A thing I miss

Several otherwise unrelated things - the US primaries, upheavals some months ago in the Danish political world, some friendly teasing of a (now ex-) colleague as well as a general wish to procrastinate over a cup of coffee after lunch - made me re-read the ChangeThis manifesto.

And right in there, it says:

"We're unique in our ability to consider thoughtful arguments and change long-held beliefs. This flexibility is at the core of our democratic ideals. All too often, though, we're led to change our minds on the basis of charisma, not facts. People are so easily influenced by a charismatic leader, the kind of person we'd be eager to befriend, to have dinner with, to follow. We choose someone based on his personality and then do whatever he tells us to do.

It seems easier that way, and we all do it. We do it for the right boss or the right mate or the right political leader. We go to war or create a new product or move to Jonestown."

Isn't that - on average - frighteningly true? Didn't we use to have at least some voices who stood up and said: "Could you please explain that? Again? So that we all really understand?" Some more of the wee boys in 'The Emperor's New Clothes'?

I miss them. I miss some with the audacity to stand up and say "Hey, we won't let you get away with a soundbite. We want to know what you want/are there for/plan/think...!"

I want the ones asked to give answers. I'd actually not mind at all if they were to show doubt or a need to consider. I want us all to take time to read, ask and listen.

I wholeheartedly like and support the ChangeThis cause. But somehow I (cynically?) also think that despite the intentions, they'll end up preaching to the exisiting choir. Because the ones - the very many ones - that need to change are so far out of the habit of taking time to read, ask and listen that they wouldn't know the existence of ChangeThis.

So how do we get someone with bandwidth and credibility and - hell, yes, - charisma enough to make people drop just following the (very same) charisma and restart reading, thinking, asking and listening?

Now I've asked and you've read. Is that a beginning?

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http://changethis.com/

(cross-posted with some delays from H2G2 Journal Entry)

This is good news

Surely, the car bombs in the UK were not good news.

What was, as obviously, was that through a mixture of luck, bomb-maker fumbling and police work, they didn't go off.

I think this is even better news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6275772.stm

It's been puzzling me for some time that every one says that "90-awholelot % of muslims living in (insert your country) are nice, quiet, law abiding citizens who do not agree with the riff-raff responsible for these abominable acts" - yet, the 90-odd percent are very quiet about it, unless you're lucky enough to witness one of them put in front of a television camera lens and confronted with the question by a journalist.

(To be fair, I have heard a few individuals give very solid statements to the fact that they certainly do not agree with the terrorism - but en bloc, not really.)

Which is why I salute these ads. Finally, large groups - note the plural! - publicly denounce these acts. And, even better, does so by quoting the Koran.

Go, Muslims United!

A side thought:

This comes to public knowledge through paid-for advertising. Shouldn't it be a front page story all by itself, one the newspapers were scrambling to get in exactly their newspaper, one they'd rejoyce in having written?

Is part of the problem that the press - maybe, sadly, rightly - believes that sensations sell best and that bad things are better sensations?

(OK, it's a pet topic of mine - IMHO, the press has to a rather large degree suppressed their responsability as "the 4th power" in favour of making money.)