To: <s-acc@yahoogroups.com>
From: "Andrew Phelps" <starfish@northcoast.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:29:51 -0700
Subject: Re: [s-acc] Response to the Mickey Mouse dilemma
Nkh:
HERE is a picture of Donald Duck which I've used on my class website. It shows that because Donald has 4 fingers (3 and thumb) that he counts differently than pentameral folks like people. Since 4 works naturally for computers which have a binary logic, and 5 doesn't, this shows that Donald is better adapted biologically to the arithmetic of computers than folks like us.Andrew wrote:
And, do you have a perspective on the politics of Orlando Alternatives, and how we might engage that in an accountable manner?
I understand the theme of the Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mouse 2 as it not only relates to Alternatives but also as it relates to the experience of being not only marginalized as an already marginalized group but also being in a situation where compliance to a norm, otherness and/or acculturation is rewarded.
This is so, but that does not "go benthic" or get to the depth of the issue being raised. The notion of social organization as it is taught in organizational psychology/sociology is based on pre-science. It is true that the thinking of people running Alternatives is generally thus inclined. And many of us have extensive experience engaging that kind of mentality and making arrangements regarding Alternatives and with SAMHSA in general.
However the issue at hand here is not "compliance to a norm, otherness and/or acculturation." Because pre-science is business rather than organizational truth, we seek to engage from a ground of truth. "Mickey Mouse won" is our way of saying that we have engaged the structure that makes for mental patients dying 25 years earlier, and - politically - they 'blinked'. That means our insight into organization has met a standard; we also did so in a way that did not cause undue negativity to the Anaheim process.
To go beyond a "first wave" insight into organization - that being what you provide in the succeeding paragraphs - one needs to engage the theoretical insights that go past that. My insights, for instance, include the "sociohistorical" issues of behavior raised by Vygotsky and extended humanistically by Bakhtin. And ultimately they include the Vision of "New Science" (published 1744) by Vico. As with Copernicus and astronomy, this direction of thought causes much social stress before society can engage it correctly. [See James Joyce on the "commodius vicus."]
Nkh, it is my hope that you will find the grounds to engage the "second wave" issue and that includes how that relates to the matter of Orlando Alternatives.
Best
Andrew Phelps