Random musings
Jun. 10th, 2014 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqI am a little quieter than I would like to be here because work is eating me alive.
Something set the tune from "Welcome Back Kotter" playing in my head while I was washing the dishes this evening, and it took my mind back to the time in my life that I have identified my first crisis in being able to suspend disbelief while watching television. I don't know if it was the selfsame show that I was watching, or one of the other school comedy-dramas that were popular at the time, but something in the show had been bothering me for some time, and I finally asked Mom about it since - being American herself - I assumed she would be an expert.
"Why are all the students in this school so much older than the ones I go to school with? They all look like they are at least thirty. How old do you have to be to graduate down there?"
Groucho Marx is alleged to have said, or perhaps written a sentiment along the lines of, "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member."
I have always shared that particular sentiment, and it occurred to me one day that I have been missing a lifelong opportunity to make a positive (for me, at least) change in the world by applying it to my life.
Whenever I have joined a club, or an organization, or a movement, or anything else of that type, it has always been for something that I like, agree with, and/or with whom I share political sentiments. It occurred to me this evening that I have been doing things exactly backwards. I should be joining groups and movements that I detest, and disagree with. I can think of no better way for me to damage the things I hate than to join them, since their willingness to allow me in as a member would do more to damage their reputation than anything I could do on my own volition.
Failing that, at least from the inside I might be able to get actively involved and help steer them in strange, weird, and largely harmless directions.
"Wait, when did our focus move away from hating gay foreigners to wrestling in vats of Jello?"
Something set the tune from "Welcome Back Kotter" playing in my head while I was washing the dishes this evening, and it took my mind back to the time in my life that I have identified my first crisis in being able to suspend disbelief while watching television. I don't know if it was the selfsame show that I was watching, or one of the other school comedy-dramas that were popular at the time, but something in the show had been bothering me for some time, and I finally asked Mom about it since - being American herself - I assumed she would be an expert.
"Why are all the students in this school so much older than the ones I go to school with? They all look like they are at least thirty. How old do you have to be to graduate down there?"
Groucho Marx is alleged to have said, or perhaps written a sentiment along the lines of, "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member."
I have always shared that particular sentiment, and it occurred to me one day that I have been missing a lifelong opportunity to make a positive (for me, at least) change in the world by applying it to my life.
Whenever I have joined a club, or an organization, or a movement, or anything else of that type, it has always been for something that I like, agree with, and/or with whom I share political sentiments. It occurred to me this evening that I have been doing things exactly backwards. I should be joining groups and movements that I detest, and disagree with. I can think of no better way for me to damage the things I hate than to join them, since their willingness to allow me in as a member would do more to damage their reputation than anything I could do on my own volition.
Failing that, at least from the inside I might be able to get actively involved and help steer them in strange, weird, and largely harmless directions.
"Wait, when did our focus move away from hating gay foreigners to wrestling in vats of Jello?"
