> Leigh Meyers wrote:
>
>> Absolutely... However, as Theodore Rozak, and others have pointed
>> out, media saturation has played a big role in how the events are
>> reflected back to the "youthful participants", as well as the general
>> public, through "...the funhouse mirror of the media."(Rozak), which
>> allows for certain easy and inevitable co-optations.
>
> Right, "youthful participants" like those of us who just turned 40.
>
> Fucking ridiculous that radicals would resort to dismissing other
> radicals for being young.
>
> Chuck
>
Jeez... relax. I'm 51+, I still think we get stupider as we get older and I don't trust anyone over... 10. But you can't drive the hyperspace battalions of billion dollar babies on impulse(sic) power, and that "funhouse mirror" is all around us... all the time.
The tendency is to do things that attract the media because we want our goals and positions publicized. But Ya reallly reallly *really* gotta have focused, informed participants that know how to communicate effectively, or that media publicity usually turns out to be media nightmare in some way or another, usually commandeered by the *last* people you'd want blabbering in front of a camera only to be made to look stupid(as well as your cause) by that 30 seconds(it ain't 15 minutes) of fleeting notoriety.
Village Voice, week after Columbus Day 1969, Front page/Top banner image, A young man, whom the police suspect of throwing rocks at the police, streaks across the Great Meadow in Central Park NY pursued by two NYC Mounted Police.
If you can find the picture... That's me @ 15.
My teen years only got stranger...
I haven't change much, although I'm much less likely to turn and run nowdays, so I pick my fights more carefully. I also advise it of my young friends... but I have no power or control over them, just example.
That example is: Don't burn out, and definitely don't fade away. This a long range patrol and mommy's not gonna be around to wipe your ass kiddies, pace yourself. Martyrs need not apply.
Of the facts of life the hardest learned youth is given age gets earned --Stephen Bruton
Leigh http://www.leighm.net