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INSIDE_AND_OUT

                                              February 21, 2005

In any discussion with "activists"
about how to advance the cause,               I apologize for the
arguments about tactics always                quotes, but I have
come up that are some form of the             trouble using jargon      (Wonder
old "inside the system or outside             like "activists"          Twins!)
the system" debate.                           with a straight face.

E.g. should we have an obnoxious,                   "Activist" is a bit better
disruptive demonstration to try                     than "progressive" though,
and get attention or should we                      which strikes me as
avoid the risk of alienating the                    tremendously presumptious.
public and make a show of
reasonable politeness in a bid                         It's like calling
for sympathy?                                          yourself the "moral
                                                       majority".

  It always seems to me                                   The opposition
  that the real answer                                    doesn't regard
  is that you should         Thankfully,                  themselves as
  just do it the way         brilliant                    the enemies of
  you think is right,        ideas like                   progress.
  and let other people       slaughtering
  do it their way.           people
                             randomly
  Having two camps --        with bombs
  the radicals and           aren't usually
  the reasonables --         on the table.
  pushing for a
  cause is not the              Presuming
  worst way you can             there are no
  do things.                    provacateurs        REGES 
                                at the table.
     The example that
     always comes to
     mind is the Civil
     Rights movement      Though that's
     or the 60s.          almost as hackneyed
                          as comparing the
     Malcolm X and        opposition to the
     Martin Luther        Nazis. 
     King were
     essentially
     playing a big
     game of "good
     cop/bad cop".

     I don't know about Martin Luther King,
     but I'm pretty sure that Malcolm X
     understood this.

     His primary job was to make Martin
     Luther King look really good.

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