mrnhtbr2232
18th June 2011, 03:02 AM
Yesterday I was walking back to the office and up ahead were two kids in their early twenties. They were positioned on the sidewalk facing both directions with clipboards and pink tee shirts with Planned Parenthood emblazoned across them. As people approached they were ambushed from 20 feet back with a loud greeting of "how you doing would you like to support women's rights today?" This particular street in San Francisco gets the same treatment with canvassers for gay marriage, Greenpeace, and clean water to name just a few of the many organizations that field these people. Their strategy is to be in your face and speak loudly in an attempt to intimidate people - who in the city of SF could possibly not support all these things? Isn't the city by the bay a target rich environment for supporters of social causes?
I finally decided to confront them instead of feeling like I was being herded. What I experienced didn't surprise me - in fact it only validated what I already knew. These young people might as well have been tape recorders. As soon as I began asking background questions that deviated from their script they were lost and uncomfortable. Their shallow command of fact over their even shallower ability to pretend was sad to watch - if I had been their field manager I would have fired them. And so it goes with the metrosexual youth of the present day. Yes there are plenty of good kids out there - I have two that are educated and self-sufficient - but for most of them who are fresh out of mom and dad's house and living on their own, the discomfort of having to rely on themselves shows because they are still under warranty and clueless how the world operates. They deliver their speeches with varying degrees of skill, and once they unleash their script they just stand there like they just climaxed waiting to see where the momentum goes.
Most people just walk by. This by itself should tell them something. But when you've been recruited into a boiler plate room full of doe-eyed children in adult bodies dependent on their minimum wage plus draw compensation they don't connect the dots. Instead you get labor justification - a phenomenon I've been studying lately that basically says people believe in their work because they depend on it, not because they have critically assessed its value vs. their beliefs and personal satisfaction. As those of us who are old school twilight into our older years, we are being replaced by generations of youth that have had the benefit of decades of propaganda. It's no surprise to anyone around here that the takeover has been a generational project. It would appear the fruits of these labors are now sealed with unquestioned belief and a recoil effect if they are forced to operate outside their comfort zones.
By the time I was finished, the other canvasser had come over attempting to first persuade me, then when that obviously didn't work she attempted to ridicule me. Not falling for it I pointed out she had failed to deliver her message, was not thinking independently, and the entire dog and pony show was using them as cannon fodder. It really made their faces go blank when I told them the organization they worked for would throw them under the bus the minute their fund raising didn't meet goals and the whole thing was a numbers game. The thing that stands out here is the common framework of technique. Regardless of the cause or the organization, it's always the same shtick - a loud greeting phrased in such a way to promote guilt in public if you dare disagree. Those that say no thank you and walk by still hang their heads or try to be inconspicuous for not playing the game like there's a omnipotent judgment in society they just violated.
This kind if disingenuous training and behavior is so easy to foist on impressionable youth. They are desperate to belong, to be accepted, to be seen as smart. The net they cast is a lie, but instead of asking questions they obey. That is a behavior in vogue now - be a part of something bigger instead of being yourself regardless of its level of honesty. As I left all I could think of was the Ted Striker scene in Airplane! when he runs the gauntlet of activists to reach his plane. That, and the uncomfortable feeling we are far outnumbered and these people could just as easily be on every corner spying for a gratuitous satisfaction they don't even understand.
I finally decided to confront them instead of feeling like I was being herded. What I experienced didn't surprise me - in fact it only validated what I already knew. These young people might as well have been tape recorders. As soon as I began asking background questions that deviated from their script they were lost and uncomfortable. Their shallow command of fact over their even shallower ability to pretend was sad to watch - if I had been their field manager I would have fired them. And so it goes with the metrosexual youth of the present day. Yes there are plenty of good kids out there - I have two that are educated and self-sufficient - but for most of them who are fresh out of mom and dad's house and living on their own, the discomfort of having to rely on themselves shows because they are still under warranty and clueless how the world operates. They deliver their speeches with varying degrees of skill, and once they unleash their script they just stand there like they just climaxed waiting to see where the momentum goes.
Most people just walk by. This by itself should tell them something. But when you've been recruited into a boiler plate room full of doe-eyed children in adult bodies dependent on their minimum wage plus draw compensation they don't connect the dots. Instead you get labor justification - a phenomenon I've been studying lately that basically says people believe in their work because they depend on it, not because they have critically assessed its value vs. their beliefs and personal satisfaction. As those of us who are old school twilight into our older years, we are being replaced by generations of youth that have had the benefit of decades of propaganda. It's no surprise to anyone around here that the takeover has been a generational project. It would appear the fruits of these labors are now sealed with unquestioned belief and a recoil effect if they are forced to operate outside their comfort zones.
By the time I was finished, the other canvasser had come over attempting to first persuade me, then when that obviously didn't work she attempted to ridicule me. Not falling for it I pointed out she had failed to deliver her message, was not thinking independently, and the entire dog and pony show was using them as cannon fodder. It really made their faces go blank when I told them the organization they worked for would throw them under the bus the minute their fund raising didn't meet goals and the whole thing was a numbers game. The thing that stands out here is the common framework of technique. Regardless of the cause or the organization, it's always the same shtick - a loud greeting phrased in such a way to promote guilt in public if you dare disagree. Those that say no thank you and walk by still hang their heads or try to be inconspicuous for not playing the game like there's a omnipotent judgment in society they just violated.
This kind if disingenuous training and behavior is so easy to foist on impressionable youth. They are desperate to belong, to be accepted, to be seen as smart. The net they cast is a lie, but instead of asking questions they obey. That is a behavior in vogue now - be a part of something bigger instead of being yourself regardless of its level of honesty. As I left all I could think of was the Ted Striker scene in Airplane! when he runs the gauntlet of activists to reach his plane. That, and the uncomfortable feeling we are far outnumbered and these people could just as easily be on every corner spying for a gratuitous satisfaction they don't even understand.