How to be heard when no one is listening Part 2
This is just a few further thoughts on my previous post, which you can find here:
Link:
https://nathaniel-opinion.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-to-be-heard-when-no-one-is-listening.html
The kind of activism I am into is based on a simple principle: if a butterfly can unintentionally cause hurricanes, what effect would it have if the most powerful supercomputer (the human mind) networked with billions of other supercomputers if it had a clear goal (political aims) and good software (good education...solid arguments)?
As mentioned in my previous blog posts, one of the problems you encounter when you are well educated but with low social status, is that it is very difficult to get people to listen to what you have to say, regardless of the strength of your arguments. If I want to reach a large audience, being personally attached to what I am saying is a hindrance.
So instead of trying to sell ideas directly to a large audience, I try to influence a small audience, who I think have the biggest chance of making a difference. In the example I used for my previous posts, I chose pharmacists.
I'd thought I'd share a few of the other ways I like to disperse information.
Become friends with people who work in public policy.
I have a friend who works in social housing policy, who doesn't have time to do all the reading I do. She is quite jealous of this fact, and I like to go to here house once I've finished a new book to rub it in her face...er, sorry I mean to share some of the important things I'm learning.
For example, once of the things I was very determined to raise is my concerns about the privatisation of things like social housing. My friend recently voiced a fairly popular myth that private enterprise is now "known" to be more efficient than public services. I used this as an opportunity to put forward some arguments from a range of books I've been reading which challenge this idea, such as David Graebers 'Bullshit Jobs', Sandford F. Schram's 'The Return of Ordinary Capitalism', 'Disciplining the Poor' and works by economists such as Michael Hudson and others.
I pointed out a few things. First, that public and private are so intertwined these days it is difficult sometimes to know which you are even dealing with. The lines are blurred. Second, I showed some examples where outsourcing had led to extreme levels of complexity, demonstrating that inefficiencies are not restricted to government. And third, I put forward that the complexities of using offshore asset holding structures often creates deliberately bamboozling arrangements that are far from efficient, simply to avoid tax and regulation.
That's just one example of the things we talk about, and I see it as a good use for the things I am learning. If she can bring one or two of these ideas with her to work, they might just start spreading to like-minded people working in the same area.
I also have a good friend who works for Metro Tasmania, and have a pretty good insider knowledge of how some of that works. He has also taking some of what I have had to say to work with him, including some comments I made about how changes in the Metro ticketing system might be disproportionately affecting the poor.
Put yourself in places where people of influence can see what you're doing...do it with GUSTO!
I often read in our Town Hall reading room, which is right outside the Mayor's office. When I'm done with a book, I leave it there for others to borrow and read. A few of my books have disappeared into that place. I'm particularly happy that one of their planning staff is having a look at Cameron Murray and Paul Frijter's book 'Game of Mates'
At the moment I have two books about tax havens sitting on the shelf there.
Get Out in Public...Look Like You're Having Fun
An friend of mine - a wise man and successful author - once said to me that all you have to do to get someone's attention is to look like you're doing something more interesting than they are.
The other day I was walking past this public chalk board that just happens to sit at a crossroads of paths in the middle of town that is seen by all kind of people on the way to work. So I did this:
By the time I had finished, there were some young people behind me giving the thumbs up.
They took it down the next day.
So I did this:
It's been up ever since. Hehe.
Like Seeds into the Hurricane:
I feel like I have bags of seeds and I am unsure whether they will take root and under what conditions.
Best to throw them into the hurricane.
This is my creatively maladjusted way of spreading my message. The hard work though, is doing the reading, and making sure my arguments stand up to scrutiny.
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