2006-02-28

johnstonmr: (Default)
2006-02-28 08:21 am

LJ Resolution

This journal isn't thrilling me these days. I think a change is in order.

While there will be silliness still, I want to do more serious posts and less stupid dross. I already post fewer memes than I used to; I am now aiming to get rid of even more of them.

Note to friends: I post a lot less these days, as fully half my day I am nowhere near an internet access point. Do not expect to receive comments OR emails between the hours of 11am and 6pm, not because I don't love you, but because I simply have no internet during those hours.
johnstonmr: (viper full on)
2006-02-28 08:38 am

Excellent essay by the Ferret

Essay can be found here.

Excerpt that pretty much sums up my own problem with many "radicals":
These women – I’d say “girls,” but they liked the term women a lot more - had something in common with a lot of the radicals on campus in that they thought that the act of protest was enough. It didn’t matter whether you actually reached anybody, or accomplished anything of consequence; the important thing was that you had stood up for whatever the hell it was you believed in and let people know that you definitely believed in something. Loudly. Preferably with a bullhorn.

I clashed with some of these radicals, because I thought that the point of any sort of communication was to reach people. Why get arrested for something that reached nobody but people who were on your side already? Your choir-preaching was a form of feel-good masturbation, and you could remain comforted by the fact that the people who didn’t get your obscure message were idiots who you didn’t want on your side anyway. Eventually, you talked to your like-minded folks so much that any objection to anything that deviated from part doctrine began to look like a refutation of principles.