Petty Schadenfreude

Just before I arrived on the scene, the Petting Zoo got a freebie they just couldn't pass up: The use of a major public venue to host an event that would normally cost about fifteen grand for use just in the morning. Now, that's pretty sweet, but the catch (of course there's a catch!) is that we could only have it on a certain day. Planning such an event would normally require at least four months. Six would be better. What did we have? Two.

Yes, TWO months to put something together that would normally take SIX. On the plus side, this event is in DC, whereas we expect future events in the series (this is the first) to be held around the country with partnering orgnizations or institutions or even museums. So, we don't need to coordinate those types of logistics. However, the hard part, as far as I can tell from these my first six weeks on the job, is getting Important People to participate.

For better or worse, the public part of the event is coming together reasonably well. Important People like media attention, right? Most of those speakers are confirmed, with the exception of a Republican keynote. We have a Democrat, but it's proving rather ... well ... "difficult" to find a moderate Republican counterpart. That is, someone who would please certain organization higher-ups who think there needs to be more talking with "others" without causing donors to barf up their breakfast.

People are working on this, however, and, well, it ... just isn't really my problem becase -- in this town where who you know counts more than what you now -- I am a nobody and know nobody.

Which is not to say I'm not making efforts to make this event a success anyway. My role is to work on the non-public portion of the event, which is a workshop thingie of sorts, in the afternoon following the public part. It's in the same venue. In a beautiful conference room, in fact, overlooking the Capitol. Lunch will be catered by Fancy Celebrity Chef's Catering Company (leftovers will go to Mama Duck and her gourmet-fed babies who live in a wading pool on the roof, but I digress!).

We're trying to get 20-30 Important People to show up and talk at each other for a couple hours and come up with a sort of public document that everyone signs on behalf of their Fancy Very Important Organizations and which is ultimately presented to the next administration as a set of policy recommendations.

Turns out it's hard to get 20-30 Important People to show up and talk at each other for a whole afternoon when all you're giving them in return is Fancy Celebrity Chef's funburgersandmixedgreens, which they can very well go buy for themselves should they wish to eat such things.

So, the petty schadenfreude ... Yeah, well, so we divied up the list of people we want to invite. I had a handful of possibilities and alternates to pursue. A few academics and a few other types. The academics, surprisingly, have been relatively easy to get in touch with and talk to. We'll have a few of them. The "other types" I volunteered for are in an industry dealt with frequently by Think Tank. I figured I'd at least have an excuse to send an email and do some friendly name dropping.

The result? Total. Cold. Shoulder. As in, no response at all or a blatant blow-off: "Sorry, who-the-fuck are you again and why are you bothering me? No, I'm not available. I'm traveling. Can't rearrange. Now, go fuck yourself."

Not sure how that's going to work out. It kinda reminds of high school, actually. The social dynamics of it, that is. Whatevs.

But, so, the schadenfreude ... Yes, well, turns out it's not just me, Dr. Nobody Who Knows Nobody, that's gotten the ole fuck-off reponse. People Who Know Important People aren't getting their repeated and increasingly desperate voicemails answered, either. Woohoooo!!!??!!!???!

Is it totally perverse of me that I take some pleasure in this? Probably ...

I do, sincerely, want this event to go well. And, the truth is, it probably will go just fine. We have far from exhausted the list of possible participants in this workshop-thingie-do. It just amuses me in a sick-ish way that these people who think they're Special are being ignored, too -- and by people they expected would talk to them.

At least I was expecting to be ignored. Water off a baby duck's back ...

"Quack, quackk! Aren't we teh cutest?"

Blue Flamingos and Pink Elephants

This next "next" job hasn't been too bad so far for the past month and a half since I started. As you may have surmised from my relative lack of blogging, I've at least been busy enough. But I have a few minutes to spare today, and since I originally started the blog for purposes of venting, I shall vent.

At the time I started, The Petting Zoo (that's what I've decided to call this new place where I'm now working in my new, non Think Tank, non secretary job) was experiencing a time of significant transition. Upheaval, some might call it. A new program (Habitat Expansion, let's say), the one I'd been hired to work on, was eating in its entirety another, older program (let's call that one Survival in Captivity). Noobody from Survival in Captivity lost their jobs during the transition, but there was some reordering of priorities. And, maybe more importantly, Director of Survival in Captivity had made a bid for the job of Director of Habitat Expansion but an external candidate ended up getting it.

Transitions can be good times to start new jobs because there's a lot of flexibility in terms of the roles you carve out for yourself. I'm still grappling with all that and think in the long run it will work out for the best, but it's a little hard to know where I fit in right now, especially given the under-the-surface yet still perceivable tensions between Survival in Captivity and Habitat Expansion, which are now one and the same.

Add to these tensions the fact that one of the more senior people from Survival in Captivity is a Pink Elephant, only hires other Pink Elephants (including interns -- there's a stableful), and seems to find it weird to have to deal with Non Pink Elephants.

I happen to be a Blue Flamingo. If I were a Blue Elephant or a Pink Flamingo, there'd be less of a problem.My elephant-ness or pinkness would provide common ground.  But no. I am a Blue Flamingo and can not change either my blueness or my flamingo-ness. While I have no problem personally with Pink Elephants, it irks me that Semior Pink Elephant, while capable of interacting superficially politely in the course of getting work done, seems to despise the presence of Blue Flamingos and wish them to go away or at least not have to be bothered with their stink and feathers in the Pink Elephant Stable.

So, amyway ... I don't really have a purpose here other than to vent. I'm not going anywhere, and Pink Elephant isn't going anywhere. But the stableful of Pink Elephant interns is emptying out at the end of this month when they mostly all go back to school, and Senior Pink Elephant and I will probably have to intereact more then. And that will be annoying. Maybe Senior Pink Elephant will have gotten used to me by then????

Meh, I doubt it ... Right now, I just wish SPE, who is a loud talker and a hall walker, would STFU!!!

A Happy Marriage of ...

Pop culture and space science:

Academic Accent?

At an event the other day, as people were chitchatting over coffee before the presentations began, somebody asks me: "Where are you from?"

Me, thinking ze is asking where I work: "Organization X."

Other Person:  "No, I mean, I work with diplomats, and I'm good at picking up accents. I thought when you spoke I detected a bit of an accent. You're from here then?"

Me: "Huh???? Yeah. I am from here. Born and raised."

Other Person: "Oh, must be an academic accent then. I used to have one myself, but I lost it over the years. Haha!"

Me: "Yeah, I'm gonna go sit down now ... away from you. I think the presentations are about to start."

I walk away and sit down safely -- so I thought -- between two already occupied seats, but Other Person follows like a puppydog and sits right down in the row in front of me. Apparently ze wants to continue the conversation. The presentations have not started yet.

Other Person: "So, where was it you said you worked?"

 Me: "Organization X, but I just started there a few weeks ago."

Other Person: "And where were you before that?"

Me, thinking Think Tank and New Think Tank might be liabilities too complicated to explain in this environment: "I was at Grad U, stupidly teaching my way through a PhD in English."

Other Person, overcome with delight at hir clever detective work: "I knew it! You really do have an academic accent!!"

I stared momentarily at Other Person in disbelief. Thankfully, finally, the event began, as the moderator stepped up to the podium and told everyone to shut up.

*     *     *     *     *

An academic accent?????!?! WTF is an academic accent!! Have any of you ever heard of such a thing?

Maybe it really is true: You can take the post-ac out of academe, but you can't take academe out of the post-ac.

Race, Gender, Class, Culture, and Climate Change

This study analyzing social and cultural obstacles to climate change found that among the "six Americas" (alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, and dismissive), those people most dsimissive about addressing climate change because they are convinced either it doesn't exist or isn't a problem are most likely to be

high-income, well-educated, white men. They are also more likely to be very conservative Republicans who are civically active, hold strong religious beliefs and are the segment most likely to be evangelical Christian. They strongly endorse individualistic values and oppose most forms of government intervention.

Hmmmm. Fancy that! In other words, the group whose social, cultural, and economic dominance is most likely to be challenged by A) the environmental consequences of climate change and B) collective actions to mitigate those consequences is the group most resistant to the facts.


It's also interesting that the group most likely to be "alarmed" about climate change is older, well-educated white women with higher than average household incomes, while lower income women of color are the most likely to be "disengaged" from the issue altogether. In other words, socioeconomically privileged women can afford to overlook the "dirty" sources of their status (e.g. the oil company executive husband) while personalizing the exploitation of the environment (recall, traditionally Nature = Woman). However, socioeconomically underprivileged women have more pressing priorities, like reliable jobs, healthcare, and childcare, and cannot necessarily afford to question -- no matter how valid the basis for their questions -- the status of the ruling class.

*     *     *     *     * 

While the majority of Americans actually fit into the categories "concerned" or "cautious," rather than "dismissive," "disengaged," or "alarmed," I'm still pretty well convinced we're screwed.



Why? Because even poeple who are "concerned" enough to do things like bike to work and maintain a compost bin in the office kitchen are only willing to accept inconveniences they deem appropriate -- it's great having low-flush toilets, you know, as long as everyone still gets to eat factory farmed burgers for lunch.

*     *     *     *     *

Like I said. We're screwed.



Via

Shit. I may have just convinced myself to give up cheese.