I've seen it said before--it's better to die for something than live for nothing. Can this bit of wisdom factor into our community at all? Most of us seem to end up living in the middle, as in, "living for something" (since living for something is obviously better than dying for it, and also preferable to living for nothing or dying for nothing), but far too often that something we end up living for begins and ends within us. While we spend our times in our communities living for our idea of "something," others end up dying for nothing, literally and figuratively. You follow me?
There are obviously a number of choices we face in this day in age, and regardless of what path we choose, we're still left facing the same intolerance and ultimately end up with preserving the society's status quo. At the root of the issue, the cancer that has grown malignant to any social movement we could try to muster, the problems are numerous--in fact, perhaps more numerous than almost any other social movement in all of history. The social prejudice is so strong that half the people will reject anything we say out of hand and the other half won't let us say it to begin with. We have nothing to show to appeal to mainstream society--people will always side with their gut instincts over facts even if we were to go around sticking facts in their mailboxes and windshields. We can't enlist the support of other social groups to sympathize with the plight, and lastly, we ourselves have problems even keeping our own involved. In short, we are the fringe of the fringe groups. The stigma against this point of view is just that strong. So what choices do we have if we really believe in this cause?
Choice 1: We "live for nothing."
Like it or not, we are a force in this world, and unfortunately, the repercussions of our presence only inspire the ignorance. The media knows about the MAA community, the government knows we exist. They know our talking points, they're just not sure what to think of us. They're just waiting for one of us to do something wrong so they can go and do what they do best. As we are, we're a big joke to them. Unfortunately, it's not a harmless one. They know they can use our presence on the forums to stir emotions in the people who never set foot there. Just by hanging out and kicking back in some far off corner of the web, apart from society, and generally being non-responsive to it (out of the fact that any PR is absolutely pointless to engage in), we enable politicians to platform against us (rally their caucuses) and secure their seats of power, parents to restrict children's lives even more out of fear for their protection, and of course, the media to spin every story they can get their hands on and somehow tie it to us. Indeed, we are a force in the world, but unfortunately it's not one we want to be a part of.
Choice 2: We "die for something."
There are no martyrs within our ranks. Our martyrs don't have a day of vindication, only relentless persecution long after they've thrown in the towel. Then we're right back to square one aren't we? The same recourse of events as the effects in choice one will inevitably follow. The people responsible for carrying the movement forward will be harassed and perennially vilified (especially if they've done nothing wrong or illegal, because it's like a rule--the better you are, the more they got to work, and our enemies love to work), and the movement is foiled all over the media, never to be taken seriously again. We become just a cog perpetuating their mechanism rather than the one causing it to jam.
Choice 3: We play along.
These are obviously not our only choices, but these are the most dramatic ones. Between these extremes there are a slew of strategies to turn things in our favor, many of which I'll be discussing here in the future, but these strategies usually involve working within the system to get the system to recognize itself as the monster--a strategy not for the impatient or those who really want to make a difference in the world. It's a path fraught with compromises, some the average MAA will no doubt find contrary to his own beliefs or cause them to come into conflict. It seems this is what it's come to though. If you really love furthering the cause, it means playing by the rules and remaining silent on the part of the issue that offends people the most. It's a long, tedious infiltration, aimed at presenting people with the opportunity to at least consider a different take on a more acceptable issue (youth rights for instance)--not as an outsider, but as someone very much on the inside.
It seems, loving the cause means abandoning the primary cause and refocusing to more socially acceptable secondary causes that impact the primary ones. It's the boring way to go, but it does the trick.
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