<< On Sat, 12 Feb 2000, Carrol Cox wrote:
> Do you really think the
> world is a schoolroom? You might have done better on that
> strike (even persuaded more people in the long run) had you spent
> less time persuading people who disagreed with you and more
> time mobilizing the sympathetic.
In other words, find the vanishingly few people who think exactly like you
do, tell them exactly what they already want to hear, and ignore everyone
else. I had no idea organizing a revolution was so simple!
>>
No, I think Carrol is onto something here. There are, for organizing purposes, three kinds of people. There are those whom you agree with enough so that arguments are mainly about short term means; we might debate Big Questions over coffee or on the net, but mainly we are engaged ina common project. Preaching to them is preaching to the converted. There are those whom we will never agree with and have no hope of persuading; we might, with great effort, win over a few, but the amount of work involved makes it a poor investment of time. These are enemies to be defeated. Hardcore fascists and racists, convinced Republicans, etc. fall in this category. Then there are the people in the middle, who might go either way or (more likely) never mobilize at all. These are our targets, the people to be convinced and energized.
But I don't think Ken was denying this when he was suggesting that we here be nicer to one another. Virtually all of us here are in the first group with respect to most issues. Not all: Nathan and I, for example, though we agree on many things, are on hopelessly opposite sides of the Democratic Party question. For this limited purpose, we are "enemies" and those of you are are tepid Dems with guilty consciences are our targets, and he tries to win you to less tepid support and I to active opposition. But generally speaking we have common aims, and therefore hope to persuade each other by force of argument. For this purpose, it is futile to call names, something which may be a good strategy in brining in the middle grpup by abusing the other side.
--jks