kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca wrote:
> The typical "leftist" message falls on deaf ears in
> most parts of Canada (so it seems to me).
Let me try to make a point I have been nibbling at for years. If the "ears" you are talking about are the ears of a mass audience, the kind you can reach through mass circulation newspapers, TV, etc., then this will still be the case the day after and even the year after the socialist insurrection. That is why all the talk about psychology and rhetoric et cetera et cetera on this list is so futile. The left message (to put it only a bit too dramatically) can't be made to an audience of more than 10 or 20 -- and must be made in an area small enough and quiet enough so that everyone can hear everyone talk (even those with low and mumbling voices). Our focus has to be not, in the first instance, on either the content or form of our message but on how we can create and attract people to those small arenas.
I would add that this is nothing new at all. This is how it has always been done for over two centuries, and in every region of the world where there have been significant mass movements.
As much as I disliked Alinsky and his general methods, his people had one good slogan. In agitation and organizing the ears are a more important organ than the tongue. And newspaper, TV programs, mass forums, don't have ears.
Carrol