Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

2 comments:

Bruce Kratky said...

It takes brass balls to be an Al-Jazeera reporter at such an event. I hate it when I see situations where the "corporate" climate violates intellectual integrity to keep itself on message. It always reminds me of Orwell and 1984. I have seen it an Democratic and Republican events, Arabic get togethers, Latino parades, Gay and Lesbian conferences and sadly enough I have seen it at churches I have been members of. I think it part of the human condition. In fairness it could be that the discussion and free thinking has gone on for hours, perhaps days and months before the "meeting" and that certain questions, handled previously, will take an organization back to square one and squander much valuable past effort and stay on message is not anti-intellectual, but rather practical. I have experienced this in congregational meetings. The elders have spent literally hundreds of hours discussing building or ministry plans, have made every effort to communicate with the people their efforts and have had many open discussion meetings. Then when it comes to a vote on some issue someone stands up in a self righteous way and says something like, "Well, what about the holes in the parking lot." That person needs to be shut off from taking the discussion off task if the question is based upon ignorance or worse is designed by that individual to derail something that that individaul wants stopped. Sometimes the motive of that individaul is not pure, he or she is a bonifed "blocker." It is a delicate balance and is one of the greatest challenges I have seen to any sound leadership. It is tough to be graceful at times when leadership feels attacked. Yet, attacking back is always bad. It is best if someone in the crowd speaks up for and defends not only leadership, but also the agenda. In the clip provided the leader's response is certainly poor, anti-intellectual, and paranoid. Not good. I have seen this type of attack journalism being done more and more where the journalist becomes the story. O'Reilly in particular has his people doing this to political groups. It is spreading into other main stream news organizations.

6:54 PM  

Bruce Kratky said...

A later thought. Michael Moore is perhaps one of the greatest users of this type of questioning. I am not fond of his political philosophies nor do I think he is particularly honest. However, he is a genius. One thing he does so well is challenge accepted paradigm. The funniest thing I ever saw that he did was take on the government of Rosemont, Illinois, which is near DesPlaines where your father grew up. Rosemont recreated itself with money from the Horizon Convention Center, casino gambling, live theatre, and airport services. They decided to "gate" their community to "keep out the rift-raff." In order to get into this Chicago suburb you had to stop at a literal gate, speak to a Rosemont police officer, and state what your business was. Moore, brilliantly set up an opposing (though temporary) gate so that Rosemont residents had to stop when entering Chicago, speak to a made up cop, and explain what their business in Chicago was, who they were going to see, and how long there were going to be there. It was "funnier than hell", yet it was so inspiringly to the point that Rosemont had violated just about every principle of our founding father's intents. I think most of the gates are down now...thanks in great part to the antics, brilliance, and heroism of Michael Moore...who sometimes gets it right. By the way I am currently reading a biography on David Livingstone, the British "missionary" to Africa in the mid 19th century. Talk about a guy getting it "WRONG!" That he was burried in Westminster Abbey is testament to the fact that it is better to be lucky than good! A very interesting reading.

7:44 PM  

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