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angstzeitThe following was originally a comment in regards to LJ Advisory Board elections, which opened yesterday (http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/25463.html). I'd suggest everyone go there and vote. It is in response to a number of journal entries and comments I've read recently either deriding attempts to change LJ policy or advocating inaction or the futility of action.
Anyway, I find myself fed up:
I've been continually disturbed by the reactions to any attempts to work at changing LJ's policies. While I understand that disaffected cynicism is very hip these days, I'm amazed at the vehemence with which people are advocating indifference.
As a cynic, I do understand the desire to believe in ones impotence to avoid disappointment. But to attempt to persuade people to inaction is absurd and harmful.
The argument that LJ is a company and therefore its customers should simply take what they get is, to me, strange. Certainly LJ has monetary desires, but to suggest customers have no effect on policy is absurd. I'm regularly put in mind of serfs justifying the abuses of their lord. That's how a system like that continues to work--once many of the victims themselves participate in the perpetration of their abuses, how will those abuses end?
Now I also get that many people object to the methods used to affect change. But I've heard no alternatives or simple wishing that something substantial changes. I know it is cliché, but tearing down the ideas of others without offering any of ones own never changed anything.
Yes, it is stylish to ridicule anyone who takes the internet or any part of it seriously. But like it or not, LJ is a powerful force in many people's lives. I wouldn't know most of you but for LJ. It is unusual in that its users are both its product and its customers. The internet is still relatively new and providers and users are still mapping out how it all will function in the future. To my mind laying down is not an option because if you do, you'd better get comfortable because a lot of folks will be walking over you.
Bottom line: If you have ideas for changing things for the better--let's hear them. If all you have is scorn for anyone who tries to change things, then STFU.
Anyway, I find myself fed up:
I've been continually disturbed by the reactions to any attempts to work at changing LJ's policies. While I understand that disaffected cynicism is very hip these days, I'm amazed at the vehemence with which people are advocating indifference.
As a cynic, I do understand the desire to believe in ones impotence to avoid disappointment. But to attempt to persuade people to inaction is absurd and harmful.
The argument that LJ is a company and therefore its customers should simply take what they get is, to me, strange. Certainly LJ has monetary desires, but to suggest customers have no effect on policy is absurd. I'm regularly put in mind of serfs justifying the abuses of their lord. That's how a system like that continues to work--once many of the victims themselves participate in the perpetration of their abuses, how will those abuses end?
Now I also get that many people object to the methods used to affect change. But I've heard no alternatives or simple wishing that something substantial changes. I know it is cliché, but tearing down the ideas of others without offering any of ones own never changed anything.
Yes, it is stylish to ridicule anyone who takes the internet or any part of it seriously. But like it or not, LJ is a powerful force in many people's lives. I wouldn't know most of you but for LJ. It is unusual in that its users are both its product and its customers. The internet is still relatively new and providers and users are still mapping out how it all will function in the future. To my mind laying down is not an option because if you do, you'd better get comfortable because a lot of folks will be walking over you.
Bottom line: If you have ideas for changing things for the better--let's hear them. If all you have is scorn for anyone who tries to change things, then STFU.
