BIKE: AAS

[Jeremy Elliott]

-MBJ- wrote:
> It was these ridiculous 
> assertions that I was rebutting.

I believe we have to judge any set of actions within
the context in which they are played out.

Go live in any other city populated with 1,000,000+
popped smack dab in the middle of backwards-a$$ed
Texas and follow their local newspaper. When AAS's
performance is viewed in this context, I think we
should be grateful for what we have here in booming
Austin. Perhaps one significant reason AAS's reporting
remains closer to "par" is the effort by members of
this list who continue to be vigilant.

Along those lines, I'm moved to attempt to relate a
notion that really bothers me. There are a few folks
out there whose beliefs and opinions, despite being
vastly advanced and insightful, are shared by about
0.003% of the rest of the local public. These
individuals are compelled, and rightly so, to
illuminate the rest of the public.

Where many of these efforts are failing is in this:
The Rush Limbaugh approach to persuasive argument
works as ineffectively for him as its mirror-image
does for us.

When you've done the math, traveled the entire
journey, and completed enough of the research to
clearly view belief "Z," you cannot argue belief "Z"
to a general public still believing in "A" and meet
with success. If you want to get the A's to shift, you
have to string them along and connect the dots,
holding their hands through each stage from B through
Y, before you try for Z.

What this means is that when you hit a local
politician or radio host or newspaper with language
and arguments that are obviously way off [from what is
considered the norm] depicting doomsday events and
describing things the everyday person takes for
granted as "hulking, gas-guzzling, monstrosities" or
seemingly safe processes that are "doomed to default"
or state agencies that the public has grown to trust
for years as “crooked, malicious, money-laundering
schemes”—you’re simply pissing in the wind. You’re
doing absolutely nothing. The powers that be, it’s so
amazingly easy for them to just turn down your volume
and effectively dismiss you AND YOUR BELIEFS as
cookey.  

My problem with these folks who are essentially
blistering their beliefs in ancient Aramaic onto
fragile ears that comprehend only whispered English is
that I share those same beliefs. Every time a
nay-saying prognosticator bombards the public with
notions that are taken as lunacy, the efforts of
cogent advocates are undermined.

Stop pushing instead of pulling. Shock-n-awe won’t
work. Stop hitting those with the authority to
institute much-needed change with sucker-punches
seemingly from left field. Even if you loath these
people, you have to gain their confidence enough to
persuade them. Smile, take their hands, and lead them
step by step down a rational road of enlightenment. To
that end, give the AAS a break…. it could be a whole
lot worse.

Jeremy Elliott

=====
_______________________________________________
I wonder how many fine, inspiring ideas in every walk of
life are strangled in the womb of the imagination
because there's no way past the gates of commerce?

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway 
http://promotions.yahoo.com/design_giveaway/