Folks Especially

The “pre-planned feelings” document refers to people, and again, I quote, as “folks especially faculty.” This “folks” is so grating because it aims to create a folksy, conversational mood in a situation where the guiding idea of the project is to get rid of as many workers as possible.

The concluding section titled “Opportunities and Threats” ends with the following statement: “Identify which departments have more faculty than can be justified.” What’s going to happen with these unjustified professors – or “folks” – is never explained.

5 thoughts on “Folks Especially

  1. So … how counter-surveillance aware are these “folks” you’re dealing with?

    Now that things are entering the political realm, there are all kinds of things you should learn about these kinds of operators quickly.

    For instance, what would be the significance of changing the meeting room at the last minute?

    If you don’t know this, you’re starting out at a pure novice level despite any Nancy Drew aspirations you’ve had in the past.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. “changing the room at the last minute”

        Have you read Power! by Michael Korda? It’s a bit dated and doesn’t always transfer geographically but lots of incredibly useful stuff….

        Parts of it almost read like an ethnography if 1960s-70s business executives (circulation patterns in parties is hilarious).

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Stop thinking in terms of control and more in terms of access.

        What kinds of access would they want to prevent by changing the venue?

        Access and control are like influence and power in that one doesn’t necessarily flow from the other.

        You can give up control to dominance freaks so that you can gain access to the things you want, such as decent quality video footage of these people believing they’re not being watched, and so they let their guard down and say the most ridiculous of things.

        The most ridiculous of things that’ll be on YouTube the next day. 🙂

        There’s this hilarious James Bond 007 movie where the Hong Kong Chinese are hiding behind a one-way mirror in his room, trying to catch JB with his pants down or in some other kind of compromising position, especially with the free massage they’ve sent his way.

        Of course, JB tears down that wall, exposing the sordid surveillance in such a way that he’s able to get a preferential deal for hunting down his real target.

        In reality, this happens according to the Singapore state surveillance model.

        Every room has surveillance that’s covert and embedded.

        So if you want to turn some of your access into more influence and power, get some technical allies to rig up every meeting room that these people would have access to with surveillance that you control.

        Then be prepared to sacrifice a queen so that your remaining pawns can put the opposing force king into checkmate.

        Like

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