Webloggin » The Common Thread: It Would’ve Succeeded Anyway

Me quoting me, on the tenth of March:

As this sense of community becomes more militant, people begin to get the idea that they are “giving back” simply by becoming an additional voice in micro-revolutions that are already several voices strong. A great example of this is one of the favorite recurring platitudes from the utterly anti-individualist social-butterfly Obama fan: “I want to be part of this.” And so across the landscape there arises a feeling that each individual has contributed, by “helping” to make something happen that would have happened anyway. This poisons the idea that an individual can make a difference, while offering a toxic disguise that what is taking place is precisely the opposite — we start to make what are thought of as “differences” by adding our support to things that would’ve hummed along just fine without us.

Me quoting me, on the ninth of May:

Have you ever noticed that when left-wingers “want to be a part of this,” the “this” under discussion is seldom-to-never something that actually needs their support in order to succeed? They don’t seem to want to actually change the outcome of anything when they “want to be a part of” something. You can grow old waiting for liberals “want[ing] to be a part of” something that needs a tie-breaker vote; I don’t recall hearing of any liberals “want[ing] to be a part of” a Gore victory in 2000 or a Kerry victory in ‘04.

Me quoting me, today, commenting on Sister Toldjah’s blog which includes an amazing picture of the weekend Obama rally…seventy thousand heartbeats, give or take, “want[ing] to be a part of” something that really doesn’t need that much help, and maybe that’s exactly why they “want to be a part of” it.

And if I dare say so myself, my final uppercut is worthy of emphasis here:

Just had a “GOP commercial we really need” moment.

I don’t know if you can wrap up the following in thirty seconds, but it would really drive the point home assuming people would pay the level of attention to it that I would.

Think of Jay Leno’s “jaywalking” format. The reporter shoves a microphone in the faces of random people and asks them, what things did you decide to do because a lot of other people were already doing them?

And he gets back answers like go to a rock concert, go to an Obama rally, take part in an anti-war demonstration, go to an Obama rally, smoke some dope, go to an Obama rally, jump off a bridge, go to an Obama rally…

Next question: How happy are you with those things you decided to do…and the answers are…kinda sorta, not very, I guess it would’ve gone all right without me, I was young & dumb, what can I say…seemed like a great idea at the time.

I dunno. Maybe there’s no effective way to get that message across. Things we do just because everyone else is already doing them, aren’t going to culminate in a demonstrably positive effect on anything. And maybe that’s the whole point. Having a notable and beneficial effect on something, an effect that wouldn’t take place if you were missing, can be a frightening thing to an immature mind.

They want to be a part of something, without having an effect on that thing by including themselves in it.

What an exquisitely frustrating thing this internal contradiction must be. It must be like drinking endlessly from an elixir that is supposed to slake an agonizing thirst, and feels like it is, and ultimately is not. “I want to be a part…I want to make a difference…ooh, no, no I don’t, I want to be a part of something without making a difference one way or the other. I want to go through the motions of contributing to collective inertia, while in fact individually remaining completely devoid of mass.”

Poor, frustrated, delusional, demented souls.

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