On Sat, 11 Sep 1999, Greg Skinner wrote:
> This goes back to what I wrote earlier about the resources that
> well-heeled corporations can give to lobbying as compared to what
> activists can give. Large corporations have the money to pay people
> to do their leg work. They can hire people to write up scenarios that
> they can take to government officials. Because the presentation is
> organized, the officials are likely to be sympathetic if the scenarios
> seem plausible. On the other hand, activists have to do their leg work
> by themselves, on their own personal time. But they will want to spend
> time with their families; need to do their jobs, etc, so there's only
> but so much they can give to the cause. Moreover, if they start to feel
> unappreciated, they're likely to withdraw from the process. The
> withdrawal of a few well-respected (by government) activists from a
> movement can very well kill it.
Well, that's not so much a problem with Activists as it is a problem with
most of humanity.
Organizations, corporations and governments have the necessary resources
to generate consent. So do activists. The problem is most activists
spend a great deal of their time following their own agendas. There is no
established mechanisim of enabling co-operative behaviour between them.
Individually, activists are irrelevant. But in a co-operative
arrangement, they are a very powerful force. The problem is personalities
and conflicting agendas. As Mr. Mason pointed out on a number of
occassions, to many activists here spend their time playing drag queen and
insisting they are prettier then anyone else. This is of course a
figurative examination of the conflict.
Unfortunately, such conflicts result in activists - having the same
mandate, ending up fighting each other. This sort of behaviour serves
corporate interests.
Our position at PCCF is that everyone is an asset, regardless of position
or issue.
Hopefully, when we solicit more participation from the hostmasters of
record in control of the internets routing infrastructure, the activists
here will assist these people in building a governance structure that
serves mankind and not spend their time cutting each other up.
Well see what happens.
Cheers
Joe Baptista
--
Planet Communication & Computing Facility [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Public Access Internet Research Publisher 1 (212) 894-3704 ext. 1033
