So, yeah, you've got this agenda. This PLAN. You want people to buy into it, because you want to make things better.
But do you? Do you really?
If you do, you may consider asking yourself if your approach furthers that agenda, or hinders it. Are you the ANGRY <whatever>? Angry doesn't gain recruits, it makes everyone else angry. They will not ever listen again.
Are you the guy who wants to MAKE people follow your plan? If so, I invite you to revisit the aneristic delusion, aka the LMNO Principle. Push people down, they just squish out the sides doing whatever the hell they please, and what they please is usually the exact opposite of what you wanted in the first place.
Example: If you ORDER me not to use the word "cunt", it will become my favorite noun. If you convince me not to use it by showing what baggage comes with it, then I will stop using it...Because I now believe that the word is not something I want to associate myself with. Sort of like the idea that I couldn't be arsed to burn a flag, until some asshole makes a law saying I can't. Then I'm off to the store for some lighter fluid. If you'd left well enough alone, I wouldn't be shitting all over your sense of patiotism.
If what you're after, though, is having the loudest fart under the blanket, then ignore all that and impress the shit out of your peers. Scream at us, tell us that we're bad people or cookie-seekers or whatever. Just recognize that you will never change anything...You'll just be the chief hipster in your little cult. Because, let's face it, that IS your goal.
The last thing that has to be considered is, as the title says, "What kind of world do you want?" Examine whether or not you'd like to live in a world in which you have achieved your objectives.
Example: The Nativist (har, har) Movement. No immigration, English only, yada yada. The world in which you would live would be culturally stagnant, and Glenn Miller would still be top of the pops. The only culture that ever really achieved this was Imperial China, and they made time stand still until the British conquered them with a couple of small gunboats. Well done.
Example: A world in which nobody used terms you find offensive. That world by definition implies that either A) the population has been completely conditioned, or B) the population may not speak their tiny little mind without fear of legal consequences. In either case, welcome to North Korea. The camps may be prettier and more brightly painted, but the end result is the same.
Counter Example: A world in which you can say whatever you like, but can exert no political or legal influence on people because of their race, gender, orientation, etc. The freedom to be YOU is intact, the "freedom" to shit on other people in any lasting way is gone. You aren't squishing people down, so they aren't squirting out the sides. Note that "preventing people from running the lives of others" isn't oppression.
So, you know, what kind of world do you want?
I'd like one with allies, please.
Quote from: M. Nigel Salt on May 02, 2013, 07:08:31 PM
I'd like one with allies, please.
I'd like one where children don't go to jail for 26 years for 48 grams of pot.
I'd like one where my daughter has an even shot at success, without having to hide who she is.
I'd like one where the government is too busy fixing roads, dams, and bridges to have time to worry about my Americanism or lack thereof.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 02, 2013, 07:10:38 PM
Quote from: M. Nigel Salt on May 02, 2013, 07:08:31 PM
I'd like one with allies, please.
I'd like one where children don't go to jail for 26 years for 48 grams of pot.
I'd like one where my daughter has an even shot at success, without having to hide who she is.
I'd like one where the government is too busy fixing roads, dams, and bridges to have time to worry about my Americanism or lack thereof.
That too.
I figure I'm more likely to get that if I can talk more people into being on my side by welcoming them as friends. And allies.
Quote from: M. Nigel Salt on May 02, 2013, 07:17:21 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 02, 2013, 07:10:38 PM
Quote from: M. Nigel Salt on May 02, 2013, 07:08:31 PM
I'd like one with allies, please.
I'd like one where children don't go to jail for 26 years for 48 grams of pot.
I'd like one where my daughter has an even shot at success, without having to hide who she is.
I'd like one where the government is too busy fixing roads, dams, and bridges to have time to worry about my Americanism or lack thereof.
That too.
I figure I'm more likely to get that if I can talk more people into being on my side by welcoming them as friends. And allies.
Yep. A reasoned argument gets you more than an angry lecture.
The people who don't listen to reasoned arguments won't listen to anything other than brute force, and THAT kind of world, I DON'T want.
The irony in all this is that "safe" is fucking DANGEROUS.
There are, after all, 4 basic approaches:
1. Lead by example.
2. Persuasion.
3. Coercion.
4. Attention-whore and endlessly bitch about the people who aren't as enlighted as you.
Quote from: stelz on May 02, 2013, 07:33:06 PM
The irony in all this is that "safe" is fucking DANGEROUS.
Yeah, because "safe" is code for "everyone doing what I want them to do", mostly.
In fact, when discussing occupational safety, we now say "least risk" or "best practice", both to remind people that NOTHING is "safe", and that "safe" = "complacent and stupid, accident waiting to happen".
I aint greedy. I don't even really want a whole world. What the fuck would I do with it? No. I wan't a little chunk of it where I can find fun shit and DO the living hell out of it til I die or it stops being fun.
That's basically my entire philosophy in a nutshell. Everything else is just a bunch of bullshit opinions that are subject to change from time to time.
Anyone fucks with something I'm having fun doing? They get ignored, circumvented or beaten the shit out of, according to how much of an obstacle they present to me doing my thing.
Very few individuals have the means or will to come between me and my fun but organisations are a different story. I have an instinctive wariness and mistrust of organisations who set themselves the task of fucking with my fun.