Duane Gran’s log of thoughts

A Washington Post article discusses a curious rise in Communist nostalgia in Russia among the youth:

The National Bolsheviks, whose name harkens back to the revolutionaries led by Vladimir I. Lenin who founded the Soviet Union, were banned in June by a Moscow court. Party lawyers said that was the first time a political party had been outlawed in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The court held that the National Bolsheviks were intent on “a forceful change of the foundations of the constitutional regime.”

The National Bolsheviks don’t represent, at present, a serious political threat, but their bold actions may be indicative of a larger undercurrent of sympathy for the pre-1991 days of Communism in Russia. The aftermath of the fall of Communism has been a puzzle. We know that free markets promote wealth and prosperity, albeit with no explicit provision for members of society who for one reason or another aren’t competitive, yet the standard of living in Russia has declined significantly in the last 15 years.

The most convincing argument I’ve read concerns “growth ethics” from Arnold Kling. From his essay:

One likely reason that privatization performed less well than expected in the former Soviet Union is that the work ethic had been too badly undermined. Suppose that employees are used to stealing from their state-run government enterprises to sell into the black market. When privatization takes place, the black markets are still functioning, and old habits may linger. Before the enterprise can get on its feet, it fails.

In case it seems that Kling is levying insult, Russians themselves are increasingly recognizing the profound impact of corruption on their society. From the Moscow Times:

Recently, Georgy Satarov, the president of Indem, an anti-corruption think tank, presented more detailed and provocative numbers on the incidence of corruption. It estimated that the aggregate market for business corruption amounted to a staggering $316 billion. Given that the average nominal wage of a public servant is 6,000 rubles ($210) per month and that there are 1.2 million bureaucrats, the Indem results suggest that official salaries account for a mere 1 percent of the total income that civil servants receive. Moreover, the report implies that more than 1.3 million out of the 1.9 million operating enterprises listed in the state registry have turned to corrupt state officials. If this is true, the integrity of the public sector in Russia is indeed in critical condition.

The Indem study paints a stark image of public life in Russia, but it also gives signs of better days to come as the data suggests the more Russians are declining bribes. Some perspective, offered by a discussion panel of Russian experts at FrontPage Magazine may shed some light on the desperation which motivates The National Bolsheviks:

The fact that many [Russians] say positive things about Stalin in public opinion polls doesn’t show that they prefer tyranny to democracy. They actually haven’t seen the latter yet, and don’t consider it as a realistic option. And if the only choice they see is between victorious generalissimo of the past and obscure lieutenant colonel of the present why wouldn’t they choose the former. Hardly such a support is ideologically motivated. It is rather nostalgia for Russia’s greatness.

Lately there has been some discussion about the visual clutter and imprecise meaning behind linking text when it is meant to cite a resource. Two projects have emerged to solve this, WP-Linknotes and Link Footnotes. I prefer the latter solution since it is technically less intrusive and I’ve been testing it for the last two months when posts warrant them. See a recent book review piece I wrote for an example.

In the process of doing this I’ve updated Owen’s code to support CSS, fixed a rendering issue in Safari and made the “title” text appear as a hover for the link number in-line. For those interested, you can download it. If you make any interesting changes, let me and Owen know about it.

As for the future, I believe it would be useful to make a footnote that doesn’t necessarily make use of a hyperlink. I can see modifying the the rel attribute of the anchor tag with a “note” value to support this. Would anyone find such a modification to be useful?

Recently I wrote three articles for some other sites on technology and process issues, hence the lower volume of commentary in this space. The items are:

• Good Software has Users — An exhortation for developers and managers of research-based software projects to seek out users and for developers and users to become acquainted.
• Execution Matters — No, not a plea to end the death penalty (although I do hold that view), but rather a reminder that ideas are easy, but deliverables are hard.
• Meetings Considered Harmful — A plea for Project Managers to trim the number of meetings that sap productivity from software development

Additionally I’ve been invited as a guest writer on C’ville News. This raises a topic that has been turning in my mind about modes of writing. I suspect that the “personal web log” is going to become something rather quaint over the next few years as proficient writers join group blogs. It is more satisfying to add value to a communal writing space than to write on an island. After all, the raison d’etre is communication and drawing connections.

The recent funeral for Chief Justice William Rehnquist raises issues for all manner of comentary on the passing of a legal scholar and public servant, but for a moment I want to consider the sensibilities of how the nation mourns the passing of the Justice. The Associate Press photo below, showing the public in line for the funeral, alarmed me:

Shorts, jeans and t-shirts abound where not so long ago one would expect to see dark suits and a modicum of humility. I’m reminded of the opening missive of the Etiquette Grrls site which reads:

Somewhere, Someone is Wearing a Tube Top in Church.

At a Funeral.

Cell ‘phones are ringing in Classrooms, Theatres, and Libraries. White Sandals are being worn in the Dead of Winter on the Streets of New York. With Stockings. A girl is staggering under the weight of an Air Conditioner, on a 90-degree day, as a nearby boy watches with interest, idly enjoying a Cold Beverage. Young people are Swing-Dancing in Khakis. Chocolate is running around in “Martinis.” And everywhere, the Elderly, the Infirm, and the Pregnant are standing up on trains.

We are Appalled. Something has to be done.

Delete is a fascinating project to depict Vienna without advertising. It is astounding to see how much of the public space is devoted to commercial interests. A similar project is The Untitled Project which strips text from photographs, thereby revealing the amount of textual advertising around us. Check out a good example or two.

I could easily go into a rant about the social ills of advertising, but I like how projects like this aim to make us more aware of the multitude of competing interests in public spaces.

NPR recently revived interest in George Washington’s Rules of Civility, which he translated from French as a youth. They are quaint, but speak to an age when manner and moral held closer kinship than today.

I recently finished reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. The book is a needed portal into the lives of the working poor, who have nearly vanished from our media and social consciousness. I felt somewhat helpless after reading it, but the author’s point is to inform more than to advise, so I can set aside that issue. However, I do have a serious critique to share.

My sympathy for her struggles took a decided turn when one of her potential employers required a drug screening, which posed problems for her because she had recently smoked marijuana. She proceeded to pay an exorbitant amount, relative to her wages, for an herbal cleanser and drank copious amounts of water to beat the test. She was entirely unreflective on the harms of drug use or legitimate reasons for employers to screen drug users from the applicant pool, but she had plenty of criticism for the employment process. Her indignation reaffirmed the Conservative bootstrappers’ view of the poor — they blame the system in lieu of accepting consequences for bad judgment.

I’m not a prude about social drug use, but it is odd when someone over the age of 25 hasn’t gotten over that phase. More than anything I felt disappointed that she made things harder on herself, but this is a small issue in an otherwise thought-provoking book. One passage in her concluding remarks stood out to me:

So if low-wage workers do not always behave in an economically rational way, that is, as free agents within a capitalist democracy, it is because they dwell in a place that is neither free nor in any way democratic. When you enter the low-wage workplace — and many of of the medium-wage workplaces as well — you check your civil liberties at the door, leave America and all it supposedly stands for behind, and learn to zip your lips for the duration of the shift. The consequences of this routine surrender go beyond the issues of wages and poverty. We can hardly pride ourselves on being the world’s preeminent democracy, after all, if large numbers of citizens spend half their waking hours in what amounts, in plain terms, to a dictatorship.

On one hand I side with the protestant work ethic, but that should never be an excuse to ignore the indignities that the working poor endure. The alternative to dictatorship is workplace democracy — where everyone has a voice in the distribution of profit and the leadership of the organization reflects the will of those who make it sustainable. Examples are uncommon, but it is desirable social order.

In related news, the author is writing a new book, Bait and Switch, which looks into the trials of employment for the middle class in America. A Washington Post article gives a nice summary of her investigation.

Update (10 Sept 2005): NPR has an audio interview with Ehrenreich.

Mandatory reading for those wondering why the poor didn’t leave New Orleans: Being Poor. A particular comment resonated with me:

Why is is so hard to remember poverty once you get past it, if you get past it? Why is it so hard to empathize with poverty if you have never had it? What the hell is wrong with us?

Labor Day is an important holiday for people of all walks of life to reflect on each other’s contributions and appreciate leisure time. Unfortunately, the modern celebration betrays its roots. This coming Monday it is clear that we have two Americas — one of leisure and another of service. The evidence abounds as retail establishments hold large sales on Labor Day to entice one segment of society, which observes Labor Day, to shop and be served by those who are not afforded the same option for leisure.

While some voluntarily work this coming Monday and others in medical and essential positions have non-standard work schedules, compulsory work on a holiday meant to honor laborers is beyond the pale. My suggestion is simple: Don’t shop on Labor Day. Purchase your groceries and tend your needs in advance so that you personally won’t endorse this inequity. However, if for some reason you must shop or dine on Monday, please thank those who serve you.