Preserving The American Political Philosophy

TWEET THIS  http://goo.gl/If8NuD Part Three -  Continuing the Story:  My Experience at the 2009 Juice Conference Part One  http://goo.gl/hpj63W   Part Two http://goo.gl/xdwZDk Since I did not attend the ballet, I had to ask to find out my status, Once I learned that I had not made it to the semi-finals, I decided to stick around and find out who did.  I looked around the room and noticed a few people wearing badges that said "Art Creates Jobs' Total naivety, I thought, the power elite of Maine is not interested in the small number of jobs that art creates - the Baldacci administration was using artists in service of the gentrification of Maine's towns and cities following social engineer, Richard Florida's "creativity" template.. The cities and towns must present a culturally stimulating face in order to attract the "creative class"- code for the wealthy. In the plans of the corporate state the artists are just the bait used to c...

TWEET THIS http://goo.gl/xdwZDk Continuing with my story from HERE ...(and incorporating a few paragraphs from this earlier but incomplete telling ) Finally, after a year of receiving stimulus fund notices for non-profits only, in the fall of 2009, I received an email from the Maine Arts Commission about a competition for small businesses for what I took to be, a modest grant for the sum of 30000.00 from an "anonymous source". In a moment of hopeful delusions, I imagined that the Maine Arts Commission had come to its senses and realized that they needed to support the private sector. The competition was called an "elevator pitch competition" which means a pitch delivered in five minutes. Even the written answers to questions on the application were required to be answered in a minimal number of words, brevity being stressed as being so important that if your couldn't explain a business idea in five minutes, then one's business idea is simply not ...

TWEET THIS  http://goo.gl/D8m3J2 In 2009 I attended a competition for what I thought was a small business grant, but later I found was "an investment". I made this mistake in part because I learned of it through the Maine Art Commission which had been sending announcements all year about the availability of stimulus grants - but when one opened the link, it was inevitably and exclusively for non-profits. When The Maine Arts Commission announced a competition for small business investment from "an anonymous donor" I assumed it was a grant for a variety of reasons, including that it was for a very modest amount and that the source was anonymous. I wasn't paying much attention to those details as I had never entered such a competition before and there was a lot to processing taking place in a short amount of time. As later became apparent the "anonymous donor" was F, an investment corporation chartered by the Maine legislature to serve as...