BIKE: AAS

[rcbaker]

[My comments in brackets. -- Roger]


On 1 Apr 2004 at 8:06, Jeremy Elliott wrote:

> -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.

[BS has worked very very effectively for Rush for a decade.
Silver-tongued BS beats meek truth any day.
In politics, appearance is reality!

But skillful delivery of the truth still usually trumps skillful BS,
especially once the seeds of doubt are first planted and then
fertilized by objective reality. (Time to call the metaphor police!)]

>
> 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.
>

[Since we live in a world dominated by war and lies and
corporate dominance and economic peril due to the end
of cheap energy, and since the total situation is deteriorating
rapidly, we have the right and maybe even the moral obligation
to say all that in plain clear English. Maybe some people require
a slower and more sugery path to the truth, and I'll applaud those who
successfully work that approach too.]


> 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.
>

[Kooky? Hey I was out protesting the segregated theatres
on the Drag across from UT in the early sixties.
I saw even the racial backwardness of average Texans overcome
as all of Austin became integrated. I think telling Texans that
something is deeply wrong is not too hard  -- when they see the
price of gasoline rise rapidly after we trick the public into a war,
and piss off the Arabs who increasingly cater to our oil addiction. ]


> 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.
>

[Hey, I tell the truth and lately I get treated civilly by even the normally
oblivious Texas Transportation Commissioners. Plus the Chair of the
Texas Energy Planning Council tells everyone on the Council that
they should read my strident leaflets! The lesson from this is not to waste your
time convincing the average citizen when you can sometimes get better results
by pestering the guys at the top first. Then when that doesn't work,
you can shift to the traditional hard sweaty approach of grass-roots agitating and
organizing.]


> 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.
>

[The Statesman will give you little dabs of useful truth now and then,
but those with any sense know that the Austin Chronicle is where
you turn first for reporting relatively untainted by corporate and real estate
good-ol'-boyism. Even surfing the net or listening to public radio is better
than junk TV or the Statesman. But we'll get to Joe Sixpack too, once the price
of gasoline goes a little higher. -- Roger]

> 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?
>
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