For DKF, d. 2/27/2011

Dennis, old friend,

Spring is just around the corner,

The girls promise to look as pretty as ever,

But you're gone,

And things won't be as good as they were.

There is power in a union... and let's keep it that way.

I have heard complaints from younger acquaintances about labor unions and the rules they impose in the workplace. I don't know if these acquaintances are conservatives, or whether the passage of time has made them unaware of why there are unions in the first place, or what it was like for workers before they organized.

Now that many radical Republicans have taken power, it is important for us to remember the conditions that existed without labor unions, and what the unions did for all of us.

There was a time in this country when some laborers had to live in "company towns," and were paid in scrip instead of money. The scrip was no good outside the company town, so you had to buy your food at the company store. You paid rent on your dwelling to the company. You worked as many hours as the company saw fit. The workplace was dangerous. The workplace was an abusive place, and a laborer could work endless hours and still not make anything like a living wage.

The unions changed all of that. I have never worked in a union shop, but I recall the panic of a company I worked for when some of the employees tried to organize a union. The company promised to match the wages and benefits that the union would negotiate. The union was ultimately not brought in, but the power of organized labor was felt nonetheless.

I came along at a time when companies offered many benefits, and it is easy to see why a person not acquainted with pre-union conditions might believe that companies are just naturally benevolent. But all these benefits were fought for, before I was born, in sometimes bloody battles with company goons and the police.

In case I am not persuasive enough, here are some quotes I stole from a website that describes itself as a resource for writers. Hope they don't mind!

"History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts." -- Molly Ivins

"Every advance in this half-century: Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education... one after another- came with the support and leadership of American Labor." -- Jimmy Carter

"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over the nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society." -- Martin Luther King Jr.

"All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms is treason. If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other." -- Abraham Lincoln

In which I out-paranoid the paranoid Right

I have mentioned before that the Right in this country is unimaginative, in that they can only conceive of one boogeyman: the government, of course. Never mind that a good government can protect us from crime, disasters, disease, pollution, terrorism, the depredations of corporations... see how many boogeymen?

But no, there's really only one, and they fear every move it makes.

A friend of mine on Facebook recently posted a petition that's been going around, trying to stop the Republicans from defunding PBS and NPR. Boy, the Right hates that liberal slant.

And why shouldn't people distrust government sponsored media (even though the government doesn't really put much money into it any more)? So many times, despotic governments broadcast propaganda through state-run outlets, and close down any independents who criticize the government. It's natural to assume that government funding is dangerous to the truth.

But what a funny country this is. NPR and PBS, while not perfect, broadcast thoughtful, sober, in-depth news coverage and other programming. And I think the programming was better when the government footed more of the bill.

And what has the worshipped, sacred Free Market given us for news? A propaganda engine called Fox News, which lies constantly (and transparently, if you don't happen to be a true believer). America has given birth to a Corporate Pravda!

Gossipping dogs

I've been making my way through Montaigne's essays for the last month or so (and, yes, dead white males are really interesting), and I was thrilled to find that he thought it was presumptuous to assert that there was any large gulf between humans and other animals. This is something I think about a lot, in my own rather aimless way. Here's a little of what he has to say on the subject.

"How does he know, by the force of his intelligence, the secret internal stirrings of animals? By what comparison between them and us does he infer the stupidity that he attributes to them?

"When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?"

He goes on to note that, since humans and animals don't share the gift of speech, neither of us understands the other, and it really cannot be determined that this is a deficiency in the animals, any more than in us.

"We must notice the parity there is between us. We have some mediocre understanding of their meaning; so do they of ours, in about the same degree. They flatter us, threaten us, and implore us, and we them."

I think that humans, as highly verbal animals, assume that speech is the highest form of communication. I also think that this assumption causes a blind spot in our perception of the ability of other animals to communicate with each other.

One of the more well-known examples of non-verbal communication is the dance bees do to tell other bees just where they found the nectar. Observers have also deduced, by observing the behavior of elephants, that they grieve for their dead. But I think that, on the whole, our inability to experience the world as other animals do puts us at a disadvantage in understanding how they might communicate.

A weird flight of fancy follows.

I got to wondering whether other animals with one or another highly developed sense might use it to send and receive messages. For example, the dog experiences the world through its nose to a very high degree. When you take your dog for a walk, what piques his or her interest? The dog sniffs everywhere. But you notice that there are certain places en route that are more interesting to the dog than others. The dog sniffs, then the dog pees in that same spot. The stronger the smell, the more likely your dog is to sniff, then pee. And you notice that your dog never empties his bladder in just one place. A little bit here, a little bit there.

Now, suppose your dog can subtly control the chemical composition of his urine to leave messages that other dogs can understand with their superior sense of smell? What if every fire hydrant is a message center? Does every dog in America know all about Michael Vick?

Pure speculation, of course, without a shred of evidence, but it illustrates my idea that our own form of communication dominates our idea of what communication is to such a degree that it's hard for us to imagine any other.

Anyhow, I once tried to write a story about a scientist who discovers this secret of dog communication, and through chemical analysis, discovers the hidden world of dogs. I've never succeeded in writing fiction, so if you like the idea, it's yours.