Saturday, November 5, 2011

In response to the negativity

It would be a mistake for us to to dismiss the movements' views for the only reason that they appear to disagree with our own. The movements seek what most mentally sound people seek: to improve the community in which we live, whether that community is the country club or the homeless shelter. For that they do not deserve our hatred or scorn.

Genuinely new ideas lack common terms and concepts to be expressible in ways that are initially widely understood. Inclusive communities have the patience to not immediately dismiss or give up on ideas or their proposers. Inclusive communities also criticize unsound ideas without de-valuing those who propose the ideas, and recognise when hard work accomplishes something good. This is the model of every main stream or big tent organization. It is also expected that a good number of attempts at new ideas and change will fail, as Egypt appears to show, before others succeed with the same ideas.

Whether or not we agree with the movements or participate in them personally, they have happened, and they have shaped the way we think and discuss our society. Just as Woodstock was not simply a music gathering, but instead a touchstone for an entire generation's cultural values and stories (including in the dismissive sense), what we see now will become a reference point to the problems and attidudes of this era. It took almost a generation for the new combinations of ideas and people and relationships from Woodstock to manifest via individual and collective achievements (you are using one right now). It will no doubt take some time to identify, let alone understand, the significances of this year's events.

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