Posted by Adam on May 16, 2000, at 19:57:27
In reply to Yes, i mean it, posted by boBB on May 16, 2000, at 19:15:27
Some good points, but you still really need to chill out. You're going to
blow a gasket or something, beyond disrupting with rant and screed.It's not like I haven't been guilty of this in the past. I just came to
realise besides being a headache, I was giving myself one. What good is
that to anybody?Activism can take many forms. Assaulting the sensibilities of those you
consider too complacent for their own good is quite an act of hubris and
seems a bit grandiose. That's why I suggested getting help. You might feel
better if you didn't get so enraged by things you aren't in control of, and
people thus might respond more positively to your concern about certain
issues, which is valid enough without the histrionics.Hey, if I'm right it's only because I've effed up enough times myself to know.
There'd be no shame in acknowledging I might have a point, and that nobody
here wants to do wrong by you.> I'm feeling tired. I stayed up all night caring when I could have benifited from sleep. Could hardly hold my head up in court today. Fidgeted so bad some of the officials there probably thought I was on a drug.
>
> Many respondents seem anxious not to get caught up in the drug war. I summarize those posts as people saying "I don't want to get involved."
>
> A few decades ago, in Chicago, we resisted the draft. Now, we have our own draft. Few people want to get caught up in struggles. They are risky and often involve great personal cost. But the administration of medicine is inherintly political. This is not my unique idea, nor is it paranoid ravings. I don't think the government is out to get me. I think we are the government and when we divest ourselves of responsibility for our government, then we create a situation where paranoia is appropriate.
>
> If I am a predator to send people e-mail containing legitimate information about the political decisions that shape medical decisions, what are the corporations who intrude on me with thousands of messages each day, telling me I stink, that women don't like me, that I need to consume more regardless the environmental and social impact.
>
> AS of methods, techiques, and civility, War is Hell. I rountinely report military events where official publically and unabashadley boast of audacious violence. That is what it takes. The kind of writing I practice here stirs emotion - emotions that some people don't want stirred. People are often reluctant to jump off a sinking ship, or to climb out a window on a long ladder down from a burning building. It often requires stern, forceful coaxing.
>
> That I tend to tackle this forum alone spares anyone else from having to share responsibility for my tactical choices. It seems the only good radical is a dead radical. Everyone is for Malcom X now. There is no risk involved.
>
> As for my agenda, when I am walking the street and see someone getting beat up, I intervene. When I see children abused by their parents at K-mart, I stare at the parent, disaprovingly. It is a way of life and yes, I need help - your help, all of you, because these problems in our society are bigger than I can tackle alone, and bigger than we, as a loose knit anti-industrial, anti-capitalist-greed resistance can handle. We need to mobilize "average" people. Maybe our mobilization efforts will work, maybe we will die trying, like a soldier, bleeding out his life in a foxhole that will make no difference in the long run. It is still his mission and his duty. The more you all get involved, the less I have to act out.
>
> Maybe later, somewhere else under another name, I will publish, or republish more data about how people are hurt by modern psychopharmacology, pschiatry and industrial medicine. There is plenty on the subject all over the internet, but I do have day job to maintain - one where I am trusted, respected and admired. I don't want to think for you people, I want you to think for yourselves. When I see people dismiss me off hand, catagorize me as paranoid, sick, predatory or otherwise innapropriate, I just open my trusty copy of "Communicating racism" and console myself with just how common are those methods of dehumanizing people who a community wants to exclude.
>
> My point is that civility seems to have different definitions for those who are in power and those who are struggling for power. It is perfectly civil to incarcerate people in the name of the law, locking them away in inhuman prisons where they are often raped and beaten. But for me to type out a few lines, drawing some unwanted comparisons, a virtual mob races to the rescue of their sacred civil atmosphere. In this instance, I saw the mob racing after someone I thought was being victimized and did what needed to be done.
poster:Adam
thread:33572
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000508/msgs/33706.html