Tom Shakely

March 1, 2015

Piggybacking

Reihan Salam’s “Snowdenites Are Winning” piece is fascinating to me, following on the thread of my recent posts on the Citizenfour documentary and perspective on prevailing opinions.

So how is that the Snowdenites are winning? They’re winning because they don’t actually need a majority of the electorate to embrace their position in order to achieve their goals. They merely need a vocal, well-organized minority. For example, the NSA needs people with the technical skills to make their vast surveillance apparatus work. Not shockingly, these people are often young, tech-savvy men with an anti-authoritarian streak, many of whom might identify with Snowden.

“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting the brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” Reihan continues:

To understand how a political minority can prove politically effective, consider the ongoing debate over imposing new federal regulations on guns. Though large numbers of Americans favor new restrictions on gun rights, the “intensity” of those who oppose them tends to win out. Yet intensity doesn’t mean much if it can’t be channeled into effective political action, as the University of Maryland political scientist David Karol has observed. For Karol, a key reason that gun-rights activists are so politically effective is that gun owners engage in group activities that strengthen their social bonds, like hunting and attending gun shows, as a matter of course. This makes it easier for gun advocates to reach their target audience, and it also means that when gun owners get together, they are more likely to pass along political information, like the latest outrage perpetrated by federal gun-grabbers or which primary candidate is a squish on the Second Amendment. Karol compares the gun-rights movement to other social movements, like those for alcohol prohibition, civil rights, women’s suffrage, and gay rights, which “piggy-backed on pre-existing social organizations and communities,” meaning they didn’t have to foster these connections in the first place.

I’ve been as guilty of this as anyone, but I really like thinking about “piggybacking” as a means for social/political minority causes to achieve success despite their numbers. It’s a useful framework.
February 28, 2015

Rusty virtues

Gracy Olmstead writing on “raising babies in adult land,” or roughly speaking the effects of age segregation:

There are certain virtues that kids seem especially gifted to grow in us: patience and longsuffering are perhaps the first two that spring to mind (and they’re two virtues our society often sorely lacks), but there’s also generosity, gentleness, compassion, creativity, and many others. Of course we can learn many of these in the workplace, amongst family and friends—but children challenge and foster these virtues through their specific strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps the reason parents seem so timid around non-parents is because they know their child will be demanding these strangers to display their hidden, perhaps rusty virtues.

When I look into the faces of my brothers, hear what piques their curiosities, and engage with each of them over the course of a day, I see a deeper humanity in them than I notice in most peers.

It’s cliched to say that children teach us as much as we teach them. Maybe it’s better to say that children remind us of forgotten things, what Olmstead calls those rusty virtues.
February 27, 2015

Net neutrality

Ars Technica has produced a great overview of what Tom Wheeler, FCC chairman, has made happen with net neutrality.

To critics suggesting that Title II classification represents harmful interference, Wheeler says: “This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech.” This is the key concept for understanding net neutrality—that Wheeler’s plan enshrines the open internet that has developed organically while at the same time protecting consumers from the capriciousness of monopolistic service providers. More from Ars:

The core net neutrality provisions are bans on blocking and throttling traffic, a ban on paid prioritization, and a requirement to disclose network management practices. Broadband providers will not be allowed to block or degrade access to legal content, applications, services, and non-harmful devices or favor some traffic over others in exchange for payment. There are exceptions for “reasonable network management” and certain data services that don’t use the “public Internet.” Those include heart monitoring services and the Voice over Internet Protocol services offered by home Internet providers. …

… the vote does little to boost Internet service competition in cities or towns. But it’s an attempt to prevent incumbent ISPs from using their market dominance to harm online providers, including those who offer services that compete against the broadband providers’ voice and video products.

Union Square Ventures has done a great job for years explaining why net neutrality matters. I’m hopeful net neutrality can become a reality prior to the end of President Obama’s term.
February 26, 2015

Knights of Columbus

I’m heading to St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic parish in Yardley, Pennsylvania tonight to join the Knights of Columbus. The Knights of Columbus are the world’s oldest Catholic fraternal service organization. The Knights are driven by local councils, basically chapters, and have an enormous collective impact. I’ll be joining through the Fr. McCafferty Council #11013.

After joining the Sons of the American Revolution two years ago I’ve felt like the Knights represents a natural companion commitment as the other side of the same coin. Rod Dreher’s recent insight also comes to mind here: “It is one thing for the church to be separate from the state, but a meaningfully different thing for religion to be separate from life.”

I’m excited to be joining, and am sure I’ll write more about membership in the months and years to come. In the mean time for context, here are the Knight’s four principles:

Charity – Our Catholic faith teaches us to “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Members of the Knights of Columbus show love for their neighbors by conducting food drives and donating the food to local soup kitchens and food pantries, by volunteering at Special Olympics, and by supporting, both spiritually and materially, mothers who choose life for their babies. Knights recognize that our mission, and our faith in God, compels us to action. There is no better way to experience love and compassion than by helping those in need, a call we answer every day.

Unity – None of us is as good as all of us. Members of the Knights of Columbus all know that – together – we can accomplish far more than any of us could individually. So we stick together…we support one another. That doesn’t mean that we always agree or that there is never a difference of opinion. It does mean that – as a Knight of Columbus – you can count on the support and encouragement of your brother Knights as you work to make life better in your parish and community.

Fraternity – The Venerable Michael J. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, in large part, to provide assistance to the widows and children left behind when the family breadwinner died – often prematurely. The Order’s top-rated insurance program continues to do this today, as do individual Knights, who last year gave more than 10 million hours of their time to assist sick and/or disabled members and their families. In the Knights of Columbus, we watch out for and take care of one another.

Patriotism – Members of the Knights of Columbus, be they Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, Cubans, Filipinos, Poles, or Dominicans, are patriotic citizens. We are proud of our devotion to God and country, and believe in standing up for both. Whether it’s in public or private, the Knights remind the world that Catholics support their nations and are amongst the greatest citizens.
February 25, 2015

Billy Penn

This piece on Philadelphia news startup Billy Penn caught my eye on Twitter this morning:

Brady told the story of Billy Penn… [laying out] his ambitions for the site — millennially-targeted, mobile centric, civic-minded — to many media outlets before, but one of the most striking details came as almost an afterthought late in his presentation: the site is financed totally out of his own pocket.

Brady will be out $225,000 this year, and “it’ll lose close to $500,000 before it gets anywhere close to turning this,” he says, “but it will take a while.” …

That staff produces about five original pieces of content a day in addition to curating content about the city from a spectrum of sources, though an inviolable rule of the site is that content must relate to Philadelphia — no Oscars recaps there.

I’m a fan of what Billy Penn is trying to be. When Jim Brady visited the Pen & Pencil Club sometime last summer, I walked from my Old City apartment to the little club on Latimer Street to hear his vision for the site. I was probably one of the first 100 subscribers to Billy Penn’s daily newsletter. It’s a great way to wake up and feel engaged with Philadephia no matter where I am. And as the “no Oscars recaps” rule suggests, it feel like a substantial rather than trivial sort of engagement with the news.

If it gains the foothold it needs, it’ll be the Philly.com we deserved rather than what we’ve got. That Billy Penn is described as “civic minded” is important, first because that’s really just “journalism,” and second because while Philly.com contains some civic minded reporting, the average reader won’t find it through the morass of infotainment, Eagles cheerleaders pin-up girls, and clickbait that pervades the site.

Piggybacking

Rusty virtues

Net neutrality

Knights of Columbus

Billy Penn