Posted by boBB on May 16, 2000, at 22:57:31
In reply to Re: Yes, i mean it, posted by Adam on May 16, 2000, at 19:58:28
>And by what criteria do you, personally, determine whether someone has thought for his or herself?
Probably the same kind of criteria you, a teacher, uses - we analyze the material to see if it reflects original thinking and brings together a variety of ideas or if it simply harps the previous statements of some authority figure. Of course, it is not really neccessary to go around checking each person. We are working on the direction of the group. Its pretty easy to tell if a herd is stampeding or if they are milling about in their own individual directions.
>When they agree with your point of view?
No. By obfuscating my point of view, occassional expanding the context into ideas that seems radical, and constantly introducing, defending and expanding on the views of others, I make it difficult for anyone to resolve any dissonance I might stir by harping back my perspective, while expanding the allowable ideological territory.
>When they clammer to join your army even after you've tried to insult and alienate them?
No. The insults and alienation will more likely encourage them to act independently, sparing me the unwanted burdens of leadership, and devalueing myself as a target for opposition. Perhaps you don't follow world wide trends in guerilla warfare as much as I, but leaderless resistence is quite the rage these days.
> "Meet the new boss,
> Just the same as the old boss"Yeh, and we did get fooled again, didn't we?
I hung around w/ non-violent new age anti-nuke types a lot, learning to take blows and not strike back. But I see a lot of rage in our society, rage I consider appropriate to the context, and it seems to me to be a right thing to do to share the burden of those enraged, making their load lighter and the emotion more productive.
I recently read a series of books by a NavySeal anti-terrorist convicted felon. the Rogue Warrior series. Hmmm. I don't advocate some of his extrajudicial killing and definately frown on boasts of rape, but his audacious style and appreciation of the nuance of guerilla warfare offers the well rounded social/enviro-justice psy-warrior some ideas to mull over.
poster:boBB
thread:33572
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000508/msgs/33727.html