The guest wants to feel like a king. The hotel industry is feudalism.
The ideal of feudalism…is most strikingly expressed in the hotel industry. In exchange for his money, the affluent patron wants to feel, and is expected to feel, if not like the lord of a castle at least like a guest in one so that for the duration of his stay his boldest social dream-wish can finally be realized. Hence the attire of the reception personnel, at least of the doorman dressed in chevroned livery like a lord’s lackey; hence the manner of greeting the guest deferentially at the entrance and the fawning attention that follows for the duration of the stay. For this purpose swank hotels especially engage an authentic butler with matching mien and moustache.
"One bamboo hat, one cane to wander about with, stopping for a while in any hamlet which struck his fancy and enjoying all the experiences, which were mostly the hardships of primitive traveling. When traveling is made too easy and comfortable, its spiritual meaning is lost. This may be called sentimentalism, but a certain sense of loneliness engendered by traveling leads one to reflect upon the meaning of life, for life is after all a traveling from one unknown to another unknown. In the period of sixty, seventy, or eighty years allotted to us we are meant to uncover if we can the veil of mystery. A too smooth running over this period, however short it may be, robs us of this sense of Eternal Loneliness.” Suzuki, Zen Buddhism, 285
Relax, focus. Take a step back and look at the Perspective from all sides. Now, zero in at the center!
What is the Bias?
What assumptions does it make? Whose interests does it serve?
What is your Personal Experience?
How does it make you feel? How do your experiences, privileges, and personal interests affect your understanding of it?
Now, enter the heart
▶ Say something good about what you disagree with, even if there are flaws.
▶ Find causes, not symptoms. Ask what lies at the root.
▶ Have respect for people with different views, insights, and priorities!
Feudalism exists in the hotel industry. The guest wants to feel like a k
“The ideal of feudalism evidenced in housing and life-style is most strikingly expressed in the hotel industry. In exchange for his money, the affluent patron wants to feel, and is expected to feel, if not like the lord of a castle at least like a guest in one so that for the duration of his stay his boldest social dream-wish can finally be realized. Hence the attire of the reception personnel, at least of the doorman dressed in chevroned livery like a lord’s lackey; hence the manner of greeting the guest deferentially at the entrance and the fawning attention that follows for the duration of the stay. For this purpose swank hotels especially engage an authentic butler with matching mien and moustache. Hence also the pompous high-sounding names: in the Levant the shabbiest sixth-class lodging calls itself the ‘Palace Hotel.’
Relax, focus. Take a step back and look at the Perspective from all sides. Now, zero in at the center!
What is the Bias?
What assumptions does it make? Whose interests does it serve?
What is your Personal Experience?
How does it make you feel? How do your experiences, privileges, and personal interests affect your understanding of it?
Now, enter the heart
▶ Say something good about what you disagree with, even if there are flaws.
▶ Find causes, not symptoms. Ask what lies at the root.
▶ Have respect for people with different views, insights, and priorities!
The global mass tourist industry is the world’s largest employer
"In 1990, according to the World Tourism Organization,...429 million people—almost 8% of the global population—traveled from one country to another as tourists. The democratization of travel is a recent development. Seeing the world is no longer the exclusive prerogative of soldiers, sailors, traveling salesmen, a few professors, and a small leisure class." "The global mass tourist industry [is] the world's largest employer." This is very good. "Prepaid, all-expenses-included tours in which the dollars end up in London or New York...are cutting into the foreign-exchange earnings of some under-developed countries." Barnet and Cavanagh, Global Dreams. See several page section beg. page 29.
Relax, focus. Take a step back and look at the Perspective from all sides. Now, zero in at the center!
What is the Bias?
What assumptions does it make? Whose interests does it serve?
What is your Personal Experience?
How does it make you feel? How do your experiences, privileges, and personal interests affect your understanding of it?
Now, enter the heart
▶ Say something good about what you disagree with, even if there are flaws.
▶ Find causes, not symptoms. Ask what lies at the root.
▶ Have respect for people with different views, insights, and priorities!
An entire chapter is devoted to this topic in Mechanization Takes Command, Siegfried Giedeon. “There are societies that use locks, and societies that don’t. Even in a society that uses locks, there are things we lock up, and things we don’t. Locks presuppose theft, and theft presupposes not only private property but a situation in which....The lock is not a universal necessity. Its usefulness is grounded in certain political, social, and legal conditions.” Douglas Lummis, Radical Democracy, 80
Relax, focus. Take a step back and look at the Perspective from all sides. Now, zero in at the center!
What is the Bias?
What assumptions does it make? Whose interests does it serve?
What is your Personal Experience?
How does it make you feel? How do your experiences, privileges, and personal interests affect your understanding of it?
Now, enter the heart
▶ Say something good about what you disagree with, even if there are flaws.
▶ Find causes, not symptoms. Ask what lies at the root.
▶ Have respect for people with different views, insights, and priorities!
You probably don't know that big hotel chains a long time ago lobbied that government should tighten regulations for bed and breakfasts. You had to have thick fire doors and fire mattresses, toxic by the way, and dangerous chemicals, and this is all to destroy the small scale competition.
Relax, focus. Take a step back and look at the Perspective from all sides. Now, zero in at the center!
What is the Bias?
What assumptions does it make? Whose interests does it serve?
What is your Personal Experience?
How does it make you feel? How do your experiences, privileges, and personal interests affect your understanding of it?
Now, enter the heart
▶ Say something good about what you disagree with, even if there are flaws.
▶ Find causes, not symptoms. Ask what lies at the root.
▶ Have respect for people with different views, insights, and priorities!