Sasha Lilley: Capital and its Discontents

Ramsey Kanaan is one of the founders and publishers of PM Press, part of the San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair and is a member of Bound Together Books in San Francisco, a collectively-run anarchist bookstore.

He is married to broadcaster Sasha Lilley, host and founder of Against the Grain, the nationally-syndicated radio program of radical ideas originating from Pacifica Radio's KPFA.

Kanaan's wife Sasha Lilley, when she was former KPFA Interim Program Director hired him as a contributing host and producer at KPFA Radio. Kanaan is founder of PM Press which publishes his wife books. In their family one hand washes, er publishes and/or hires the other.

Their Utopia consists of a world rife with nepotism. Perfect.

The talent is undeniable; where is the undeserved support

Talent is a gift. It comes deserved or undeserved. At a certain level in business, it takes more than talent. It takes character. Integrity. A willingness to direct power toward positive outcome, not as a weapon to quash the creative expression of the more vulnerable community you are directed to serve and who are under your authority.

Intellect void of empathy results in petty jealousy, cheap imitation and clever cruelty.

Twisted motivation leads one to deny opportunity to talented subordinates while simultaneously imitating said subordinates. The person who finds joy in giving quick insults tinged with racist and sexist overtones may pass unnoticed by many but never by those who have felt the shock and born the brunt of that mean, quick temper. Eyes that have witnessed a manager or on air talent deny opportunity without reason, bear quiet witness to the truth they have been given to recognize; a truth not so apparent to others.

Eventually who you inside, like acid, eats slyly its way to the surface of a persons' being. Falling numbers and weak programming, the need to feel superior at any cost including fairness, who one rewards, who one punishes and why surfaces and causes one to stumble. True motivation comes through, it is written in the lines and hidden in the vibration of the voice. A voice that carries one overt message while behavior deals quite another truth. Here is where talent is evident, fairness however, goes without expression.

The motivation that remains hidden to some is apparent to others. THAT is undeniable.