Professionalism in The Gift Trades

What do you think? Can we in the gift trades liken ourselves to doctors who treat patients whose politics or morals they find repugnant? Can we liken ourselves to public defenders who make a good case, even for those they know to be quilty? Can we liken ourselves to professional "voices" who write tripe for whatever party or power pays them? Is gift planning a profession, then, a job the essence of which is "rising above" controversy, of meeting each client on his or her own ground? Is it a matter of celebrating all gifts, on all sides of every rift? Or, is that the kind of professionalism we associate with those who walk the streets, peddling a simulacrum of love? Can we separate ourselves - must we? - from the causes we espouse?

My dreams for Gifthub are vexed by two conflicting ideals: I want very much to include and honor those whose vision of the good, of the good life, and of a just society, are clean contrary to mine. To exclude them seems craven, close-minded and parochial. To exclude those who disagree is antithetical to open society. Yet, I do think that the essence of our craft is passion. And you can only be so passionate about football in general, or politics in general, poetry in general, or love in general. At some point you have to root for the Red Sox, work on behalf of a particular candidate, develop a taste for, say, Augustan satire, and love a particular person.

Could we create a convention, then, that you are welcome to your cause - and Godspeed. But that those who contribute are welcome as well to theirs, and that we meet here not to write and consume vanilla prose, and to reassure each other how great we are, but to contest our ideas, to learn, and to prevail, though not to dominate, or silence?

The abuses of giving, it seems to me, are so many, that unless we give ourselves leave to speak plainly, or in the indirections of art and parable, we may as well as well take from the snake the gift of the apple and be done with it.

What are your thoughts? Do you too fear that the bland is the enemy of the good? Or are you afraid that, among the free-spoken, self-esteem will suffer? That flame wars will erupt? I guess, as "moderator," I don't fear that so much. Crowd control is my job. Yours as reader/writer is to express yourself fully, with whatever tact or art you can muster, shaking with emotion.

"The lukewarm he spits from his mouth." Was that Christ's answer to the moderate style of Horace, and the well-schooled cadres of Roman leadership, descending from the Emperor and his circle? May we shake the Sleepwalkers awake? Could we do better than the mannered mutual admiration shown by Rick Cohen and the conservatives funders and thinkers whose strategic philanthropy he had critiqued as The Axis of Ideology? When the time came to press the points home, face to face, why did he shrink? Of what value is that insider dance that leaves so much unsaid for fear of giving offense? Even Peter Karoff, a poet and active citizen at heart, dances, as moderator, tactfully at the edges of naming abusers and abuses of all he holds holy. What is at stake is more than our own reputation, or our own cause, our own equanimity, but our ability as citizens to make ourselves heard in the rock tumbler of civic debate. Since these insiders will not speak for us, except as professionals living up to a role, with the courtesy of diplomats, can we here speak for ourselves in our own voices, however passionate and crack-pated?

Well, yes. I am in charge, and I give you permission. Would love to pull Lenore Ealy, William Schambra, Peter Karoff, Rick Cohen, and others into a discussion about Machiavelli (or Satan himself) as models for Strategic Philanthropy. Far as I can see Satan's gift holds the record for measurable results. Social Return on that Apple was infinite. How can we praise the means ("giving") and never critique the ends?

Comments

[K!]

Why bring up 'Doctors'? Maybe it's a nice sentimentality that conjures up Hippocratic oath to 'come for the benefit of the sick'. I remain sceptical that my visiting a doctor is 'for my benefit', for if it was indeed why would I go to see him many a time as a last resort? Perhaps because during my visit I end up being subjected to his entourage and most of my time is spend answering questions and filling up paperwork provided to me by the white wise labcoat counsel of the Good Doctor. Only then, having passed the institutionalized screeners, I will patiently await His visit in a small room. Upont his entering, before I really have an opportunity for a conversaion, he seems to be already gone to see another person in another small room, me left with qustions I never had a chance to formulate.

I don't know anything about 'Gift Planning'. I have never been in an opportune position to either give or receive. The connotation of course is that Any Gifts of Mine have no Value since I believe that Society's Pathology points to things of Value if they can appear on a Monetary Totem Pole. Almost none of my gifts appear high on that mesuring stick.

I seemed to read at Tom Matrullo's site once this questions I shall paraphrase: "Is health care a private product to purchase or a public good to protect and make available" If a Product then one has to work for it and be a professional in the marketplace. If a Public Good one has an obligation to protect it and make it available to others as a Steward or a Servant would. In the case of Philantropic Giving Of Money one can be a Professional or a Steward. These are some of the thoughts that came up while reading your post.

[Phil]

K! Thanks. Very much. Yes, let's say that gifts circulate and in their circuit define a commons. Now as to you, what gift do you bear? You who work in a cubicle, who must come when called. Might I suggest that you bear seeds from another place and time, another scene of resistance, through satire and humor? Trickster, what gifts does he bring? Coyote? Hermes? What was his trade, welder in a shipyard? Lec Walesa?

Freedom is a word on all lips. But mention liberty only in the dark of the night, then run like hell. We will shout it together then scatter in opposite directions, meeting later for a glass of wine.

At dawn you can return to your cubicle, and I will ask your CEO - "What does generosity mean to you? If you could have only two words on your family crest, what would they be?" (Lucre et Vertas).

[K!]

"Freedom is a word on lips" you say, yet Freedom seems to Live on the lips of Sleepwalkers and does not stir the soul, for Freedom begins and ends on the Lips alone. Thus Lunatics' flutterings are not stirrings of the soul but motor functions of the body. The lips move but the spirit Sleeps.

In Polish the the word for a Sleepwalker is 'Lunatyk', from latin lunaticus, an insane person.

Yes, I bring seeds from another place and time. But the seeds can't grow on a carpet. The just gety vacuumed.

The CEO's explanation may be: "We have carpets because it's cost-conscious" hence 'Lucre' is attended to, and "We vacuume cubicle floors every night because we like a clean workplace for our employees" hence 'Virtue' is attended to. The seeds? There seems to be less of them.

[Phil]

Two cures for despair: Prozac or purposeful action on behalf of an ideal. About one, the ads say, "Ask your Doctor." For the other we have to find our own way.

I was asked by a philanthropist, and a good hearted man, to say how I thought gifthub might benefit the isolated person of great gifts and no money.

I wrote him a long note back, but never answered the question. Do you have any thoughts, K!, about how we could do more than vacuum the carpets?

What is the simplest and least expensive thing that could be done to give hope and to rally, among the cubicle-dwellers, those with ideals?

[K!]

A possible gift I can bring to Producers is "I am pissed off at Apple Givers" yet a greater gift to bring to Marketers is "I am pissed off at those who know the Apple is poisoned yet remain silent,and even praise the shape and color of the fruit" and the gift to Sleepalkers? I don't know for many times I am but one of us, one of us in the ranks I stand hungry and jealous of the fruit's power.

[K!]

How can "gifthub might benefit the isolated person of great gifts and no money"

I don't know.

Thank you for asking the question. Please thank you friend for asking the question. The question itself is a great gift. Thanks.

[Phil]

K!

Not meant as a rhetorical or personal question. Think of it as a project. If someone had a few bucks and was not asleep, but knew others are, or are pretending to be, where could she "invest" these dollars for a "measurable social return on investment." Think Poland. Think Good Soldier Schweik. Think Karl Kraus. Carnival. Puppet Theater. Mexican Phone Store.

When people trekking across fall asleep, they freeze to death while thinking themselves warm.

To awaken is painful - "Let me sleep." But we owe it to them to give them a chance.

[jeneane]

I just found the tunafish next to the jumper cables--I WAS SO HAPPY!

gifthub. hmmmm. thinking out loud, so to speak. I'm not sure I undertand yet, but tell me if it has anything to do with an idea I once mulled over with RageBoy. In our many discussions over the last (going on) several years, we have both been on both sides of the "haves" and "have nots" fence. I used to have enough money. He used to have enough money. Then he didn't have enough money. Then I didn't have enough money. Now I have just barely enough money. He doesn't have enough money, bankrupt in fact.

Along the winding isle of prozac and pancakes, we talked about a place--an online place--that would act as a kind of "hub" or digital marketplace or intermediary between folks with a few extra bucks and folks who needed a few extra bucks. We talked about how in Gonzo Marketing, the model chris built is one of underwriting. Underwriting by business of talented markeplace participants--i.e., bloggers, netziens, whateva.

We talked about how business hasn't really shown up for the party yet, those motherfuckers.

And we talked about how maybe we need to begin to support, to underwrite, one another.

We talked about weblogs, and can you imagine on your blog saluting underwriters detailing the realworld expenses they are helping to offset: Telephone service underwritten by K!; Healthcare premium, underwritten by Commonplace, Halley's Comment, and DCS! Dog food underwritten by Sandhill. Kid's scooter underwritten by Bag n baggage. And there's a "blogrolling.com" type tool that keeps track and updates your underwriter's list right on your blog.

And the marketplace/intermediary/hub, well, you could register there and specify who you want to give to (like the united way kind of)--you specify who and how much--hell $20 a month even---and the intermediary would distribute the funds and it would be ongoing. Feed the blog children. Crude? Sorry, but some of us are real hungry out here.

Right, so, the intermediary/hub matches patrons with bloggers and we as bloggers have the opportunity to become both giver and receiver.

So, am I in the right place?

carry on.

[K!]

Phil,
Here is an example of a person with gifts and a need for money. The One True b!X

http://communique.portland.or.us/

If you remember him from cluetrain list a couple of years ago. He is an Active Citizen in a city of Portland. He could use some underwriting money.

[Phil]

Jeneane, Nope, wrong place. We are for givers. For example, you are a writer who can do corporate voices. That is a gift. A talent that is death to hide. Here you could connect with other civic minded people to do projects of public moment, perhaps to address the causes of which your personal sorrows are a symptom. We discourage the giving of gifts to those in need because it encourages dependency and destroys the incentive to work towards overall political solutions.

[Phil]

K!

We all have something to give. Those waiting to get something for nothing live in the wrong country, unless they are heirs, or live on dividends, capital gains, and rent.