Handbook for Protests, It's About Education |
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this: whether a person is consciously paying attention or not: It takes approximately 7 impressions for and impression to be implanted onto the conscious mind of a human. If I said to you "Keynesian-Hayek corporate socialism economic wars are causing all the problems" to you 7 times in the course of a conversation, or over a fairly short period of time, but didn't force you to engage... maybe even said it jokingly to you... you would then hear me talk about it as if it was something familiar, comfortable to deal with and open to discussion. No child likes to have a teacher who says: "You stupid child, I dare you to seem intelligent about quantum physics... what an idiot". An adult might hit you for saying that. Mostly, people just get annoyed when someone else who is passionate about an unusual or dissident issue tries to foist their views upon them, and then they'll just avoid you. War begets war, confrontation begets confrontation, disrespect begets disrespect. The Average American isn't as stupid as experts would have you believe. They're just not trusted with the information necessary to make an informed choice, or realize when things aren't quite going the way the government says. So you have to help them seek it. Because they want it. They just don't want to feel alone, or vulnerable to criticism. Peer pressure is one of the most powerful forces, and challenging people to speak out against injustice for fear of alienation is difficult to overcome. When you speak of the issues, Democratic Fundamentalist issues, if you will, speak of them in a tone as if, well, like of course everybody knows this is actually true, and then be prepared to listen, without ego or need to win the arguement. Everyone wants to feel heard and understood. People will not want to listen to you if you do not want to listen to them. Besides, in Democracy, all sides have something of value to consider. Listen to them, and you will learn volumes... and so will they, Democracy is a conversation that allows for, is inclusive, and expands it's application by the very simplicity of it's values - freedom, justice and equality - and it is in the inquiry of those values that it becomes simple to make decisions that effect the lives of us all everyday. It is the corruption of those values that make them impossible to implement, difficult to have faith in, impossible to rely on, and even for the best of us, nearly impossible to honor without being taken advantage of... without regretting later that we didn't cheat, because if we had, we would have at least gotten what we deserved. That is the trend, and the cynicism you must train people to resist, and for whom you can provide hope by speaking of a vison where we live in a world that is fair again. And they can help. And it really can happen. Think about what you might say to people... friends, family, colleagues... that would be provocative... in ways that would challenge them without criticising them or requiring them to know a thing... in a way that is relevant to them.... that would cause them to understand it's worth their while to get involved and take a stand. Then, make them familiar with your vernacular, one word, one phrase at a time. Like, how to explain the phrase Democratic Fundamentalism. It's not the Democratic Party, it's not religious, it sounds sort of subversive but it also sounds patriotic... What's more... it's incredibly accurate for what we are proposing. Soon, they'll be asking questions... It's all about education. Theirs AND Yours.
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