Jason Sywak /// Cerebral Statesmanship /// Season4:E100

Jason currently manages communications for a nonprofit in the entertainment industry but before that he was in DC, in the belly of the beast, handling communications and marketing for political organizations - a time he often looks back on simultaneously with discomfort and gratitude. 

These days, outside of the office, Jason uses his communications background to assist community based organizations and activist groups with outreach and messaging as a way to stay involved in local issues and support progressive causes in his own community. 

Jason is from Philadelphia, PA, home of the 1985 M.O.V.E. bombing where the Mayor of the city ordered a bomb dropped on a city block to evacuate a group of Black Liberation activists - an event that had a lasting impact on his world views and helped shape his political journey. 

 

"You as an individual can make a difference.  You won't make THE difference…but you can be a ripple in a series of ripples." - Jason Sywak
 

Topics we discuss:

• How his Ideals have stayed the same but the way he thinks about them have changed.
  • His prior political perspective
  • Working with organizations he regrets
  • Switch in political parties
• The registration system to support candidates
• Systems that don't allow for Meritocracy
• Growing up in public housing with Mom and then middle class with his dad
• Understanding that what can happen to them CAN happen to you
• Bootstrap Argument and depths to its fallacy
  • How his perspective was shaped based on the dichotomy of his youth
  • Being a high school drop out
  • School system inequalities
• The nuance of Capitalism
  • Crony Capitalism
• Influence of his grandparents escaping concentration camps
• The role that Government should play
  • Servants vs. Rulers
• Campaign Finance and the alternatives to private donation.

 

References:

• MOVE Bombing
• Libertarian Philosophy
• Ron Paul
• Military industrial complex
• Progressivism

 

Credits:

Lead editor + Producer: Ruf Holmes

 

Music:

Main Theme: "Eaze Does It" by Shye Eaze and DJ Rufbeats, a More In Common Podcast Exclusive.

Guest theme:  "Chipotle Spread" by DJ Rufbeats created as a More In Common Podcast Exclusive.