay, god, gun - blur out many other spectra. This is where the winning and the losing horses differentiate themselves. This is candidate territory.

What is a spectrum? There is no one authority that decides that. Progressives will not agree on any one map, although some might gain more currency than others. If conservatives were to draw out the spectrum, I am sure they will make themselves look like 9s and 10s.

And ultimately the winning coalition is emotional in structure. You do start out with much logic. But you got to melt all that into emotion. That is why it is about face time, not screen time. Face time rules.

My emphasis on listening is something to do with the mapping concept. For me active politics is like surfing. 99% of the effort goes into just trying to understand the waves. Only 1% goes into trying to ride it. You always have only that narrow window of influence. The waves you ride are always more powerful than you.

Whale Feeding & Migration Patterns - Tourism Victoria The humpback whale is a medium-sized baleen whale. Like other baleen whales, humpbacks feed by filtering seawater through their baleen plates. To feed, several humpback whales will often create a ring of bubbles, called a "bubble-net", to concentrate small fish and crustaceans in one area where they can be more easily consumed. This technique is unique to this species of whale.

But then active questioning, active listening might be more productive than passive listening. On the other hand, passive listening might make the other person more comfortable, and they might talk more.

Nudging on the other hand is verbal jujitsu. It can be. A debate is a fight where you try and smile and maintain good humor.

Coalition building takes all you got to offer. This is what separates the pro from the amateur. Every individual spectrum you fool around with impacts your coalition. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you lose many but you do it anyway, because that is the right thing to do. But that is recommended between and after elections more than right before elections!

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26 January