December 18, 2003
Secret Plan
I've been blogging about politics for a little while now, and spent more time making diary entries and comments as "tunesmith" over at dailykos.com.I've mostly focused on media and presidential politics, and some of the voting issues.
What's interesting about it is that recently I've felt like a lot of the points of view I read are ones I already have. After a while it starts to feel like everyone is pretty much parroting each other. When I discovered it, it was enough to fill up my self-definition of being more politically engaged than before. Now it's still worthwhile, but it isn't quite as fulfilling. I'm learning in terms of the issues they talk about, but not learning as much in terms of being more clued in than I was before.
So the question is what the next step is. There are a lot of potential directions that interest me lately. I've decided against law school multiple times because of all the damn paperwork, although the idea does keep on coming back to me. There's also political science. Or eventually running for some sort of local office or getting on staff. Or finding a local political organization.
There's a doozy of a local political organization called the Oregon Bus Project. It's located at SecretPlan.org. They seem really vital and a lot of fun. So as part of my research I gave them a call and got to talk to briefly to their communications director, Reed. Soon, their director of operations, Jennifer, called me up to talk more to me.
We talked some about how to reach people and convince people, and it got me thinking. People that aren't very politically engaged relate to each other, and there's a suspicion sometimes against people that are more active. I've had two occasions recently - meeting an email friend for the first time, and a haircut - where we started talking about politics and Dean eventually came up. In both cases, there was almost a sense of embarrassment about admitting support for him. It wasn't being embarrassed about Dean per se, but about stepping away from that whole "politics is bullshit" thing. There's a song and dance that happens: "Well, you-know-I-don't-follow-politics-all-that-much..." and "I-suppose-if-I-had-to-pick-one-it-would-be..." The funny side note of that is that after I would bring up Dean, the agreement would actually be a little bit rushed and relieved. It's like people who just start dating. You get all coy, then someone says I love you, and rockets go off. (Well, sometimes.)
But the point is that it seems as if the display of being uninvolved is important somehow.
It's no wonder. People are self-protective. And there's a lot of bullshit out there. The hardest part is that when you become more politically active and actually start advocating things, you can get written off! It's like you can actually lose a bit of credibility compared to someone who isn't as involved.
So there's these camps. The people that aren't as engaged, and the people that are. And there's a chasm, where the people that aren't as engaged are eyeing the gap warily. "I kind of want to go over there... but then I'd be over there."
You can battle ignorance with education, but I'm not so sure yet how to battle cynicism. I think you do it by fostering trust. That's why enabling people to link to each other works so much better than preaching from a soapbox. And each time "normal people" witness someone they already trust take the steps to let go a little bit more of their own cynicism, it enables everyone to be a bit more open to possibilities. The witnessing is what makes it effective.
Finally, it got me thinking about what is cool. One of their efforts, which I understand I'm not to talk about specifically, is along the lines of getting people convinced that it's cool to vote. I'm not sure what to think of that yet. (Although their particular approach is pretty damn funny.) But abstractly, it seems really difficult. I almost wonder if it might be more effective to convince people that it's uncool NOT to vote. Like mock someone who is uninformed. As much as I hate that new drug commercial that makes the point that drug buyers fund terrorism ("My body, my life!") I have to admit the rhetoric is pretty effective - people hate to be mocked and they distance themselves from it. And for positive marketing, I think appealing to people's sense of honor and compassion is more effective than appealing to their desire to be cool.
I was going somewhere with this, honest. But something came up. You'll just have to trust me. :-)