TFS--A Second Application
"Suspending" a search for 10 months actually meant killing it.
A Note to Long-Term Subscribers and Weekend Readers:
I have bifurcated my Substack account into “Practicing Sociology Without a License” and “The Floral Society.” Both publications will be through the same account; the difference being “TFS” may be read via paid subscription only.
“Practicing Sociology” remains on a sliding scale. One great difficulty in doing a public sociology is having to resist commodifying it. As we see through our media, commodification produces contextual and hegemonic biases toward particular power structures. In other words, a for-profit media frames the world in terms of, and prioritizes, profit-making.
Sociologically, profit-making is a fairly recent phenomenon, thus it is not the only economic practice possible. While Positivism would hold that the most recent social conditions are the best so far (non-Positivist perspectives question this), the philosophy’s evolutionary framing leads us to believe there will be other, more advanced economic forms.
Legitimate sociology—not just the application of social research methods, which is what social media corporations are doing to commodify our sociality—is critical and reflexive. It is always material, and always considers exercises of social power, including the exercise that is doing sociology.
Think of it as being extra-dimensional. Those who live in a 3D world can only perceive three dimensions of a four-dimensional object. A hypercube passing through our dimensional plane would appear as a three-dimensional point, expand to a cube of some size, then shrink back down to a point and disappear. If the hypercube is static and does not pass through our plane, it will remain as a 3D cube. In either case, we are incapable of perceiving its fourth dimension.
Similarly, a 3D object passing through a 2D plane will appear as a point (or a line) that grows and shrinks in accordance with those two dimensions (length and width, but height becomes a measure of time the object is visible.
Multi-dimensional geometry exists in our world, in theory. Social theory exists in much the same way. People engage in practices that make perfect sense, as individual agents within their “dimensional framework.” Social theory concern collectives such as social identities, culture, religious believers, and social classes—of which the individual is a part, but for which the individual need not know why or how.
To do sociology is to ask the why and how of the collective.
“Practicing Sociology Without a License” is me, attempting to publicize critical, sociological takes on current events and everyday life. “The Floral Society” is the ground floor of the next phase of resource mobilization for the sake of cannabis consumer advocacy—it is praxis. I am not concerned with commodifying TFS, for the very purpose of the social club is to gather and channel money and commodities, to provide member benefits and promote cannabis consumer advocacies.
Paid subscribers to “Practicing Sociology” will have full access to “TFS—” labeled, cannabis-centric articles, while supporting the yummy goodness of public sociology.
Subscriptions are as low as $5 monthly, or $50 annually. Larger contributions are welcomed. Thank you kindly for your support.
A Second Application
I recently shared excerpts from my 2023 application for the position of Executive Director of NORML; here is my 2024 re-application statement. The original search was “suspended” for so long that most of the four finalists had moved on. The second search produced new applicants and just two finalists. They offered the job to the other guy, who then got the full picture of what it entailed, and declined the offer. Having been on the board, I well-knew the full picture, and I was ready to take on the responsibility for moving the organization away from its dependency on large-dollar, individual donors, and toward a small-dollar, retail model based on providing value to members, regardless of the legal status of the plant in their state.
My 2024 statement in application for the NORML ED position (excerpted):
NORML has done its best work in culture. NORML has always aspired to be a meaningful lobby, but a dispassionate examination shows NORML has not advanced any legislation of its own designs in DC, despite 54 years of efforts. We must not confuse NORML’s aspirations with its accomplishments. NORML’s work changed public attitudes, which ultimately got us to legalization. MPP’s work changed policies, but their strategy required NORML to have done its work first—MPP runs questions when and where they think they can win. They do not do the culture work needed to get the public to support ending marijuana prohibition—NORML volunteers do.
