May 15, 2007
Passivity as activism

Two recent P-I articles celebrate some activists who seek to change the world -- by doing nothing.

Yesterday: "Washington state joins a silence that shouts for a better world" But it's not the state, it's a handful of individuals standing briefly without speaking:

Sunday morning, groups in Seattle planned meetings at Green Lake and Woodland Park Zoo, in addition to Denny Park ... .An Everett resident expected to participate in a parking lot across from the Everett Mall.

A woman in rural Brush Prairie said she'd stand in her yard.

How will this change the world?
"Standing in a park is much better than sitting in front of the TV at home,"
True enough.

Today we learn of a church that teaches its congregants to never complain. But one psychologist is unpersuaded:

there is nothing inherently wrong with complaining. That's usually a first step in a plan to take appropriate action."
Indeed.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 15, 2007 10:15 AM | Email This
Comments
1. And I thought "Christians" were the ones who hated science! Don't they know that change through inaction violates the laws of physics?

Posted by: pudge on May 15, 2007 10:16 AM
2. Pudge:
That is brilliant!
Too clever for the moonbats but I get the humor.
Thanx for the chuckle.

Posted by: Diogenes on May 15, 2007 10:35 AM
3. Stand for something, or you'll fall for anything.

Posted by: Vexorg on May 15, 2007 10:43 AM
4. The term for these people is "moral exhibitionist".

Posted by: Raoul Ortega on May 15, 2007 12:20 PM
5. Standing in a park is much better than sitting in front of the TV at home

That REALLY depends on what park you are talking about, and whether it's football season.

Posted by: Palouse on May 15, 2007 01:12 PM
6. These types of things stopped annoying me once I realized their true function: a kind of therapy for the person participating.

It makes a person feel better, like they are "doing something". The fact that the goal is as grandiose as "changing the world" is simply another way of making people feel like they are involved with something bigger than their own small, insignificant lives.

Posted by: ALP on May 15, 2007 01:35 PM
7. ALP: oh sure, they don't annoy me. I understand it can be therapeutic, cathartic. I just think it's funny. :-)

Posted by: pudge on May 15, 2007 02:49 PM
8. I was going to write a long scathing response to this. But then, I figured, why bother?

Posted by: Don Ward on May 15, 2007 04:09 PM
9. I thoroughly agree...if Al Gore, Leonardo di Caprio, Richard Branson and Sheryl Crow would stop:

Talking
Writing Books
Making Poorly Selling CDs
Flying Planes
Making 300 million dollar movies

The CO2 level would fall tenfold.

In fact, since 3% of the world owns 84% of the wealth, the people who do all these concerts and benefits and "Foundations" should just stop and let the Earth cool for a few years.

For further information, check out

The Guillotine

Posted by: John Bailo on May 15, 2007 04:56 PM
10. > I was going to write a long scathing response to this. But then, I figured, why bother?

Slacker! At least I sat and blankly stared at the screen for 5 minutes.

Posted by: EmmaPeel on May 16, 2007 11:31 AM
11. EmmaPeel, OMG, you're one of ... of ... them.

Posted by: pudge on May 16, 2007 12:08 PM
12. Vexorg: Mind if I borrow that?

Posted by: PeggyU on May 18, 2007 11:05 AM
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