April 02, 2003
Furtive Relaxing
I've been just meandering the past two days.. I've been off work from 10:30pm Monday through today, Wednesday at 6pm. Its a nice time. I've done some programming, finally, finally, finally gotten the apartment clean, and I've helped Mike out with moving. I've gotten the stuff to dye my hair blue, and I've done a good deal of web browsing too.
I visited the White Ribbon Campaign, a site about gay teen suicide. I also read about Robbie Kirkland and Bill Clayton. Stories like this and knowing people like my Freshman Friend are the reason I've done the work I've done with PFlag Dayton and Lambda Union. Instead both of these organizations seemed bogged down by bureaucratic stifling and top down command structures.
I've been reading a lot of Margaret Wheatley's work. She has a much more organic view of organizations than the mechanistic view that is so prevalent today. I'd like to look at it more, but I think this is the reason ACT UP was so successful. There wasn't a leader, everyone was equal more or less with only leaders by mutual consent. For that matter al Qaeda is successful for the same reason.
Okay a segue. I wish Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was still on the air, I think it gives a view of what being an underdog and a terrorist was like. I fundamentally have a hard time condemning terrorists out of hand like everyone else. To be brought to the need to kill people and cause destruction to get your point across you must have been ignored.
Okay and back. I need to find organizations that are more like the ones Wheatley describes. While I can and have navigated the dang mechanistic hierarchical system, and can set it up, I do not think I work well in them, I'm too much of an individualist and an independent thinker.
Well, thats it for today...
Oh, BTW, I started a WebLog, and if your wondering what the difference between a WebLog and an eJournal is look at Blog vs. eJournal.
To be brought to the need to kill people and cause destruction to get your point across you must have been ignored.
it should NEVER come to the point of killing people to get one's point across, no matter how much you believe in something or how often you are ignored. if it comes to the point where you feel the need to kill others to express your views, then kill yourself. there is no place for you or your violence.
also, why argue about what to call your website. it seems a bit silly to get all wrapped up in labels. just call it what you want, and bring as many elements into it as you want. one can have a blog and still have posts that are off-topic or not related to any link at all.
p.s. - i meant to quote you at the beginning of that comment. it seems that you have html turned off, which killed my italics. :)
Dave,
I didn't imply that I thought killing people to make a point was good thing, just that people who see that as the only viable option, probally should be listened to and not condemed out of hand. This type of polarization does nobody any good.
As to debating the WebLog vs. eJournal. Is it a dog or a cat? Is it a deer or a bear? Is it a chimpmunk or a squirrel? Is it a newspaper or a magazine? All of these are simliar but have different names. A WebLog and and eJournal are similar but not the same.