| Your problems? Solved.
email nick leth at gmail dot com. No worries. Now. |
Here's a great way to be sure that your ideas will never be accepted:
- State your ideas, then
- Directly attack your audience
- Point out that previous ideas have failed
- Repeat your ideas with an added attack on the intelligence of your audience.
To see this approach in action, read "We must get away from failed political thinking" by Jim Morrison (The West, 18 Oct 2011).
- State your ideas
Morrison makes good points about Aboriginal youths, crime, and the Police Commissioner linking the two. Morrison's points can be summed up by the article's sub-header, "Invest in community initiatives before Aboriginal kids offend".
The key word is before.
The same day's paper has an article ("Remote cops build respect") about cops doing just that. There have been various stories about police, teachers, footballers and others helping Aboriginal and other children, before they get into crime.
Prevention is better than cure. Not as good at buying votes, perhaps. But an excellent idea.
Then...
- Directly attack your audience
Morrison attacks everyone-except-Aborigines... for colonising Australia. There's a lot of truth in his claim of "seven generations of compounding bad laws, a racially prejudiced Constitution and institutional and social racism."
Yet his attack is irrelevant to the here and now.
If a person has English heritage with one Italian grandparent -- that person is expected to make their own way to success. If a person has Italian heritage with one Chinese grandparent -- that person is expected to make their own way to success. If a person has Chinese heritage with one Aboriginal grandparent -- for some reason that person is totally unable to be at all successful, unless they are give government-funded support.
Morrison is attacking laws, Constitution, institutions and society. His "logic" is ridiculous. The only guarantee is that he will alienate any readers who support our laws, Constitution, institutions or society.
So we get angry. We prepare to defend against the emotional and illogical attack. We ignore -- or forget -- the good ideas which came earlier.
- Point out that previous ideas have failed
Sometimes this is a good idea. In Morrison's article it is simply a continuation of the attack on anyone-not-Aboriginal.
There are plenty of science fiction books set in a post-apocalyptic world. It's a standard setting for science fiction. One very average book provided an idea which -- in my opinion -- is excellent.
We -- people of every race, nationality and religion -- preserve our history. We preserve our history so that we can brag about how great we once were.
A side-effect of preserving history is that we also preserve the historic hatreds.
The rather average book presented a rather average post-apocalyptic world which had an above-average level of peaceful coexistence.
The secret? All records of the past were destroyed after ten years.
After ten years, the past is gone -- and forgotten.
No more bragging about how great we were. Only how great we are now.
No more hating strangers for ancient and possibly exaggerated wrongs. Past wrongs are gone and forgotten. Which leaves a lot more time to correct current wrongs.
No more blaming your neighbours for the actions of their remote ancestors, neighbours and rulers. More time for working with your neighbours to make today a better place to live.
- Repeat your ideas with an added attack on the intelligence of your audience.
Morrison began with a positive view and good ideas: focus on community initiatives rather than (post-crime) juvenile justice. He admits that these are not his own ideas; there's nothing wrong with that. Then he attacks the world for having done nothing to support those ideas.
Rather than coming up with positive actions, Morrison finds that it is easier to attack everyone else for not solving the problems. Then there is his concluding paragraph:
What do we have to lose in investing some of the resources spent on detention centres in community-based initiatives before Aboriginal kids start to offend -- or is this another "elephant in the room"?
Community-based initiatives are a good idea. Some are already in operation. Can you suggest any more?
Or is it easier to just suggest that the idiots (and racists?) in charge will continue to ignore the problem? Easier to insult the people that you need to convince? Easier to continue a fight than to stop one?
Far easier. And better. Unless you really do want to solve the problems.
| Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems. Agamedes Consulting: Support for your thought. email nick leth at gmail dot com |
No comments:
Post a Comment